ABSTRACT:In this paper, the effects of yogic intervention on blood pressure in patients diagnosed with hypertension was investigated. The study was conducted among the participants from the age group of 30 to 55 years old. The participants were corporate employee, working in IT sector. 30 participants with high blood pressure, Systolic blood pressure of 120-179 and diastolic blood pressure less than 109 mm HG were chosen. The patients were requested not to change their medication during the study.
The intervention in this study was a daily 60 minute yoga class for 12 weeks. Each yoga class was subdivided into six sub-sessions followed by 12min Pranayama and last 20min meditation. The yoga class regularly began with slower warm-up exercises: Abdominal breathing, cooling breath, followed by yoga asanas, and meditation
Statistical significance of the change from baseline to end-program was evaluated with a one-sample t-test. Our results showed significant reduction of systolic BP (SBP) of up to 6 mmHg and a significant reduction of diastolic BP (DBP) of up to 5 mmHg compared to the baseline (p<0.05). The results imply that simple yoga exercises may be useful as a supplementary BP therapy in addition to medical treatment.