Smartest Doc
Yoga for Asthma? A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials
Journal of Asthma, 07/29/2011
Evidence Based Medicine
Clinical Article
Posadzki P et al. – The belief that yoga alleviates asthma is not supported by sound evidence.
Methods- Seven databases were searched from their inception to October 2010.
- Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and non–randomized clinical trials (NRCTs) were considered, if they investigated any type of yoga in patients with asthma.
- The selection of studies, data extraction, and validation were performed independently by two reviewers.
- Six RCTs and one NRCT met the inclusion criteria.
- Their methodological quality was mostly poor.
- Three RCTs and one NRCT suggested that yoga leads to a significantly greater reduction in spirometric measures, airway hyperresponsivity, dose of histamine needed to provoke a 20%% reduction in forced expiratory volume in the first second, weekly number of asthma attacks, and need for drug treatment.
- Three RCTs showed no positive effects compared to various control interventions.
