Yoga aids rheumatoid arthritis remission at a molecular and cellular level

Yoga aids rheumatoid arthritis remission at a molecular level and reduces depression too, says exciting new research in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.

Evidence about the impact of yoga on rheumatoid arthritis has been relatively scant but this new study looked at yoga’s impact on inflammatory markers and co-morbid depression in 72 people with active rheumatoid arthritis and had some very interesting results.

The participants were split into two groups: half did yoga for eight weeks and were on disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs); and the other half were on DMARDs only. Blood samples were collected before and after the study and every two weeks, disease activity was assessed along with functional status and depression severity.

After eight weeks of yoga there was significant decrease in levels of various systemic inflammatory markers and disease activity scores, and improvements in quality of life measures. People doing yoga also had less depression compared to the control group.

“Yoga, a mind body intervention re-established immunological tolerance by aiding remission at molecular and cellular level along with significant reduction in depression,” the research group concludes. “Thus in this severe autoimmune inflammatory arthritis with a major psychosomatic component, yoga can be used as a complementary/adjunct therapy.”

Click here for the original findings. 

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