Researchers at IIT-Roorkee in Uttarakhand have found that men who practice yoga on a regular basis have healthy hearts as compared to those who did not.

According to the researchers, breathing work outs, stretching, relaxation and meditation keeps heart in a healthy condition as the pulse rate variability of the yoga practicians showed indication of firmer control by the parasympathetic nervous system.

The heart rate variability of healthy people is high, and people having heart problems have low heart rate variability.

Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria, Vinod Kumar and Suresh Chandra Saxena of the Electrical Engineering Dept conducted the study, which will be published in the upcoming 2010 issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.

Researchers assessed two small groups of men to observe whether yogic exercises improve heart health or not.

To come to the conclusion, researchers assessed the HRV spectra of ECGs of 42 male volunteers those who practiced yoga regularly and 42 healthy male volunteers, who did not practiced yoga, aged 18 to 48 years.

The spectral analysis of HRV is a vital instrument in discovering the health of hearth and the methods of pulse rate regulation.

By viewing different frequency bands of HRV in temporary episodes, it is possible to see for example how well the heart reacts to alterations in the body controlled by the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.