PRANAYAMA in treatment of OSA/OHS

   Obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) and obesity hypoventilation syndrome(OHS) are two important and dangerous disorders, occur in most peaceful portion of human life-sleep. This occurs due to partial narrowing of the upper airways during the sleep resulting decreased air entry into the lungs giving rise to further physio-pathological concequences.The most common provocating factors for these sleep related disorders(usually called as sleep-related-breathing-disorders"SRBD") is obesity and overweight and its grave concequences are translated as ischemic heart disease,stroke,diabetes melitus,psychiatric manifestations like anxiety,depression,cognitive impairment and memory dysfunctions.It is estimated that around 10 to 25 % of populations are affected by SRBD worldwide. Future risk may be increased upto 2 to 3 folds due to further changes of life style as the world advances towards  more modernity.
  
   There is no specific treatment for this disorder except some preventive measures like weight reduction, which is not sufficient to get rid of the condition. I advised 12 of my patients having this disorders to practise PRANAYAM, a very ancient method of breathing exercises as per Indian vedic culture. To my utmost surprise 9 of my patients improved dramatically in their symptoms of SRBD like day time sleepiness, snorings and work related mental slugginess within 6 weeks. Other 3 patients are improving and in follow up care now.

   All of these patients are well eaters, otherwise healthy and obesed. So I want to advise people having problems like obesity, overweighed, and snore at sleep should not loose a chance of doing this simple procedure of PRANAYAM(know details about this from internet) in order to get rid of this dangerous disorder in life. I also strongly recommend the well equipped medical centers with sleep lab to conduct control trials about the effectiveness of PRANAYAM in SRBD in order to strengthen the scientific point of view. 

         In my view the PRANAYAM procedures cause pharyngeal muscles relaxed and less voluminious in mass so that constrictor muscles impact on narrowing of the pharyngeal part of the airways is decreased and the increased compliance of dilator muscles keep helping in normal patency of airways though narrowing to some extent of the upper airways normally do occur in sleeping and in supine position. For any doubt, any body can contact my email: drganesh_m@yahoo.com

Article By: Dr. Ganesh Chandra Mohapatra. MD,FCCM