Effect of Heartfulness Meditation on Cortisol Levels and Vital Parameters in Healthy Female Medical StudentsA Prospective Longitudinal Study

Introduction: Medical education has been reported to be one of the most stressful academic curriculum worldwide, with a potential of negatively affecting the physical and mental health of medical students. Meditation is a self-produced relaxation technique which restores the mental peace by relieving emotional and physiological stress and is an accepted therapy to reduce stress.

Aim: To study the effect of heartfulness meditation on cortisol levels and vital parameters in healthy female medical students.

Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective longitudinal study conducted in the department of physiology at Sri Padmavathi Medical College for women, SVIMS, Andhra Pradesh, India. Sixty female medical students of age group 18 to 25 years were undergone heartfulness meditation training for a period of 6 months from September 2021 to February 2022 Baseline measurements of cortisol, heart rate, Respiratory Rate (RR) and Blood Pressure (BP) were taken at the beginning of the session and after 6 months of intervention program i.e., from September 2021 to February 2022. Later pre and postvalues were compared and analysed statistically by using paired sample t-test and the p-value <0.05 or 5% was used as level of significance for comparison. For data analysis Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19 was used.

Results: The vital signs and cortisol levels in female medical students were significantly changed after practicing heartfulness meditation for six months. There was a significant decrease in Pulse Rate (PR) (p<0.001), RR (p<0.001), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) (p<0.001) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) (p<0.001) and cortisol levels (p<0.001) after 6 months practice of heartfulness meditation.

Conclusion: The study concluded that heartfulness meditation had a positive effect on sympathovagal balance and also it was effective in reducing stress levels in medical students.