Bikram Yoga will not improve your immune system amid COVID-19 outbreak: Dr. Bonnie Henry

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — B.C.’s top doctor took time during Thursday’s briefing to debunk Bikram Yoga rumours spreading online.

This week an email from Bikram Yoga was sent to subscribers stating false information about the benefits of the workout in light of the spread of COVID-19.

“Fact – This supposed virus can not survive in the heat,” the email reads.

“Fact – Bikram Hot Yoga is the best way to keep your immune system to fight flu’s colds, bacteria and viruses.”

UPDATE: MLA @KahlonRav says this has now been flagged for the Centre of Disease Control and the Ministry of Health. Dr Bonnie Henry reiterates – hot yoga is literally one of the worst places you go right now as the virus can be spread very easily. @NEWS1130 https://t.co/LKW01cK1Ik

— Tarnjit Kaur Parmar (@Tarnjitkparmar) March 19, 2020

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday that visiting a hot yoga studio is one of the worst ways to get exercise amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

“Yoga studios are a place where people are sweating and next to each other, at least the ones I go to, and that is a perfect environment to spread this virus if somebody is shedding this virus,” Henry says.

“It’s probably a misinterpretation of the fact that we are that respiratory viruses like influenza-like some of the other coronaviruses that we’ve seen, tend to fade away when it gets warmer and we have increased amounts of yellow violet light during the spring and summertime, so we don’t see influenza, it just disappears,” she says refuting claims that warmer temperatures may spell the end to the virus.

During the conference, Minister of Health Adrian Dix reminded people in this province that there is no cure and no vaccine.

“If anyone’s making such claims, or making such suggestions, if you encounter them online–block them and unfollow them,” Dix says. “If they’re in your community making claims like that, if they’re registered as health professionals, report them, because those claims are false.”

On that note, Henry added there has been some progress in developing treatments, and there have also been ongoing clinical trials in Canada

“So, you know, we’re hopeful for those,” she says.

The email Bikram Yoga sent goes on to inform yogis because of the drastic slow down in class attendance, and because everyone has been “paralyzed into fear state of mind,” they will be reducing classes worldwide as the “nonsense subsides.”