Yoga For Inflammation And The Immune System: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Always catching whatever is going round? Or is your body fighting itself? Both are signs of an immune system out of balance. The great yoga teachers and the medical doctors who worked with Mr BKS Iyengar point the same way: calm the nerves, rest properly, and keep the body moving, so your defences can find their middle again. This guide brings together what each of them says about yoga for inflammation and the immune system, and what modern research has found. Last updated: 31 October 2026.

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Yoga for inflammation and the immune system: the short answer

Does yoga help inflammation? Yes. Yoga for inflammation is backed by a growing body of trials. Across reviews of yoga, meditation and breathing, markers of inflammation in the blood went down, most clearly with steady practice over weeks. In rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, yoga alongside usual medicines lowered disease activity. In people living with HIV, meditation and yoga went with better immune cell counts. Mr Iyengar set out a restful, supported yoga approach for low immunity, and the tradition gives the reason: the aim is balance, not boost. A good immune system switches on when it is needed, and settles again when the job is done.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: most trials tested “yoga” of many styles, taught by teachers with very different training, and many tested mindfulness rather than yoga. The one immune trial of Iyengar yoga, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, found inflammation signals inside white blood cells turned down, and in our view well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for a balanced immune system

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, several times a week. Two or three classes a week is a good start. In the trials, more total practice went with bigger falls in inflammation, so keep it going.
2. Add breath work (pranayama). A slow, soft out-breath calms the nerves, and the nerves help steer the immune system. Calmer nerves, calmer inflammation.
3. Make rest a real practice. Supported poses and a long final rest let the body switch from “alarm” to “repair”. Long stress with no off switch is what wears defences down.
4. Cut back on what inflames. Sugary, highly processed food and short sleep both feed inflammation. Yoga and breath work make it easier to sleep well and eat mindfully.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Mr BKS Iyengar: health is balance; a restful, supported course for low immunity; calm and strengthen the nerves.
• Geeta S Iyengar: disease comes from “deficiency or excess”, so some poses stimulate and others settle.
• Dr Timothy McCall: HIV/AIDS is no. 43 on his list. Long stress fuels inflammation, and yoga is “all about balance”.
• Dr Krishna Raman: lose the balance of the nervous system, and disease follows.
• The research: reviews of dozens of trials on inflammation, an Iyengar yoga trial, autoimmune and HIV trials, and mindfulness and pranayama trials on infections.
• Take it further: free ebooks, the Immune System Masterclass with Chris Lalor, and classes in Darwin and online.

“Health is not a facility; it is a perfect balance between the body, the mind, and the soul.”

What the immune system and inflammation are

Your immune system is your body’s defence force. Inflammation is one of its main tools: heat, swelling and redness that bring help to an injury or an infection. Short bursts of inflammation are good. They switch on, do the job, and switch off.

Immunologist Philipp Dettmer, in his book Immune, pictures two teams. One part of the system attacks germs, like an army. Another part calms things down when the fight is over, like peacekeepers. In our words:

• A weak army: colds hang on, and you catch whatever is going round.
• Weak peacekeepers: the army keeps fighting with nothing left to fight. That is what allergies and long-running, low-grade inflammation look like.
• Autoimmune disease (such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or multiple sclerosis) is the army attacking the body’s own tissue.
• Chronic inflammation is inflammation that never fully switches off. It is linked with many long-term illnesses.

So more is not the aim. A stronger immune system is not always a better one. The aim is a wiser one.

Stress and the immune system: why long stress wears defences down

In short: a short stress sharpens your defences; a long one unbalances them. The link between stress and immune system health is one of the best studied in mind-body research.

Cortisol, the main stress hormone, is normally the brake on inflammation after a short stress. When stress goes on for weeks and months, immune cells stop listening to it. The brake fails, inflammation rises, and the defences that fight viruses work less well (Cohen and colleagues, 2012). Chris Lalor explains it this way in her masterclass notes: in long stress, the brake on inflammation stops working.

That is why so many of us get sick on the first day of the holidays. In When the Body Says No, Dr Gabor Maté tells of a woman who nursed her husband through weeks of major surgery. Within days of the crisis ending, she fell ill herself. Stress then rest is a pattern most of us know.

“If the nerves are corroded and blocked with stress, how can prana circulate?”

What Mr BKS Iyengar taught about immunity

In short: health is balance; calm and strengthen the nerves; rest the body with support.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions, including low immunity (p. 308) and AIDS (p. 309). A few ideas run through his teaching, in our words:

• Low immunity shows as repeated infections, tiredness and fever. His course for it is largely supported and restful: bridge-type and reclining poses, forward bends and supported inversions, with props, ending in a long rest. The breathing in the course includes Viloma 2, a breath with pauses.
• Tension cuts the supply. He writes that when a part of the body is tense, “blood flow to that area decreases, reducing immunity” (p. 180). Relaxation turns rapid, shallow breathing into deep, slow breathing.
• The body is built for balance. In Light on Life he writes “As mammals, we are homeostatic” (p. 24): we keep our inner balances by adapting to challenge.
• Not just calm: calm and strong. His words: “the key to overcoming stress is to calm and strengthen the nervous system” (Light on Life, p. 78).
• Balance in practice. In Astadala Yogamala, volume 8, he writes “Balance is the key word while practising asana and pranayama” (p. 146), and that inversions and backbends work on the immune system by increasing or decreasing the circulation (p. 149). That is regulation both ways, not simply turning it up.
• Breath and circulation. In Light on Pranayama he writes that rhythmic breathing stimulates the circulation of blood and lymph (p. 48). That is his teaching from long practice.
• HIV and AIDS. He taught people with AIDS in his medical classes in Pune from the start of the epidemic (Light on Life, p. 115). His book words the AIDS course carefully: it may help ease some symptoms.

His own story fits a page on immunity. He was born in December 1918, during the influenza pandemic, and was sick as a child with malaria, typhoid and tuberculosis. He credited yoga with giving him “a new birth with health from illness” (Light on Life, introduction). It is his story, not a study, and it is a good one.

We do not publish his sequences. A sequence needs a teacher who can see how you are on the day and adapt each pose, which is what a class is for.

What Geeta S Iyengar adds

In short: health is an equilibrium, and the practice is chosen to restore it, up or down.

Geeta S Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s daughter and a senior teacher in her own right, wrote Yoga: A Gem for Women. On pranayama we are led by her approach, which is practical and the one Flametree follows. Her points, in our words:

• Disease comes from “any deficiency or excess” (p. 39). This is the tradition’s own version of balance, not boost.
• Stimulate and settle. Certain poses stimulate the glands, while others “normalise the over-functioning of the hormones and maintain balance” (p. 45).
• After 40, she writes, yoga is particularly useful as the body’s recuperative power declines and resistance to illness weakens (p. 45).
• Pairs balance each other. Headstand is followed by Shoulderstand, never left alone (pp. 180 to 181).
• Breath chosen by state. She teaches one form of Viloma (staircase breath) for nervous tension and another for low energy and low mood.

“Right practice of pranayama soothes the nerves and quietens the mind.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: long stress fuels inflammation, and yoga works on an out-of-balance stress system.

Dr McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal. His June 2019 list of conditions helped by yoga includes HIV/AIDS (no. 43), and the autoimmune conditions multiple sclerosis (no. 59), psoriasis (no. 94) and rheumatoid arthritis (no. 97). His book has no single immune chapter; the ideas run through his chapters. In our words:

• The target is the stress system. He names “an out-of-balance stress-response system” as a chief factor undermining health today, and writes that “yoga is all about balance”.
• Stress, cortisol and inflammation. In his multiple sclerosis chapter he explains that stress raises inflammatory messengers (cytokines) through cortisol, and easing depression lowers those same messengers.
• Both directions. He reports that meditation appears to raise immunity where that helps, and lower it in autoimmune disease.
• Not simply relaxing. In his words, saying yoga only relaxes the nervous system “is an oversimplification”. The aim is a nervous system that shifts smoothly between action and rest.
• HIV and AIDS. He writes that Iyengar teachers commonly give people with HIV supported inversions and other restorative poses. He adds sleep to the holistic picture.

“Relaxation is necessary, for relaxation is recuperation.”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: the two sides of the nervous system must stay in balance, and each kind of pose has its own job.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His writing on immunity is brief, but clear:

• Balance or disease. Of the action and rest sides of the nervous system, he writes: “There is a balance between the two systems. If this balance is lost diseases ensue.” (70 Glorious Years, p. 304)
• Every pose family has a job. Senior Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden quotes his line: “Forward bends recuperate, backbends stimulate, passive poses energize, and inverted poses refresh.”
• Passive poses first around radiation and chemotherapy, in his question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science.

“Slow, soft, quiet exhalation so the brain cells quieten.”

Other yoga voices on the immune system

• Disease follows when the immune system is “over reactive or under active”. She saw the immune and nervous systems as one integrated circuit, and a regular, balanced and varied practice of classical poses as ideal for keeping the immune system healthy. Dr Mary Pullig Schatz, a medical doctor and Iyengar-trained teacher, Yoga Journal, 1987.
• Yoga brings mind and body back to balance. Pranayama, Savasana and supported Bound Angle Pose help balance the action and rest sides of the nervous system. Patricia Walden, senior Iyengar teacher, The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health, chapter “Supporting Your Immune System”.
• “Immune means protected, unburdened.” What we do when depleted is different from what we do to build our reserves when well. Lisa Walford, senior Iyengar teacher, 2022.
• “The aim is an immune system that responds appropriately, not one that is permanently stimulated.” And on flare days of an autoimmune condition: “Neither underdo nor overdo.” Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist.
• The lymph system has no pump. Movement, working legs and turning upside down help it flow. Dr Gerald Lemole, a heart surgeon, put it memorably in Lymph & Longevity: the lymph system loves yoga. This is known from practice and not yet tested in trials.
• Dr J. T. Shah’s Therapeutic Yoga (foreword by Mr Iyengar) colour-codes which body systems each pose works on. Chris used his key in the Immune System Masterclass.

Stories: Kim, and Shannon Harvey

Kim, a Flametree teacher, caught Ross River virus, a mosquito-borne virus common in the Top End. It can leave joint pain and stiffness for months. It is not an autoimmune condition. In her own words on our teachers page: “Yoga was also instrumental in recovery from Ross River virus.”

Shannon Harvey is an Australian health journalist. At 24 she was told she probably had lupus, an autoimmune disease. She went on to build a daily meditation and yoga practice, and filmed a year of mindfulness for her film My Year of Living Mindfully. She is careful to say she is a journalist, not a doctor. Her story is hers, told in her own words in the film. Read our review of the film.

“The main causes of negative stress are anger, fear, speed, greed, unhealthy ambition, and competition.”

What the research shows

In short: inflammation markers fall with yoga, meditation and breathing practice; autoimmune and HIV trials are encouraging; and the best data on infections come from mindfulness and one pranayama trial. Most of these studies tested yoga in general, of many styles. The Iyengar yoga trial is listed on its own below. Why the difference matters.

Yoga and inflammation

• Yoga lowered pro-inflammatory markers, especially IL-1 beta, with signs of lower IL-6 and TNF-alpha. Falkenberg 2018, a review of 15 randomised trials of yoga and immune function. Read the study.
• Eleven of 15 studies found yoga improved inflammatory markers, and more total practice (over 1,000 minutes) went with bigger improvements. Djalilova 2019, a review of adults with long-term inflammation-related conditions. Read the study.
• Yoga, meditation and breathing practice lowered IL-6, TNF-alpha and cortisol. Shah 2022, a review and pooled analysis of 11 randomised trials. Read the study.
• Mind-body practices lowered C-reactive protein (CRP, a blood marker of inflammation) with a moderate effect, and may improve the antibody response to vaccines. Morgan 2014, a review of 34 trials and 2,219 people; Tai Chi, Qi Gong, meditation and yoga together. Read the study.
• Mind-body practices turned down the NF-kB pathway, a master switch for inflammation: the opposite of what long stress does. Buric 2017, a review of 18 gene studies including yoga and breath regulation. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered fatigue and raised vitality, and lowered IL-6, TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta, three months after the course. Twelve weeks of 90-minute classes twice a week; more frequent practice meant larger changes. Kiecolt-Glaser 2014, a trial of 200 breast cancer survivors. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

This trial tested Iyengar yoga specifically, taught by trained Iyengar teachers, with props and supported poses.

• Restorative Iyengar yoga lowered inflammation-related gene activity (NF-kB) in white blood cells, and kept a TNF-related marker steady while it rose in the comparison group. Blood CRP, IL-6 and cortisol did not change; the change was inside the cells. Twelve weeks. Bower 2014, a trial of 31 tired breast cancer survivors, against health education. Read the study.

No Iyengar yoga trial has yet counted infections or tested autoimmune disease. Not yet studied is not the same as not working.

Yoga for autoimmune disease

• Yoga alongside medicines lowered disease activity, cut inflammatory Th17 cells and raised calming Treg cells. Eight weeks. Gautam 2023, a trial of 64 people with active rheumatoid arthritis. Read the study.
• In rheumatoid arthritis, yoga lowered disease activity and IL-6, a blood marker of inflammation. Suresh 2026, a review of 8 trials and 651 people. Read the study.
• Across five autoimmune diseases, most trials found yoga helped, with no harms reported. Baishya 2025, a review of 26 trials and 1,960 people. Read the study.

More on rheumatoid arthritis is in our arthritis guide.

Yoga and HIV

• Meditation and yoga improved CD4 immune cell counts, and the gain held at follow-up; stress, depression and anxiety fell. The gains were larger for people who started with lower counts. Jiang 2021, a review of 19 randomised trials and 1,300 people living with HIV. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered depression and raised CD4 counts more than in the comparison group. One hour a day, six days a week, for a month, alongside usual medicines. Naoroibam 2016, a pilot trial of 44 adults with HIV. Read the study.
• Twenty weeks of yoga improved blood pressure, with immune and viral status unharmed. Cade 2010, a trial of 60 adults with HIV. Read the study.

Mindfulness, pranayama and infections

No yoga trial has yet counted colds. These are the closest, each labelled by what it tested.

• Mindfulness meant milder colds and flu over a winter, and fewer days off work. Eight weeks of mindfulness training. Barrett 2012, a trial of 149 adults aged 50 and over; mindfulness, not yoga. Read the study.
• Mindfulness meant fewer respiratory infections in the planned analysis. Barrett 2018, a larger trial of 413 adults; mindfulness, not yoga. Read the study.
• Daily pranayama went with far fewer COVID-19 infections: 1 of 123 in the pranayama group, against 9 of 127 in the comparison group. Twice a day for 28 days. Sarwal 2022, 250 health workers in COVID-19 hospitals; pranayama, and not fully randomised. Read the study.
• Meditation raised the antibody response to the flu vaccine. Eight weeks of mindfulness meditation, then the flu jab. Davidson 2003, 41 healthy employees; mindfulness, not yoga. Read the study.

Meditation and immune genes

These trials tested meditation and mindfulness, not pranayama. In our view, yoga and pranayama train the same present-moment attention.

• Mindfulness changed brain connections, which explained part of a fall in IL-6 four months later. Creswell 2016, a trial of 35 stressed, unemployed adults; a 3-day mindfulness retreat against a relaxation retreat. Read the study.
• One intensive day of meditation turned down inflammation genes. Kaliman 2014, 19 experienced meditators against 21 non-meditators. Read the study.
• The relaxation response (meditation, yoga or prayer) shifted genes linked to energy and inflammation, in beginners after 8 weeks as well as in long-term practitioners. Bhasin 2013. Read the study.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

• Slow breathing, under 10 breaths a minute, raised heart rate variability and brought a calmer emotional state. This is link 1 of the chain above. Zaccaro 2018, a review of 15 studies. Read the study.
• Humming raised nitric oxide in the nose and sinuses many times over, compared with quiet breathing out. Nitric oxide is a gas the lining of the nose and sinuses makes naturally. Weitzberg and Lundberg 2002, a small study of 10 adults. Read the study. This is why humming breath (Bhramari) is part of our immune case. Whether humming changes how often people get sick has not yet been studied.

Most breathing trials use the loose words “breathwork” or “breathing exercises”, and rarely say exactly what was taught, or how. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, nasal and taught step by step. Why the kind of breathing matters.

For men

Men and women’s immune systems work differently. Autoimmune disease is more common in women, while men tend to fare worse with many infections and can respond less strongly to some vaccines (Klein and Flanagan 2016, a review). Read the review.

Men also do far less yoga than women. At Flametree, about one in three people in class are men, and those men come to every level of class. For a man, the simplest move for his defences is the same as for anyone: a steady practice that brings stress down and sleep up. Yoga for men and the free ebook Stay In The Game have more.

“Health has to be earned, not bought.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online.

• Active and restorative, in balance. Standing poses and supported inversions to lift, supported forward bends and restorative poses to settle. Chris’s Immune System and Restorative Yoga class is built on exactly this.
• Props in every class: bolsters, blankets, chairs, belts and the wall, so a pose can be held without strain.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher if you are in a flare or run down, and the poses are changed for you.
• Breath and calm: every class ends in rest, and our pranayama classes teach the humming breath and the slow out-breath step by step.
• A practice for every kind of day: our gentle yoga and restorative yoga classes suit tired days.

Read more on the immune system and inflammation

• Yoga for the immune system: sleep, stress and lymph
• How to reduce inflammation in the body
• Simple yoga poses for stress relief and the immune system
• Bhramari pranayama benefits: humming breath and nitric oxide
• Vagus nerve exercises
• How to lower cortisol naturally
• How to improve HRV

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Masterclass: the Immune System Masterclass with Chris Lalor (Masterclass 3, 25 October 2026) gives you the poses, the breathing and the reasons, so you can put all of this into action. It is in the library of the 2026 Sunday Arvo Masterclass series, which also comes with Chris’s ebook Yoga For A Balanced Immune System.
• Retreats: a week of daily, adapted yoga and rest in Bali. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for inflammation and the immune system: questions people ask

What did Mr BKS Iyengar say about stress and immunity?

Mr Iyengar taught that tension cuts the supply to a part of the body: when a part is tense, he wrote, blood flow to that area decreases, reducing immunity (Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, p. 180). He set out a restful, supported course for low immunity, and in Light on Life wrote that the key to overcoming stress is to calm and strengthen the nervous system.

What is the difference between a strong immune system and a balanced one?

A strong immune system is not always a better one. Allergies and autoimmune disease are what an over-busy immune system looks like. A balanced immune system switches on when it is needed and settles again when the job is done. That is why Flametree says balance, not boost, and why the Iyengar tradition chooses poses that lift or settle depending on the day.

Why do people so often get sick on the first day of a holiday?

Long stress unbalances the immune system: immune cells stop listening to cortisol, the hormone that normally puts the brake on inflammation. Dr Gabor Maté tells of a woman who nursed her husband through weeks of surgery and fell ill within days of the crisis ending. Yoga, pranayama and proper rest give the stress system an off switch before the holiday arrives.

Is yoga good for autoimmune disease?

Yes, the trials are encouraging. In rheumatoid arthritis, yoga alongside usual medicines lowered disease activity and shifted immune cells in a calmer direction, and a review of 26 trials across five autoimmune diseases found most showed benefits, with no harms reported. On flare days, Chris Lalor guides people to the quietest, most supported poses: neither underdo nor overdo.

Is there research on yoga for people living with HIV?

Yes. A 2021 review of 19 randomised trials and 1,300 people living with HIV found meditation and yoga improved CD4 immune cell counts, with less stress, depression and anxiety. A small 2016 pilot found yoga alongside usual medicines raised CD4 counts and lowered depression. Mr Iyengar taught people with AIDS in his medical classes from the start of the epidemic.

Can mindfulness and breathing practice help with colds?

The trials point that way. In a 2012 trial of adults over 50, mindfulness training meant milder colds and flu over a winter and fewer days off work, and a larger 2018 trial found fewer respiratory infections. A 2022 trial found health workers who did pranayama twice a day had far fewer COVID-19 infections. No yoga trial has yet counted colds.

How does a Flametree class adapt for someone in an autoimmune flare?

On a flare day, the practice becomes the quietest, most supported version, as on a tired day, with bolsters, blankets and chairs, slow breathing and a long rest. Chris Lalor’s phrase is neither underdo nor overdo. On better days, standing poses and supported inversions come back in. Tell your teacher how you are, and the poses are changed for you.

Where can I do yoga for inflammation in Darwin or online?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin, and LIVE online across Australia, including Chris Lalor’s Immune System and Restorative Yoga class. Every class uses props and ends in rest. New, or away 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), the courses for low immunity and AIDS and the chapter on stress; Light on Life (Rodale, 2005; page numbers are from the Kindle edition); Astadala Yogamala, volume 8; Light on Pranayama. Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga: A Gem for Women. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam), and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD, in 70 Glorious Years of Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, and Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ. Mary Pullig Schatz MD, Yoga Journal, 1987. Patricia Walden and Linda Sparrowe, The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health. Philipp Dettmer, Immune. Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No. Gerald Lemole, Lymph & Longevity. J. T. Shah, Therapeutic Yoga. Chris Lalor, notes and paper for the Flametree Immune System Masterclass, October 2026. Studies as linked above. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.