International Yoga Day: Did you know yoga can help you quit smoking?

Many studies have shown tremendous health benefits of yoga on one's health. An activity that strengthens both your mind and body, yoga helps improves one's flexibility, strengthens muscles, improves balance, aids in relaxation and concentration. This World Yoga Day, Dr Santosh Kumar Dora, Senior Cardiologist, Asian Heart Institute tells you about the health benefits of Yoga -- especially for your heart.

Decreases Stress:

Stress leads to increase in stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline which increase heart rate and blood pressure. Increased heart rate and blood pressure is detrimental for heart. Stress is a risk factor for coronary artery disease, hypertension, arrhythmia, heart failure etc. Meditation and deep breathing leads to overall calming down effect, decreases heart rate and blood pressure. That, in turn, lessens the risk of various heart diseases.

Improves numbers related to heart health:

Regular yoga decreases blood cholesterol counts, blood sugar in addition to heart rate and blood pressure. Few forms of yoga are helpful in decreasing abdominal fat and thus waist circumference. All these better numbers translate into better cardiac health. One study showed that the blood measurements and waist circumference- a marker of heart disease improved in middle-aged adults with metabolic syndrome who practised Yoga for 3 months.

Improves flexibility, core muscle strength:

Yoga is a good form of exercise and burns calories too. It improves flexibility of joints and core muscle strength. This, in turn, improves one's capacity of doing aerobic exercises like jogging, running, swimming, cycling etc. Aerobic exercises burn calories significantly and are predominantly responsible for a better general and cardiac health.

Yoga and smoking cessation:

Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for coronary artery disease and heart attack. Smokers who practice yoga regularly were found to eventually quit smoking. The study found that yoga led to decreased stress levels and therefore decreased the urge to smoke. It is especially true for people who are stress-smokers.

Helps in cardiac rehabilitation:

People who have faced cardiac conditions such as heart attack, arrhythmia, hypertension, heart failure or people who have undergone a bypass surgery or angioplasty face a lot of emotional and physical stress. Yoga is an effective way to decrease stress and slowly bring these patients into various cardiac rehabilitation programs. In fact, yoga is also widely practised during cardiac rehabilitation.

Yoga can be practised twice or thrice a week for 30 to 45 minutes a day for obtaining a good health and heart benefits. For patients with cardiac condition, it is ideal to practice yoga under a trainer.

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