Vijayaraghavan Rajagopalan’s scientific contributions

Background: OM chanting was reported to improve parasympathetic activity and offer relaxation. This is due to the vibration effect created during the chanting of OM. There is a need to motivate medical students to practice and implement yoga and meditation to overcome the stress they face during their course. This also helps to improve cognitive functions and helps them to develop their academic performance as well. Objectives: To investigate the impact of Om chanting on cognitive abilities of healthy young adults. Methods:This experimental study was carried out on 40 young healthy volunteers aged 18-24 years, both male and female. After obtaining voluntary, written, informed consent 20 subjects were randomly assigned to experimental group and 20 were control. The experimental group received an initial training in structured Om chanting and then performed OM chanting daily for 12 weeks. The control participants were not under OM for this 12 weeks of follow up period. Both before and after the intervention, the control and intervention groups were assessed for their cognitive abilities by spatial and verbal memory test and Generalized Anxiety Disorder score (GAD-7). Statistical analysis was done by students un paired t test. Results: Demographic data of the participants was not significantly different when compared between the control and experimental groups. Spatial, verbal memory scores and GAD-7 scores were almost similar in both control and intervention groups at baseline. Significant improvement was observed in the spatial and verbal memory scores and significant decrease in the anxiety scores was also observed in the experimental group participants after 10 weeks of OM chanting. Conclusion: Structured OM chanting may be effective to increase cognitive functions and reduce anxiety in young healthy volunteers. J Bangladesh Soc Physiol 2024;19(1): 23-28

Background: The existing treatments for PD were associated with side effects and does not offer complete cure. Hence there is a need of alternative therapy which can prevent or delay the onset of PD with less or no side effects. Aim and objective: The overall objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of electrical vestibular nerve stimulation in the management of Parkinson’s disease. Materials and methods: 60 cases with PD, including both males and females, were recruited in the study by convenient sampling after obtaining written and informed consent. They were randomly grouped with 30 participants in each group. Control group received sham stimulation and the intervention group received electrical vestibular nerve stimulation for 12 weeks. After recording the baseline biochemical parameters, post intervention assessment was performed after 6 weeks and 12 weeks of intervention and compared. Results: Demographic variables were not statistically significant among the control and intervention groups. There was a significant increase in the dopamine and GABA levels followed by the intervention. Conclusion: The present study results support the positive impact of non-invasive electrical vestibular nerve stimulation in modulating neurotransmitters in patients with Parkinson’s disease. A further detailed translational study is required in this area with a larger sample size to generalize the results.