Cardiac Health

Yoga May Help Control Heart Rhythm

Taking regular yoga classes appears to help people with a common heart rhythm problem control their symptoms.  Yoga may also improve state of mind for people who live with atrial fibrillation, which inhibits contraction of the heart's upper chambers.

Drugs such as beta blockers are often prescribed to control heart rate and rhythm, but they are not effective for all patients.

Participants in a new study had their heart symptoms, blood pressure, heart rate, and other factors tracked for three months.  They then attended group yoga classes at least twice a week for an additional three months.  During the yoga phase, "heart quivering" due to atrial fibrillation was about half as frequent as in the prior three months.  Measures of heart rate, anxiety, depression, and general mental health also improved.

All of the patients were taking medications to control atrial fibrillation during the study.  "Yoga is not a cure in itself," researcher Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center told Reuters Health.  "It is a good adjunct to what else these patients should be doing."

Source: "Yoga May Aid People with Irregular Heart Rhythm" by Genevra Pittman, Reuters Health, 1/30/13