Benefits of Yoga: What the Research Says
Reviews give fair support to a few yoga benefits: better balance, lower-body flexibility and leg strength in older adults, a small improvement in chronic low-back pain, and better quality of life for women with breast cancer. For stress, anxiety, depression, sleep, blood pressure and weight, the trials are weaker or mixed. Most gains were measured against doing nothing; against other exercise, yoga usually does about as well, and only occasionally better.