A new study from the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital) gives a big thumbs up to hot yoga for helping patients with moderate to severe depression.
Here’s the upshot: 59.3% of hot yoga participants saw their depressive symptoms decrease by 50% or more vs. 6.9% in a control group.
Even better, 44% went into depressive remission. In other words, their depressive symptoms disappeared.
Now every trial needs a control group.
For the study, they ran a control group of “wait-list” participants. In other words, no hot yoga for them.
Only 6.3% in the “wait-list” group saw a reduction in symptoms, and one can speculate that perhaps it was a pre-placebo effect (i.e. when you think you’re about to get treatment, it can make you feel better).
59.% vs. 6.3% is quite the difference.
And again, 44% of the hot yoga-ers showed no signs of depression after the sessions.
So what were the sessions?
Eight weeks of at least 2 Bikram yoga sessions, practiced in a 105 degree F room.
That’s all it took.
Read more in the Harvard Gazette.
Well, it’s all about yoga positions for 90 minutes, performed in a room, heated at 105 degrees with 40% humidity, designed to make you feel like you’re in its birthplace of India.
In other words, not for everyone.
But beyond its potentially significant anti-depressive element, there are other possible health benefits, relating to blood sugar, bone density, and lipid profile. Read this study for a scientific review of all that.
However, as Shape Magazine notes, it gets really really hot.
In fact, so hot that your temp will probably hit the lowest number at which heat-related illness, including heat stroke, occur.
I’m not healthy enough for it, and you might not be, either.
So before doing it, absolutely talk with your doctor.
[Painting: Noonday Rest, Millet. They’re not doing hot yoga. But it looks hot, and it’s in the public domain so…]
