Pranayama helped Covid patients breathe better: Scientific studies

NEW DELHI: Mitali Singh, 32, contracted Covid in April this year. She got all the usual symptoms including shortness of breath. “On advice of my cousin who is a yoga practitioner, I started doing ‘anulom vilom’ every time I experienced difficulty in breathing and it gave me relief,” said Singh, a homemaker based in Delhi. Anulom vilom, a form of breathing exercise in yoga, refers to breathing in and out from alternate nostrils.
Bengaluru-based catering businessman Jayesh Pandya’s whole family got infected with Covid last year in October. “I was suffering business losses too. A lot of negative thoughts were coming to my mind. But doing regular breathing exercises helped me stay calm and also improved my oxygen levels,” said Pandya.
Pranayam or yogic breathing exercises have shown to improve lung function in a number of scientific studies. In one such study – Effect of Pranayama and Suryanamaskar on Pulmonary Functions published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research in 2014 -- it was noted that doing yogic exercises, including pranayama, for 30 minutes daily for two months increased the participants’ vital capacity from 2,972ml to 3,372ml. The study was done by researchers at Meenakshi Medical College and Hospital, Kanchipuram. Vital capacity refers to the maximal amount of air exhaled after maximal inhalation; it ranges between 3 to 5 litres in normal adults.
In another study published in the National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology in 2018, researchers from government medical colleges in Nagpur and Raigarh found that practising pranayama daily for 12 weeks improved respiratory endurance of the participants. Their maximum expiratory pressure increased by 37% and maximum inspiratory pressure by 26%. Breath holding time after expiration and inspiration rose significantly by 38% and 46% respectively.
“Our lungs can take in up to 4.5 litre of air but most Indians’ lungs have a capacity of less than 2 litres due to multiple reasons including lack of exercise. Only sports persons and people who regularly practice pranayam have been found to have a higher lung capacity,” said Dr Ali Irani, head, department of physiotherapy and sports medicine, Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai.
Patients at Dr Ghatage Super Speciality Hospital in Sangli, a Covid centre, were made to do yogic breathing exercises, including chanting, thrice a day, every day. “It provides relief from breathlessness in most patients. If someone’s SPO2 is 70, then breathing exercise and lying prone can take it up to 85-90. We saw this in our patients,” said Dr Sharad Ghatage, paediatrician and founder of the hospital. “Covid-19 virus causes accumulation of fluids in the tiny air sacs in the lungs, leading to shortness of breath. But doing breathing exercises can open up the sacs and improve exchange of gases in the lungs,” explained Ghatge.
However, doctors strongly caution that yoga and breathing exercises work best as complementary therapies and should not be used in place of medical treatment.
Yoga teacher Abhishek Otwal said that most of his students who had Covid got a mild form of the disease. This may just be a coincidence. There’s no scientific evidence to show that yoga provides protection from Covid or from getting a severe form of it.
Arun Pandala, director Sivananda Yoga Centre in Gurugram, has been practising yoga for 30 years but still he contracted a severe form of infection earlier this year. He was hospitalised for 11 days. During his hospital stay he couldn’t practice any breathing exercise despite the doctors asking him to. “I was used to exhaling for 1 full minute but at that time I couldn’t do it for even one second,” said Pandala who is now recovering from the infection.
What worked for him, though, were certain asanas. “The spinal twist, forward and backward bends exercise the lungs well,” said Pandala.
Yoga guru Akshar Nath worked with patients in various Covid care centres in Bengaluru and said that doing pranayama, especially ujjayi (victorious breath) and bhramari (humming bee breath) helped patients breathe better. Otwal added, “Those of my students who started their yoga practice soon after testing negative are healing better. But I advise them to start slowly and take the pace up gradually,” said Otwal who teaches in Delhi.