Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria.
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2025 Jan;171:107191. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107191. Epub 2024 Sep 26.
Does the practice of yoga impact stress? Various studies have suggested that yoga may reduce both self-reported stress and stress biomarkers, but the evidence for such claims remains inconclusive, especially for yoga styles with a focus on physical postures. In a randomized controlled trial with 98 participants, we therefore examined whether an eight-week Hatha yoga intervention (60 min, 3×/week or more) led to reduced levels of diurnal salivary cortisol (sCort), salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), and subjective momentary stress as compared to a waitlist control group. To ensure the concomitant assessment of self-report and biological measures in an ecologically valid setting, and to capture the diurnal profile of cortisol and alpha-amylase, we employed an ecological momentary assessment approach. Five times per day, participants reported their momentary stress levels on a visual analogue scale and collected saliva samples for the assessment of salivary biomarkers. The intervention led to a significant reduction of subjective momentary stress but there was no change in diurnal sCort or sAA levels. There are several potential explanations for these findings: The intervention may have helped participants to cope better with stress while leaving diurnal levels of stress biomarkers unaffected, or the change may at least not have been reflected in sCort and sAA. Alternatively, there may have been a self-report bias, insofar as a favorable disposition towards yoga may have led participants to report reductions in stress in order to indicate positive effects of the intervention. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of distinct yoga interventions, demonstrating their potential to serve as low-risk stress relief tools.
瑜伽练习是否会影响压力？多项研究表明，瑜伽可能会降低自我报告的压力和压力生物标志物，但此类说法的证据仍不确定，尤其是对于注重身体姿势的瑜伽风格。在一项有 98 名参与者的随机对照试验中，我们因此研究了与候补对照组相比，八周的哈他瑜伽干预（60 分钟，每周 3 次或更多）是否会降低日间唾液皮质醇（sCort）、唾液 α-淀粉酶（sAA）和主观即时压力的水平。为了确保在生态上有效的环境中同时评估自我报告和生物测量值，并捕捉皮质醇和α-淀粉酶的昼夜节律，我们采用了生态瞬时评估方法。参与者每天五次通过视觉模拟量表报告他们的即时压力水平，并采集唾液样本以评估唾液生物标志物。干预导致主观即时压力显著降低，但日间 sCort 或 sAA 水平没有变化。这些发现有几种可能的解释：干预可能帮助参与者更好地应对压力，而不影响日间压力生物标志物的水平，或者变化至少没有反映在 sCort 和 sAA 中。或者，可能存在自我报告偏差，因为对瑜伽的有利倾向可能导致参与者报告压力减轻，以表明干预的积极效果。我们的研究结果有助于更好地理解不同瑜伽干预的效果，表明它们有潜力成为低风险的缓解压力工具。
