Aim and objective: This pilot study was done to determine cardiovascular effects of a single session of an integrated ‘Silver Yoga’ program in senior citizens of Serene Pelican Township, Pondicherry.
Methods: Heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) measurements were recorded in 124 senior citizens (75 female, 49 male) with mean age of 67.19 ± 10.61 y who attended an integrated ‘Silver Yoga’ program at CYTER from August to October 2014. Participants practised the protocol that was specially designed for senior citizens, keeping in mind their health status and physical limitations. This included simple warm ups (jathis), breath body movement coordination practices (kriyas), static stretching postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayamas), relaxation and simple chanting. Non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) apparatus was used to record the HR, systolic (SP) and diastolic pressure (DP) before and after the 60 minute sessions. Pulse pressure (PP), mean pressure (MP), rate-pressure product (RPP) and double product (DoP) indices were derived from the recorded parameters. Student’s paired t test was used to compare data that passed normality testing by Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test for those that didn’t. P values less than 0.05 were accepted as indicating significant differences for pre-post comparisons.
Results: All parameters witnessed a reduction following the single session. This was statistically more significant (p < 0. 0001) in HR, RPP and DoP while it was also significant (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05) in SP and PP respectively. The decrease in MP just missed significance (p= 0.054) while it was not significant in DP.
Conclusion: There is a healthy reduction in HR, BP and derived cardiovascular indices following a single yoga session in geriatric subjects. These changes may be attributed to enhanced harmony of cardiac autonomic function as a result of coordinated breath-body work and mind-body relaxation due to an integrated “Silver Yoga” program.
Key words: yoga, cardiovascular, psycho-somatic harmony, senior citizen
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