Study to evaluate the role of yoga therapy in decreasing blood pressure among hypertensive subjects.

Introduction: Hypertension is one among the leading contributors to the burden of non communicable diseases globally. According to JNC-8, the definition of hypertension is Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) as 140 mmHg or higher or Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) as 90 mmHg or higher or both. Whereas derived from the Sanskrit word "YUJ", means to attach, to join or to unite. Yoga is a beneficial multifunctional therapeutic modality in the treatment of a variety of psychological and medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, bronchial asthma, COPD, Diabetes Mellitus, hypercholesterolemia. Material and Method: On the basis of physician diagnosis, twenty-five (N=25) hypertensive patients, aged 36-65 years were examined with 4 variables viz systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and body weight. The subjects were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The patients belonging to the experimental group underwent the yoga session consisting of a selected series of yoga along with their antihypertensive drug therapy and the control group did not participate in yoga sessions but continued the prescribed antihypertensive drugs. Results: Yoga sessions were imparted in the morning with 30 min/session for a total period of 30 days. The result shows that while comparing the pre-test and post-test level of blood pressure in the experimental and control group the mean ± SD of systolic pressure in experimental group was 134.16 ±6.89 and in control group it was as 150.47 ±9.97, with p test value of <0.05 (systolic) and <0.05 (diastolic), which was statistically significant. Conclusion: A short yoga program for the patient to practice at home seems to have an antihypertensive effect, as well as a positive effect on self-rated quality of life compared to controls. This implies that simple yoga exercises may be useful as a supplementary blood pressure therapy in addition to medical treatment when prescribed by primary care physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]