Yoga, Meditation, Breathing Exercises, and Inflammatory Biomarkers with Possible Implications in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 6

Comparison of the selected biomarkers among COVID-19, other patients, and healthy participants.

Biomarkers	COVID-19 patients (nonRCTs after disease emergence)		Intervention type and dose min (range)
	Mild/moderate/noncritically ill (compared to control or average)	Severe/critical/ICU/dead	^ΨDiseased	Healthy
1. Lymphocytes^†	↑ ^γ(T cells) [58]	↓ [58,^σ59]	↑ CD4+; YM (840–1200) [33,36]	___
2. IL-6	No change [58]; ↓ [63]	↑ [^σ58, ^σ63]	↓ M (1890) [18], MP (1260) [53], YP (1200–3000) [23,32], YMP (4800) [40,42]	↓ YP [24], YMP (4800) [45]
3. IL-10	↑ [58]	↑ [58,63]	___	↑ YMP (3240) [37]
4. CRP	↑ [58]; ↓ [63]	↑ [^σ58, ^σ60,61,62, ^σ63,^δ64]	↓ YMP (3600–4800) [38,40]	↓ M (1200) [15]
5. IL-1β	↑ [63]	↑ [65]	↓ YP (2160) [27]	↓ YMP (960–3240) [26,37]
6. Cortisol	___	↑ [^δ64]	↓ MP (1260) [53], M (1890) [18], YP (1440) [31], YMP (1080–1400) [25,56]	↑ YMP (1080) [37]
7. TNF-α	↓ [63]	↑ [^ϕ66, ^σ67]	↓ YMP (960–4800) [25,40,42,46], MP (1260) [53], YP (1800–3000) [23,55], YM (980) [35]	↓ YMP (960) [26], YP (2160) [24]

Nonsignificant. ^†Lymphocytes (CD4+, CD8+, B cells, and natural killer cells). ^γModerately increase. ^σHigher compared to that of mild/moderate cases. ^δCompared to COVID-19 negative ICU patients. ^ϕCompared to survived COVID-19 patients. ^ΨThe disease participants were diabetes, cancer, RA, HF, and so on, but not COVID-19 patients. ↑=Increase; ↓=decrease; -=no association or study not found.