Yoga and Pilates Linked to Lower Death Risk, Study Finds

A new study has found that among a wide range of alternative health practices, yoga and Pilates stand out for their association with a lower risk of death. Researchers at Arizona State University examined data from more than 55,000 US adults, following them for about nine years, during which roughly 5,000 participants died.

The team, led by Associate Professor Connor Sheehan, assessed 21 complementary and alternative medicine practices — activities people use alongside or instead of conventional medical care. Yoga and Pilates emerged as the only two linked to a meaningfully lower risk of death, with reductions of 27% and 36% respectively.

Sheehan said the motivation for the work stemmed from the gap between what Americans spend on wellness and what is scientifically known about those habits. "Humans want to know what can make them live longer, healthier lives," he said, noting that people spend billions of dollars and countless hours pursuing that goal, often picking up behaviours from social media without much research to back them.

The study compared those who died with those who survived to determine which behaviours mattered most. Sheehan cautioned, however, that the findings show a connection rather than proof of cause and effect. "We can't definitively say that it's causally related, that yoga and Pilates cause people to live longer," he said.

He acknowledged that people who practise yoga tend to be wealthier, more active and healthier to begin with, but said the evidence of benefit remained strong even after controlling for factors such as baseline health. For those already practising yoga or Pilates, his message was to continue.

Sheehan described the work as an early step, calling for more data on the many behaviours Americans adopt in the belief that they will extend life. Understanding which of these actually relate to longevity, he said, is important.