Yoga can help quit tobacco, improve mental health, says study

A famous Malayalam movie dialogue goes, 'It's very easy to stop tobacco consumption. I have stopped many times.' Jokes apart, it's a major challenge for many people. A recent study by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, found that practising yoga can improve the chances of users not returning to substance abuse, alongside reducing depression, anxiety and other psychological issues. The research was conducted by the Centre for Integrative Medicine and Research and the Centre for Community Medicine, and the study was published in the journal 'Nicotine and Tobacco Research.' 

What the study found
The study found that tobacco users practising yoga had about 50 per cent higher odds of achieving short-term abstinence compared to those in control groups receiving standard interventions or other non-yoga approaches. 

The pooled analysis showed that participants in yoga groups were more likely to achieve seven-day point prevalence abstinence (7PPA), a standard measure of tobacco cessation."The findings of the review suggest that yoga can serve as a moderately effective (approximately 50%) intervention for tobacco cessation," the authors wrote. The researchers analysed evidence from seven randomised controlled trials involving 629 participants from the United States, India and Thailand. Five of these studies were included in the meta-analysis.

Different yoga forms studied
The researchers examined studies involving different forms of yoga, including hatha, vinyasa and Iyengar yoga, as well as yogic breathing practices. Dr Gautam Sharma, professor of Cardiology and founder/head of the Centre for Integrative Medicine and Research, AIIMS-Delhi, said that "yoga is an effective form of mind-body intervention. It is an excellent tool to improve stress management, emotional balance and self-awareness, which are important to overcome addictive behaviours such as tobacco use." The doctor said yoga is also a promising rehabilitation measure that improves both mental and physical health. "Along with established tobacco cessation therapies, yoga can contribute as an accessible, affordable, culturally acceptable, and effective adjunctive modality," he added. 

The authors of the study noted that active yoga styles such as hatha, vinyasa and Iyengar yoga improved abstinence outcomes by reducing stress and depression, while pranayama, or yogic breathing exercises, helped reduce cravings and negative emotions associated with tobacco withdrawal. The researchers, however, cautioned that the available evidence is still limited and called for larger, long-term studies, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where tobacco use remains widespread.