Immediate Effect of Buteyko Breathing and Bhramari Pranayama on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate and Oxygen Saturation in Hypertensive Patients: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Aim: There are studies showing the use of Buteyko breathing technique & Bhramari Pranayama in reducing
cardiorespiratory parameters in normal healthy individuals but to the best of our knowledge there is hardly
any study that has reported comparative immediate effect of these two techniques. Thus the aim of our study
was to evaluate the immediate effect of these two techniques on Blood pressure, heart rate and SpO2 in
Hypertensive patients.
Method: The research design used was Comparative Experimental study design. Total 52 participants were
screened and those meeting the inclusion criteria (n=42) were included in the study. The participants were
randomly divided into two groups- Buteyko breathing and Bhramari pranayama Group of 21 each. Pre and
immediate post intervention scores were measured in terms of systolic BP, Diastolic BP, heart rate and SpO2.
Findings: Inter group comparison (student’s unpaired t test) showed that there was no statistically
significant difference between the two groups in terms of Systolic and Diastolic BP, Heart rate and SpO2.
The comparison of pre and post intervention valuesof the outcome measures in Buteyko group showed
a significant difference in Systolic BP, Heart rate and SpO2 values whereas in Bhramari group there was
statistically significant difference only the in Systolic BP values.
Conclusion: It can be concluded from the present study that Buteyko breathing and Bhramari pranayama
are equally effective in immediately reducing the systolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients.