The Influence of the 21 Yogic Breathing Technique on Essential Hypertension.

In 2:1 breathing exhalation is twice of inhalation. The study was performed to study the influence of 2:1 yogic breathing technique on patients of essential hypertension. 30 patients of essential hypertension between ages of 20-50 years were selected. After a rest of 15-20 minutes in a comfortable sitting posture their baseline physiological parameters recorded on a digital polygraph were, Electromyogram (EMG), Galvanic skin response (GSR), Finger tip temperature (FTT), Heart rate(HR) and Respiratory rate(RR). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were recorded by automated digital Sphygmomanometer. Then they were guided to do 2:1 breathing maintaining respiratory rate of around 6/min. Subjects were then instructed to do 2:1 breathing twice a day for 5-7 minutes for next 3 months. Subjects reported back weekly for recording of BP. The physiological parameters of the subjects were assessed again by polygraph at the end of three months of practicing 2:1 yogic breathing. The mean fall of SBP over 12 weeks was 12 mm Hg (8%) and DBP was 7 mm Hg (7%). P value < 0.001 in both. After practicing 2:1 breathing for 3 months there was statistically significant reduction of SBP, DBP, HR RR, EMG, GSR and rise in FTT. The study showed that 2:1 breathing technique caused a comprehensive change in body physiology by altering various parameters that are governed by the autonomic nervous system. It is an effective modality for management of essential hypertension.

An innovative device for creating tissue plane cleavage by hydro-dissection based on lever and ergonomic principle.

In the Third world countries, the occupational health of a Reconstructive Surgeon attracts due attention from the applied physiology fraternity, where the massive amount of surgical workload causes chronic fatigue and repeated stress and injury. The knowledge of human physiology and the science of ergonomics analyze these challenges and formulate guidelines for creating a work environment that is safe and comfortable for its operators. Presented here is an innovative, cost effective, sterilizable, manually controlled hydrodissection instrument for surgery. This easy to make Syringe Pressure Gun (SPG), has revolutionized the face of cleft palate surgery reducing the surgical time to 50% and the palatal fistula rate from 3% to Zero percent. The effects were studied on patients and the operating surgeon both. The experimental group comprising of 1500 cleft palate patients in whom the gun was used during surgery as compared to 500 controls showed statistically highly significant results in terms of reduction in average bleeding in millilitres (P<0.05), average operating time in minutes (P<0.001), palatal fistula formation (P<0.005) and reduction in surgical complications like flap necrosis. The results in the operating surgeon (self control) on using the instrument, showed highly statistically significant fall in the muscle strain induced by tedious surgical manoeuvres, as studied by EMG (P<0.005), subjective hand grip pain and tiredness on a scale of 0-10, high convenience in flap dissection and therefore work performance improved in spite of the high volume of surgery. This ergonomic innovation will provide clues for future inventions based on physiological principles for improving the occupational health of the doctors and outcome of the patients.

Effect of curcumin on glucose absorption: An experimental study on albino rats.

Curcumin derived from the rhizome Curcuma longa is one of the primary ingredient in turmeric. Turmeric is used frequently as food additive in Asia, specially the Indian subcontinent. The daily intake of turmeric in the diet may therefore expose the gut to curcumin and affect its physiological functions, including the absorption of nutrients from small intestine. However, no published reports are available on the effect curcumin on absorption of nutrients from small intestine. To explore this possibility, transport of glucose from small intestine was studied in adult albino rats following feeding the animals curcumin intragastrically for five consecutive days. The controls were fed simultaneously, the vehicular fluid intragastrically in the identical volume. Transport of glucose from small intestine was studied using everted sac technique of Wilson and Wiseman (1954) on animals fasted for 16-20 hrs. Everted sacs were prepared from both jejunal and ileal portion of small intestine. Observations showed a significant increase in glucose transport from jejunal and upper ileal portion of small intestine suggesting that curcumin does influence the transport of nutrients from the gut.

Effects of vincristine on the bile flow in male albino rats.

Bile secretion is an important function served by the liver. The microtubular system integrity plays a key role in hepatic transport and excretion of several of bile constituents including phospholipids & cholesterol as well as detoxified xenobiotics. Furthermore, an alteration in bile secretion has been proposed as an important cause of enteritis, also a complication of microtubular inhibitors like Vincristine (VCR) that may occur following treatment as an anti cancer drug. The study aims to study the effects of microtubule inhibitor VCR on bile flow and bile composition in rats. For this purpose, male albino rats were studied. One group of five rats was infused with single IV dose of VCR (@1 mg/kg and the other received equal volume of IV vehicular fluid. For bile samples, animals were cannulated, bile flow examined at different time intervals before and after drug administration. Biliary composition studied at second hour post i/v administration. Single dose VCR treatment showed significant rise in the baseline excretion of bile in animals studied during first 2 hrs, although, there was a mild reduction in the biliary flow rate after few hours. Biliary total cholesterol was decreased and cation concentrations increased significantly in the second hour post VCR. The results indicate that the exposure of rats to VCR induces early alterations in biliary secretion. This study may prove useful for the purpose of understanding enteritis in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Hepatotoxic effects of vincristine: An experimental study on albino rats.

Vincristine (VCR) is an established drug of choice in treatment of some myelomas, lymphomas and leukemias. Hepatotoxicity is a lesser studied side effect of the drug. Samples of blood and other tissues were collected for morphological, biochemical and histopathological evaluation 2 and 24 hours after single intravenous administration of 1.0 mg/kg of VCR to male Albino Wistar rats. VCR produced weight loss; and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase (515.20±356.22, P<0.05), SGPT (192.00±102.62, P<0.05), and SGOT (574.20±292.16, P<0.05) even after 24 hours of drug administration. Though these changes were most severe during the first 2 hours of VCR administration, they also persisted till 24 hours, which may suggest a possibility of an enterohepatic circulation of the drug or its metabolites. This was complemented with morphological disruption in hepatocytes on light and electron microscopy including Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy.

Evaluation of dynamic function tests in normal obese individuals.

The study was undertaken to assess the dynamic pulmonary function tests in obese and non obese young adults of Gharwal (Uttrakhand, India) of 20–40 years age group, randomly selected form the employees of Himalayan institute of medical sciences, attendants of the patients at the hospital and also from the nearby community at Jolly grant, Dehradun. The volunteers representing mixed socioeconomic group were categorized into obese cases and non-obese controls as per the standard criteria for Body mass index (BMI). Dynamic pulmonary function tests were carried out with all the standard protocols. Statistical analysis comprised student’s “t” test and linear correlation analysis. The result indicated a significantly lower value of (FVC) forced vital capacity (2.89±0.29) and (FEV1) Forced expiratory volume in 1st sec (2.59±0.25) in obese females. The FVC and FEV1 in the females correlated negatively to the BMI (r = –0.376, P<0.05 and r = –0.359 and P<0.05) and were significant. Dynamic pulmonary function values in males showed a negative correlation but were not statistically significant. This concludes that obesity per se has less effect on the dynamic function tests in obese young adults except in females, but obese individuals presenting with greater morbidity may be more susceptible to altered dynamic pulmonary function test in this age group.

Effect of 1 week ‘61-points relaxation training’ on cold pressor test induced stress in premenstrual syndrome.

The present study was conducted on 50 clinically healthy women volunteers who were in their reproductive age group and in their premenstrual period. Thirty women having premenstrual syndrome (PMS) were compared with 20 control women to evaluate 1 week training of 61- points relaxation (61-PR) yogic exercise. In both the groups cold pressor test (CPT) was performed; and systolic blood pressure (SBP; mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg) and heart rate (HR/min) were measured. Basal SBP, DBP and HR of women with PMS was significantly higher than the control subjects with P value 1.2E-05, 0.000583 and 0.005707 respectively, suggesting the presence of stress in women with PMS. Immediately after CPT, the said parameters were statistically significantly more raised in PMS group than control group (P = 6.14E-05, 2.78E-06, 0.003799) respectively. Following 1 week of 61-PR training, the control group showed a significant decline in SBP, DBP & HR (P = 0.00769384, 0.00852894, 0.62316217) respectively. However, the PMS group showed a statistically highly significant reduction in SBP, DBP & HR (P = 2.55E-07, 4.35E-07 and 6.4904E-06) respectively immediately after CPT. These results suggest a reduction in sympathetic activity by 61-PR training and it can be used as an effective relaxation tool during premenstrual stress.

Effect of '61-points relaxation technique' on stress parameters in premenstrual syndrome.

Premenstrual Syndrome is a psychoneuroendocrine stress related disorder and more than 300 treatment modalities for PMS show that the existing remedies have not provided satisfactory help to relieve PMS. 61-points relaxation exercise (61-PR), a relatively less known hatha yoga technique, is a successful means of stress relaxation and is expected to relieve PMS as well. The present study was conducted on 50 clinically healthy women volunteers who were in their reproductive age group and in their premenstrual period, from which a control group (n = 20) and a PMS group (n = 30) based on the symptoms were identified. In both groups basal heart rate (HR/min), systolic (SBP; mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg), electromyogram (EMG; mV), electrodermal galvanic activity (EDG; microv), respiratory rate (RR/min) and peripheral temperature (T; degrees F) were recorded and the subjects were taken through a guided 61-PR. The symptoms and parameters were re-recorded after the 61-PR. In control group, the basal HR was 82.06 +/- 8.07, SBP 111.95 +/- 8.23, DBP 76.8 +/- 6.42, EMG 4.08 +/- 2.99, EDG 9.77 +/- 3.29, RR 15.60 +/- 3.77 and T was 97.86 +/- 0.63. After 10 minutes of 61-PR, HR (77.27 +/-10.85, P < 0.05), SBP (107.35 +/- 7.41, P < 0.05), DBP (75.25 +/-7.57, P < 0.05), EMG (2.07 +/- 1.90, P < 0.05), EDG (8.06 +/- 2.87, P < 0.05), RR (16.00 +/- 4.12, P < 0.05) fell significantly and T (97.97 +/- 0.64, P > 0.05) rose significantly. In the PMS group, the basal HR was 90.61 +/- 8.46, SBP 122.5 +/- 11.52, DBP 83.53 +/- 8.26, EMG 5.79 +/-2.75, EDG 13.14 +/- 6.54, RR 19.13 +/- 3.76 and T was 93.43 -/+ 5.29. After 10 minutes of 61-PR, HR (75.58 +/- 10.11, P < 0.0001), SBP (114.53 +/- 9.70, p < 0.0001), DBP (77.46 +/- 8.68, P < 0.0001), EMG (2.56 +/- 1.77, P < 0.0001), EDG (10.64 +/- 5.72, P < 0.0001), and RR (16.13 +/- 3.76, P < 0.0001) declined to a much greater extent and T (93.49 +/- 5.28, P < 0.0001) rose more significantly. These results suggest a reduction in sympathetic activity by 61-PR, also the high basal sympathetic tone present in subjects of PMS group due to stress is considerably reduced by relaxation. 61-PR is effective in providing relief from PMS and may be a useful adjuvant to medical therapy of PMS and other stress disorders.

Unusual frontal bone injury.

A 12-year old girl presented 6 months after a forehead injury due to fall from height. She had a deformed forehead with a rectangular bone defect and a rectangular bicortical bone fragment impacted into the lower edge of the defect. There was no obvious skin or dural injury. The deformed forehead was exposed through a bi-coronal scalp flap. The bone fragment was reposited back into the defect. The forehead of the patient healed with a smooth contour.