Study: Yoga may help with depression symptoms

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Practicing yoga may help you manage clinical depression, according to a new study.

Adults with major depressive disorder participated in either three or two yoga classes per week and practiced breathing exercises. Researchers found that participants in both groups reported reductions in their depression symptoms. The group that did three classes per week saw more improvement.

"The practical findings for this integrative health intervention is that it worked for participants who were both on and off antidepressant medications, and for those time-pressed, the two times per week dose also performed well," said John Weeks, the editor in chief of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, which published the study.

The study's authors said the intervention targeted a different neurochemical pathway in the body than what medications do, which suggests yoga may provide side effect-free relief as a way to treat people.