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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Yoga Relaxation (savasana) decreases cardiac
sympathovagal balance in hypertensive patients
Danilo F Santaella,
I
Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho,
II
Marcos R Rodrigues,
I
Taı
´s Tinucci,
III
Ana Paula Malinauskas,
IV
De
´cio Mion-Ju
´nior,
V
Nicola Montano,
VI,VII
Cla
´udia LM Forjaz
III
I
Sports Center of the University of Sa
˜o Paulo – Brazil
II
Sleep Apnea Laboratory of the Pneumology Discipline of the Medical School of the University of
Sa
˜o Paulo – Brazil
III
Exercise Hemodynamic Laboratory, School of Physical Education and Sport, University of Sa
˜o Paulo, Brazil
IV
Department of Physical
Therapy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – Brazil
V
Hypertension Unity, General Hospital, University of Sa
˜o Paulo – Brazil
VI
Department of
Biomedical Clinical Sciences, University of Milan, Division of Medicine and Pathophysiology, Sacco Hospital – Milano – Italy
VII
ICRC-Department of
Cardiovascular Diseases, St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno – Czech Republic
OBJECTIVE: Although relaxation is recommended as complementary therapy for hypertension, its post-
intervention cardiovascular autonomic effects are unclear. The objective of this research was to investigate the
effects of savasana relaxation on cardiovascular autonomic modulation in hypertensive patients.
METHODS: This randomized controlled trial was performed at the Hemodynamic Laboratory of the Physical
Education School of the University of Sa
˜o Paulo/Brazil. Sixteen hypertensive (6-women) and 14 normotensive
patients (6-women) non-obese subjects participated in 2 random sessions: savasana relaxation and control.
Patients remained supine for 55 min after interventions. Electrocardiogram, beat-to-beat blood pressure and
respiration were acquired during and after interventions for posterior autoregressive spectral analysis of the R-R
interval and blood pressure variability.
RESULTS: Hypertensive and normotensive patients presented similar cardiac autonomic modulation responses
during and after experimental sessions. During relaxation, low frequency and sympathovagal balance were
significantly lower in the Relaxation sessions than during supine rest in the Control sessions. Fifteen minutes after
interventions, low frequency and sympathovagal balance were still lower in Relaxation than in Control, and
remained lower for 35 min; at 55 min, the variables were similar between sessions. Systolic blood pressure
variability did not differ among sessions.
CONCLUSIONS: Savasana Relaxation decreases cardiac sympathetic autonomic modulation after its performance
in hypertensive patients; this reduction lasts at least 35 minutes and is not blunted in hypertensive patients when
compared to normotensive controls. Thus, savasana relaxation has positive effects on cardiac autonomic
modulation of hypertensive patients, and may be included as a strategy for the non-drug treatment of
hypertension.
KEYWORDS: Heart rate variability; Hatha Yoga; Hypertension.
Santaella DF, Lorenzi-Filho G, Rodrigues MR, Tinucci T, Malinauskas AP, Mion-Ju
´nior D, Montano N, Forjaz CLM. Yoga Relaxation (savasana)
decreases cardiac sympathovagal balance in hypertensive patients. MEDICALEXPRESS. 2014 Oct;1(5):233-238.
Received for publication on May 27 2014; First review completed on May 21 2014; Accepted for publication on July 3 2014
E-mail: danyoga@usp.br
BINTRODUCTION
Hypertension is a highly prevalent disease, afflicting 40%
of the American population.
1
It is directly related to acute
cardiovascular events, and closely related to end-organ
damage.
2
Furthermore, hypertension is related to an
autonomic dysfunction, with noted augmented sympathetic
and decreased vagal modulation to the heart.
1,3,4
When regularly performed, relaxation decreases blood
pressure
5,6,7,8
sympathetic autonomic modulation to the
heart
9
and sympathetic reactivity,
10
being therefore rec-
ommended as partof the non-drug treatment of hypertension
1
and for maintaining a good and healthy life style.
11
However,
the duration of this acute cardiac autonomic modulation
response to relaxation has not been investigated; neither has
the possibility that hypertensive patients may be less prone to a
decrease in sympathetic and to an increase in parasympathetic
heart modulation than normotensive people.
Spectral analysis of heart rate variabilityhas become a useful
non-invasive tool to investigate sympathovagal balance to the
heart in many circumstances.
12
Studies investigating heart rate
variability after relaxation showed a parasympathetic pre-
dominance in healthy adults
13
and in post cardiac arrest
patients.
14
Savasana is an important part of Hatha Yoga
relaxation practice. To our knowledge, there is no study
addressing the influences of savasana on sympathovagal
balance of hypertensive subjects. Thus, this aspect still needs
DOI: 10.5935/MedicalExpress.2014.05.04
Copyright q2014 MEDICALEXPRESS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution
Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
233
further investigation, especially in populations which may
present cardiac sympathovagal dysfunction.
This paper addresses the following hypothesis: that
savasana relaxation may decrease cardiac sympathovagal
balance in the post-intervention period in hypertensive
patients; that this decrease has a measurable duration; and
that this decrease of the cardiac sympathetic modulation
may be impaired in hypertensive subjects.
Our results show that after savasana relaxation, hyperten-
sive patients had a decrease of cardiac sympathovagal
balance similar to normotensive controls, and this decrease
was present until 35 minutes after intervention.
BMATERIALS AND METHODS
Subjects
Sixteen essential stage I hypertensive (HT- 6 women), and
14 normotensive control (NT- 6 women) non-obese patients
volunteered. All patients signed a written consent to
participate in the study, which was approved by the Ethics
Committee of the Heart Institute and by the Ethics
Committee of Hospital das Clı
´nicas, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Sa
˜o Paulo, Brazil.
Volunteers had their blood pressure measured during two
visits to the laboratory. Inclusion criteria were: normotension
(accepted if the averages of 3 consecutive measurements
were bellow 130 and 85 mmHg for systolic and diastolic
blood pressures, respectively) stage I hypertension (averages
of 3 consecutive measurements were equal to or higher than
140 and 90 mmHg and below 160 and 100mmHg), and body
mass index (BMI) lower than 30 kg/m.
2
Hypertensive
patients had their medication washed-out 30 days prior to
the experiment and replaced by placebo. None of the
volunteers were enrolled in any regular exercise program, or
were acquainted with the practice of savasana relaxation.
In order to establish group pairing related to physical
conditioning, peak oxygen uptake (VO
2
peak) was measured
directly by a metabolic cart (Medical Graphics Corporation –
CAD/NET-2001) during maximal progressive exercise test
performed on a cycle ergometer (MIJNHARDT-Ken III)
using a protocol of 30 W-increments every 3 min till
exhaustion. Heart rate (HR) was continuously monitored
by electrocardiography (ECG–TECNOLO
´GICA DO BRA-
SIL–SM300). Blood pressure was measured (auscultatory
method) at the end of each stage. Tests were interrupted due
to physical fatigue, systolic blood pressure exceeding
250 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure greater than
115 mmHg or abnormalities in the electrocardiogram.
15
Measurements during experimental sessions.
R-R Interval. Electrocardiographic signal was continuously
monitored by ECG (TECNOLO
´GICA ELETRO
ˆNICA DO
BRASIL-SM300).
Blood pressure. Blood pressure was measured by finger
photoplethismography on a beat-to-beat basis using a non-
invasive finger monitor (OHMEDA-FINAPRES) on the
middle finger of the non-dominant arm.
Respiration. Respiratory movements were monitored by a
respiratory belt (UFI–Pneumotrace II) positioned around the
subject’s thorax.
Autonomic modulation. Electrocardiographic, respiratory, and
blood pressure were acquired in a microcomputer through
the Windaq software - sampling rate of 500 Hz/channel.
Sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiac modulations were
obtained by spectral analysis of the R-R interval variability,
and sympathetic vasomotor modulation was investigated by
spectral analysis of systolic blood pressure variability
through autoregressive algorithms. On stationary segments
of time series, autoregressive parameters were estimated via
Levinson-Durbin recursion, and the order of the model
chosen according to Akaike’s criterion. This procedure
permitted us to automatically quantify the center frequency
power of each relevant component of the spectrum in
absolute as well as normalized units (nu). The normalization
procedure was performed by (i) dividing the power of the
low-frequency component (LF-0.04-0.15 Hz) or high-fre-
quency component (HF-0.15-0.5 Hz) by the total spectral
power; (ii) from this, the power of the very low frequency
(VLF –0.00-0.04 Hz) component was subtracted. The result
was multiplied by 100.
16
Intervention.
Relaxation. Relaxation sessions lasted 20 min, based on the
Yoga technique called savasana.
17
During this intervention,
volunteers remained supine and tried to develop a conscious
detachment from the external environment. To do so, they
listened to a recording with 10 min of conducted relaxation
followed by 10 min of silence.
Experimental Protocol.All patients were submitted to 2
experimental sessions in a random order, with a minimum
4-day interval. Immediately after arriving at the laboratory,
patients emptied their bladders and were prepared
for acquisitions. Afterwards, one of the following
interventions took place: savasana relaxation (R – 20 min)
or control (C – 20 min of supine rest). ECG and respiration
were recorded continuously for 10 min during R and C. After
interventions, patients rested supine during 55 min, which
was considered the post-intervention period (P). During this
period, ECG, blood pressure, and respiratory signals were
continuously recorded during the intervals 15– 25 min (P15),
35 –45 min (P35), and 50– 55 min (P55).
Statistical Analysis.Data were submitted to a two
(during interventions) or three-way (after interventions)
analysis of variance for repeated measures, establishing
groups (normotensive and hypertensive) as independent
factors, and experimental sessions (R and C) and stages
(post-intervention - P15, P35, P55) as dependent ones.
Newman-Keuls test was used for post-hoc comparisons and
a level of P ,0.05 was accepted as significant. Data are
presented as means ^SEM. Results were analyzed with
SPSS software v 18.0.
BRESULTS
Forty six patients volunteered: 24 hypertensive and 22
normotensive patients. Eight hypertensive patients were
excluded: six due to stage II hypertension and systolic and/
or diastolic values higher than 220/120 mmHg during rest
before the cardiopulmonary exercise test; two due to the use
of other medications or presence of atrial fibrillation. Eight
normotensive patients were excluded for presenting more
than 5 extra-systoles/min (n ¼3), or for failing to attend all
experimental sessions (n ¼5). Thus, 30 patients finished the
study, 16 hypertensive (6 women), and 14 normotensive
(5 women) ones, as shown in Figure 1.
Physical and cardiovascular characteristics of the patients
(normotensive vs. hypertensive patients) are shown in
Yoga relaxation in hypertensive patients
Santaella DF, et al.
MEDICALEXPRESS 2014 October;1(5):233-238
234
Table 1. Groups were statistically similar for age, body mass
index, heart rate, and VO
2
peak. Hypertensive patients had
significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures.
Responses during savasana relaxation
Heart rate variability and respiration during savasana
relaxation and control sessions are shown in Table 2. During
savasana, respiratory frequency was significantly higher in
hypertensive vs. normotensive patients. However, in both
groups of patients, respiratory frequency during savasana
was similar to their respective basal levels. Autonomic
modulation was similar between normotensive and hyper-
tensive groups during interventions. During Relaxation,
total variance was not altered, but LF
nu
and LF/HF were
significantly lower (p ,0.05), while RR interval and HF
nu
were significantly higher than in Control (p ,0.05).
Responses after savasana relaxation
Mean data for the post-intervention period are summarized
in Table 3, and the most important variables are shown in
Figure 2. Respiratory frequency was significantly lower in the
normotensive than in the hypertensive group during all of the
post intervention period in all sessions (p ,0.05). Respiratory
frequencies after interventions were similar between exper-
imental sessions. Hypertensive and normotensive patients
presented similar autonomic responses after interventions.
Thus, independent of group, mean RR interval was signifi-
cantly lower after savasana versus control at all of the post-
intervention periods (p ,0.05), while total variance did not
change between experimental sessions and measurement
points. At P15, LF
nu
and LF/HF were significantly lower and
HF
nu
was significantly higher after savasana vs. control
(p ,0.05). At P35, LF
nu
(p ,0.05) and LF/HF (p ,0.05)
were significantly lower and HF
nu
was significantly higher
during savasana vs. control (p ,0.05). At minute P55 after the
interventions, there was no statistical difference in any
autonomic variable between experimental sessions.
As expected, systolic blood pressure was significantly higher
in hypertensive than in normotensive patients (p ,0.05).
Independent of the post-intervention moment, systolic blood
pressure was similar between sessions for savasana and control
(p .0.05) in both groups. Total variance and LF component of
the systolic blood pressure variability were similar among the
sessions at all the post-intervention moments.
BDISCUSSION
The main findings of the present paper are: 1) savasana
relaxation caused a reduction of cardiac sympathovagal
balance; 2) this shift of the sympathovagal balance toward a
higher parasympathetic modulation was similar between
hypertensive and normotensive patients; 3) the autonomic
cardiac modulation influence of savasana relaxation lasted for
at least 35 minutes after it was performed; 4) sympathetic
vasomotor tone was not influenced by savasana relaxation.
These results confirm the study hypothesis, since savasana
relaxation decreased cardiac sympathovagal balance by
increasing parasympathetic cardiac modulation and
decreasing cardiac sympathetic modulation similarly in
hypertensive and normotensive patients. This effect is not
impaired in hypertensive patients. Furthermore, the dur-
ation of this decrease in sympathetic cardiac modulation
Table 1 - Physical and cardiovascular characteristics of
normotensive individuals (NT) vs. patients (HT).
NT HT
Age, years 39 ^243^1
BMI, kg/m
2
25.3 ^0.4 26.7 ^0.6
Heart rate, bpm 74 ^377^2
Systolic Blood Pressure, mmHg 120 ^1
a
144 ^2
Dyastolic Blood Pressure, mmHg 74 ^1
a
96 ^1
VO
2
peak, ml.kg
21
.min
21
33.7 ^1.6 30.5 ^1.7
Values are means ^SE. BMI – Body mass index. a –HT (p ,0.05).
Figure 1 - Subjects distribution. Forty six subjects volunteered: 24 hypertensive, and 22 normotensive subjects. Eight subjects of each
group were excluded since they did not meet inclusion criteria; thus, 16 hypertensive, and 14 normotensive subjects were included in this
research.
Table 2 - Autonomic data evaluated during savasana
relaxation (R), and control (C) sessions in the
normotensive controls (NT) and hypertensive patients (HT).
CR
NT HT NT HT
RF 0.26 ^0.03
b
0.34 ^0.07 0.27 ^0.04
b
0.32 ^0.06
RR 922 ^74 919 ^34 952 ^38
a
913 ^25
a
TV
RR
2716 ^715 1910 ^406 2698 ^1175 1589 ^234
LF
RR
,nu 59^567^351^5
a
50 ^3
a
HF
RR
,nu 38^529^343^5
a
45 ^4
a
LF/HF
RR
2.7 ^0.7 2.7 ^0.4 1.2 ^0.3
a
1.3 ^0.2
a
Values are means ^SE. RF – Respiratory Frequency; RR – R-R interval; TV –
Total variance; LF – Low frequency; HF – High frequency; LF/HF –
Sympathovagal balance. a –C(p,0.05); b –HT (p ,0.05).
MEDICALEXPRESS 2014 October;1(5):233-238 Yoga relaxation in hypertensive patients
Santaella DF, et al.
235
could be measured. It lasted at least 35 minutes. Thus, it is
possible to state that savasana relaxation may have clinical
importance for the non-drug treatment of hypertension.
In accordance with the literature,
5,6
relaxation led to a
decrease in LF
nu
and to an increase in HF
nu
during its
execution, indicating a shift of the sympathovagal balance
towards the parasympathetic branch of cardiac autonomic
modulation. Furthermore, savasana relaxation also led to a
decrease in sympathetic and to an increase in parasympa-
thetic cardiac modulation after its execution, because 35 min
after relaxation, HF
nu
was higher and LF
nu
and LF/HF were
lower than in C. Because there was no difference for
autonomic modulation between groups either during, or
after intervention, the hypothesis that hypertensive patients
might have impaired autonomic response to relaxation is
refuted. During relaxation, LF/HF was already below C and
remained low until 35 min of the post-intervention period.
However, this status progressively changed throughout this
period, since sympathovagal balance returned to control
levels at 55 min of post-intervention. Thus, it is possible to
state that the duration of the effect is at least 35 minutes.
The mechanisms by which savasana relaxation may have
decreased sympathovagal balance after its execution is out of
the scope of this study. However, some speculation may be
Table 3 - Autonomic data evaluated from 15 to 25 min (P15), from 35 to 45min (P35), and 50 to 55 min (P55) after the
intervention in control (C) and relaxation (R), in the normotensive controls (panel A) and hypertensive (panel B) groups.
A – NT Control Savasana Relaxation
P15 P35 P55 P15 P35 P55
RF, Hz 0.27 ^0.01
b
0.28 ^0.01
b
0.29 ^0.01
b
0.27 ^0.01
b
0.28 ^0.01
b
0.29 ^0.01
b
RR, ms 1038 ^36 1018 ^38 1008 ^38 964 ^40
a
950 ^40
a
945 ^36
a
TV
RR
,ms
2
4009 ^948 3160 ^712 3929 ^773 3876 ^1839 3814 ^1219 2955 ^1024
LF
RR
,nu 61^466^357^650^6
ad
52 ^5
a
55 ^6
HF
RR
,nu 31^431^438^541^5
ad
41 ^6
a
40 ^6
LF/HF
RR
3.0 ^0.8 2.8 ^0.6 2.4 ^0.5 2.2 ^0.6
ad
2.3 ^0.7
a
2.2 ^0.5
SBP, mmHg 111 ^5
b
117 ^5
b
116 ^5
b
109 ^3
b
111 ^4
b
116 ^4
b
TV
SBP
, mmHg
2
31 ^624^325^430^442^10 35 ^8
LF
SBP
, mmHg
2
19 ^713^318^512^317^10 26 ^8
B – HT Control Savasana Relaxat ion
P15 P35 P55 P15 P35 P55
RF, Hz 0.35 ^0.01 0.33 ^0.01 0.33 ^0.01 0.32 ^0.01 0.32 ^0.02 0.32 ^0.01
RR, ms 948 ^29 944 ^32 968 ^32 937 ^28
a
934 ^26
a
926 ^24
a
TV
RR
,ms
2
2793 ^519 3026 ^618 2746 ^611 2960 ^937 2719 ^607 2110 ^543
LF
RR
,nu 68^368^258^446^4
a
48 ^3
a
54 ^5
HF
RR
,nu 27^327^235^446^4
a
45 ^3
a
40 ^5
LF/HF
RR
3.3 ^0.5 2.8 ^0.3 2.4 ^0.5 1.2 ^0.2
a
1.3 ^0.2
a
2.3 ^0.5
SBP, mmHg 130 ^4 132 ^4 138 ^4 134 ^4130^4 138 ^5
TV
SBP
, mmHg
2
35 ^542^124^744^835^628^5
LF
SBP
, mmHg
2
19 ^410^211^324^715^612^4
Values are means ^SE. RF – respiratory frequency (Hz); RR – R-R interval (msec); TV – total variance (msec
2
); LF – low frequency component; HF – high
frequency component; LF/HF – sympathovagal balance; SBP – systolic blood pressure (mmHg). a –C(p,0.05); b –HT (p ,0.05).
Figure 2 - RR interval, sympathovagal balance of RR interval variability (LF/HF
RR
), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and low frequency
component of systolic blood pressure (LF
SBP
) measured at 15 (P15), 35 (P35), and 55 (P55) minutes of post-intervention period on the two
experimental sessions: relaxation (R) and control (C). Data from both groups (normotensive and hypertensive patients) were combined.
Yoga relaxation in hypertensive patients
Santaella DF, et al.
MEDICALEXPRESS 2014 October;1(5):233-238
236
pertinent. One could state that the decrease in sympathova-
gal modulation during relaxation and after intervention
might be related to changes in respiratory frequency, which
markedly influences cardiac autonomic modulation.
18
However, as respiratory frequency was not altered by
relaxation, and was similar after intervention, this possibility
is refuted. The effect of relaxation, thus, could be related to
its effects on the central regulator of sympathetic and
parasympathetic nucleus.
19
Nevertheless, further studies are
necessary to investigate this issue.
Another possible mechanism for cardiovascular changes
after intervention might have been altered vasomotortone, as is
observed after physical exercise.
10,20
In fact, relaxation led to
hypotension, as systolic blood pressure was lower after
Relaxation than after Control. Previous studies,
21,22
employing
microneurography suggested that the post-exercise blood
pressure decrease is due to a decrease in peripheral
sympathetic activity when recovery is conducted in a supine
position. However, in the present study, total variance and LF
component of systolic blood pressure variability, which may
represent sympathetic vasomotor activity,
12
were not
decreased after relaxation. These different results may be
related to methodological aspects:1) the kind of measurement,
i.e. microneurography measures sympathetic traffic to a
specific nerve, while blood pressure variability evaluates
vasomotor response to sympathetic activity in the whole body,
and 2) the timing, i.e. previous studies measured sympathetic
activity 60 min after exercise, while in the present study
measurements were taken earlier, and did not address exercise
conditions. Thus, it seems pertinent to state that mechanisms
responsible forcardiovascular autonomic modulation effects of
savasana relaxation are different from those of physical exercise.
Since autonomic dysfunction is associated with a worse
cardiovascular prognosis, and hypertensive patients may
have increased cardiac sympathovagal balance,
3,4
the results
of this study may have clinical importance for hypertensive
patients. The investigated intervention (savasana relaxation)
decreased sympathovagal balance after its execution, and
this reduction was not impaired by hypertension. Thus,
these findings strengthen the recommendation of relaxation
as part of the non-pharmacological treatment of hyperten-
sion, performed alone or in association.
BCONCLUSION
In conclusion, savasana relaxation decreases cardiac sym-
pathovagal balance after its execution in hypertensive patients.
This reduction lasts at least 35 minutes, and is not impaired in
hypertensive when compared to normotensives patients. Thus,
savasana relaxation has positive effects on cardiac autonomic
modulation of hypertensive patients, and may be included as a
strategy for the non-drug treatment of hypertension.
Limitations
Both men and women were studied and, thus, differences
between genders were not addressed. Results are limited to
stage I hypertensive and healthy normotensive patients.
Variables were not measured before interventions, which
would have allowed a specific description of what happened
from pre to post-intervention periods. However, as sessions
were randomly ordered, it is reasonable to expect that pre-
intervention values were similar and thus comparisons
between sessions at the post-intervention period reflect
differences in behaviors between pre and post periods.
Spectral analysis of cardiovascular variability must always
be faced as a tool to access cardiovascular autonomic
modulation and not total autonomic activity.
The different groups were expected to present different
cardiac autonomic modulations at rest, with a greater
sympathetic modulation in hypertensive patients,
3,4
but this
was not corroborated by our results. One possible reason for
this is the hypertension stage of the sample: because patients
had to be washed out of medication 1 month prior to the
protocol, only stage I hypertensive patients without
complications entered the study. Most of the literature
addresses stage II hypertensive patients.
BSUMMARY
Briefly, savasana relaxation decreases cardiac sympathovagal
balance(LF/HF ratio),increasingparasympathetic modulation
to the heart in hypertensive patients, without disadvantages
when compared to normotensives. This effect lasts at least
35 minutes. Its mechanisms require further investigation.
BACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Alberto Porta, Ph.D. for providing the software (LA,
version 8.3 – Brazil) for spectral analysis, developed in the University of
Milan, Italy. We gratefully acknowledge the volunteers of this study. Financial
support: Fundaca
˜o de Amparo a
`Pesquisa do Estado de Sa
˜o Paulo - FAPESP
[99/12278-4]; and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientı
´fico e
Tecnolo
´gico - CNPq [46133900-5].
BAUTHOR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No competing financial interests exist.
BRESUMO
OBJETIVO: Embora o relaxamento seja recomendado como terapia
complementar no tratamento da hipertensa
˜o, seus efeitos na modulaca
˜o
autono
ˆmica cardiovascular ainda na
˜o esta
˜o claros. O objetivo desse trabalho
foi investigar os efeitos do relaxamento na modulaca
˜o autono
ˆmica cardı
´aca de
indivı
´duos hipertensos.
ME
´TODOS: Este estudo aleatorizado e controlado foi realizado no
Laborato
´rio de Hemodina
ˆmica da Escola de Educaca
˜oFı
´sica e Esporte da
Universidade de Sa
˜o Paulo/Brasil. Dezesseis hipertensos (6-mulheres) e 14
normotensos controle (6-mulheres) na
˜o-obesos participaram de 2 sesso
˜es
aleato
´rias: relaxamento (R) e controle (C). Os participantes permaneceram
supinos por 55 minutos apo
´s as intervenco
˜es. Eletrocardiograma, pressa
˜o
arterial batimento a batimento, e respiraca
˜o foram adquiridos durante e apo
´s
as intervenco
˜es para a posterior ana
´lise espectral autorregressiva das
variabilidades do intervalo R-R e da pressa
˜o arterial.
RESULTADOS: Hipertensos e normotensos apresentaram respostas semel-
hantes de modulaca
˜o autono
ˆmica cardı
´aca durante e apo
´s as sesso
˜es
experimentais. Durante o relaxamento, a baixa freque
ˆncia e o equilı
´brio
simpatovagal da variabilidade da freque
ˆncia cardı
´acaestavam significantemente
mais baixas no R do que no repouso supino em C. Quinze minutos apo
´sa
intervenca
˜o a baixa freque
ˆncia e o equilı
´brio simpatovagal ainda estavam
inferioresem R do que em C, o que ocorreu tambe
´m nos 35 minutos,mas na
˜oaos
55 minutos. A variabilidade da pressa
˜o arterial foi semelhante entre as sesso
˜es.
CONCLUSA
˜O: O relaxamento savasana reduz a modulaca
˜oautono
ˆmica
simpa
´tica cardı
´aca de hipertensos; essa reduca
˜o perdura por pelo menos 35
minutos apo
´sote
´rmino do relaxamento e na
˜oe
´prejudicada nos hipertensos
quando comparados com normotensos. Dessa forma, o relaxamento savasana
tem efeitos positivos na modulaca
˜oautono
ˆmica cardı
´aca de hipertensos e pode
ser incluı
´do como estrate
´gia para o tratamento na
˜o-medicamentoso da
hipertensa
˜oarterial.
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MEDICALEXPRESS 2014 October;1(5):233-238 Yoga relaxation in hypertensive patients
Santaella DF, et al.
237
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