Still searching for a New Year’s resolution? New research suggests that adopting a yoga practice can do wonders for your health.
The research, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, reviewed 37 randomized controlled trials — the gold-standard of study designs — including 2,768 people and a nearly even gender split.
Compared to people who don’t exercise, those who did yoga showed significant improvement in their BMI, blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol, the review found. In fact, yoga performed just as well as exercise, like cycling or brisk walking, at weight loss and blood pressure measures.
How much you need to practice to reap the benefits remains unclear, the study authors note, as does the mechanism. But they think they may have an inkling: the authors credit stress reduction as one potential way that yoga improves metabolic and heart function, as well as inflammation.
MORE: You Asked: Is Hot Yoga Good For You—And For Weight Loss?
As yoga captures the minds and bodies of more and more people around the world, there’s a real need for more rigorous research, the study authors write. “This review demonstrates the potential of yoga to have an impact on concrete, physiological outcomes that represent some of the greatest health burdens today.”
- Volodymyr Zelensky and the Spirit of Ukraine: TIME's 2022 Person of the Year
- Mickey Guyton Is TIME's 2022 Breakthrough Artist of the Year
- The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022
- Column: What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Free Speech
- The Forgotten Story of One of the First U.S. Soldiers Killed Overseas After Pearl Harbor
- Why You're More Likely to Get Sick in the Winter, According to New Research
- Column: What the Protests Tell Us About China's Future
- 18 Last-Minute Gifts for Everyone on Your List
