The use of water for various treatments (hydrotherapy) is probably as old as mankind. Hydrotherapy is one of the basic methods of treatment widely used in the system of natural medicine, which is also called as water therapy, aquatic therapy, pool therapy, and balneotherapy. Use of water in various forms and in various temperatures can produce different effects on different system of the body. Many studies/reviews reported the effects of hydrotherapy only on very few systems and there is lack of studies/reviews in reporting the evidence-based effects of hydrotherapy on various systems. We performed PubMed and PubMed central search to review relevant articles in English literature based on “effects of hydrotherapy/balneotherapy” on various systems of the body. Based on the available literature this review suggests that the hydrotherapy has a scientific evidence-based effect on various systems of the body.

Cardiovascular functions are controlled by neural factors, temperature, hormones, etc., Of these, neural factors primarily concern the autonomic nervous system, which plays a major role in maintaining and regulating cardiac functions, e.g., blood pressure and heart rate. Prāṇāyāma is one of the most important yogic practices. There are various review articles on Yoga and its effects but, though Prāṇāyāma is a part of yoga, there is lack of review articles. To the best of our knowledge there is no known review article on effect of various Prāṇāyāma on cardiovascular and autonomic variables. To provide a general overview about the effect of various prāṇāyāma (breathing techniques) on cardiovascular and autonomic variables. A narrative review was performed based on the available scientific literature. An electronic data search was performed in Medline/PubMed database to review relevant articles, using keywords such as “Prāṇāyāma, Yogic breathing techniques, Unilateral nostril breathing, Alternate nostril breathing, Kapalbhati, Bhastrika and Bhramari Pranayama”. All the relevant articles published from 1988 to 06-04-2016 were included in this review. Slow type of yogic breathing technique was reported to produce beneficial effect on cardiovascular and autonomic variables while fast breathing techniques do not produce such effects. There is lack of consistency in the results of specific nostril yogic breathing techniques and the mechanisms behind the effects of various prāṇāyāma. This review suggests that different types of Prāṇāyāma techniques produce different effects and the mechanisms behind these effects are not fully understood.

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Background:Yoga is an ancient Indian science as well as the way of life. Pranayama is one of the most important yogic practices. Bhramari pranayama was shown to produce a reduction in blood pressure after the practice and thus reported to produce parasympathetic activity. However, there are no known studies reported the heart rate variability (HRV) changes either during or after the practice of Bhramari. Hence, this study aims at evaluating the HRV changes during and after the practice.Materials and Methods:Sixteen (9 males, 7 females) healthy volunteers with the mean ± standard deviation age of 23.50 ± 3.01 years were recruited. All the subjects performed Bhramari pranayama for the duration of 5 min. Assessments were taken before, during, and immediately after the practice of pranayama. Statistical analysis was performed using students paired samples t-test, Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and repeated measures of analysis of variance and Post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons.Results:Results of this study showed a significant increase in HR and low frequency spectrum of HRV and a significant reduction in high frequency spectrum of HRV during the practice of Bhramari which revert to normal after the practice.Conclusion:Results of this study suggests that there might be a parasympathetic withdrawal during the practice of Bhramari. However, further studies are required to warrant the findings of this study.

A 41-years-old woman diagnosed of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in 2006 came to our hospital - outpatient department with the complaint of severe pain and swelling over multiple joints associated with disturbed sleep/sleeplessness and poor quality of life since seven years. She received acupuncture (20 minutes) and massage (20 minutes) daily for the period of 30 days with 7 days of rest period in between after first 15 days. After intervention we observed reduction of pain in Visual Analog Scale score; improvement in day time sleepiness, and quality of sleep in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, respectively; improvement in health related quality of life in Short Form-36 version 2 (SF-36v2) Health Survey. These results showed that acupuncture and massage can be considered as an integrative approach for symptomatic management of SLE.

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