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Doing Hot Yoga can banish depression.

Lisa Moore • Nov 01, 2023

Connect mind and body through breath, movement and sweat.

We were so glad to have received a phone call from Vic Minett from BBC CWR on Tuesday 24th October about the article in The Times about Hot Yoga and the benefits especially for depression.


A trail found that Hot Yoga can significantly reduce symptoms of severe depression.  The trial led by Massachusetts General Hospital , recruited 80 adults with moderate to severe depression who were randomly divided into two groups.

Half went to Hot Yoga session twice a week. The others were told they were on a waiting list and did not receive any treatment.


After eight weeks 44 per cent of those who did the yoga classes had seen such a big improvement in symptoms that they were no longer classed as depressed, compared with only 6 per cent of the control group.


Depressive symptoms were even reduced in those attending classes just once a week.


Maren Nyer, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, said "Yoga and heat based interventions could potentially change the course for treatment for patients with depression by providing a non medication based approach.


Previous studies had shown that yoga can help depression and anxiety by reducing inflammation and stress, as well as providing health benefits of exercise. Scientists believe heated yoga may provide additional benefits as heating the body can stimulate the release of 'happy' chemicals such as dopamine.

Although hot yoga is unlikely to be widely prescribed on the NHS, it could be offered to complement treatments such as antidepressants. More than 8 million adults in England take the drugs, but about 30 per cent of patients do not respond to them.

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