indica News Bureau-

In an attempt to test the effectiveness of yoga as an intervention for treating many diseases, Indian-American cardiologist Indranill Basu Ray, will present a new method at the upcoming Indian Science Congress (ISC) in Bengaluru. His new protocol will be presented at the 107th ISC which is being held from January 3 to 7.

The cardiac-electro-physiologist at the Veterans Hospital in Memphis, US, said that as the RTC (Randomized Control Trials) was not proving to be very useful in testing the effectiveness of yoga, new scientific methods need to be devised, Hindustan Times reported.

Despite understanding the molecular mechanism, large trials of yoga using the standard protocol called RCT (Randomised Control Trials) has not shown as much promise as expected, said Ray, adding, We proved tobacco was toxic not by doing clinical trials, but by following people who smoke and showing they develop a particular type of lung cancer it would have been almost impossible to prove this using an RCT other than being phenomenally costly, he said.

Ray said, same is true for yoga, as a person who has a disease like hypertension that is due to chronic adaptation to stress, may be treated with a yoga protocol to eliminate the disease.

The Kolkata-born cardiologist proposed that with advanced molecular biology available wearable devices, the adaptive stress-response can be measured with yoga by monitoring hormone levels, a well-established biomarker of stress.

He added that the same may also be done through complementary physiological signals such as electro-dermal activity and heart rate variability, proxies for the arousal of the sympathetic nervous system.

It is the chronic arousal of this system due to adaptation to chronic stress that causes hypertension, he said.

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Indian-American cardiologist proposes new protocol to test effectiveness of yoga - indica News