Immediate effect of Kapalbhathi pranayama on short term heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy volunteers

Objectives Kapalbhathi Pranayam (Kapal = forehead; bhati = shining) is a breathing exercise that has been practiced to cleanse the frontal brain in traditional practices like yoga. Still, there exists a dearth of literature on the effect of Kapalbhathi pranayama on physiological systems. So this present study was carried out to find the immediate effect of “ kapalbhathi Pranayam ” practice for the period of 5 min on cardiac autonomic function among the healthy volunteers. Materials and methods Apparently 50 healthy volunteers includes both sex were participated. They were randomly divided into Pranayama (n−25) and control (n−25) group. Pranayama group was practiced kapalbhathi pranayama 5 min (5 cycles) and control group was allowed to do normal breathing (12–16 breath/min). Lead II ECG was recorded for 5 min using simple AD converter before, immediately after practice and 20 min of recovery period. Results One way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc test was done using R statistical software. There was a significant (p < 0.05) parasympathetic withdrawal (Root Mean Square of the Successive Differences (RMSSD) – p < 0.04 and HF n.u – p < 0.05) was found in the pranayama group immediately after practice and its was changed to parasympathetic domination (RMSSD – p < 0.04 and HF n.u – p < 0.05) after 20 min of recovery period. Conclusion The present study suggested that though there was parasympathetic withdrawal immediately after practicing kapalbhathi pranayama , 20 min after the recovery period showed a parasympathetic domination in the pranayama group subjects. However, further studies are required to warrant the findings of this study.