Baker and The Alfred study yoga for heart health benefits

A world-first Victorian study wants to see if yoga can help with the rhythm of the heart.

Ex-rock star turned yoga guru Tommy Kende is helping scientists better understand the rhythm of the heart.

Kende, who opened for rock bands including Nickelback, played with Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee and Slash from Guns N’ Roses and was a regular performer in LA’s famous Viper Room, is part of a world first Victorian study investigating if regular yoga reduces irregular heart rhythms.

The randomised study is the most detailed investigation to look at the impact of yoga on heart and cardiovascular disease.

It is being led by Professor Peter Kistler from the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute and The Alfred.

Tommy Kende (left) is helping scientists better understand the rhythm of the heart. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Prof Kistler was introduced to yoga three years ago by Yogi master Emma Roberts, who sadly passed away last month. She was an inspiration for the study.

He said while it has been shown yoga can reduce stress, he wants to determine if it can also reduce blood pressure, slow heart rate and modify the body’s autonomic nervous system which is important in triggering and maintaining atrial fibrillation (Afib).

Afib is an irregular heartbeat that can increase the risk of a blood clot forming in the heart and travelling to the brain where it can cause a stroke and death.

The study will also look at the impact on the autonomic nervous system, which is the involuntary flight/fright component of the nervous system.

Prof Kistler says it is this response that controls heart rate when people exercise or get stressed.

Victorians will help investigate if yoga can help reduce blood pressure, slow heart rate and modify the body’s autonomic nervous system. Image: Supplied.

“And when people faint, it’s due to an outpouring in the opposite direction from that nervous system,” he said.

“We postulate that the way yoga may work is by resetting your internal nervous system.”

Prof Kistler says the study is recruiting 250 Victorians with Afib who will do free yoga classes three times a week for 12 months.

Kende’s role will be to develop the yoga classes.

Now a wellness and mindfulness coach living in Melbourne with his family, he says yoga “saved him” 15 years ago when he knew his wild days of living in Hollywood and partying hard had to end.

Back in his playing days with Juke Kartel. L-R Dale Winters, Toby Rand and Tommy Kende.

Kende was the bass guitarist for Juke Kartel, a Melbourne band formed in the early 2000s who signed a record deal in the US.

At 28 Kende was living the LA dream with the world at his feet, an album in the making and touring the globe.

“It was a pretty epic lifestyle for six years, but obviously you can only keep that up for a certain amount of time,” Kende said.

“The lifestyle is one of those that you either go deeper into it or you get to this spot where you’re like, okay, I’m either going to have a life outside of this or I’m not. And I chose to have a life outside of it.”

He then found yoga.

Now he hopes to help guide those in the study to find their right beat.

For details visit: baker.edu.au/research/clinical-trials/yoga-af-study or email [e-mail]