A new study suggests that hot yoga just once a week can “beat the blues” and reduce symptoms of depression.
Hot yoga is exactly what it says it is – a form of exercise performed in hot and humid conditions that not only gets you moving, but also makes you sweat. Some exercises try to replicate the climate of India, where yoga originated.
Scientists say it may only take one session per week to bring significant health benefits, according to the results of a clinical trial of adults with moderate to severe depression.
Those who took part in hot yoga classes had a “significantly greater” reduction in depressive symptoms compared to a control group. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, suggest that hot yoga may be a “viable treatment option” for people with depression.
During the eight-week trial, 80 participants were divided into two groups: one group received a 90-minute hot yoga session in a room at 40.5 degrees Celsius (or 105 degrees Fahrenheit), while the second group was placed on a waiting list. Participants in the intervention group attended at least two yoga classes per week, but overall they averaged 10.3 yoga classes over the eight-week period.
After two months, the yoga participants had significantly fewer depressive symptoms than those on the waitlist.
The team also found that 59.3 per cent of yoga participants experienced a 50 per cent or greater reduction in symptoms, compared to 6.3 per cent of waitlisted participants. Forty-four per cent of the yoga group scored so low that their depression was considered to be in remission, compared to 6.3 per cent of the waitlist group.
Even when participants received only half the prescribed yoga “dose,” the researchers said, symptoms of depression were reduced – suggesting that a weekly hot yoga session could be beneficial.
Study lead author Dr Maren Nyer said, “Yoga and heat-based interventions may change the course of treatment for people with depression by providing a non-pharmacological treatment with additional physical benefits.”
The assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School added, “We are currently conducting new research with the goal of determining the specific contribution of each element to the clinical effects we observed in depression.”
The study showed that participants rated the hot yoga sessions positively and said they experienced no serious adverse effects.
Future studies comparing the therapeutic effects of heated and non-heated yoga for depression are needed to explore whether hot yoga for depression is more beneficial than yoga, especially given the promising evidence for whole-body heat therapy as a treatment for major depression. “