Background:
Medical students are experiencing more stress than general population and much of research have indicated that various interventions like meditation, mindfulness are of help. It is known that stability of autonomic system is one of the indicators for stress reduction.
Aim:
This prospective study was undertaken to know the effectiveness of alternate nostril breathing in bringing about such changes in cardiovascular autonomic functions.
Methods:
Consenting 60 medical students were recruited and baseline parameters of cardiovascular autonomic functions like Heart rate, Heart rate variability indices, Blood pressure and Galvanic skin response were recorded using computerized-8-channel polygraph. Alternate Nostril Breathing was practiced by the participants under supervision for a duration of 3 months. At the end of the intervention, the study parameters were reassessed. Inferential statistical analysis was done by performing student‘t’ test (two tailed and dependent).
Results:
The results of this study showed statistically significant decrease in Heart rate (p
Key words: Alternate nostril breathing, Cardiovascular autonomic functions, Pranayama, Heart rate variability
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