Yoga helps boost immunity in AIDS patients: MDACS

Mumbai: The Mumbai district AIDS Control Society (MDACS) on Wednesday claimed that yoga helps improving immunity among Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients. A report published by MDACS said that regular yoga over the past six months has helped Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) patients with AIDS to increase their level of immunity.  

Thirty AIDS patients registered for antiretroviral therapy (ART) and were a part of the yoga programme that was started at the Wadala campus. MDACS officials confirmed that 28 of 30 patients who attended the two-hour yoga session every Saturday for 10 weeks have seen a drastic rise in their CD4 counts. These are white blood cells that play an important role in the immune system.  

MDACS now believe that yoga exercises are playing a vital role in improving the CD4 count, which came as surprise during the pre-scheduled yearly tests the patients undergo to check immunity.

While the improvement in mental health and physical fitness of all HIV positive patients was a given, 30 patients displayed a spike in the CD4 count by 21.5 per cent. When The CD4 count of HIV positive patients drops below 500, they are termed as AIDS patient and subsequently put on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to battle the huge viral load.

All these 28 patients had CD4 counts between 400 to 1,000 before they started yoga. Talking to The Asian Age, Dr Shrikala Acharya, project director at MDACS, said, “We started this as a pilot project after World Yoga Day to engage patients in some activity. The results are unbelievable. The patients’ physical as well as mental condition has improved.

Patients whose CD4 was below 500 have shown drastic improvement. We have now recommended yoga to all our centres in Mumbai.  Lots of centres have came forward proactively to start yoga sessions,” she added.

Currently, there are two centres coming up. One is at the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital, while the other is at Andheri’s Bhardawadi Municipal Hospital.