[Image: Patrick Malleret/UNSPLASH]During the prospective randomized controlled trial with more than 100 people at a neurology outpatient clinic, test subjects were assigned to a group receiving medication alone, or a group that practiced yoga along with receiving medication. Outcomes were defined by frequency and intensity of headaches, Headache Impact Test (HIT) score, Migraine Disability Assessment Score (MIDAS), rescue medications used, and the proportion of patients who became headache-free.
At three months, patients in the yoga group experienced a significant decrease in headache frequency (9.3 to 3.1), headache intensity (8.3 to 4.6), HIT score (66.9 to 49.0), MIDAS (24.6 to 7.5), and pill counts (7.10 to 2.7) as compared to patients in the medication-alone group. Additionally, 12.28 percent of patients in the yoga group became headache-free after three months, while no patients in the medication-only group reported such effects. “Integration of yoga therapy as an adjuvant to conventional medical therapy is effective and safe in patients [with] migraine,” the researchers concluded.
