Investigating components of pranayama for effects on heart rate variability

Investigating components of pranayama for effects on heart rate variability

Traditional Indian breath control practices of Pranayama have been shown to increase indices of heart rate variability (HRV) that are generally held to reflect parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) tone. To our knowledge, individual components of pranayama have not been separately evaluated for impac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psychosomatic research Vol. 148; p. 110569
Main Authors: Sharpe, Erica, Lacombe, Alison, Sadowski, Adam, Phipps, John, Heer, Ryan, Rajurkar, Savita, Hanes, Douglas, Jindal, Ripu D., Bradley, Ryan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Inc 01-09-2021
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Adult
Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
Blood pressure
Central nervous system
Clinical research
Clinical trials
Heart Rate
Heart rate variability (HRV)
Humans
Nervous system
Parasympathetic nervous system
Pranayama
Respiration
Respiratory rate
Sheetali
Variability
HF-HRV
b/m
Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
Respiratory rate
PNS
Pranayama
Sheetali
SDNN
Heart rate variability (HRV)
Blood pressure
HRV
RMSSD
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Traditional Indian breath control practices of Pranayama have been shown to increase indices of heart rate variability (HRV) that are generally held to reflect parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) tone. To our knowledge, individual components of pranayama have not been separately evaluated for impact on HRV. The objective of this study was to isolate five components of a pranayama practice and evaluate their impact on HRV. In a crossover clinical trial, 46 healthy adults were allocated to complete five activities in random order, over five separate visits: 1) sitting quietly; 2) self-paced deep breathing; 3) externally-paced deep breathing; 4) self-paced Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama; and 5) externally paced Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama Our final sample included 25 participants. There was a significant increase in a time-domain index of HRV, the root mean square successive differences between RR intervals (RMSSD), during the five interventions. The change in logRMSSD ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 (p < .01 in all conditions by paired t-test). Greater increases were evident during externally-paced breathing than during self-paced breathing (mean pre-during logRMSSD change of 0.50 vs. 0.36, p = .02) or sitting quietly (mean, 0.17 ms; p = .005 and 0.02 when comparing Activities 3 and 5 to Activity 1 by random intercept model with Tukey correction for multiple comparisons). Lastly, pre-during increase in RMSSD was greater for Sheetali/Sheetkari vs. deep breathing, when controlling for respiration rate, though not significantly different (p = .07 in random intercept model) RMSSD increased with paced breathing, deep breathing, and Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama, reinforcing evidence of a physiologic mechanism of pranayama. NCT03280589 https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03280589?term=sheetali&draw=2&rank=1 •Five elements of pranayama were compared for effects on HRV using a crossover design.•Sitting quietly, breath depth, and pacing were associated with increase in an HRV index considered reflective of parasympathetic tone.•Pranayama was associated with decreased breath rate (vs. sitting quietly) independent of external pacing.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0022-3999
1879-1360
DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110569