Effect of Yoga Based Lifestyle Intervention on Coronary Artery Disease Patients

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the impact of yoga based lifestyle intervention on coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. This multi-centric prospective study was held in the Saaol heart center in different cities (Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai) of India from 1995 to 2015. In this study, total 5,000 CAD patients having co-morbidity of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes were enrolled. A yoga-based lifestyle modification counseling (consist the essential components; cardiac education, plant-based balanced diet, regular walk, yoga, and meditation) was administrated to study subjects and clinical assessment was done using Saaol safety wheel as a holistic tool. In the beginning, lifestyle modification counseling was provided every month for one year and after one year the counseling was repeated for every six months with clinical assessment till the end of the study. The results of this study demonstrate a significant improvement in angina with reduction of New York Heart Association (NYHA) angina classification score from 3.08±0.56 (mean±SD) to 2.45±0.70 and also reduce the intake of anti-anginal drugs from 4.36±1.35 to 3.82±1.20. In this study, a significant improvement was also observed in heart attack protection score from 56.68±13.53 to 104.13±14.55. After the adherence to yoga-based lifestyle modification counseling components and Saaol safety wheel, 98% study subjects showed the significant improvements in clinical outcomes (BMI, blood pressure, and lipid parameters) and cardiac patients reduced the risk of heart attack and cardiac events. This study concludes that yoga-based lifestyle intervention is a non-invasive effective treatment method to control and prevent cardiac risk factors in CAD patients. This type of holistic approach may help to reduce the rate of cardiac events and heart attacks but there is further long-term multicentric randomized controlled trials are required for better clinical outcomes.