YOGA FOR hiv / aids
About YOGA FOR HIV/AIDS
An HIV or AIDS diagnosis is highly stressful and obviously emotionally devastating.
Yoga can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, boost emotional wellbeing (see also Depression), and improve the quality of our sleep.
The physical practice of yoga can help stretch tense muscles, while breathing exercises or pranayama, and meditation/mindfulness techniques, can also help create a more peaceful mind, restoring a sense of equanimity.
Sufferers can often feel isolated. Going to a class can help us feel part of something; we are not alone.
Clinical studies have shown yoga can reduce blood pressure in HIV patients and that mindfulness can boost immunity. This is what can make yoga and mindfulness helpful as a supplementary HIV treatment.
What the clinical studies say
Yoga
- Improves quality of life
- Lowers blood pressure
- Boosts immunity (buffers CD4+ T lymphocyte declines)
the clinical studies
Yoga
Yoga may help reduce blood pressure in HIV-infected adults with cardiovascular disease risk factors
A Pilot Feasibility and Acceptability Study of Yoga/Meditation on the Quality of Life and Markers of Stress in Persons Living with HIV Who Also Use Crack Cocaine
Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation training effects on CD4+ T lymphocytes in HIV-1 infected adults: A small randomized controlled trial
