Yoga helps in Coronary Heart Disease
It is not often one hears of a President taking an exceptional interest in a health related issue.
The President of India Abdul Kalam has visited Global Hospital Research Centre in Mount Abu in India to update himself on a nine-year study on coronary heart disease (CAD). Called Abu Healthy Heart Trial, the study is the largest and longest ever to examine how changes in lifestyle can help regress coronary artery disease.
Financed by the Ministry of Health’s Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy, the study was commissioned by the President in his earlier official position on the Defense Research Development Organisation, co-conducting the CAD research.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs when the arteries or the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart muscle become hardened and narrowed to restrict the flow of blood. The hardening and narrowing of the arteries take place due to deposition of a substance known as plaque on their inner walls.
Among the various heart disorders CAD is the most common. The incidence of CAD in India increased from 1% in 1960 to 11% in 2001. It is the leading cause of death in the United States in both men and women.
The study had 516 patients divided into two groups. While one group was on conventional treatment like bypass surgery and angioplasty the other group was put on lifestyle changes. The latter included a low-fat, high-fibre vegetarian diet, yoga and a daily hour-long walk.
The study records that the lifestyle change improved regression in CAD by 11.82% and improved Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) by over 30%. LVEF is the pumping of oxygenated blood into the main artery supplying blood from the heart to the rest of the body. The lifestyle change also helped reduce cholesterol by 24%. Cholesterol is mainly responsible for narrowing of the blood vessels.
The study proves that yoga, vegetarian diet and walking reduces CAD by 12%. Yoga reduces angina, the chest pain and improves pumping of oxygenated blood into the main artery by 30%. The lifestyle change checked production of stress hormones like epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol and helped increase the production of happy hormones like serotonin and beta endorphins.
The President advises healthy heart lifestyle right from childhood “to bypass the need for a bypass surgery and curb rising CAD.”
Add comment October 2nd, 2006 Written By: lalitgambhir