Yoga and Cardiovascular Health Trial (YACHT): a UK-based randomised mechanistic study of a yoga intervention plus usual care vs usual care alone following an acute coronary event

Tillin, Therese; Tuson, Claire; Sowa, Barbara; Chattopadhyay, Kaushik; Sattar, Naveed; Welsh, Paul; Roberts, Ian; Ebrahim, Shah; Kinra, Sanjay; Hughes, Alun; Chaturvedi, Nishi

Abstract

Objective: To determine effects of yoga practice on subclinical cardiovascular measures, risk factors and neuro-endocrine pathways in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation following acute coronary events.

Design: 3-month, two arm (yoga+usual care vs usual care alone) parallel randomised mechanistic study.

Setting: One general hospital and two primary care cardiac rehabilitation centres in London. Assessments were conducted at Imperial College London.

Participants: 80 participants, aged 35-80 years (68% male, 60% South Asian) referred to cardiac rehabilitation programmes 2012- 2014.

Intervention: A certified yoga teacher conducted yoga classes which included exercises in stretching, breathing, healing imagery and deep relaxation. It was pre-specified that at least 18 yoga classes were attended for inclusion in analysis. Participants and partners in both groups were invited to attend weekly a 6-12 week local standard NHS cardiac rehabilitation programme.

Main outcome measures: i) estimated left ventricular filling pressure (E/e’), ii) distance walked, fatigue and breathlessness in a 6-minute walk test (6MWT), iii) BP, heart rate and estimated peak VO2 following a three-minute step-test. Effects on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, autonomic function, body fat, blood lipids and glucose, stress and general health were also explored.

Results 25 participants in the yoga+usual care group and 35 participants in the usual care group completed the study. Following the 3-month intervention period, E/e’ was not improved by yoga (E/e’: between group difference: yoga minus usual care:-0.40(-1.40, 0.61) Exercise testing and secondary outcomes also showed no benefits of yoga.

Conclusions In this small UK-based randomised mechanistic study, with 60 completing participants (of whom 25 were in the yoga+usual care group), we found no discernible improvement associated with the addition of a structured 3 month yoga intervention to usual cardiac rehabilitation care in key cardiovascular and neuroendocrine measures shown to be responsive to yoga in previous mechanistic studies

Citation

Tillin, T., Tuson, C., Sowa, B., Chattopadhyay, K., Sattar, N., Welsh, P., Roberts, I., Ebrahim, S., Kinra, S., Hughes, A., & Chaturvedi, N. (2019). Yoga and Cardiovascular Health Trial (YACHT): a UK-based randomised mechanistic study of a yoga intervention plus usual care vs usual care alone following an acute coronary event. BMJ Open, 9(11), Article e030119

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 14, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 3, 2019
• Publication Date: Nov 3, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 3, 2019
• Journal: BMJ Open
• Electronic ISSN: 2044-6055
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 11
• Article Number: e030119
• Keywords: Yoga, Cardiac rehabilitation, Exercise, Blood pressure, Heart rate
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2962407
• Publisher URL: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/11/e030119
• Contract Date: Oct 25, 2019