University's yoga research offers many health benefits

New research conducted in part at Texas State University suggests that hot yoga may counteract the negative effects of diets high in salt in Black women.

Stacy Hunter, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Texas State University, led the investigating team.

Their resulting article, “Exploring heated exercise as a means of preventing the deleterious effects of high-sodium intake in Black women,” is published in The American Journal of Physiology (journals. physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ ajpheart.00699.2022).

The researchers found that Black women who participated in four weeks of infrared hot yoga showed improvement in sodium-induced cardiovascular responses. Black women who had not participated in hot yoga exhibited sodium loading that decreased dilation of blood vessels controlled by the endothelium tissue lining the blood vessels.

Among those women who participated in the four-week yoga intervention, their flow-mediated dilation— that is, automatic dilation of blood vessels when blood flow increases—improved significantly.

“To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of an effect of yoga on sodium-induced responses,” Hunter said.

“Results from this study showing prevention of short-term adverse effects of high-sodium intake with yoga are promising and speak to the potential for sustained cardiovascular effects.

It is possible that the long-term practice of yoga could prevent the effects of lifelong, habitual high-sodium intake, possibly lowering the cardiovascular risks associated with this highly prevalent dietary practice.”

Excess sodium consumption by most U.S. adults is a key contributor to high blood pressure and other negative health conditions. African Americans are disproportionately affected by these adverse effects.

Little research exists addressing alternative therapies for mediating the negative impacts of high-sodium consumption by Black women.

Yoga could represent a novel therapy and warrants further research.