By Sidhharrth S Kumaar

The phrase “cardiovascular health” refers to the state of one’s heart and blood vessels. Chronic inflammation, improper exercising schedule, and overstressing all degrade cardiovascular health. Proper nutrition and a stress-reducing lifestyle like yoga and meditation promote cardiovascular health. Yoga and meditation have been the easiest get away for us to take a peaceful break from the rat-race. Practicing yoga and meditation has been shown to enhance cardiovascular health and lower the risk of heart disease, although this is a little-recognised truth. Regularly doing them can help you alleviate stress, enhance heart rate, and control blood pressure.

Most people believe that following a cardiac arrest, they would never be able to recover and lead a normal life again. However, did you know that this is a blatant lie? As per the July 2012-article released by the American Heart Association, yoga is beneficial not just for preventing CVD by promoting a healthy lifestyle, but also to individuals who have already had heart attacks, cardiac arrest, or other such related disorders.

Even in your daily life, overwhelming responses like anxiety and stress may place a significant strain on your cardiovascular system and trigger renal damage or heart disease. According to a scientific statement released in the Journal of the American Heart Association on 28^th September 2017, practicing the art of meditation helps lower your risk of heart disease. When you meditate, you train your body how to respond appropriately to stress and stimulation rather than performing impulsive reactions. Mindful meditation boosts immunity, reduces the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), reduces inflammation, and improves fertility.

Lack of physical activity is a major contributor to the development of cardiovascular disease. Many studies demonstrate that those who practise yoga have better eating habits than those who don’t. As a result, the chance of developing heart-related problems is reduced. According to a review of clinical studies released in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in 2014, yoga has a substantial influence on cardio-metabolic variables compared to inactivity.

The practise of yoga has been proven to be effective for reducing stress. In May 2015, Canadian research issued in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online found that women who participated in a six-week yoga programme reported less stress and anxiety. This has a knock-on effect of lowering the risk of both cardiovascular disease and mental illness.

Yoga and meditation, according to some research, can lower both the systolic and the diastolic blood pressure. Yoga also aids in the regulation and maintenance of normal heartbeats, which can help prevent strokes and other problems. Ministry of Ayush’s article from June 2020 states that yoga has been found to help reduce Ischemic heart disease3 in several randomised controlled trials. As a result of these studies, it has been established that practising yoga lowers systolic blood pressure as well as total and LDL cholesterols. In other investigations, baroreflex sensitivity, myocardial perfusion status, and endothelial dysfunction all improved as a result of regular practice of yoga and meditation.