Scientific study on thoppukaranam started in Chennai

Pramila Krishnan
Chennai, August 9: What you do in front of Pillayar as thoppukarnam is nothing but super brain yoga. The Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College (GNYMC) in Chennai on Thursday launched a ‘detailed study’ involving 120 student-volunteers to record the effect of thoppukarnam in improving the functioning of brain, especially enhancement of memory. The participants will perform thoppukarnams for 30 days and the changes in their breathing, blood pressure, memory and other parameters would be recorded, said the doctors involved in the project.
Speaking to me, Dr K.K.Kanimozhi said that the students were asked to perform the thoppukarnam sit-ups on empty stomach every morning for a month. “Though it is generally known that thoppukarnam improves physical and mental health, we wanted to map those positive changes in scientific manner through this one-month study. This will help us standardise this yoga exercise for treating certain types of patients”, she said.
She explained that sit-ups would activate the mooladhara chakra and raise the energy levels in the body. “The blood circulation improves and consecutively the energy levels go up when you do the sit-ups holding the ear lobes. You must inhale as you get up and exhale completely while sitting”, the yoga doctor explained.
The student-volunteers participating in the study are a very excited lot. “My mom broke into loud laughter when I told her about this. She recalled that I would cry when she asked me to do thoppukarnams holding my earlobes before Pillayar every morning”, said Thangavel Venkatesh, II-year student at GNYMC.
Los Angeles urologist and surgeon Eric B Robins, who has done extensive work on ‘super brain yoga’, told me in an e-interview that he prescribed sit-ups to “kids with hyperactivity and older adults with cognitive issues, memory loss”. His videos on super brain yoga for use by older patients and in schools for special children are viral on YouTube.