PURPOSE The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of heat and massage application on autonomic nervous system. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred thirty-nine subjects volunteered and completed this study. Heat and massage was daily applied for 40 minutes, 5 days a week for 2 weeks. Primary-dependent measures included heart rate variability, sympathetic skin response, and serum cor...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of aroma foot massage on blood pressure, anxiety, and health-related quality of life (QOL) in Japanese community-dwelling men and women using a crossover randomized controlled trial. METHODS Fifty-seven eligible participants (5 men and 52 women) aged 27 to 72 were randomly divided into 2 intervention groups (group A: n = 29; grou...

The perpuse of this research is to determine the effect of foot massage on physiologic indicators including pulse, respiration and mean arterial pressure. The hypothesis of this research is that foot massage decreases the patient´s heart rate, respiratory rate and mean arterial pressure. This research is a quasiexperimental study and a self-control clinical trial with repeated measures in witch...

  Background : Patients admitted in coronary care units face various stressors. Ambiguity of future life conditions and unawareness of caring methods intensifies the patients’ anxiety and stress. This study was conducted to assess the effects of whole body massage on anxiety and vital signs of patients with acute coronary disorders.   Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 120 ...

OBJECTIVE The usefulness of massage as a recovery method after high-intensity exercise has yet to be established. We aimed to investigate the effects of whole-body massage on heart rate variability (HRV) and blood pressure (BP) after repeated high-intensity cycling exercise under controlled and standardized pretest conditions. METHODS The study included 62 healthy active individuals. After ba...

BACKGROUND Stress can cause psychological and physiological changes. Many studies revealed that massage can decrease stress. However, traditional Thai massage has not been well researched in this regard. The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate effects of traditional Thai massage (TTM) on salivary alpha-amylase levels (sAA), heart rate variability (HRV), autonomic nervous syst...

The recovery process in sport plays an essential role in determining subsequent athletic performance. This study investigated the effectiveness of different recovery interventions after maximal exercise. Eighteen trained male cyclists initially undertook an incremental test to determine maximal oxygen consumption. The four recovery interventions tested were: passive, active (50% maximal oxygen ...

BACKGROUND Complementary medicine interventions are now successfully used to reduce stress as well as to stabilize hemodynamic indices within different procedures. The present study aimed to examine the effect of massage therapy and reflexotherapy on reducing stress in patients before coronary angiography. METHODS In this open-label clinical trial, 75 consecutive patients who were candidate f...