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CompletedNCT00328666Updated Nov 25, 2015

The Penn Lifestyle Modification and Blood Pressure Study

An interventional study of Iyengar yoga and Enhanced nutritional care classes in Hypertension, sponsored by University of Pennsylvania. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2015-11-25.

Sponsored by University of Pennsylvania · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 70 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of 12 weeks of structured classes of either iyengar yoga (IY) or an enhanced usual care intervention on blood pressure, heart rate variability, quality of life measures, lipid measures, and safety in patients with high-normal to stage I hypertension.

Read the detailed description

This is a single site, parallel, non-blinded, randomized controlled trial to assess the safety and efficacy of 12 weeks of structured IY vs. enhanced usual care in adults with high-normal to stage I HTN. All potential subjects will be screened first by telephone and then by an outpatient visit at the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at either the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) or the Presbyterian Medical Center (PMC). Eligible subjects will then make 4 visits to the GCRC where, during 3 visits, they will be admitted overnight to have non-invasive 24 hour recordings of blood pressure and heart rate variability as well as periodic blood and urine collections. In order to assess durability of biologic effects once the formal intervention is stopped, we added a 4 week follow up visit. The entire study duration is 18 weeks (16 weeks post-randomization) and includes a total of 5 visits. Subjects will be randomized to either the IYP or Blood Pressure Education Program (BPEP) which will be incorporated into off-site, small group classes.

02

Conditions studied

  • Hypertension

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03

In context

Hypertension

6,689 studies on the registry are indexed under Hypertension; 965 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 60 is below the median of 90 across 4,995 interventional studies indexed under Hypertension.

Browse Hypertension studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Pennsylvania is the lead sponsor of 1,635 studies on the registry; 239 are open to participants now.

Of its 154 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 104 (68%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 70 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Subjects must be willing to, and have the capacity for, giving written informed consent.
  • Between the ages of 18 and 70
  • Blood pressure (BP) criteria: systolic blood pressure (SBP) of > 130 but \< 160 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) \< 100 mmHg
  • All subjects must be willing to comply with all study-related procedures.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Female subjects who are pregnant or post partum \< 3 months
  • Subjects currently taking blood pressure lowering medications or dietary supplements (magnesium, potassium, calcium > 1200 mg/day, fish oils > 2000 mg/day, ephedra, hawthorn, forskolin)
  • Non-dominant arm circumference > 50 cm
  • Subjects with body mass index (BMI) >= 40.0 or \< 18.5 kg/m2
  • Subjects who have practiced IY in the last 12 months or those who have practiced any form of yoga > 2 times (2x)/month in the previous 6 months.
  • Subjects who have received an experimental drug, used an experimental medical device within 30 days prior to screening, or who gave a blood donation of greater than or equal to one pint within 8 weeks prior to screening.
  • Subjects with diabetes mellitus
  • Subjects with established cardiovascular disease
  • Subjects with known arrhythmias such as atrial flutter or fibrillation or those with cardiac pacemakers
  • Current users (within the previous 30 days) of any tobacco products
  • History of renal insufficiency based on estimated glomerular filtration rate \< 60 ml/min
  • Women who consume > 10 alcoholic drinks per week and men who consume > 15 drinks per week.
  • Subjects with known autonomic neuropathy (e.g: Shy-Drager, orthostatic hypotension)
  • Subjects with known secondary causes of hypertension (renal artery stenosis, pheochromocytoma, coarctation of aorta, hyperaldosteronemia)
  • Regular use of benzodiazepines, anti-psychotic drugs or corticosteroids (> 1x per month). Stable doses (3 months) of antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs] or tricyclic antidepressants [TCAs]) will be allowed.
  • Known severe musculoskeletal problems such as spinal stenosis that may limit participation in yoga
  • Subjects who actively practice (> 2x/month) other mind-body therapy (MBT) such as Qigong, Tai Chi, or meditation.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
60 participants

Interventions

  • BehavioralIyengar yoga
  • BehavioralEnhanced nutritional care classes
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. systolic blood pressure

Secondary outcomes

  1. heart rate variability

  2. lipids

  3. safety markers

  4. quality of life measures

  5. physiologic markers of stress

  6. insulin resistance

  7. pulse wave velocity

07

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Pennsylvania
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 25, 2015, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00328666
Lead sponsor
University of Pennsylvania
Collaborators
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
May 22, 2006
Start date
Feb 2005
Primary completion
Jan 2007
Completion
Jan 2007
Last update
Nov 25, 2015

Study contacts

Raymond Townsend, MD
principal investigator · University of Pennsylvania
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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