High cholesterol: a certain type of exercise will help reduce it

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The cholesterol level can be controlled not only with the help of a proper diet, but also with the help of physical activity. Scientists have found out that yoga can help with this.

According to one of the studies by specialists from India, just one month of yoga can improve blood cholesterol indicators.

In the study, they took participation of 374 people who had not practiced yoga before. They performed exercises according to the Common Yoga Protocol under the supervision of experienced trainers. Physiological (body mass index, blood pressure, percent oxygen saturation), biochemical (fasting blood glucose and lipid profile) and neurocognitive parameters were measured before and after the classes.

On the 30th day of yoga classes, it was found that that participants' serum levels of LDL (also called “bad”) cholesterol, total cholesterol, and HDL (“good”) cholesterol improved significantly from baseline. At the same time, more significant improvements were observed in the group of healthy participants compared to the group with concomitant pathologies (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases).

The results of the study showed that yoga is useful for maintaining good health parameters. However, the duration of the study was not long enough, and the experts could not assess whether the effects persist after stopping yoga practice.

“These results emphasize the need for further research to better understand the effects of yoga on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease,” – the scientists concluded.