According to the results of a clinical trial, just one hot yoga session per week can help reduce symptoms of depression.
The trendy workout, a favorite of celebrities like Meghan Markle and Drew Barrymore, involves performing poses and breathing exercises in warm and humid conditions.
It is practiced in a heat of 40.5 degrees Celsius, which results in significant sweating.
A study has now found that adults with moderate to severe depression who took part in the sessions experienced a ‘significantly greater’ reduction in depressive symptoms compared to a control group.
The trendy workout, favored by celebrities like Meghan Markle and Drew Barrymore, involves performing poses and breathing exercises in warm and humid conditions
During the eight-week trial period, 80 participants were divided into two groups: one who received 90-minute hot yoga sessions and a second group who were placed on a waiting list.
Those in the hot yoga group were prescribed a minimum of two classes per week, but attended an average of 10.3 classes in total over eight weeks.
Analysis found that nearly two-thirds of hot yoga participants experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in their symptoms, compared to just 6.3 percent of waitlist participants.
The researchers also found that 44 percent of those in the hot yoga group achieved such low scores that their depression was considered to be in remission.
The team said depressive symptoms were even reduced in participants who received just half the prescribed yoga dose – suggesting that hot yoga sessions as little as once a week could be helpful.
Markle took part in a public yoga class in 2019 in an attempt to shake off her jet lag (pictured). The class started shortly after she arrived in New York City to watch friend Serena Williams compete in the US Open. It took place in an environmentally conscious studio specializing in hot yoga classes
In 2016, Barrymore shared a makeup-free, sweaty selfie of herself lying on the floor after a hot yoga session with her damp hair plastered to her forehead and neck.
Dr. Maren Nyer, lead author of the study from Harvard Medical School, said: ‘Yoga and heat-based interventions could potentially transform the treatment of patients with depression by providing a non-drug approach with additional physical benefits as a bonus.
‘We are currently developing new studies with the aim of determining the specific contribution of each element – heat and yoga – to the clinical effects we observed in depression.’
The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.