Perceived stress, metabolism and cardiovascular functions of healthy Indian men at moderate altitude: effect of a one-month yogic intervention

Abstract

Background: There is paucity in published scientific work addressing effect of yoga training on healthy individual at altitude above sea level. Thus, this study was aimed to observe effects of one month yogic intervention on perceived stress and other responses of healthy Indian men at moderate altitude. Methods: Twenty two healthy Indian men aged 29.7 ± 4.3 years (Mean ± SD) participated in an one month yoga training program for 6 days in a week, during 6-7am in the morning, at an altitude of 1600m (5052ft). Their perceived stress score (PSS), resting heart rate (RHR), arterial blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2%) were measured at baseline and after one month yoga practices. Metabolic analyzer was used to measure resting oxygen consumption (VO2rest), carbon dioxide production (VCO2rest), and energy expenditure (EEm). Graphpad prism 6 and IBM SPSS 21 were used to perform statistical tests as applicable to analyze the within subject changes for all the variables except age and height. Correlation coefficients of changes in between VO2rest, VCO2rest and EEm were also calculated. Results: Most of the variables decreased significantly post one month yogic intervention and trends of reduction was observed for VO2rest (p=0.06), R (p=0.127) and EEm (p=0.058) after one month yoga training. Reduction in EEm was found to be significantly correlated with VO2rest and VCO2rest (p