EFFECT OF PRANAYAMA ON BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE IN HYPERREACTOR TO COLD PRESSOR TEST

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Dr. Krishan Bihari Verma,
C/o, Dr. Ashok Kapoor,
20-21Q, Fruit Garden,
Railway Road,
NIT-05, Faridabad-121001.
Email: kbverma9@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Stress is a dangerous and significant problem of World, which affects physical, mental, behavioral, and emotional health. Yoga has been reported to control stress, to be beneficial in treating stress related disorders, improving autonomic functions, lower blood pressure, increase strength and flexibility of muscles, improve the sense of well-being, slow ageing process, control breathing, reducing signs of oxidative stress and improving spiritual growth. AIMS: The aim of present study was to investigate whether regular practice of Yoga for three months can reduce the cardiovascular hyper-reactivity induced by cold pressor test. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group comprised 62 healthy male subjects of 17-27 years age group. Initially there were 30 hyper reactors to cold pressor test. The hyper-reactivity of 23 volunteers converted to hypo-reactivity after the yoga therapy of three months (76.66%). Other parameters like basal blood pressure, rise in blood pressure, pulse rate and rate of respiration were also statistically significantly reduced (by using student ‘t’ test). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: 2 tail student‘t’ test was done by using the standard formulas. RESULTS: Regular practice of yoga significantly reduces the cardiovascular hyper-reactivity in basal blood pressure, rise in blood pressure after one minute of cold stress, heart rate, and rate of respiration, after three month of yoga practice. CONCLUSION: Regular practice of yoga for three months reduced the cardiovascular hyper-reactivity to cold pressor test in subjects, who were hyper reactive to cold stress, possibly by inducing parasympathetic predominance and cortico-hypothalamomedullary inhibition.

KEYWORDS: Yoga, Bhastrika Pranayama, Cold pressor test, Healthy male population.