Because the practice of yoga focuses on breathing, it can help people suffering from respiratory conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, according to an article in Petaluma Angus Courier by Jean Grant-Sutton.

Grant-Sutton said, “Breath is related to all aspects of physiological functioning, including cardiovascular functioning, brain circulation, metabolic activity, endocrine activity, muscle and vascular tone, lymphatic drainage and homeostatic regulation.”

Yoga teaches people how to use their breath to help relax the body and to control the breath even when the body is active.

According to the article, research conducted at yoga institutions in India have found yoga to succesfully relieve asthma symptoms, and physicians have found that yoga postures and meditation techniques improve anxiety associated incuced asthma.

Pranayama, a yoga breathing exercise helps to balance the autonomic nervous system and increase the breathing capacity, which helps expel carbon dioxide and other waste products and improves breathing.

A 1991 study in The Journal of International Association of Yoga Therapists found that how people breathe can affect their health by helping to bring oxygen to the heart and brain, promoting heart and blood flow and removing acidic metabolites.

Many of the yoga poses that can help improve breathing can be done at home.