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Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Pranayama (Yogic Breathing): A Systematic Review - PMC
Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Article summary:
1. Pranayama, or yogic breathing, has demonstrated numerous beneficial health effects.
2. A systematic review of controlled clinical trials found significant improvements in cardiorespiratory functions and quality of life in patients with respiratory diseases such as bronchial asthma.
3. Further high-quality randomized trials are required to provide definitive evidence of the therapeutic benefits of pranayama.
Article analysis:
The article titled "Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Pranayama (Yogic Breathing): A Systematic Review" provides a comprehensive review of the available evidence on the health benefits of pranayama. The study aims to evaluate the beneficial health effects of pranayama alone as a practice, which is an important contribution to the existing literature as most studies have evaluated Yoga "asana" and "pranayama" together.
The study follows the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and includes a stepwise search process using online databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and SciVerse Scopus. The inclusion criteria were controlled clinical trials involving human subjects, using "Pranayama" as an intervention with an appropriate non-yoga control group, and evaluating health-related outcomes between the intervention and control groups using either clinical and/or biochemical measurements.
The study found 18 studies satisfying the inclusion/exclusion criteria, with eight studies conducted on respiratory diseases (including asthma, COPD, and pleural effusion), five studies in patients with malignant diseases, and four studies in patients with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The results indicate that pranayama has physiological and psychological benefits, with significant improvements observed in patients with respiratory diseases such as bronchial asthma. It also helped those with cancer and cardiovascular disease.
However, there are some potential biases in this study that need to be considered. Firstly, all included studies were conducted in India, which may limit generalizability to other populations. Secondly, there is a lack of diversity in terms of age range and gender distribution among participants across different studies. Thirdly, most studies had small sample sizes ranging from 16 to 160 participants.
Moreover, while the study highlights the positive effects of pranayama on various health conditions such as asthma and cancer, it does not explore potential risks or adverse effects associated with this practice. Additionally, the study does not present both sides equally, as it only focuses on the beneficial effects of pranayama and does not consider any potential limitations or drawbacks.
In conclusion, this systematic review provides valuable insights into the therapeutic benefits of pranayama. However, further high-quality randomized trials are required to provide definitive evidence. It is also important to consider potential biases and limitations in the existing literature when interpreting the results of this study.