| Research Article |
Open Access |
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| Effect of Siddha Samadhi Yoga Camps on Health and Nutritional Status
of Normal and Diabetic Subjects |
| Sreedevi K1*, Devaki PB2 and Bhushanam GV3 |
| 1Nutrition Consultant, Behavioral Science Unit, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India |
| 2Faculty of Food Science & Nutrition, Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupathi, India |
| 3All India Coordinated Research Project on Home Science, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, India |
| *Corresponding author: |
Sreedevi K
Nutrition Consultant, Behavioral Science
Unit
National Institute of Nutrition
Hyderabad, India
Tel: 9492059106
E-mail:
kareddy_sree@yahoo.co.in |
|
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| Received April 09, 2012; Accepted May 28, 2012; Published June 04, 2012 |
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| Citation: Sreedevi K, Devaki PB, Bhushanam GV (2012) Effect of Siddha Samadhi
Yoga Camps on Health and Nutritional Status of Normal and Diabetic Subjects. J
Diabetes Metab 3:195. doi:10.4172/2155-6156.1000195 |
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| Copyright: © 2012 Sreedevi K. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited. |
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| Abstract |
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| Introduction: Now-a-days a new way of life comprising of yogasana, pranayama, meditation and changed food
habits is expected to lead a happy purposeful life with heightened consciousness and perceptiveness. One such
yoga camp is Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) camp which is believed to invoke the intellectual, emotional, mental
and physical potential in each individual. These yoga camps claim to have the powers of reversing the ill effects of
degenerative diseases. In view of the beneficial effects of Yoga, Meditation and changed food habits the effect of
Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) camp’s on normal and diabetic subjects was planned. |
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| Materials & methods: Thirty normal and thirty diabetic male subjects free from additional complications
belonging to twenty five to forty five years of age were selected from two camps conducted in Mahaboob Nagar
and Tirupathi. The BMI of all subjects was assessed. Blood samples were analysed for post prandial blood glucose;
serum cholesterol; serum iron and haemoglobin levels. Diet Survey was conducted on the basis of food intake record
provided by the subjects. The food habits of normal and diabetic subjects before and after the SSY camp of 18 days
was also studied. |
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| Results & discussion: There was a significant difference in pre and post prandial blood glucose level of Normal
subjects (t = 4.9811 > 2.05) and Diabetics (t = 24.4962 > 2.05). The percent reduction in BMI is 4.2 and 4.1 in normal
and diabetic subjects respectively. Serum cholesterol levels among diabetics reduced by 4.1% and by 2.99% in
normal subjects. Serum Iron and haemoglobin levels improved in normal subjects by 8.4% and 14.95% respectively
in normal subjects while by 5% and 6.9% respectively in diabetics. |
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| Summary & conclusion: The SSY camp has a significant effect in decreasing the post-prandial blood glucose
and serum cholesterol levels, intake of calories, carbohydrates, cholesterol, fat and significant increase in the intake
of fibre, vitamin C, iron and B-carotene. |
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| Introduction |
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| Degenerative diseases and cancer are emerging as major causes of
death not only in India but in other South and Southeast Asian countries
as well. If present trends continue, India could emerge as one of the
countries with the highest concentration of cases of diabetes mellitus
and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) within the next three decades [1]. |
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| Yogic exercises are getting popular all over the world, not only for
health and physical fitness, but also for therapeutic purposes. Yogic
training tends to reduce the cholesterol level which is significant in
individuals having above normal limits [2]. Meditation reduces bodily
stress which is evident with reduced blood levels of cortisol and a lowered
rate of urinary excretion of nitrogen and may prove useful for persons
suffering from anxiety state and depression [3]. |
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| Antioxidant deficiency and free radical stress may be a risk factor
for the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is possible
that treatment with antioxidant vitamins may be protective [4].
Now-a-days a new way of life comprising of yogasana, pranayama,
meditation and changed food habits which is expected to lead a happy
purposeful life with heightened consciousness and perceptiveness. One
such yoga camp is Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) camp which is said to
invoke the true intellectual, emotional, mental and physical potential in
each individual. These yoga camps claim to have the powers of reversing
the ill effects of degenerative diseases [5]. |
| |
| In view of the beneficial effects of Yoga, Meditation and changed
food habits the effect of Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY) camp’s on normal
and diabetic subjects was planned. |
| |
| Materials and Methods |
| |
| Thirty normal and thirty diabetic male free from further complications
of twenty five to forty five years of age were selected from two
camps conducted in Mahaboob Nagar and Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh,
India. General information regarding economic status, educational status,
occupation, family size etc. was elicited using General information
questionnaire. |
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| The BMI of all subjects were calculated based on the heights and
weights recorded. Blood samples were analysed for post prandial blood
glucose; serum cholesterol; serum iron and haemoglobin levels. Diet
Survey was conducted on the basis of food intake record provided by
the subjects before and at the end of the SSY camp of 18 days. |
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| The height and weight of all subjects were recorded following the
methods of Jellifee [6] BMI was calculated using the formula weight in kg/height in (m2) and compared with standard classification of James
et al. (1998). Five ml of the blood was drawn from each subject and
divided into three portions, one for estimation of blood glucose by Nelson
and Somayagi [7] method, second for the estimation of serum cholesterol
by Carr and Drekter [8] Method and the other for serum iron
by ⇐ ⇐dipyridyl method [9], and finger prick samples were collected
to estimate haemoglobin levels by cyanomethaemoglobin method [10]. |
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| WHO expert consultation recommends the acceptability of glycated
haemoglobin, or HbA1c, as an additional test to diagnose diabetes.
The higher cost in comparison to other diagnostic tools will, for
now, will make it harder for developing countries to use. It also remains
unreliable in medical conditions with rapid red cell turnover, such as
haemolytic or iron deficiency anaemias. So the priority for low-income
countries will continue to be ensuring the availability of blood glucose
measurement at the primary health care level before widely introducing
HbA1c for diagnosing diabetes [11]. Cost has become a major influencing
factor in using Nelson Somyogi method as against HbA1c method. |
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| Moreover, HbA1c results can be misleading when red blood cell
survival is prolonged or reduced; some health conditions can result in
falsely high A1c results (as in cases of anemia) or falsely low (as in cases
of hemolysis) and only subjects with a substantially reduced glucose
tolerance may be diagnosed by HbA1c determinations [12]. |
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| Diet survey was conducted to note down the food items consumed
over a period of three days (2 working days + 1 holiday) before and at
the end of the SSY camp using standard cup to measure the food they
consumed. Based on the food intake record food consumed per day
was computed. The mean nutrients were calculated by using the tables
of food values. |
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| The data on BMI, blood glucose; serum cholesterol; serum iron and
haemoglobin levels, Dietary pattern and intake and personal well being
of normal and diabetic subjects was analyzed statistically. The percentages,
mean, standard deviation, t- value and their test of significance
were calculated. |
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| Results & Discussion |
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| The results on the effect of yoga camp on health status of normal
and diabetic subjects with reference pre and post levels of blood glucose
and serum cholesterol is presented in Table 1. |
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Table 1: Pre and post levels of blood glucose and cholesterol levels. |
|
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| The mean difference between the pre and post blood glucose level
of Normal and NIDDM subjects was 2.38 mg/dl and 35.38 mg/dl respectively. The percent reduction of blood glucose was 1.6 ± 7.9 in Normal
and 15.15 ± 7.9 in Diabetic subjects. |
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| Statistically there is a significant difference in pre and post prandial
blood glucose level of Normal subjects (t = 4.9811 > 2.05) and Diabetics
(t = 24.4962 > 2.05). The ‘t’ value is greater than ‘t’ critical value at 5
percent level. The percent reduction of serum cholesterol level in Group
I was 2.901 ± 5.26 and 4.069 ± 3.249 in group II. |
|
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| Generally among normal subjects before breakfast blood usually
contains about 80 mg/dl glucose. After a meal the concentration rises
because, the glucose absorbed from the gut passes through the liver in
to general circulation, it may reach 132 mg or even more, but rarely
exceeds 177 mg at which point glucose usually into the urine and in diabetics
the mean fasting blood glucose level is very high, 120 mg/dl and
the post prandial level is higher180 mg/dl. It is observed that half of the
subjects have above the normal range of post-prandial blood glucose
level and in NIDDM subjects were having above the limits. |
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| The effect of yoga camp of normal and diabetic subjects on the pre
and post serum iron is presented in Table 2. |
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Table 2: Serum iron levels before and after SSY camp. |
|
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| The difference in pre and post serum iron levels was 12.01 ug/dl
in group I and 145.73 ug/dl in group II. There was percent decrease in
serum iron levels (8.35 ± 5.1) in group I against a percent increase of
5.0 ± 3.43 in group II. |
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| There is a significant between pre and post serum iron levels of
Group I and group II. The increase in the serum iron levels from pre
to post level in Normal subjects was statistically highly significant (P <
0.05) compared to NIDDM subjects. |
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| Though a controlled design is more robust when compared to a pre
(intervention) and post (intervention) design this study used the later
as it was undertaken with very limited resources and could not consider
inclusion of a control group, this as a limitation of the study. |
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| The mean blood haemoglobin levels of normal and diabetic subjects
were 10.7 and 10.2 g/dl respectively. The post levels were 12.03
and 10.9 g/dl respectively. Healthy normal adult man has about 13 – 14
g% blood haemoglobin [11]. The difference between pre and post level
among normal subjects was 1.32 g and percent increase in haemoglobin
was 12.27 ± 0.77 and the difference between pre and post level was 0.77
g and percent increase in haemoglobin was 7.55 ± 0.61 among NIDDM
subjects. |
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| In diabetics as the concentration of glucose in blood rises, more
of it gets attached to haemoglobin and the combined molecule chemically
estimated as glycosylated haemoglobin. In normal population the
glycosylated haemoglobin concentration varies from 4 to 7%, while in
diabetics it ranges from 8 to 18% of the total haemoglobin depending
on the blood sugar level. |
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| The effect of yoga camp of normal and diabetic subjects on the pre
and post levels of dietary pattern is presented in Table 3. |
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Table 3: Blood Haemoglobin levels of male subjects before and after SSY camp. |
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Table 4: Nutrient intake of Subjects before and during SSY program. |
|
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| 4.638 percent reduction of calories was observed in Group I and
11.74 in group II. Percent reduction in carbohydrate; Protein; Fat dietary
cholesterol was observed in group I & II. Percent increase in intake
of Fibre and Iron was observed in group I and II. The percent intake of
carotene was 14.71 in group I and 13.4 in group II but these values are
still lower than the standard recommended intake which may be due to
lowered intake of diet. In the present study a low degree of positive correlation
was found between Vitamin C and post prandial blood glucose
levels in Normal and diabetic subjects. There is a highly significant correlation
between Vitamin C and post prandial blood glucose in normal
subjects (r = 0.484). From this it is evident that if Vitamin C intake is
increased, post prandial blood glucose is controlled. |
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| Summary & Conclusion |
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| The SSY camp has a significant effect in decreasing the post-prandial
blood glucose and serum cholesterol levels, intake of calories, carbohydrates,
cholesterol, fat and significant increase in the intake of fibre,
vitamin C, iron and B-carotene. The correlations obtained between the
health parameters, haematological parameters and the energy and nutrient
intakes are very obvious and significant. Therefore efforts should be made to practice the food habits, regular exercise, yoga and meditation
for continued beneficial effect. |
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| References |
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- Gopalan C (1996) Diet related chronic diseases in India changing trends Bulletin of the Nutrition Foundation of India 17: 1-5.
- Udupa KN, Singh RH, Settiwar RM (1995) A comparative study on the effect of some individual yogic practices in normal persons. Indian J Med Res 63: 1066-1071.
- Udupa KN, Singh RH (1978) Physiological studies on the effort of a Yogic relaxation posture Savasana. J Res Ind Med Yoga & Homoeo 13: 147.
- Maritim AC, Sanders RA, Watkins JB (2003) Diabetes, Oxidative stress and antioxidants: A Review. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 17: 24-38.
- Yogeswar (1981) Textbook of Yoga, Madras.
- Jellifee (1996) Assessment of Nutritional Status of the Community: with special reference to field surveys in the developing regions of the world, WHO, Geneva.
- Nelson N, Somayagi M (1965) Determination of Glucose, Hawk’s Physiological Chemistry, Osler B2 Ed., New York, Mc Graw Hill Book Company, 14th Edition: 1054 - 1055.
- Carr JJ, Drekter IJ (1956) Simplified Rapid Technic for the Extraction and Determination of Serum Cholesterol without Saponification. Clin Chem 2: 353-368.
- Ramsay WN (1973) The measurement of serum transferring by iron binding capacity. J Clin Pathol 26: 691-696.
- CrosbyWH, Munn JI, Furth FW (1954) Standardizing a method for hemoglobinometry. U S Armed Forces Med J 5: 693-703.
- WHO (2011) Use of Glycated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) in the Diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus: Abbreviated Report of a WHO Consultation.
- WHO (1975) WHO, Nutritional anaemia, W.H.O. Tech Rep Series 503.
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