Context:Response inhibition is a key executive control processes. An inability to inhibit inappropriate actions has been linked to a large range of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders.Aims:Examine the effect of Bhramari Pranayama (Bhpr) on response inhibition in healthy individuals.Settings and Design:Thirty-one male students age ranged from 19-31 years from a residential Yoga University, Bengaluru, India were recruited for this study. We used a randomized self as control within-subjects design. Participants were counterbalanced randomly into two different experimental conditions (Bhpr and deep breathing (DB)).Materials and Methods:Response inhibition has been measured using a standard tool Stop Signal Task (SST). Each session lasted for 50 min with 10 min for the experimental conditions, preceded and followed by 20 min of assessment. The primary outcome measure was stop signal reaction time (SSRT), an estimate of the subject's capacity for inhibiting prepotent motor responses. Additional measures of interest were the probability of responding on stop signal trials, P (r | s) and mean RT to go stimuli.Results:The mean probability of responding on stop signal trials (P (r | s)) during Bhpr and DB are close to 50%, indicating reliable SSRT. Paired sample t-tests showed a significant decrease (P = 0.024) in SSRT after Bhpr session, while the DB group did not show any significant change. Further, t-tests show that the go RT increased significantly after Bhpr (P = 0.007) and no other changes/differences were observed.Conclusions:Bhpr enhanced response inhibition and cognitive control in nonclinical participants.

Uncertainty about Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and resulting lockdown caused widespread panic, stress, and anxiety. Yoga is a known practice that reduces stress and anxiety and may enhance immunity. This study aimed to (1) investigate that including Yoga in daily routine is beneficial for physical and mental health, and (2) to evaluate lifestyle of Yoga practitioners that may be instrumental in coping with stress associated with lockdown. This is a pan-India cross-sectional survey study, which was conducted during the lockdown. A self-rated scale, COVID Health Assessment Scale (CHAS), was designed by 11 experts in 3 Delphi rounds (Content valid ratio = 0.85) to evaluate the physical health, mental health, lifestyle, and coping skills of the individuals. The survey was made available digitally using Google forms and collected 23,760 CHAS responses. There were 23,290 valid responses (98%). After the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria of yogic practices, the respondents were categorized into the Yoga (n = 9,840) and Non-Yoga (n = 3,377) groups, who actively practiced Yoga during the lockdown in India. The statistical analyses were performed running logistic and multinomial regression and calculating odds ratio estimation using R software version 4.0.0. The non-Yoga group was more likely to use substances and unhealthy food and less likely to have good quality sleep. Yoga practitioners reported good physical ability and endurance. Yoga group also showed less anxiety, stress, fear, and having better coping strategies than the non-Yoga group. The Yoga group displayed striking and superior ability to cope with stress and anxiety associated with lockdown and COVID-19. In the Yoga group, participants performing meditation reportedly had relatively better mental health. Yoga may lead to risk reduction of COVID-19 by decreasing stress and improving immunity if specific yoga protocols are implemented through a global public health initiative.

BackgroundMeditation techniques are known to elicit relaxation response in which moving meditation which combines the practice of yoga postures and guided relaxation is known as Cyclic Meditation reported helpful in reducing the sympathetic arousal and improving health of practitioners.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to investigate the effect of Cyclic Meditation on stress and health indices in managers as measured by Electro Photonic Imaging (EPI) technique.Materials and methodsEPI technique was used to assess participants before and after 35 min of Cyclic Meditation (CM) and equal duration of Supine Rest (SR) session. A total of sixty six male managers, age ranges from 35 to 60 years (mean ± SD 53.97 ± 5.96) were included in the study. EPI parameters, including Activation Coefficient, Integral Area left and right and Integral Entropy, left and right were taken for statistical analyses.ResultsCyclic Meditation has produced a highly significant reduction in stress level, whereas this reduction was not found significant within SR group. There was a significant improvement in health index ‘Integral Area’ values in both left and right sides within the CM group while only IA right side showed a significant improvement within the CM group. The integral entropy value right side decreased significantly within the CM group, whereas IE left was found deteriorated within the SR group. Moreover, only IE left side has shown a significant difference between the groups.ConclusionThe investigations in this study suggest that Cyclic Meditation practice reduces stress and improves psychosomatic health indices more effectively than Supine Rest in managers.

Context:Clinical benefits of yoga have been well explored, but factors contributing to adherence to regular yoga practice are not well studied.Aims:To study the factors influencing adherence to yoga practices on those participants who have completed 1-month Yoga Instructors’ course from a yoga university.Settings and Design:Online survey was conducted on participants who had finished 1-month Yoga Instructors’ course at a yoga university.Materials and Methods:Online survey was conducted using Survey Monkey web portal with response rate of 42.5%. A total of 1355 participants were approached. Demographic items and a checklist of 21 items on a 5-point likert scale were prepared based on traditional yoga texts. A few items to assess modern lifestyle barriers were also included.Statistical Analysis:One-sample proportion test with chi square statistics was used for analysis.Results:Irregularity in lifestyle, family commitments, and occupational commitments are perceived as significant strong barriers. Dullness, excessive talking, strictly adhering to rules, laziness, physical and mental overexertion, fickleness and wandering of mind, unsteadiness of mind, procrastination, and oversleeping are considered as significant barriers of moderate nature.Conclusions:Modern lifestyle is the major challenge for yoga practitioners to adhere to regular practice of yoga. To address this, attention is required in strengthening the lifestyle management and the spiritual dimension of yoga practice as the spiritual component seems to be side-tracked.

Background:Mudras signify a gesture with hands, eyes, and the body. Different configurations of the joining of fingertips are also termed mudra and are used by yoga practitioners for energy manipulation and for therapeutic applications. Electrophotonic imaging (EPI) captures the coronal discharge around the fingers as a result of electron capture from the ten fingers. The coronal discharge around each fingertip is studied to understand the effect of mudra on EPI parameters.Methods:The participants were from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana and Sushrutha Ayurvedic Medical College, in Bengaluru, India. There were 29 volunteers in the mudra group and 32 in the control group. There were two designs: one was a pre-post design with control the other was pre-post with repeated measures with 18 individuals practicing mudra for 3 days. The duration of intervention for the pre-post design was 10 min on the 1st day, 15 min on the 2nd day, and 20 min on the 3rd day. A neural network classifier was used for classifying mudra and control samples.Results:The EPI parameters, normalized area and average intensity, passed the test of normality Shapiro–Wilk. The Cohen's d, effect size was 0.988 and 0.974 for the mudra and control groups, respectively. Neural network-based analysis showed the classification accuracy of the post-intervention samples for mudra and control varied from 85% to 100% while the classification accuracy varied from 55% to 70% for the pre-intervention samples. The result of the mudra intervention showed statistically significant changes in the mean values on the 3rd day compared to the 1st day.Conclusions:The effect size of the variations in mudra was more than that of the control group. Mudra practice of a longer duration showed statistically significant change in the EPI parameter, average intensity in comparison to the practice on the 1st day.

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Background:Electro photonic imaging (EPI) technique is growing as a novel technique of health assessment and is being utilized in the fields of alternative medicine, conventional practices, psycho-physiology, psychology, and consciousness studies. The existing EPI norms are based mostly on European (EU) population. In order to enhance the practice and research through EPI in India, there is a need for developing norms for the healthy Indian population.Objective:The objective of the study was to establish the normative data of EPI for the healthy Indian population, to aid in the accuracy of EPI measurements and interpretations.Materials and Methods:A total of 1297 volunteers were assessed once, who represented different parts of India during December 2013 to December 2014. Among them, 880 volunteers were reported to be healthy (age mean ± standard deviation [SD], 33.55 ± 10.92), with 584 males (age mean ± SD, 33.54 ± 10.86) and 296 females (age mean ± SD, 33.56 ± 11.00). In this study activation coefficient (stress level), integral area (IA) (general health), and integral entropy (disorderliness in energy) parameters were analyzed.Results:As the data were not normally distributed, quartile based statistics was used for setting the norms. The 25th and 75th percentiles were calculated and they were further verified using a bootstrap procedure. Uniquely, the results showed a clear difference in IA parameters under both with filter (physiological) and without filter (psycho-physiological) conditions between the Indian and the EU population. Though other parameters were found almost similar to the EU population, inter quartile ranges were narrower in the Indian population as compared to the EU values. Similar trends were observed in the subgroup analyzes: That is, male versus female genders and age ranges 18–40 versus 40-60.Conclusion:As compared to EU population, Indian population had different range of Integral Area values and narrower range for values of other variables. EPI Studies in India should also adjust for factors such as age and gender.

Stress is recognised as the most challenging issue of modern times. Contemporary science has understood this phenomenon from one aspect and Indian philosophy gives its traditional reasons based on classical texts. Modern science has recently proposed a concept of perseverative cognition (PC) as an important reason for chronic stress. This has shown how constant rumination on an unpalatable event, object or person leads to various lifestyle disorders. Similarly classical yoga texts like the Taittiriya Upanishad, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Vashistha describe stress in their unique ways. We have here attempted a detailed classification, description, manifestation, and development of a disease and its management through these models. This paper in a nutshell projects these two models of stress and shows how they could be used in future for harmonious management of lifestyle disorders.