Yoga appears to reduce blood pressure more effectively than simple stretching when combined with a regular physical activity program, a three-month pilot study involving a Quebec City researcher shows.

The addition of yoga lowered systolic pressure, reduced resting heart rate and improved cardiovascular risk over 10 years, the researchers found.

"We measured 'stretching,' which is very North American, to yoga, which is very Asian," said lead study author Dr. Paul Poirier of the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec. "It's kind of like comparing two cultures."

The researchers recruited 60 patients who had been diagnosed with hypertension or metabolic syndrome.

All participants did 30 minutes of aerobic activity five times a week for three months; half also did 15 minutes of yoga and the other half did 15 minutes of stretching.

There were no differences between the subjects at baseline in such factors as age, sex, smoking status, body mass index, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure, or resting pulse rate.

Both the systolic and diastolic pressures of the two groups had dropped by the end of the study. However, yoga reduced systolic pressure (the top number that indicates the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts) by 10 mmHg, compared with only 4 mmHg for stretching.

Yoga had also improved resting pulse rate and cardiovascular risk over 10 years.

"We understand that if mortality and morbidity decrease with yoga in a cardiac rehabilitation setting, then it changes the practice," Poirier said.

The exact mechanism involved remains unclear, but this study shows that the stretching component of yoga is not solely responsible for the benefits seen. Moreover, the exercises used were chosen "to make it applicable and easy for everyone."

"It's not rocket science," Poirier said. "The problem with yoga is that there's hot yoga, there's cold yoga, there's head down, there's head up... Everyone has an unfavorable prejudice against yoga, that they are all people who walk on their heads and are zen... No. When you look at the exercises we did, we're probably doing yoga exercises without knowing it."

The study comes on the heels of Western medicine's interest in ancient practices -- such as yoga, tai chi and even acupuncture -- that appear to have health benefits.

The findings of this study are published by the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Dec. 14, 2022.