Does yoga reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and improve clinical outcomes in patients with insulin resistance syndrome?
While yoga may offer protective benefits for cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance syndrome, current evidence is limited by poor methodology, highlighting the need for high-quality randomized controlled trials.
Collectively, these studies suggest that yoga may reduce many IRS-related risk factors for CVD, may improve clinical outcomes, and may aid in the management of CVD and other IRS-related conditions. However, the methodologic and other limitations characterizing most of these studies preclude drawing firm conclusions. Additional high quality RCTs are needed to confirm and further elucidate the effects of standardized yoga programs on specific indices of CVD risk and related clinical endpoints.
Innes et al. (2005) studied this question.