Electrodermal Screening of Asthmatics with AcuGraph 4.

Traditional Chinese Medicine holds that acupuncture meridian activity is correlated with quality of function of specific organs. This study sets out to determine acupuncture meridian characteristics of subjects with moderate asthma distinguishing them from healthy subjects. Fifty asthma patients (age 35.36 ± 8.68 years) and fifty similarly aged (34.11 ± 7.29 years) healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Electrodermal conductances at Jing Well points were measured with Acugraph 4 and also Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) for the asthma group. All mean meridian conductances were lower for the asthma group, significance differences were in Lung and right Bladder meridians. In contrast, all but two of the standard deviations of group meridian conductances for the Asthma group were higher than those for the Healthy group. Difference in mean PEFR values between Asthma and Healthy groups was significant. These suggest that group measures of electrical conductance at Jing Well points can distinguish asthma from healthy individuals. The study provides support for the usefulness of meridian energy measurements to assess organ related dysfunction and for the idea that pathology groups exhibit higher standard deviations i.e. lower quality of regulation.

Acupuncture Meridian Energies in Patients Who Are Mentally Disturbed.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Acupuncture medicine states that different pathologies exhibit different patterns of excitation in the 24 main acupuncture meridians. Previous exploratory work has shown that groups of patients with the same pathology exhibit such characteristic patterns when limited numbers of acupuncture points are measured with the AcuGraph meridian energy measuring device. This study reports patterns of meridian energies observed in an exploratory assessment of different classes of patient with mental disturbance. METHODS: This study was a three-group cross-sectional design. Participants were patients who had been diagnosed by their GP with anxiety (n = 21) and depression (n = 26) and who were entering a treatment program, along with age- and sex-matched controls (n = 44). Patients diagnosed with mild mental disturbance who were aged 20-50 years were eligible to take part. Patients with any cut, wart, or mole on their fingertips or with excess sweating, which would interfere with conductance measurements, were excluded. The assessment comprised conductance values at Jing-Well acupuncture points by AcuGraph4 on entry into the treatment program. RESULTS: Patients with anxiety had higher meridian energy levels (81.84 ± 38.63) and significant Upper-Lower imbalances (p < 0.05) favoring the upper meridians. Patients with depression had lower energy levels and lower standard deviations (53.36 ± 33.48) as a group. Controls exhibited intermediate energy levels but recorded the lowest scoring variances (62.61 ± 27.05) of the three groups. Kidney meridians had the lowest energy for both of the pathology groups. For the group suffering with anxiety, bladder meridians were also low. CONCLUSION: Higher variances in AcuGraph4 measurements were observed in patients with either anxiety or depression compared with controls whose variances were the lowest. These results are in accordance with previous observations of greater variance in conductance values in pathology groups. With regard to meridian energies, the lowest were in those with depression, while those with anxiety were the highest. Controls exhibited intermediate energy levels.

Effect of yoga based techniques on stress and health indices using electro photonic imaging technique in managers.

BACKGROUND: Meditation techniques are known to elicit relaxation response in which moving meditation which combines the practice of yoga postures and guided relaxation is known as Cyclic Meditation reported helpful in reducing the sympathetic arousal and improving health of practitioners. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of Cyclic Meditation on stress and health indices in managers as measured by Electro Photonic Imaging (EPI) technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: EPI technique was used to assess participants before and after 35 min of Cyclic Meditation (CM) and equal duration of Supine Rest (SR) session. A total of sixty six male managers, age ranges from 35 to 60 years (mean ± SD 53.97 ± 5.96) were included in the study. EPI parameters, including Activation Coefficient, Integral Area left and right and Integral Entropy, left and right were taken for statistical analyses. RESULTS: Cyclic Meditation has produced a highly significant reduction in stress level, whereas this reduction was not found significant within SR group. There was a significant improvement in health index 'Integral Area' values in both left and right sides within the CM group while only IA right side showed a significant improvement within the CM group. The integral entropy value right side decreased significantly within the CM group, whereas IE left was found deteriorated within the SR group. Moreover, only IE left side has shown a significant difference between the groups. CONCLUSION: The investigations in this study suggest that Cyclic Meditation practice reduces stress and improves psychosomatic health indices more effectively than Supine Rest in managers.

Development of normative data of electro photonic imaging technique for healthy population in India: A normative study.

BACKGROUND: Electro photonic imaging (EPI) technique is growing as a novel technique of health assessment and is being utilized in the fields of alternative medicine, conventional practices, psycho-physiology, psychology, and consciousness studies. The existing EPI norms are based mostly on European (EU) population. In order to enhance the practice and research through EPI in India, there is a need for developing norms for the healthy Indian population. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to establish the normative data of EPI for the healthy Indian population, to aid in the accuracy of EPI measurements and interpretations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 1297 volunteers were assessed once, who represented different parts of India during December 2013 to December 2014. Among them, 880 volunteers were reported to be healthy (age mean ± standard deviation [SD], 33.55 ± 10.92), with 584 males (age mean ± SD, 33.54 ± 10.86) and 296 females (age mean ± SD, 33.56 ± 11.00). In this study activation coefficient (stress level), integral area (IA) (general health), and integral entropy (disorderliness in energy) parameters were analyzed. RESULTS: As the data were not normally distributed, quartile based statistics was used for setting the norms. The 25(th) and 75(th) percentiles were calculated and they were further verified using a bootstrap procedure. Uniquely, the results showed a clear difference in IA parameters under both with filter (physiological) and without filter (psycho-physiological) conditions between the Indian and the EU population. Though other parameters were found almost similar to the EU population, inter quartile ranges were narrower in the Indian population as compared to the EU values. Similar trends were observed in the subgroup analyzes: That is, male versus female genders and age ranges 18-40 versus 40-60. CONCLUSION: As compared to EU population, Indian population had different range of Integral Area values and narrower range for values of other variables. EPI Studies in India should also adjust for factors such as age and gender.

Cumulative effect of short-term and long-term meditation practice in men and women on psychophysiological parameters of electrophotonic imaging: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Anapanasati is one of the meditation techniques discussed in Buddhism. In this meditation, one focuses one's attention on bodily sensations caused by incoming and outgoing breath. This study aims to track the cumulative effect of long-term meditators (LTM) and short-term meditators (STM) using electrophotonic imaging (EPI). METHODS: To execute the current study, 432 subjects (264 men and 168 women with mean age of 34.36±6.83) were recruited from two meditation centers. LTM had practiced for more than 60 months (mean of months 111±47.20, hoursperday 1.71±1.20). STM had practiced meditation from 6 months to less than 60 months (mean of months 37.17±19.44, hoursperday 2.14±4.99). A cross-sectional research design was applied and data was collected using EPI. Scatter plot and Fisher discriminant model were also used for statistical presentation of values and interdependency of variables with length of practice between groups. RESULTS: In both LTM and STM, lower values of stress (activation coefficient) were found in woman meditators as compared to men. In both groups, highly significant gender-related differences were observed in integral area parameter, which measures the overall health of an individual. Integral entropy (index of disorderliness of subtle energy in the body) was fluctuating in both groups in both directions for both genders. It was increasing in LTM group and decreasing in STM group with increasing length of practice. CONCLUSIONS: Women of LTM and STM demonstrated lesser stress than men. Both groups showed cumulative health-related improvement. Moreover, in gender-related analysis woman meditators exhibited more positive improvement in EPI parameters than men.

Effect of Bhramari Pranayama on response inhibition: Evidence from the stop signal task.

CONTEXT: Response inhibition is a key executive control processes. An inability to inhibit inappropriate actions has been linked to a large range of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. AIMS: Examine the effect of Bhramari Pranayama (Bhpr) on response inhibition in healthy individuals. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Thirty-one male students age ranged from 19-31 years from a residential Yoga University, Bengaluru, India were recruited for this study. We used a randomized self as control within-subjects design. Participants were counterbalanced randomly into two different experimental conditions (Bhpr and deep breathing (DB)). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Response inhibition has been measured using a standard tool Stop Signal Task (SST). Each session lasted for 50 min with 10 min for the experimental conditions, preceded and followed by 20 min of assessment. The primary outcome measure was stop signal reaction time (SSRT), an estimate of the subject's capacity for inhibiting prepotent motor responses. Additional measures of interest were the probability of responding on stop signal trials, P (r | s) and mean RT to go stimuli. RESULTS: The mean probability of responding on stop signal trials (P (r | s)) during Bhpr and DB are close to 50%, indicating reliable SSRT. Paired sample t-tests showed a significant decrease (P = 0.024) in SSRT after Bhpr session, while the DB group did not show any significant change. Further, t-tests show that the go RT increased significantly after Bhpr (P = 0.007) and no other changes/differences were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Bhpr enhanced response inhibition and cognitive control in nonclinical participants.