The study finds no evidence to support that performing Bikram yoga offers more health benefits than yoga practiced at room temperature.
The health benefits of yoga postures practiced at room temperature and Bikram yoga, performed in a room heated to 40 degrees Centigrade, have been found to be similar, according to a latest research.
Bikram yoga is popular worldwide and involves 26 poses performed in a heated room. But despite its popularity, hardly any study was carried out to underscore the health benefits associated with it.
The new research, carried out by scientists at Texas State University and the University of Texas at Austin, US, isolated the effects of the heat in Bikram yoga, and it was found that the heated environment did not play a role in causing improvements in vascular health.
“The new finding from this investigation was that the heated practice environment did not seem to play a role in eliciting improvements in vascular health with Bikram yoga. This is the first publication to date to show a beneficial effect of the practice in the absence of the heat,” says Stacy D Hunter, corresponding author of the study.
The researchers also found that Bikram yoga allows the body to reduce changes in the lining of blood vessels involved in the development and progression of heart disease.
This yoga technique is also helpful in delaying the progression of atherosclerosis — a disease in which plaque builds up inside arteries and can cause heart attack or stroke.
The study findings, which were published in the journal Experimental Physiology, involved 80 participants.
