india , yoga combines specific postures ( asanas ) , breathing techniques ( pranayama ) , meditative techniques ( dhyana ) , chants ( mantras ) , and wisdom teachings ( sutras ) to encourage health and relaxation . following the worldwide commercial success of yoga , industry reports an increase in yoga participation since 2005 with over 30 million people practicing yoga for health benefits daily . as the number of yoga practitioners and yoga schools in the west increases , interpretations of the practice of yoga vary with several applications of spiritual , cultural , and therapeutic knowledge . the national institutes of health ( us ) and national health services ( uk ) describe yoga as a safe and effective intervention to increase strength , flexibility and balance , and treatment for high blood pressure , heart disease , aches and pains , depression , stress , and potentially asthma . the purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of yoga research by subject and type in the context of a western healthcare database . specifically , as the popularity of yoga practice for health in western populations continues to increase , do publication trends in yoga research indicate a similar surge in interest ? a service offered by the national library of medicine ( nlm ) , pubmed contains publication information of over 21 billion articles for biomedical literature with citations that include fields of biomedicine , behavioral sciences , chemical sciences and bioengineering . this database is most commonly used to source relevant articles for health professionals and academics in the western hemisphere , primarily because of its subject focus , abundance of material and free - access to medical abstracts in the english language . the annual statistics of pubmed results for yoga - related research is generated from an automated online tool and key - term search strategy ( appendix a ) . a preliminary analysis indicates the first recorded yoga article in pubmed dates to 1948 authored by e. abegg with an unknown title , while the first full - text yoga article appears to be written for 1964 . therefore , to ensure a comprehensive and pragmatic search any yoga - related publication from the years 1950 to 2012 is included . any citation that is not included on the pubmed search tool will be excluded and considered a limitation of the research . a service offered by the national library of medicine ( nlm ) , pubmed contains publication information of over 21 billion articles for biomedical literature with citations that include fields of biomedicine , behavioral sciences , chemical sciences and bioengineering . this database is most commonly used to source relevant articles for health professionals and academics in the western hemisphere , primarily because of its subject focus , abundance of material and free - access to medical abstracts in the english language . the annual statistics of pubmed results for yoga - related research is generated from an automated online tool and key - term search strategy ( appendix a ) . a preliminary analysis indicates the first recorded yoga article in pubmed dates to 1948 authored by e. abegg with an unknown title , while the first full - text yoga article appears to be written for 1964 . therefore , to ensure a comprehensive and pragmatic search any yoga - related publication from the years 1950 to 2012 is included . any citation that is not included on the pubmed search tool will be excluded and considered a limitation of the research . the total number of yoga - related articles listed on the pubmed database from 1950 to 2012 is 2,099 . of these titles , 498 ( 24% ) include  yoga trials and 324 ( 15% )  systematic reviews [ figure 1 ] . yoga titles by type on pubmed two yoga - related articles are published in 1950 , with a cumulative total of seven titles until 1960 . in 1961 , seven further articles are added with annual additions of two to 13 articles until 1973 . this trend of less than 20 new articles per year continues until 1991 with the exception of 3 years ( 1973 - 1975 ) , [ figure 1 ] . the number of yoga publications in pubmed more than doubles between 1995 and 2000 from 17 to 39 . the rate of publication following 2000 is sporadic until a surge in 2007 when 114 yoga titles are added to pubmed in one year . a steady increase in yoga research is indicated since 2007 with an increased rate of publication by at least 24 articles per year . from 2010 to 2012 , 189 , 229 and 274 new yoga - related articles are added per year . of all yoga - based literature on pubmed the results of the key term search indicate a vast majority ( 90.3% ) of all yoga research is associated with 10 health conditions . the most prevalent health conditions for yoga study are stress / anxiety ( 343 ) , pain ( 276 ) , depression ( 207 ) , cardiovascular disease ( 200 ) , and blood pressure / hypertension ( 198 ) . respiratory conditions , cancer , body weight , hormones , and diabetes also indicate high association with yoga research [ figure 2 ] . sleep , addiction , prenatal care , infection , and injury appear to have less association with yoga research ( cumulative < 5% ) . the total number of yoga - related articles listed on the pubmed database from 1950 to 2012 is 2,099 . of these titles , 498 ( 24% ) include  yoga trials and 324 ( 15% )  systematic reviews [ figure 1 ] . two yoga - related articles are published in 1950 , with a cumulative total of seven titles until 1960 . in 1961 , seven further articles are added with annual additions of two to 13 articles until 1973 . this trend of less than 20 new articles per year continues until 1991 with the exception of 3 years ( 1973 - 1975 ) , [ figure 1 ] . the number of yoga publications in pubmed more than doubles between 1995 and 2000 from 17 to 39 . the rate of publication following 2000 is sporadic until a surge in 2007 when 114 yoga titles are added to pubmed in one year . a steady increase in yoga research is indicated since 2007 with an increased rate of publication by at least 24 articles per year . from 2010 to 2012 , 189 , 229 and 274 new yoga - related articles are added per year . of all yoga - based literature on pubmed the results of the key term search indicate a vast majority ( 90.3% ) of all yoga research is associated with 10 health conditions . the most prevalent health conditions for yoga study are stress / anxiety ( 343 ) , pain ( 276 ) , depression ( 207 ) , cardiovascular disease ( 200 ) , and blood pressure / hypertension ( 198 ) . respiratory conditions , cancer , body weight , hormones , and diabetes also indicate high association with yoga research [ figure 2 ] . sleep , addiction , prenatal care , infection , and injury appear to have less association with yoga research ( cumulative < 5% ) . the first recorded yoga article in western medical research dates to 1948 , authored by e. abegg with an unknown title . the first full - text article found ( 1964 ) explores oxygen consumption during yoga - type breathing patterns . yoga research in the first 30-years of study includes diverse topics such as metabolism , arterial blood gases , body composition bronchial asthma and hypertension . the body of literature still comprises largely of 10 health conditions , thought the recent 5-year trend indicates a shift in focus . stress / anxiety , pain , and depression remain the most prevalent , with cancer now exceeding the number of articles of hypertension , respiratory conditions , and cardiovascular disease [ figure 3 ] . in 2012 publications , 53% of all publications relate to stress / anxiety ( 21% ) , pain conditions ( 17% ) , and depression ( 15% ) , while 37 new articles in cancer ( 12% ) indicates an area of emerging interest . 5-year publication trends on pubmed by health condition this bibliometric analysis employs a gross method to observe the annual trends of yoga citations in one medical database . as the results of yoga and health conditions are not investigated , no conclusions in terms of the direction of correlation can be drawn from this study . the first recorded yoga article in western medical research dates to 1948 , authored by e. abegg with an unknown title . the first full - text article found ( 1964 ) explores oxygen consumption during yoga - type breathing patterns . yoga research in the first 30-years of study includes diverse topics such as metabolism , arterial blood gases , body composition bronchial asthma and hypertension . the body of literature still comprises largely of 10 health conditions , thought the recent 5-year trend indicates a shift in focus . stress / anxiety , pain , and depression remain the most prevalent , with cancer now exceeding the number of articles of hypertension , respiratory conditions , and cardiovascular disease [ figure 3 ] . in 2012 publications , 53% of all publications relate to stress / anxiety ( 21% ) , pain conditions ( 17% ) , and depression ( 15% ) , while 37 new articles in cancer ( 12% ) indicates an area of emerging interest . this bibliometric analysis employs a gross method to observe the annual trends of yoga citations in one medical database . as the results of yoga and health conditions are not investigated , no conclusions in terms of the direction of correlation can be drawn from this study . a surge of yoga 's popularity in western culture in 2005 is matched with academic interest in 2007 . there are now over 2,000 yoga titles on the database , with a rate of more than 200 additions per year . systematic reviews and yoga trials are increasing , indicating a potential increase in quality of evidence . three conditions show consistently high correlations with yoga research : stress / anxiety , pain , and depression . a significant rise in the number of cancer publications suggests an area of emerging research . investigation into the quality and direction of these findings would assist in understanding the potential impact of yoga on several predominant health conditions .
context : the promotion of yoga practice as a preventative and treatment therapy for health outcomes in the western hemisphere is increasing rapidly . as the commercial success of yoga burgeons in popular culture 
 , it is important to investigate the trends of yoga as a therapeutic intervention in academic literature . 
 the free - access search engine , pubmed is a preeminent resource to identify health - related research articles published for academics , health practitioners and others.aims:to report the recent yoga - related publications in the western healthcare context with particular interest in the subject and type of yoga titles.materials and methods : a bibliometric analysis to describe the annual trends in publication on pubmed from january 1950 to december 2012.results:the number of yoga - related titles included in the pubmed database is limited until a marked increase 2000 and steady surge since 2007 . 
 bibliometric analysis indicates that more than 200 new titles are added per annum since 2011 . 
 systematic reviews and yoga trials are increasing exponentially , indicating a potential increase in the quality of evidence . 
 titles including pain management , stress or anxiety , depression and cancer conditions are highly correlated with yoga and healthcare research.conclusions:the prevalence of yoga research in western healthcare is increasing . the marked increase in volume indicates the need for more systematic analysis of the literature in terms of quality and results .