Yoga and aerobic workouts cut alcohol consumption in a 12-week study of 140 adults with alcohol use disorder. Yoga gave the biggest drop. It did as well as standard treatment. Both workouts also eased cravings and anxiety.
Summary: About 5% of US adults live with alcohol use disorder (AUD). But only one-fifth of them ever seek treatment for it. People do not seek treatment because they dislike the treatment options. So we need new treatments for AUD. The new study shows that yoga and aerobic exercise can control cravings and reduce alcohol intake.
Drinking alcohol is common in the US and around the world. In the US, 70-80% of adults drink alcohol fairly regularly. And about 5% of US adults are living with alcohol use disorder (AUD). This means they are addicted to alcohol, often abuse it, and binge drink.
As you can see, only a small share of people who drink have AUD, a kind of mental health disease. Researchers are unsure why some people develop it. They think it is due to some built-in differences.
AUD is associated with significant mortality. It is among the leading causes of death in young adults. AUD also causes many other health problems. People with AUD are more likely to have anxiety and depression. And AUD often comes with other problems like tobacco abuse.
Barriers to seeking help
There are many effective ways to treat AUD. These include psychological therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medicines. Yet many people do not seek AUD treatment. Studies show that no more than 20% of people with AUD will ever seek medical help.
There appear to be many reasons people do not seek medical help. One is the stigma attached to the condition. Some are unhappy with current therapies. Many people do not want to spend time in addiction treatment centers. Others are put off by the side effects of medicines. All this means we need treatments that people more readily accept. These are treatments that millions of adults living with AUD can reach more easily.
Yoga and aerobic exercise may help reduce alcohol consumption
In the new study, researchers tested the role of aerobic exercise and yoga in reducing alcohol intake. They studied 140 adults living with AUD. They split them into three groups: one did yoga, the second did aerobic exercise, and the third got standard treatment. They were asked to exercise at least three times a week. The study ran for 12 weeks.
To track their patients, doctors used various blood tests and accelerometers (motion sensors). They found that alcohol use dropped significantly in all three groups. The most significant drop was in the yoga group. Yoga was also not inferior to usual AUD treatment. Aerobic exercise was just slightly less effective.
But yoga and aerobic training did more than cut drinking. These workouts also eased anxiety and lifted mood. Exercise was also good for cutting alcohol cravings. The effect was especially strong in the next few hours.
So researchers think the best time for yoga and exercise is when cravings peak. So the afternoon or evening would be a good time to exercise. This will help counter cravings and so reduce alcohol use.
Researchers say exercise could help in many ways. For example, exercise appears to make people feel good. So it can tune the brain’s dopamine or reward pathways. Exercise can also help by boosting self-esteem.
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