Immediate Effect of ‘nadi -shodhana Pranayama’ on Some Selected Parameters of Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, and Higher Functions of Brain

Practice of pranayama has been known to modulate cardiac autonomic status with an improvement in cardio-respiratory functions. Keeping this in view, the present study is designed to determine whether Nadi-shodana pranayama practice for 20 minutes has any immediate effect on heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, peak expiratory flow rate, and simple problem solving ability. Ten normal healthy subjects of first year physiotherapy course volunteered for this study. They were aged between 17-20 years. Among them, five were females and five were males. They did not have any previous training in Pranayama. They were highly motivated to participate in this study program. Study procedures were done separately for each subject at the same time of the day between 4-5 pm. All the selected physiological parameters were measured before and after performing ‘Nadi-shodhana Pranayama’. Two sets of controls were done in the matched subjects by allowing them to relax in a couch (A) or close their eyes with quiet breathing for 20 minutes. Following nadi-shodhana pranayama of 20 minutes, a significant decline in basal heart rate (P<0.0001) and systolic blood pressure (P<0.001) was observed. Peak expiratory flow rate was significantly improved (P<0.01) and the time taken for simple problem solving was significantly less following pranayama practice (P<0.0001). In contrast, both control subjects did not show any significant change in respiratory and cardiovascular parameters with 20 minutes. The present study suggests that the ‘Nadi-shodhana Pranayama’ rapidly alters cardiopulmonary responses and improves simple problem solving. Further studies on a larger sample size need to illustrate the underlying mechanisms involved in this alteration.