[Willem]

I finally got a hold of Yoga-Mimansa 1926 (editor Kuvalayananda). Kuvalayananda is one of the earliest researchers into the medical effects of yoga. This issue studies the effect of headstand (sirshasana) on blood pressure.

The subjects were 11 young adults of average health. Their average age was 22 ± 2 years and they had a normal body weight (body mass index 20 ± 2). They had normal blood pressures of 122/85 (± 12/9). Brachial blood pressures were recorded with a sphygmomanometer (in mm Hg) using the auscultation method .

Blood pressures were recorded before, during and after headstand. Headstand was performed while the subjects’ heels lightly touched a wall. This was done to decrease the muscular effort in the arms. Without the wall, the muscular contraction at the elbow decreased the blood flow and inconvenienced the measurements. Blood pressure was recorded just after getting into headstand (initial) and after every minute, the maximum duration being 5 minutes. Blood pressures were also recorded in a sitting position, just after headstand.

Averaged results are shown in the graph. Note that blood pressure rises from 122/85 while sitting to 140/111 after 2 minutes of headstand. Blood pressures then decrease to 131/108 at the end of the fifth minute of headstand. The increase in systolic blood pressure is only 18 mm Hg at the end of the second minute (diastolic 26 mm Hg). Blood pressures decreased after two minutes of headstand.

The effect of headstand on blood pressure is mild compared to other forms of exercise, like running (200/80), very strenuous exercise 245/160 (McArdle Exercise Physiology 1996, p 276) or a maximum of 320/250 attained by body builders in a dead weight double leg press (J. Appl. Phys 58:785-790, 1985).