B. Division of Yoga and Life Sciences

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://192.168.0.109:4000/handle/123456789/297

This Division offers short-term courses and elective courses (to be chosen by MSc and PhD students). The Department of Health Sciences is attached with a 160 beds yoga therapy Health Home (Arogyadhama) meant to not only treat the yoga therapy participants (we do not call them patients) suffering from various modern ailments but also draw normal persons for prevention of possible illness and promotion of positive health by the Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy (IAYT). The students will not only acquire theoretical knowledge and practical experience by their own yoga practices but also get the rich experience of working with doctors, senior yoga therapists and with the yoga therapy participants. Handling them under severe conditions of the diseases immensely help them to become confident of their learning and usefulness of IAYT. The research section with modern gadgets helps them to measure the changes in these participants to assess the improvements. The Department of Bio-Sciences includes the following laboratories: the psychophysiology, Neuro-psychology, sleep lab, metabolic analyzer lab, immune lab, bio-chemistry and psychology labs. It is here that the students get the necessary training to do research of international standards. The modern scientific research is applied to esoteric dimensions of tradition as well as investigations into the paranormal. Essentially this department is meant for the basic research to understand the effects of various yoga practices on human systems. The Department of Natural Sciences has 8 sections encompassing a large spectrum of living systems and their changes due to interactions with human beings. The effect of Agnihotra, Sound, Music, Vedic chanting etc. on plants and animals is studied in great detail in this department. The department includes agricultural farms, gardens, forests, horticultural plants and a GoSala with more than 100 cows. The usefulness of cowdung, Gomutra or urine of cows as possible medicines is also studied.

Browse

Author: search.filters.author.Desiraju, T.End date: 1999

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Physiological changes in sports teachers following 3 months of training in Yoga
    (Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, 1993) Telles, Shirley; Nagarathna R.; Nagendra H.R.; Desiraju, T.
    Three months of training in the ancient Indian science of Yoga, which included different asanas (physical postures) and Pranayamas (voluntary regulation of the breathing) has following effects in normal, hea1thy subjects, viz a significant reduction in heart rate, BP and an increase in mean skin temperature, and alpha index of EEG, reduction in blood glucose, plasma cholesterol, dopamine B hydroxylase and monoamine oxidase, and increased levels of urinary 17-keto steroids. These changes were interpreted as a shift in autonomic equilibrium towards parasympathetic dominance. The present study was conducted to assess whether yogic training of the same duration (3 months) would cause physiological changes in 40 male physical education teachers whose ages were between 25 and 48 years (34.7 + 5.9), and who had already been actively engaged in diverse physical activities for 8.9 + 5.8 years.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Recording of auditory middle latency evoked potentials during the practice of meditation with the syllable ‘OM’
    (Indian Journal of Medical Research,, 1993-08-03) Telles, Shirley; Desiraju, T.
    Middle latency auditory evoked potentials were examined in 7 proficient subjects during the practice of meditation on the syllable "Om", to determine whether these potentials would differ significantly from those recorded during the baseline state without practicing meditation. Similar records were also obtained in 7 "naive" subjects, matched for age, before and during a control period which involved sitting with eyes closed, and with no special instructions for focusing their thoughts. There was considerable inter-subject variability in the different components. However, during meditation there was a small but significant reduction in the peak latency of the Nb wave (the maximum negativity occurring between 35 and 65 msec). This reduction was observed consistently during the 3 repeat sessions of each subject, while the "naive" subjects did not show this change. These results suggest that the inter-subject variability of middle latency auditory evoked potentials precludes using them as the method of choice for assessing the effects of meditation. The small but consistent decrease in the Nb wave peak latency, indicates that the middle latency auditory evoked potentials do change with meditation. However, the variability of the potentials may mask subtle changes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oxygen consumption during pranayamic type of very slow-rate breathing
    (Indian Journal of Medical Research, 1991) Telles, Shirley; Desiraju, T.
    To determine whether the yogic Ujjayi pranayamic type of breathing that involves sensory awareness and consciously controlled, extremely slow-rate breathing including at least a period of end-inspiration breath holding in each respiratory cycle would alter oxygen consumption or not, ten males with long standing experience in pranayama, and volunteering to participate in the laboratory study were assessed. These subjects aged 28-59 years, had normal health appropriate to their age. Since Kumbhak (timed breath holding) is considered as an important phase of the respiratory cycle in the pranayama, they were categorised into two groups of five each, one group practising the short Kumbhak varieties of pranayama, and the other the long Kumbhak varieties of pranayama. The duration of Kumbhak phase was on an average 22.2 per cent of the respiratory cycle in the short Kumbhak group and 50.4 per cent in the long Kumbhak group. The oxygen consumption was measured in test sessions using the closed circuit method of breathing oxygen through the Benedict-Roth spirometer. Each subject was tested in several repeat sessions. Values of oxygen consumption of the period of pranayamic breathing, and of post- pranayamic breathing period, were compared to control value of oxygen consumption of the prepranayamic breathing period of each test session. The results revealed that the short Kumbhak pranayamic breathing caused a statistically significant increase (52%) in the oxygen consumption (and metabolic rate) compared to the pre-pranayamic base-line period of breathing. In contrast to the above, the long Kumbhak pranayamic breathing caused a statistically significant lowering (19%) of the oxygen consumption (and metabolic rate). The values returned to near normal in the post-pranayamic periods. The data provide a basis to indicate that different types of pranayamic breathing may lead to different types of alterations in the oxygen consumption and metabolic rate.
You do not have permission to sell or distribute or reproduce Research @ SVYASA Papers text or any portion of the text in any form (printed, electronic or otherwise). To do so is a violation of copyright law