Research Trends in the Application of Yoga to Human Health: A Data Science Approach

Abstract

Yoga is an integrative mind-body system of wellbeing developed in India since at least three millennia. Yoga has gained considerable attention in recent decades, partly driven by recent research and evidence about its effectiveness. In this work, we extracted research trends on the effects of Yoga on human health from the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed database (peer-reviewed journal papers). We found that Yoga research spans all organ systems and system-wide issues such as pain and cancer. Research on the nervous system far outpaces other systems, which is expected because of the effects of breathing and exercise on stress reduction, which has been a major application of Yoga. The next cluster of impact concerns the musculoskeletal system and pain (both related to the exercise [asana] aspects of Yoga), as well as cardiovascular/endocrine (also related to stress) and cancer. Stress and mental health, pain, diabetes, and cancer are health issues for which a permanent cure is not available in a majority of cases in modern medicine, although alleviating treatments are available. This has probably fueled interest in complementary approaches such as Yoga for these health issues. Research timeline shows that Yoga-related research largely expanded only after the 2000s. There was a specific uptick after 2004. Similar trends are seen if we look at just clinical trials or randomized control trials (RCTs) or systematic reviews. The percentage of trials (Clinical and RCT) among published literature is around 10-15 % This is comparable to other fields that gained traction around 2000s (e.g. non-invasive brain stimulation). Geographical distribution shows that 37% of all Yoga related research output originates in the USA, 19% from India, 13% from Europe and 31% from the rest of the world. Therefore, the interest is widespread and global. At least the uptick in Yoga-related research in the US post-2000s can be attributed to a substantial jump in funding between 1998 and 2005 from US National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). We can only surmise that research in this field reached a critical mass in late-1990s, which infused more money into this field, generating more research and creating a positive feedback loop that has sustained the growth so far. We propose that in order to sustain or even accelerate future research in the area, rigor and reproducibility must be enhanced in addition to performing more RCT and clinical trials (increasing % of trials to 20-25% from 10-15%). The fruits of research in the field has to reach the common man in terms of evidence-based solutions to health issues. Without this, accelerated funding in democracies such as India and the USA will not be realizable.

Figure 1.

Research trends in Yoga; the graphs show papers published per year for various cases.

Figure 2.

Geographical distribution of Yoga research and growth in funding from the US government for Yoga-related research.