Abstract

GIMENEZ, Gloria Concepción; OLGUIN, Gustavo  and  ALMIRON, Marcos Daniel. Yoga: health benefits. A literature review. An. Fac. Cienc. Méd. (Asunción) [online]. 2020, vol.53, n.2, pp.137-144. ISSN 1816-8949.  https://doi.org/10.18004/anales/2020.053.02.137.

Yoga is an unconventional form of physical exercise, it is an ancient technique that has three essential components: muscle stretching, exercises to control breathing and meditation for a mind-body intervention. This type of physical exercise has a particularity for its holistic look which makes it interesting and striking. The objective of this review was to search for evidence that supports Yoga for its usefulness for the benefit of people's health. This was a narrative, non-systematic review, focused on primary literature, selected from a search of the PubMed and SciELO databases. The key terms used for the search and selection were: "Yoga and physical exercise", "Yoga and physical health", "Yoga and mental health". Secondary literature (books and book chapter, made by experts) was extracted to complement the primary literature and further contribute to the research. All authors participated in the research and literature review. They concluded that there is evidence that supports the usefulness of Yoga for the benefit of people's health, although it is still limited, due to still existing paradigms on health concepts that limit the methodological design of many studies on the subject.

Keywords : Yoga; physical exercise; physical health; mental health..

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