A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF YOGIC AND AYURVEDIC INTERVENTION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF TAMAKA SHWASA.

Asthma is one of the commonest respiratory disease (as Jamnagar situated on sea coast has more moisture present in the air and polluting environment is increasing due to rapid industrial development i.e. industries using various chemicals/ pollutants, increases the incidences of Respiratory tract diseases) as well as a significant disease burden worldwide costing billions of dollars. The WHO estimates that there are between 15 and 20 million people with Asthma in India. The increase is likely to be particularly dramatic in India, which is projected to become the world’s most populous nation by 2050. An absolute 2% increase in the prevalence of Asthma in India would result in an additional 20 million people with the disease.  Anti-asthmatic drugs that are available in the market are expensive and have adverse effects. Thus, it is wise to look for an adjunct therapy to alleviate these problems. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to see the effect of Yoga on patterns of clinical features, peak expiratory flow rates and use of drugs in Asthmatic patients. Yoga intervention group (Group A) showed 70.58% reduction in the use of emergency medicine while it was 68.09% in Ayurvedic conventional group (Group B). There was a 24.93% increment in the PEFR in the Group A while only 16.49% in the Group B. There was statistically significant reduction in frequency and duration of Asthma attacks in both the Groups. Yoga exercise among Asthmatic patients resulted in a decreased number of attacks and use of drugs. It also shows significant improvement in the peak expiratory flow rate in Yoga intervention Group. Further large scale study is recommended. Keywords: Asthma, Yoga, Expiratory flow rate.