Background: Stressful conditions such as excessive workload, physical and mental trauma enhance sympathetic nervous system activity which results in the secretion of cortisol hormone, which in turn can raise blood pressure, triglycerides (TG), blood sugar, and cholesterol, all posing jeopardy for cardiovascular diseases.
Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the effect of short-term breathing meditation on lipid profile and fasting blood glucose (FBG) level among healthy medical students.
Materials and Methods: In this study, 46 undergraduate 1st-year medical students of either gender, aged 18–25 years, were included. The serum lipid profile and FBG level were calculated before and at the end of 6 weeks of 20 min of daily breathing meditation practice.
Results: Values before and after meditation were for total cholesterol (150.28 ± 27.18 and 148.43 ± 16.67), TG (145.52 ± 22.74 and 143.93 ± 16.45), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (73.74 ± 24.96 and 71.87 ± 15.69), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (47.41 ± 4.45 and 47.72 ± 4.72), very LDL-C (29.13 ± 4.53 and 28.85 ± 3.34), and FBG (83.83 ± 7.76 and 82.01 ± 9.24), respectively but not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Biochemical parameters (lipids and FBG) improved after practicing breathing meditation for 6 weeks, although the improvements were not statistically significant, thus warranting a study on a large sample size population before any conclusive remark.
Key words: Cardiovascular Disease; Diabetes Mellitus; Good Cholesterol; Bad Cholesterol; Triglycerides
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