46
M. Mukunda Rao
2.6 Studies on the Effects of Controlled Breathing
or Pranayama
We all breathe but we do not all derive the proper benefit from our breathing. This
was because we do not know to regulate our breath. We breathe automatically,
involuntarily, unconsciously; we must learn to breathe consciously, properly and
rhythmically. Controlling the life-force by conscious control of breath was known as
Pranayama. When we understand how to do this, we can fill ourselves with Prana-vital
energy-and thus eliminate all our impurities.” The procedure for doing Pranayama
is already described earlier.
The study comprised of 40 subjects who were made to sit in an erect normal
position. The PPG signal from the normal subjects sitting in a straight posture was
recorded from the left and right ear lobes. The duration of the recording in both
the normal and Pranayama subjects was for 30 min. The outputs of the two PPG
sensors were digitally sampled at a sampling rate of 40 Hz and stored for further
analysis. In order to eliminate noise, the data was filtered using a Butterworth low
pass filter of order 8 (cutoff—7 Hz) to remove any high frequency component that
might be present in the signal. The very low-frequency components contained in a
signal are sometimes an artifact caused either by the instruments or the movement
of the subject, which shifts the PPG signal up or down. The PPG sensor is also very
sensitive to these shifts. These low-frequency components smear the power spectrum
of the PPG signal and can affect the results. The PPG signal consists of a quasi DC
signal that corresponds to changes in the venous pressure. This quasi DC signal was
removed by using a 100 point moving average detrending algorithm before being
subjected to analysis.
The PSD estimate gives a distribution of energy in the frequency domain and
yields a smoother curve to the conventional FFT frequency domain analysis. We
observe these distinct components given in Fig. 2.15.
This figure.
Fig. 2.15 The power
spectral density of a normal
subject before he carries out
Pranayama
M. Mukunda Rao
2.6 Studies on the Effects of Controlled Breathing
or Pranayama
We all breathe but we do not all derive the proper benefit from our breathing. This
was because we do not know to regulate our breath. We breathe automatically,
involuntarily, unconsciously; we must learn to breathe consciously, properly and
rhythmically. Controlling the life-force by conscious control of breath was known as
Pranayama. When we understand how to do this, we can fill ourselves with Prana-vital
energy-and thus eliminate all our impurities.” The procedure for doing Pranayama
is already described earlier.
The study comprised of 40 subjects who were made to sit in an erect normal
position. The PPG signal from the normal subjects sitting in a straight posture was
recorded from the left and right ear lobes. The duration of the recording in both
the normal and Pranayama subjects was for 30 min. The outputs of the two PPG
sensors were digitally sampled at a sampling rate of 40 Hz and stored for further
analysis. In order to eliminate noise, the data was filtered using a Butterworth low
pass filter of order 8 (cutoff—7 Hz) to remove any high frequency component that
might be present in the signal. The very low-frequency components contained in a
signal are sometimes an artifact caused either by the instruments or the movement
of the subject, which shifts the PPG signal up or down. The PPG sensor is also very
sensitive to these shifts. These low-frequency components smear the power spectrum
of the PPG signal and can affect the results. The PPG signal consists of a quasi DC
signal that corresponds to changes in the venous pressure. This quasi DC signal was
removed by using a 100 point moving average detrending algorithm before being
subjected to analysis.
The PSD estimate gives a distribution of energy in the frequency domain and
yields a smoother curve to the conventional FFT frequency domain analysis. We
observe these distinct components given in Fig. 2.15.
This figure.
Fig. 2.15 The power
spectral density of a normal
subject before he carries out
Pranayama