Between inhalation and exhalation: Yoga as an alternative or complementary intervention for smoking cessation

All over the world smoking and tobacco use kills 6 million people each year, and 600,000 of these deaths are from exposure to second-hand smoke. Smoking is a risk factor for numerous disorders, such as diabetes, many types of cancer, heart, and lung diseases. Smoking is the process of inhaling a smoked substance. Yoga and smoking both focus on breathing and creating relaxation, but smoking is injurious to health while yoga is beneficial for health. Yoga not only reduces perceived stress and improves mood, but also benefits physical health. Yoga, as a form of exercise, has been shown to promote the desire to stop smoking and enhance subjective well-being. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine whether yoga is beneficial as an alternative or complementary therapy for smoking cessation. The method used in this study was a systematic review of interventions obtained from MEDLINE, CINAHL, EBSCOHOST, ERIC, & INDMED databases. The criteria for including studies were: publication in English language, studies that focused on quitting smoking, and studies that used yoga (from any school) as an intervention. A total of 9 articles met the criteria of which seven interventions used randomized controlled trials. However, three articles are ongoing and two articles are not published. Majority of the interventions were able to show beneficial effects of yoga on smoking cessation. However several methodological limitations such as weak designs, small sample sizes etc. were identified in the conduct of the intervention trials which future interventions must consider.