Heart rate variability in chronic low back pain patients randomized to yoga or standard care

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Ram Kumar Gupta¹  Abhishek Kumar Bhardwaj¹  Shirley Telles¹  Acharya Balkrishna¹  Sachin Kumar Sharma¹ 

[1] Patanjali Research Foundation, Patanjali Yogpeeth, 249402, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India;

关键词: Heart rate variability;    Rate of respiration;    Yoga;    Standard care;    Chronic low back pain;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-016-1271-1

 received in 2016-01-27, accepted in 2016-08-06,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundChronic pain can alter the autonomic balance with increased sympathetic activity reflected in altered heart rate variability (HRV). It has been proposed that yoga can be useful to correct the autonomic imbalance in patients with chronic pain who have reduced HRV.Methods and designsIn the present randomized controlled trial 62 patients with chronic low back pain associated with altered alignment of intervertebral discs (aged between 20 and 45 years, 32 males) were randomized to 2 groups. One group received yoga for 3 months while the other group carried out standard medical care based on the physician's advice. The duration was the same, i.e., 3 months. The heart rate variability and rate of respiration were assessed at baseline and at the end of 3 months.ResultsThere was a significant difference in the baseline (pre) values between groups (p = 0.008) for respiration rate which was higher in the yoga group. The changes reported below are pre-post comparisons within each group. The yoga group showed a significant (p < 0.05; repeated measures ANOVA, post-hoc analyses) decrease in the LF power of HRV, rate of respiration and a significant increase in the HF power of HRV and in the pNN50.ConclusionThe results suggest that yoga practice can shift the autonomic balance towards vagal dominance in patients with chronic low back pain associated with altered alignment of intervertebral discs.Trial registrationThe study is registered with the Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI/2012/11/003094) and can be accessed at.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016