title: Yoga for hypertension: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To critically evaluate the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment of hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventeen databases were searched from their inceptions to January 2014. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were included, if they evaluated yoga against any type of control in patients with any form of arterial hypertension. Risk of bias was estimated using the Cochrane criteria. Three independent reviewers performed the selection of studies, data extraction, and quality assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventeen trials met the inclusion criteria. Only two RCTs were of acceptable methodological quality. Eleven RCTs suggested that yoga leads to a significantly greater reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP) compared to various forms of pharmacotherapy, breath awareness or reading, health education, no treatment (NT), or usual care (UC). Eight RCTs suggested that yoga leads to a significantly greater reduction in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) or night-time DBP compared to pharmacotherapy, NT, or UC. Five RCTs indicated that yoga had no effect on SBP compared to dietary modification (DIM), enhanced UC, passive relaxation (PR), or physical exercises (PE). Eight RCTs indicated that yoga had no effect on DBP compared to DIM, enhanced UC, pharmacotherapy, NT, PE, PR, or breath awareness or reading. One RCT did not report between-group comparisons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The evidence for the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment of hypertension is encouraging but inconclusive. Further, more rigorous trials seem warranted.
authors.affiliation: University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK; Liverpool John Moores University, UK; Rzeszow University, Rzeszow, Poland; Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea. Electronic address: paul.posadzki@plymouth.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Posadzki
authors.affiliation: University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cramer
authors.affiliation: Rzeszow University, Rzeszow, Poland.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuzdzal
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea; University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Myeong Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
authors.forename: Edzard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ernst
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000628:therapy*; D015013:Yoga; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine; Effectiveness; Hypertension; Systematic review; Yoga