Sahaja yoga: A unique adjunctive approach for the management of cardiac arrhythmias?

Abstract

Sahaja yoga (SY) is a unique meditative technique that has both spiritual and mundane aspects. Although SY has generally been regarded as a practice of spiritual and mental well-being, it is also closely associated with a variety of subtle influences on some organ systems. SY has been suggested to have some beneficial effects in a variety of psycho-somatic diseases [1]. Besides subtle effects throughout the whole body, sympatho-vagal regulation associated with SY technique has been proposed as the direct evidence of its beneficial effects on some organ systems including cardiovascular system etc. As describedbelow,SYpracticemaybe regarded as anadjunctiveoption for the management of a variety of cardiac arrhythmias primarily on the basis of its potential effects on the autonomic nervous system largely through unknown mechanisms. Autonomic imbalance including hyperactivation of sympathetic system has been known to be associated with the occurrence of life threatening conditions including acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and may directly trigger malign arrhythmic events in arrhythmia-prone subjects [2]. Hyperactivation of sympathetic system is also well known to prolong QT interval, and impair some indices of autonomic nervous system including heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate turbulence (HRT) etc. thatmay serve asmarkers of arrhythmogenesis in susceptible subjects. Therefore, therapeutic strategies aiming at management of autonomic imbalance on topof conventional anti-arrhythmic therapy in arrhythmia-prone subjects have gained particular importance in the recent years. However, therapeutic options including beta blockers, sympathetic ganglion blockage etc. have limited value for the management of autonomic imbalance as these approaches generally