DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i08.019

Pages: 2721-2724

Introduction: Yoga has been adopted as an approach to health within alternative medicine. Psychosocial stress greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and coronary heart diseases. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) value increase in people at higher risk for coronary heart disease and inversely co-related with Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particle size. Therefore a study was undertaken to assess the effect of yoga-based lifestyle intervention on cardiovascular disease risk factors (Stress and Atherogenic index of plasma) in hypertension subjects. Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial in two hundred hypertensive subjects was done to assess the effect of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) on stress and AIP. Total subjects were divided into two equal groups by simple random sampling. A hundred subjects who used to do SKY were included in the study group while a hundred non-practitioners of SKY were assigned in the control group. Recording of lipid profile and stress level was done by standard methods as baseline data and follow up was done after 3 months period. Results: Pre and post-intervention reflected a highly significant difference in stress level in the study group while observation of AIP was found non-significant between the groups. Conclusion: SKY reduces cholesterol and stress which can be used as a mass approach for the prevention & control of hypertension and other cardiovascular risks.