The present study will recruit 60 participants in the SKY intervention and 60 participants in the control group. Recruitment is expected to take up to a year. After providing informed consent, participants will be randomly assigned to the SKY intervention group, or a control (Health Enhancement Program or HEP) intervention group. Interventions will be performed in-person in Los Angeles and San Diego.~Prior to interventions, each participant will be asked to fill out behavioral questionnaires containing surveys and standardized cognitive measurements. Participants will be also asked to provide hair and nail samples and blood samples for biological assays. All participants will be scheduled for the questionnaire data collection and specimen collection up to two weeks preceding the start of either intervention.~The SKY intervention will be administered in-person over three sessions over three consecutive days. Participants will then engage in a remotely administered follow-up over eight weeks' time with the option to attend daily remotely-led breathwork sessions for 45 mins to an hour. Participants will be asked to log daily practice engagement using online surveys through the eight-week follow-up period. A reminder phone call will be provided to the participant during this time. After the period of eight weeks, the participants will return for in-person follow-up SKY sessions for one week. After this last week of training, participants will provide a second sample of blood, and perform a post-intervention questionnaire.~The HEP control group employs a health comprised of different modules including music, active body movements, contemplation, and nature walks. Control participants will also have a similar contact and data acquisition protocol pre-intervention as the SKY group. The control intervention will also be administered over three consecutive days in-person and it will have the same number of hours as the SKY intervention. Participants will be asked to log their daily practice engagement through an eight-week remote follow-up period. A reminder phone call will be provided to the participant during this time. After the period of eight weeks, the participants will return for in-person HEP control follow-up sessions for one week. After this last week of training, participants will provide a second sample of blood, provide hair and nail samples and perform a post-intervention questionnaire.~Blood samples will be sent for DNA extraction to UAB. DNA samples will only be denoted by study designation for the purposes of this project and will be stripped of all electronic identifiers. Once the DNA is extracted, it will be shipped to Illumina Labs in San Diego for whole genome bisulphite sequencing. Statistical data analysis will be performed to identify disease-associated methylated regions. Hair and nail samples will be deidentified and analyzed to measure changes in cortisol.
The goal of this SKY (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga) Breath Meditation study is to investigate changes in DNA methylation patterns in the blood samples collected from individuals before and after engagement in a SKY practice intervention or a health enhancement control condition consisting of light physical activity, health education and mindfulness. Secondary outcome measures include behavioral inventories and exploratory transcriptomics and proteomics.