Abstract

Kapalabhati pranayama is one of the most famous, frequently practiced and researched pranayama in yoga. Several studies have been conducted to determine whether kapalabhati pranayama has any potential health benefits. There were no reviews available that collected and summarized those experimental studies on potential health benefits. This PubMed based review was designed to examine all currently available experimental research on kapalabhati pranayama and psychophysiological variables. In the final review for qualitative synthesis, 22 experimental research – including one single arm clinical trial, twenty clinical controlled trials and one randomized control trial between 1991 and 2023 were included based on PubMed search conducted in February 2024. The findings showed that kapalabhati pranayama was found to be altered in cerebral activity, heart rate variability, attention, and anxiety. This pranayama has the beneficial effects of improving attention and reducing anxiety. This review of the literature looked at every experimental investigation on psychophysiological variables conducted on kapalabhati pranayama. To conduct more in-depth experiments on kapalabhati pranayama in the future, researchers can use the information found to identify gaps in the current literature.

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