A Study on the Effect of Yoga on Mental and Physical Health: Exploring the Potential of Yoga as a Supportive Therapy

Abstract

This study reviews the existing research on the impact of yoga therapies on different mental and physical health aspects, by drawing on the findings presented in review papers. Collectively, these articles indicate a variety of places where yoga could well be helpful, but for nearly all of them to truly identify these benefits, further work is needed. The variability of the treatments and situations examined has hindered the usage of meta-analysis as a appropriate method for summing up existing literature. However, there are several meta-analyses that suggest beneficial effects of yoga treatments, and there are some fairly high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that suggest beneficial effects of yoga on pain-associated injury and mental wellbeing. Yoga can well be successful in reducing some medical problems as a supporting supplement, yet not yet a established stand-alone, curative therapy. Larger-scale and more comprehensive work with better scientific standards and appropriate management strategies is strongly recommended as yoga can have the ability to be applied as a fairly cost-effective supportive adjunct therapy, may be used at least in part as a therapeutic self-care procedure, delivers life-long coping skills, increases self-efficacy and promotes self-reliance.