Alternate nostril yoga breathing (ANYB) and breath awareness (BA) controls hypertension

Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Suffering from hypertension? Follow two simple
yoga techniques for half an hour daily, and the blood pressure becomes
normal.

Alternate nostril yoga breathing (ANYB) and breath awareness (BA), if
practised daily for 28 minutes, not only control blood pressure in
hypertension patients, but also prevent high blood pressure in healthy
individuals. Both these yoga techniques are preventive and curative in
nature.

A research study conducted by a team of yoga experts comprising Sachin
Kumar Sharma, Shirley Telles and Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali
Research Foundation revealed that people, who participated in
alternate nostril yoga breathing and breath awareness techniques, had
decreased respiratory rate with a significant change in the systolic
blood pressure.

“We did not observe any changes in frequency domain of heart rate variability.
Alternate nostril yoga breathing and breath awareness are useful in
prevention and management of hypertension,” the researchers said.

Hypertension or high blood pressure has emerged as a major lifestyle
problem. It is now increasingly linked to heart problems and brain
stroke. Keeping the blood pressure under check solves a number of
health issues.

The team took up the study involving 15 healthy persons to find out
the effect of alternate nostril yoga breathing on the heart and
breathing rate during and after the practice. During the study the
participants did not take any medication. They were alternately
allocated to alternate nostril yoga breathing and breath awareness.
The two interventions were given on two different days for each
participant and allocation to either intervention was alternate.

The participants spent 28 minutes each on these yoga interventions.
They had up to 10 rounds of alternate nostril yoga breathing per
minute and continued it for five minutes. After a break of one minute,
they resumed the exercise for another five minutes.

The researchers noted down their blood pressure, heart rate
variability and respiration rate before, during and after the
exercise. They noticed that there was a significant decrease in
systolic blood pressure following alternate nostril yoga breathing.
Also there were significant changes in systolic blood pressure after
breath awareness practice.