India's leading cardiologist, Dr Naresh Trehan, practises breathing exercises in his car on his way to work. This energises him for the day, which is usually packed with patients thronging the hospital from all over the world.
As a medical professional, Dr Trehan has his panacea ready, for he knows stress is a silent killer. And nowhere is its deadly effect being felt more than in Corporate India, where fast-paced lifestyles and the pressures of competition are cutting short executives' life-spans. Companies - from Indian Railways to companies like Intel,
Snapdeal, Jabong, InfosysBSE -0.09 % and Maruti Suzuki - are introducing yoga and pranayama among the workforce to stem the impact of the disease.
Almost 60% to 70% of executives visiting Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals are suffering from stress-related diseases, says senior consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Dr Achal Bhagat. "The number of patients from the corporate world who seek help has gone up by about 20% this year compared with last year," says Dr Bhagat. On the other hand, Dr Samir Parikh, a consultant psychiatrist at Fortis Healthcare, says the numbers have doubled over the past few years.
Stress is tightening its grip on Indian corporate executives fast, says Dr Devi Shetty, who started Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City in Bangalore and the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Kolkata. Among other things, Dr Shetty advocates yoga to arrest stress-related diseases.
Companies or professionals offering Corporate Yoga have witnessed a steady rise in the past few years. "Last year, we used to get around 150 queries from corporates compared with 250 queries so far this year," says Pradeep Solanki, director, Yoga On Call.
Many practitioners have customised yoga into chair yoga, flight yoga, office yoga, laughing yoga, yoga on the move, walking yoga and even 10-minute yoga for BPOs where there is paucity of space and time.
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