Title: A comparative study on spectral parameters of HRV in yogic and non-yogic practitioners

Authors: Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria, Vinod Kumar, Suresh Chandra Saxena

Addresses: Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand 247667, India. ' Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand 247667, India. ' Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttrakhand 247667, India

Abstract: The autonomic nervous system regulates the heart rate through its sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous system to maintain body visceral homeostasis. The sympathetic tone enhances the heart rate whereas the para-sympathetic tone inhibits this rise. The continuous variation of heart rate in synchronism with visceral systems is termed as heart rate variability. This heart rate variability is higher in normal and healthy conditions, whereas it is reduced in case of cardiac abnormalities. The present study is regarding heart rate variability in non-yogic practitioners and yogic practitioners. The spectral parameters were evaluated in two groups, where one group is having forty two normal and healthy male subjects who are non-yogic practitioners, and the other group is also having forty two normal and healthy male subjects who are experienced yoga practitioners. The subjects in both groups are in the age group of 18-48 years. The power in low frequency (LF) has been observed to be higher in non-yogic practitioners as compared to those of yogic practitioners. Moreover, the heart rate variability in yogic practitioners has shown to be higher than the subjects who do not practise yoga.

Keywords: heart rate variability; wavelet; R-peak; yogic practitioners; supine rest; fast Fourier transform; auto regression; model order; re-sampling; cyclic meditation; yoga.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEI.2010.029800

International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2010 Vol.2 No.1, pp.1 - 14

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

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