A Randomized Trial of the Immediate Effect of Bee-Humming Breathing Exercise on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Variability in Patients With Essential Hypertension
Author: Nirmal Ghati, Avantika K Killa, Gautam Sharma, Biju Karunakaran, Aman Agarwal, Sriloy Mohanty, L Nivethitha, Deepti Siddharthan, R M Pandey
Affiliation:
1 Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
2 Center for Integrative Medicine and Research (CIMR), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
3 Center for Integrative Medicine and Research (CIMR); Professor, Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India. Electronic address: drsharmagautam@aiims.edu.
4 Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Conference/Journal: Explore (NY)
Date published: 04/28/2020
Other:
Pages: S1550-8307(20)30116-6 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2020.03.009. , Word Count: 241
Objectives:
Bee-Humming Breathing (BHB) exercise is a simple yogic practice recommended for its favorable effect on cardiac physiology, including blood pressure (BP) and autonomic nervous system. However, strong evidence supporting its effectiveness is lacking. The present study was designed to evaluate the immediate effect of BHB exercise on blood pressure parameters and heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with essential hypertension.
Study methods:
We conducted a randomized control trial including 70 patients with essential hypertension, randomly allocated to perform either BHB exercise (n=35) or placebo slow breathing exercise (n = 35) for 5-minutes duration. Blood pressure and HRV were measured before, during, and after the practice.
Results:
There was no significant decrease in systolic [effect size (95% CI): 2.22 (-13.20, 17.64); p 0.77], diastolic [4.54 (-17.40, 26.48); p 0.68] and mean blood pressures [1.37 (-8.78, 11.52); p 0.78] after BHB exercise in comparison to the control group in our study. The HRV analysis showed a significant increase in the HF power [6.8 (1.47, 12.12); p 0.01], and decrease in the LF power [-26.47 (-34.25, -18.68); p < 0.01] during the recovery phase of the 5-minute BHB exercise in comparison to the control group.
Conclusions:
This is the first randomized controlled trial to show that though a single short session of BHB exercise in hypertensive patients does not significantly reduce BP, it significantly augments the parasympathetic tone as indicated by a significant improvement in HRV parameters.
Clinical trial registration number:
CTRI/2018/08/015215.
KEYWORDS: Autonomic nervous system; Bee-Humming Breathing Exercise; Bhramari Pranayama; Blood pressure; Heart rate variability; Hypertension.
PMID: 32620379 DOI: 10.1016/j.explore.2020.03.009
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