Acute Effects of Deep-Slow Breathing Exercises and Cranial-Visceral Manual Therapy on Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Nervous System Parameters in Healthy Adults

Project no. 22675 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2021

Summary

Objective: Heart rate variability (HRV) is the measure of change in time difference between two consecutive normal-to-normal beats. HRV provides information about cardiac autonomic modulation and is associated with physical-mental well-being, athletic performance, self-control and ability to adapt to stress. HRV can be increased with deep-slow breathing exercises as well as physical applications such as massage/manual therapy. The aim of this study is to show that HRV can be increased and electrodermal activity can be decreased with the help of various manual therapy applications in healthy adults. The second aim is to compare these increases with control conditions and deep-slow breathing exercises.Method: 109 healthy participants who applied to Ege University Sports Medicine clinic and had no known chronic disease were included in the study. Participants were randomly divided into three groups as osteopathy-manual therapy group (OMT), deep-slow breathing exercise group (DYN), and control group. After baseline measurements, cranial and visceral techniques were applied to the participants in the OMT group for 20 minutes. Participants in the DYN group performed deep-slow breathing exercises at six breaths per minute for the same time, while those in the control group rested in the supine position without intervention. Heart rate measurement via photoplethysmography and electrodermal activity measurement via skin electrodes were performed in all participants at each stage.Results: There was no statistically significant difference in tonic electrodermal activity (EDA) and in parameters reflecting parasympathetic modulation (SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, HFlog) between the OMT group and the control group (p>0.05).Conclusion: As a result of single session OMT applications, no significant changes were observed in tonic electrodermal activity (EDA) and HRV components, which are the index of cardiac vagal modulation, compared to control conditions.

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