Yoga-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation: Current Perspectives from Randomized Controlled Trials in Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Coronary artery disease carries a high morbidity and mortality worldwide, and exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes play a large role in secondary prevention. Exercise-based rehabilitation programmes are expensive, and in certain subgroups uptake is poor. Yoga has been suggested to show improvements in cardiovascular health which would support its use in cardiac rehabilitation programmes. We carried out a review of current randomized controlled trials to determine if yoga-based cardiac rehabilitation leads to reduced cardiac risk factors, and improved physiological and psychological outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease compared to standard care. Six randomized controlled studies were identified after a medical database search, and meta-analysis was carried out for the different outcomes. Overall, the addition of yoga to standard care resulted in improved subjective feeling of cardiac health and quality of life. There was also a trend towards improvement in left ventricular systolic function. Improvement in cardiac risk factors, MACE and psychological health in this cohort has still to be proven, but was not inferior to standard or enhanced care, and the benefits became more pronounced at longer follow-up. Future studies with longer follow-up and larger patient numbers would aid in accurately assessing the long-term benefit of yoga-based rehabilitation.

Home-based cardiac rehabilitation: A review of bibliometric studies and visual analysis of CiteSpace (2012–2021)

“…In addition, in addition to common forms of exercise such as jogging, cycling, and swimming, researchers in each country or region could actively try to incorporate exercise programs with local traditions or characteristics into home exercise programs, which would theoretically increase patient interest and acceptance of home-based cardiac rehabilitation programs to some extent, which may be a way to obtain better participation and completion rates. For example, Chinese taijiquan [ 48 ] and Indian yoga [ 49 ] have been used in home-based cardiac rehabilitation programs with good results.…”