Consolidate effect of Vibhagha Pranayama, Nadishuddi Pranayama, Savithiri Pranayama and Kapalabhati Pranayama on the pulmonary functional status of young healthy male subjects

Pranayama is believed to increase the respiratory stamina, relax the chest muscles, expand the lungs, raise energy levels, calm the body and cause over-all improvement in lung functions. In the present study an attempt had been made to assess the authenticity of such changes.

60 male medical students in first year MBBS in the age group of 18 to 20 were recruited for this study. Thirty were in the control group who did not practice pranayama and the other thirty were in the study group who underwent the regular practice of pranayama daily for 30 minutes in the morning. Four types of pranayama namely Vibhagha pranayama, Kapalabhati pranayama, Nadi suddhi pranayama and Savithri pranayama were chosen for this study. Pulmonary function test was done to measure vital capacity, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in first second, peak expiratory flow rate and maximum ventilatory volume before and after six weeks.

There was significant increase in all these variables (p < 0.001) in the study group after 6 weeks of pranayama, whereas, control group did not show any significant change in these variables.

The results of this study show the combined effect of different types of pranayama in improving the lung functions within the short period of six weeks.