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 At any given time, as many as one in six working people suffer from
stress and other symptoms related to mental illness, researchers
note in Occupational Medicine. Yoga is one of many approaches a
growing number of employers are using to combat stress and improve
workers' mental health, but research to date has offered a mixed
picture of how well these efforts are working.
For the current study, researchers examined data from 13 trials with
about 1,300 participants. Some workers in these trials were randomly
assigned to participate in workplace yoga programs while others were
not.
Yoga didn't appear to influence heart health, but workplace yoga did
have a positive effect on mental health and in stress reduction in
particular.
"Yoga at work could be one of the chosen programs to reduce stress
levels, and usually requires low investment, with minimal
equipment," said lead study author Laura Maria Puerto Valencia of
the Bavarian Health and Food and Safety Authority in Munich,
Germany.
It's hard to say, however, how much the yoga itself is responsible
rather than the workplace culture at companies that were willing to
give workplace yoga a try, said Puerto Valencia said by email.
"Usually a company that allowed or planned a randomized controlled
trial of yoga at work is interested in reducing stress levels,
increasing job satisfaction and productivity; in consequence, it
could be a place with a lower stress environment (compared to) other
companies in general," Puerto Valencia said.
Still, more companies are expanding their approach to occupational
health to include not just efforts to avoid accidents and injuries
but also services to promote mental health as well as good eating
and exercise habits. And the results should encourage companies to
include yoga as part of their approach to workplace wellness, the
study team concludes.
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Mind-body medicine can include a range of health practices that
combine efforts to focus the mind, control breathing and move the
body in ways that promote relaxation. Yoga is often a component of
this approach to wellness. Regular yoga practice has long been
linked to better sleep, lower blood pressure, and improvements in
mobility and flexibility.
However, the study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove
how yoga might directly alter stress levels. Researchers also didn't
calculate the magnitude of stress reduction caused by yoga across
all of the smaller studies included in the analysis.
"The take-home message seems to be that yoga is a good practice in
the workplace as a means of reducing stress," said Stacy Hunter, a
researcher at Texas State University in San Marcos who wasn't
involved in the study.
Workers who don't get yoga on the job can still find a way to
practice, Hunter said by email.
"Even if yoga classes aren't provided in the workplace, simple
pranayama (yogic breathing) techniques can be practiced at a desk in
a cubicle or an office," Hunter advised. "While most studies in this
review included yoga postures, slow, deep, yogic breathing has also
shown to elicit a relaxation response which could contribute to a
reduction in stress in the workplace."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2VrU8RQ Occupational Medicine, online March
14, 2019.
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