4 Aspects Of Pranayama
Gano Richardson
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Objective: Emotional disturbances are commonly experienced by cancer patients. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of certain Pranayama techniques on the emotional aspects such as impatience, worry, anxiety, and frustration among breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy in India.
Methods: The study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial. Patients were recruited when they were seeking radiation therapy for breast cancer. They were allocated into two groups using block randomization technique. The experimental group performed Pranayama along with radiation therapy, whereas the control group received only routine care.
Results: Emotional aspects of the two groups were compared at the end of the treatment. Mann-Whitney U-test was used for comparison as the data were not following normality. It showed a significant difference between the two groups with the group who performed Pranayama showing a lesser mean score for these negative emotions.
Conclusions: Pranayama might help in controlling the negative emotions likely to be faced by breast cancer patients, and it can be used as a supportive therapy for breast cancer patients receiving radiation therapy.
Pranayamic breathing, defined as a manipulation of breath movement, has been shown to contribute to a physiologic response characterized by the presence of decreased oxygen consumption, decreased heart rate, and decreased blood pressure, as well as increased theta wave amplitude in EEG recordings, increased parasympathetic activity accompanied by the experience of alertness and reinvigoration. The mechanism of how pranayamic breathing interacts with the nervous system affecting metabolism and autonomic functions remains to be clearly understood. It is our hypothesis that voluntary slow deep breathing functionally resets the autonomic nervous system through stretch-induced inhibitory signals and hyperpolarization currents propagated through both neural and non-neural tissue which synchronizes neural elements in the heart, lungs, limbic system and cortex. During inspiration, stretching of lung tissue produces inhibitory signals by action of slowly adapting stretch receptors (SARs) and hyperpolarization current by action of fibroblasts. Both inhibitory impulses and hyperpolarization current are known to synchronize neural elements leading to the modulation of the nervous system and decreased metabolic activity indicative of the parasympathetic state. In this paper we propose pranayama's physiologic mechanism through a cellular and systems level perspective, involving both neural and non-neural elements. This theoretical description describes a common physiological mechanism underlying pranayama and elucidate the role of the respiratory and cardiovascular system on modulating the autonomic nervous system. Along with facilitating the design of clinical breathing techniques for the treatment of autonomic nervous system and other disorders, this model will also validate pranayama as a topic requiring more research.
Courtney Sullivan is a professional yoga instructor with extensive experience. Courtney currently owns and operates a yoga-inspired preschool program in North Carolina. She is certified in Kripalu Yoga, Yoga Trance Dance, and Yoga Booty Ballet, as well as being a professional youth dance instructor.
Emily Cronkleton is a certified yoga teacher and has studied yoga in the United States, India, and Thailand. Her passion for yoga has laid the foundation for a healthy and inspired life, while her teachers and practice have helped shape her life experience in many ways.
Crystal Hoshaw is a mother, writer, and longtime yoga practitioner, and currently the Editor for the Bezzy Breast Cancer and Migraine communities. Crystal shares mindful strategies for self-care through yoga classes and online courses at Embody Ayurveda. You can find her on Instagram.
According to a 2019 study, pranayama also improves sleep quality in people with obstructive sleep apnea. Additionally, the study found that practicing pranayama decreased snoring and daytime sleepiness, suggesting benefits for better quality rest.
The researchers also mentioned that pranayama helps remove carbon dioxide and raises oxygen concentration, which fuels brain cells. This may contribute to mindfulness by improving focus and concentration.
In a 2014 study, participants with mild hypertension received antihypertensive drugs for 6 weeks. Half the participants also received pranayama training for 6 weeks. By the end of the study, the latter group experienced a greater reduction in blood pressure.
One 2019 study determined that 6 weeks of practicing pranayama for 1 hour a day could have a significant effect on lung function. The practice improved multiple parameters of lung function, according to pulmonary test results.
The Yoga Sutras built on Samkhya notions of purusha and prakriti, and is often seen as complementary to it. It is closely related to Buddhism, incorporating some of its terminology. Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta, as well as Jainism and Buddhism, can be seen as representing different manifestations of a broad stream of ascetic traditions in ancient India, in contrast to the Bhakti traditions and Vedic ritualism which were prevalent at the time.
The colophons of manuscripts of the Yoga Sutras attribute the work to Patanjali.[7][8][9][10] The identity of Patajali has been the subject of academic debate because an author of the same name is credited with the authorship of the classic text on Sanskrit grammar named Mahābhāṣya that is firmly datable to the second century BC. Although some scholars argue that this is the same Patanjali who authored the Yoga Sutras, the two works are completely different in subject matter, and Indologist Louis Renou has shown that there are significant differences in language, grammar and vocabulary.[11] Before the time of Bhoja (11th century), no known text conflates the identity of the two authors.[note 1]
Philipp A. Maas assessed Patajali's Pātajalayogaśāstra's date to be about 400 CE, based on synchronisms between its arguments and those of Vasubandhu, on tracing the history of the commentaries on it published in the first millennium CE, on the opinions of earlier Sanskrit commentators, on the testimony of manuscript colophons and on a review of extant literature.[14][15] This dating for the Pātajalayogaśāstra was proposed as early as 1914 by Woods[16] and has been accepted widely by academic scholars of the history of Indian philosophical thought.[17][18]
Edwin Bryant, on the other hand, surveyed the major commentators in his translation of the Yoga Sūtras.[19] He observed that "Most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era (circa first to second century), but that it has been placed as early as several centuries before that."[20] Bryant concluded that "A number of scholars have dated the Yoga Sūtras as late as the fourth or fifth century CE, but these arguments have all been challenged. ... All such arguments [for a late date] are problematic."[21]
Michele Desmarais summarized a wide variety of dates assigned to Yogasutra, ranging from 500 BCE to 3rd century CE, noting that there is a paucity of evidence for any certainty. She stated the text may have been composed at an earlier date given conflicting theories on how to date it, but latter dates are more commonly accepted by scholars.[22]
There are numerous parallels in the ancient Samkhya, Yoga and Abhidharma schools of thought, particularly from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century AD, notes Larson.[26] Patanjali's Yoga Sutras may be a synthesis of these three traditions. From the Samkhya school of Hinduism, Yoga Sutras adopt the "reflective discernment" (adhyavasaya) of prakrti and purusa (dualism), its metaphysical rationalism, and its three epistemic methods to gaining reliable knowledge.[26] From Abhidharma Buddhism's idea of nirodhasamadhi, suggests Larson, Yoga Sutras adopt the pursuit of an altered state of awareness. However, unlike Buddhism, which avoids stating whether self and soul exist, Yoga is physicalist and realist, like Samkhya, believing that each individual has a self and soul.[26] The third concept that Yoga Sutras synthesizes into its philosophy is the ancient ascetic traditions of isolation, meditation and introspection, as well as the yoga ideas from the 1st millennium BCE Indian texts such as Katha Upanishad, Shvetashvatara Upanishad and Maitri Upanishad.[26]
According to Wujastyk, referencing Maas, Patanjali integrated yoga from older traditions in Pātajalayogaśāstra, and added his own explanatory passages to create the unified work that, since 1100 CE, has been considered the work of two people.[1] Together the compilation of Patanjali's sutras and the Vyasabhasya, is called Pātajalayogaśāstra.[27]
The Yogabhashya is a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patajali, traditionally attributed to the legendary Vedic sage Vyasa who is said to have composed the Mahabharata. This commentary is indispensable for the understanding of the aphoristic and terse Yoga sutras, and the study of the sutras has always referred to the Yogabhashya.[28] Some scholars see Vyasa as a later 4th or 5th century AD commentator (as opposed to the ancient mythic figure).[28]
Scholars hold that both texts, the sutras and the commentary were written by one person. According to Philipp A. Maas, based on a study of the original manuscripts, Patajali's composition was entitled Pātajalayogaśāstra ("The Treatise on Yoga according to Patajali") and consisted of both Sūtras and Bhāṣya. This means that the Bhāṣya was in fact Patajali's own work.[31]
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