Workouts that really get the heart pumping may help ease asthma in people with the respiratory condition, a new Brazilian study finds.
Researchers led by Celso Carvalho of the University of Sao Paolo School of Medicine looked at outcomes for 43 people, aged 20 to 59, with moderate to severe asthma. They were randomly selected to do 30-minute yoga breathing exercises twice a week or the breathing exercises plus a 35-minute indoor treadmill session twice a week, reports HealthDay News. After three months, those in the treadmill group showed greater reduction in asthma severity and more improvement in their quality of life, according to the study published in the journal Thorax.
Carvalho tested the participants’ “bronchial hyper responsiveness,” the speed at which the airway constricts in asthma, and found improvements in people who engaged in aerobic exercise versus those who didn’t.
