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TCIM Research

Dennis Muñoz-Vergara (2022 WINNER)

Published on 5/27/2022
The effects of a single bout of high- and moderate-intensity yoga exercise on circulating inflammatory mediators: a pilot feasibility study
Dennis Muñoz-Vergara1,2, Kristin Schreiber3, Helene Langevin4, Gloria Y. Yeh1,5, Yehui Zhu6, Pamela Rist1,2, Peter M. Wayne1,2

Congratulations to Dennis Muñoz-Vergara, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (USA) winner of the Dr. George Lewith Poster Prize awarded by ISCMR for the best trainee poster at the 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health. Click here to view the poster
Myofascial system stress
What is New
To our knowledge, this is the first randomized study to evaluate the effects of a single bout of yoga exercise on immune mediated markers of inflammation in yoga naïve and healthy adults.

Main Results
Our preliminary results suggest that a single bout of yoga impacts systemic inflammatory processes in yoga-naïve and relatively sedentary participants. Trends/patterns observed in IL-6 and IL-33 warrant further investigation in a fully powered study.

Conclusions
A larger powered-RCT for understanding the short-term effects of yoga exercise on systemic inflammatory mediators is both feasible and warranted.


Author affiliations
1. Division of Preventive Medicine. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School (HMS). Boston, Massachusetts.
2. Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School (HMS). Boston, Massachusetts.
3. Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School (HMS). Boston, Massachusetts.
4. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland.
5. Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School (HMS). Boston, Massachusetts.
6. Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School (HMS). Boston, Massachusetts.