Daily HealthBeat Tip

A lighter position.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Yoga might keep some of life's burdens from piling up � on people's bodies. A new study supported by the National Institutes of Health indicates a benefit in controlling middle-aged spread.

Researcher Alan Kristal of Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center looked at men and women between 45 and 55 � who, like him, practice yoga. The study was in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.

Kristal says most people would gain about ten pounds over those ten years. But he says regular yoga practitioners gained about three pounds fewer than non-practitioners.

Kristal thinks it's probably not the yoga directly:

"A very vigorous practice, you can burn enough calories to lose weight, but most people don't practice that kind of yoga." (eight seconds)

Kristal thinks yoga makes people more mindful or aware of their bodies, so they will stop eating when they feel full.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: August 19, 2005

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