At the Yoga Vigyan Shivir that got underway in Lucknow on Sunday, Baba Ramdev has taken on his detractors. The baba, who was in news recently over allegations about the efficacy of his medicines and methods, invited a team from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) to conduct a detailed before and after test on 300 yoga subjects.

The PGI team will be paid for its efforts by baba’s Patanjali Yogapeeth. At the Sahara Shahar Stadium, the venue of the camp, the 24-member PGI team lead by the heads of the endocrinology and pathology departments, collected blood samples for detailed bio-chemical studies, besides recording blood pressure of the participants. A team from the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhan Sansthan, Bangalore, has also flown in to conduct psycho-physiological analysis on the participants. Baba Ramdev said the efforts were part of his endeavour to give yoga the respect it deserves.

“Those with hidden agendas raise questions about yoga. Their attacks on me are motivated. This study will prove that yoga is nothing but pure science and should serve to shut up the critics.”

Dr R K Gupta who heads the Pathology department at the PGI, repeated the Ramdev line that health is all about good and bad hormones.

“These tests will measure hormonal levels before and after yoga. We will be concentrating on the bad hormones ACTH, serum cortisone and prolactin as well as beta endorphin, a good hormone. Although yoga’s effectiveness has been proved since ancient times, proper scientific studies have been missing. With this, we hope to establish that India’s ancient system for cure has a definite scientific basis.”

So particular is the baba about having the tests adhere to established scientific standards that the teams have been directed to identify the subjects only by numbers and not names so as to foreclose any possibility of fudging results.

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