Is yoga good for people with IBS?

Yoga does not appear helpful in reducing gastrointestinal severity of symptoms, anxiety, and depression or quality of life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a study has shown.

A team of investigators performed a systematic review and meta-analysis using the databases of PubMed, Embase, WOS, Scopus, and Cochrane through October 2024. They pooled continuous variables using the standardized mean difference (SMD), with confidence intervals (CIs) using Stata MP version 17, and assessed heterogeneity via χ² test and I² statistics.

Eleven randomized controlled trials (RCTs), including a total of 535 patients, met the eligibility criteria. Of the RCTs, seven involved adults, three involved paediatric or adolescent patients, and one involved adolescents and young adults.

The type of yoga intervention differed across trials, with the program duration ranging from 6 weeks to 8 months and session duration from 40 to 90 min.

No difference was noted between yoga and control groups in alleviating the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms (SMD, ‒0.66, 95 percent CI, ‒1.51 to 0.18; p=0.12), anxiety (SMD, ‒0.39, 95 percent CI, ‒0.85 to 0.06; p=0.09), and depression (SMD, ‒0.46, 95 percent CI, ‒1.15 to 0.22; p=0.19) or improving quality of life (SMD, 0.53, 95 percent CI, ‒0.38 to 1.44; p=0.25).

“In light of the considerable methodological heterogeneity and the high risk of bias within the included RCTs, yoga cannot be recommended as a treatment for IBS before conducting further large-scale RCTs to fill the current evidence gaps,” the investigators said.