Yoga Reduces Symptoms of Distress in Tsunami Survivors in the Andaman Islands. Issue 4 (2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Telles Telles, Shirley Shirley; Naveen Naveen, K. V. K. V.; Dash Dash, Manoj Manoj
• Is Part Of: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine. Volume 4:Issue 4(2007)
• Page Start: 503
• Page End: 509
• Publication Date: 2007
• Subjects: Indian Ocean tsunami -- stress management -- yoga; Alternative medicine -- Periodicals; 615.505
• DOI: 10.1093/ecam/nem069
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-427X

Abstract

Abstract : A month after the December 2004 tsunami the effect of a 1 week yoga program was evaluated on self rated fear, anxiety, sadness and disturbed sleep in 47 survivors in the Andaman Islands. Polygraph recordings of the heart rate, breath rate and skin resistance were also made. Among the 47 people, 31 were settlers from the mainland (i.e. India, ML group) and 16 were endogenous people (EP group). There was a significant decrease in self rated fear, anxiety, sadness and disturbed sleep in both groups, and in the heart and breath rate in the ML group, and in the breath rate alone in the EP group, following yoga ( P < 0.05, t -test). This suggests that yoga practice may be useful in the management of stress following a natural disaster in people with widely differing social, cultural and spiritual beliefs.