Yoga interventions and randomized controlled trials: key issues and the centered impact on sedentary lifestyle-associated cardiometabolic disorders

Introduction: Yoga training has been shown to reduce health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle. This meta-analytical approach systematically assesses the impact of Hatha yoga on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and cardiometabolic disorders linked to sedentary lifestyles, including type II diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs)-the key contributors to morbidity and mortality in India. Methods: Eighteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were selected from database searches (PubMed, Cochrane Central, Google Scholar, and Scopus) and involved patients diagnosed with NCDs. The meta-analysis included 644 participants for studies on diastolic blood pressure (DBP), 592 for those on systolic blood pressure (SBP), 1,387 for fasting blood glucose (FBG), 1,243 for postprandial blood sugar (PPBS), 963 for total cholesterol (TC), and 772 for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. Results: Statistical analysis of the RCTs indicated that yoga training improved stress-related physiological responses, reduced the risk of hypertension, was a complementary intervention for diabetes management, and regulated lipid biomarkers associated with CVDs compared to control conditions (usual care or physical exercise). The variability between the studies and the resultant heterogeneity across the outcome measures may influence the precision of the pooled estimates. The observed effects reported in this study were indicative trends of yoga interventions in managing cardiometabolic disease-associated risk factors. Discussion: Yoga as a potential alternative and complementary therapeutic approach in mitigating risks from sedentary lifestyle-driven NCDs, particularly T2DM, HTN, and CVDs. We also report that heterogeneity among studies must be addressed by delivering standardized yoga protocols and yoga training strategies uniformly across diverse populations in future studies focusing on cardiometabolic outcome measures and yoga practices.