YOGA AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH: INTEGRATING CLASSICAL INSIGHTS FROM THE PĀTAÑJALA YOGA SUTRAS WITH CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease remains a major global cause of morbidity and mortality, driven substantially by modifiable behavioural, metabolic, haemodynamic, and psychosocial determinants. Yoga is increasingly investigated as an adjunctive strategy for cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation; however, contemporary evidence has largely evaluated yoga as a composite mind–body or lifestyle intervention, with limited integration of its classical philosophical framework. This narrative review examines the relationship between the Pātañjala Yoga framework and contemporary cardiovascular science, with particular consideration of Yama, Niyama, citta vṛtti, citta-vikṣepa, kleśa, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna, and their potential cardiovascular correlates. Evidence from randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, physiological studies, and classical Sanskrit sources was synthesized across major biomedical and multidisciplinary databases. Contemporary findings indicate that structured yoga practice is associated with favourable effects on blood pressure, selected metabolic risk factors, heart rate variability, autonomic regulation, baroreflex sensitivity, endothelial function, exercise capacity, and quality of life, with emerging evidence in coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. The classical framework provides a multidimensional model in which behavioural regulation, physical practice, respiratory modulation, and attentional processes may converge through interacting behavioural, psychophysiological, autonomic, vascular, and metabolic pathways. Nevertheless, substantial heterogeneity in yoga protocols, treatment dose, populations, outcome assessment, and methodological quality limits direct comparison and causal inference. Importantly, classical constructs should not be equated a priori with specific biomedical entities; their physiological interpretation requires empirical validation. Integrating Pātañjala Yoga with contemporary cardiovascular research therefore offers a scientifically testable interdisciplinary framework for investigating how a classical system of self-regulation may contribute to multidimensional cardiovascular health and rehabilitation.