Introduction: Stress is highly prevalent in western society and chronic exposure to stress can lead to many chronic complications. This is why methods for stress reduction are highly needed. Yoga is an ancient practice comprising of many components like yoga poses, breathing techniques and meditation. It has positive effects on the body as well as the mind. Instead of separately performing different relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, mobilization, blood pressure control etc., yoga offers a unification of these modalities and has some similarities with a holistic physiotherapeutic treatment. Purpose: The purpose of this undergraduate thesis was to find out, if yoga practice helps to reduce stress of healthy adults experiencing stress, based on a review of literature. Methods: Literature search was carried out in the PubMed online database. Included studies were randomized controlled trials in English language and published in the time frame between 2010 and 2019. Studies were analysed based on the study design, characteristics of the participants, program design and type of interventions, research measures and results. Results: There were seven studies included in this literature review. There were three studies in which authors compared yoga to a control group without any intervention, two where they compared yoga, yoga and mindful meditation and a control group without intervention, one where they compared yoga with a form of exercise and one where they compared differences inside the two pranayama groups (slow and fast pranayama) and the control group. The most commonly used measuring tool was the Perceived Stress Scale, the others were salivary cortisol, Chinese stress questionnaires, heart rate variability and other physiological parameters. The results showed a significant reduction of stress in five of the included studies. In two studies, the reduction of stress was not significant. Discussion and conclusion: Yoga can be an effective method for reducing stress in healthy people as well as an intervention for stress reduction in the workplace. It provides a holistic treatment of the individual according to the biopsychosocial health model. More studies of higher quality are needed, that would also analyse the long-term benefits of yoga, compare different components of yoga to one another and compare yoga to different types of exercise and relaxation techniques.
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