The Principle and Function of Pranayama - A Concurrent Study of How Individuals Can Improve the Ability to Resist COVID-19
Authors: Zhang Mingwei 
Published: May 2020

Background

Since its outbreak in December 2019, COVID-19 has been raging all over the world. After infecting people, the virus will damage patients’ lung function and reduce their blood oxygen saturation, causing complications. Ventilators have become one of the focuses in clinical treatment. The machine delivers oxygen into the body to maintain the oxygen content in the blood and the life activities of critically ill patients. However, ventilators have become a huge financial burden to the government and patients’ families as they are extremely expensive. Since the working principle of ventilator simulates the normal functioning sequence of human lungs1, our efforts are made to find a way to take advantage of the human respiratory system itself to improve the function of lung organs without using external mechanical forces, relying on the self-activity of an individual's life to resist viruses.
Methodology:

The principles and functions of the ventilator and pranayama are compared. A quantitative conclusion on the efficiency of effectively improving the air inhalation amount and the lung substance conversion amount is drawn, which is the root source of the deep nutrients needed by the organs (such as heart, liver, gallbladder, spleen and kidney) that have an influence on the entire living body. Based on this theoretical achievement, technical measures for individuals to improve the ability to resist the COVID-19 virus are proposed. What we use is called pranayama, also known as internal breathing. There are no national boundaries for viruses, or for science. However, science and technology have a place of birth. It should be noted that the pranayama technique discussed in this paper originated in Sichuan, China, and belongs to the Yoga knowledge system established by Yoga Master Rama Lila (irrelevant to the Indian theory). It is currently the only one complete Yoga knowledge system in the world. Its value lies in the following aspects: the perfection and maturity of the technical path; the first proposal of technical conditions - state guidance; the first clarification of technical objectives - state of life; and that its academic sequence is mainly interpreted with modern medicine, mathematics, physics, chemistry, physiology and other knowledge to explain Yoga techniques in a profound and clear manner, which is different from any Yoga classic literature on breathing in history. Pranayama mainly includes more than 10 types of breathing techniques such as divergent breathing and backward-shifting breathing.
Results

Oxygen accounts for about 21% of the air taken in by an average adult by volume, and the proportion of oxygen drops to about 17% in the air exhaled, meaning that only 4% of oxygen is effectively converted, and the conversion rate of about 19%2. One breath of air inhaled in the internal breathing form can be complete converted in the lungs, and the amount of useless air “exhaled” is far less than the amount inhaled, and almost negligible, indicating an effective conversion rate of more than 80%.
Conclusion

According to human breathing movement, breathing form, lung working form and principle, pranayama has been developed to promote breathing movement and improve the function of lungs through adjusting human state and breathing form. Its main features are: large amount of air inhalation, complete digestion, high oxygen content in blood, large flow and fast delivery of deep nutrients in the form of "liquid phase body" converted from air and combined with blood oxygen which are distributed into various parts of the body, exerting a high-speed scouring and nourishment impact on the organs. Displayed in the form of heat, such energy can effectively help people resist various viruses.
Potential impact:

At present, this conclusion is given based on the personal experience of yoga practitioners. Lacking experimental empirical research and clinical data analysis on the changes in the scale and speed of substance conversion in human lungs and the scale of bioelectrical activity in the peripheral nervous system, the academic sequence needs to be improved, and the enthusiastic attention and strong support from the academic community are still needed. The Yoga knowledge system established by Yoga Master Rama Lila has not yet been fully published and is waiting for the arrival of the lovers of life.