Heated yoga may improve symptoms in adults with moderate-to-severe depression. Digest
Depression remains difficult to treat, and many people continue to experience symptoms despite standard care. Researchers tested whether practicing yoga in a heated room could provide an additional treatment option.
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The study analyzed data from an earlier clinical trial involving 80 adults with moderate-to-severe depression. In that trial, one group began an 8-week heated yoga program immediately, while the other was placed on a waiting list before receiving the same program 8 weeks later. Participants were encouraged to attend at least two 90-minute heated yoga classes per week in a 105°F (40.6°C) room. Depression symptoms were rated by a clinician before and after each participant's yoga program. The original study compared people doing heated yoga with those still waiting. For this new analysis, the researchers instead combined data from 65 participants across both heated yoga phases who had attended at least one class and had follow-up data, to answer a different question: Was attending more classes associated with larger reductions in depression symptoms?
- Depression symptoms generally improved during the heated yoga program.
- Participants who attended more heated yoga classes had larger reductions in depression symptoms during the active yoga period.
- Across the 0 to 30 classes observed in the study, the researchers did not identify a point where attending additional classes was no longer associated with extra benefit. However, only two participants attended more than 20 classes.
- The link between more classes and greater symptom improvement looked similar regardless of how severe participants' depression was before starting heated yoga, and regardless of whether they were taking antidepressants.
Heated yoga could affect mood by pulling several depression-relevant systems in the same direction. The posture sequence gives the mind a demanding physical target: balance, body position, muscle effort, and breath have to be monitored from moment to moment. That may help interrupt rumination, the repetitive negative thinking that can keep depression symptoms active. The heat adds a second layer. A hot room pushes the body to manage internal strain while the person is trying to stay calm and attentive. That may engage automatic stress-recovery systems, including changes in heart rate control, circulation, and stress hormone signaling. Because depression is often linked with less flexible stress regulation, a practice that repeatedly pairs physical effort, heat, breathing, and focused attention could plausibly help the body shift more effectively between strain and recovery.
Because this was a secondary analysis of an existing trial rather than a study assigning participants to different attendance levels, it cannot establish that greater class attendance caused the larger symptom improvements. The study also did not compare heated yoga with another group activity that matched the time, attention, instructor contact, and expectation of benefit, so it cannot show which part of the program mattered most. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that heated yoga could be a promising addition to standard depression care. In this clip, Dr. Ashley Mason describes how whole-body hyperthermia may be useful in treating people who have depression.