ABSTRACT
Chronic heart failure (CHF), a clinical syndrome resulting from the consequences of various cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), is increasingly becoming a global cause of morbidity and mortality. We had earlier demonstrated that a 4-day forest bathing trip can provide an adjunctive therapeutic influence on patients with CHF. To further investigate the duration of the impact and the optimal frequency of forest bathing trips in patients with CHF, we recruited those subjects who had experienced the first forest bathing trip again after 4 weeks and randomly categorized them into two groups, namely, the urban control group (city) and the forest bathing group (forest). After a second 4-day forest bathing trip, we observed a steady decline in the brain natriuretic peptide levels, a biomarker of heart failure, and an attenuated inflammatory response as well as oxidative stress. Thus, this exploratory study demonstrated the additive benefits of twice forest bathing trips in elderly patients with CHF, which could further pave the way for analyzing the effects of such interventions in CVDs.
Subject(s)
Aged , Humans , Chronic Disease , Complementary Therapies , Methods , Forests , Heart Failure , Blood , Drug Therapy , Therapeutics , Heart Function Tests , Interleukin-6 , Blood , Natriuretic Peptide, Brain , Blood , Oxidative Stress , Recreation , Treatment Outcome , Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha , BloodABSTRACT
Forest bathing trip is a short, leisurely visit to forest. In this study we determined the health effects of forest bathing trip on elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The patients were randomly divided into two groups. One group was sent to forest, and the other was sent to an urban area as control. Flow cytometry, ELISA, and profile of mood states (POMS) evaluation were performed. In the forest group, we found a significant decrease of perforin and granzyme B expressions, accompanied by decreased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones. Meanwhile, the scores in the negative subscales of POMS decreased after forest bathing trip. These results indicate that forest bathing trip has health effect on elderly COPD patients by reducing inflammation and stress level.
Subject(s)
Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Cytokines , Genetics , Metabolism , Forests , Gene Expression Regulation , Physiology , Lymphocyte Subsets , Physiology , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive , Pathology , Psychology , Therapeutics , RecreationABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effects of short-term forest bathing on human health.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty healthy male university students participated as subjects and were randomly divided into two groups of 10. One group was sent on a two-night trip to a broad-leaved evergreen forest, and the other was sent to a city area. Serum cytokine levels reflecting inflammatory and stress response, indicators reflecting oxidative stress, the distribution of leukocyte subsets, and plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) concentrations were measured before and after the experiment to evaluate the positive health effects of forest environments. A profile of mood states (POMS) evaluation was used to assess changes in mood states.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>No significant differences in the baseline values of the indicators were observed between the two groups before the experiment. Subjects exposed to the forest environment showed reduced oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory level, as evidenced by decreased malondialdehyde, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor a levels compared with the urban group. Serum cortisol levels were also lower than in the urban group. Notably, the concentration of plasma ET-1 was much lower in subjects exposed to the forest environment. The POMS evaluation showed that after exposure to the forest environment, subjects had lower scores in the negative subscales, and the score for vigor was increased.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Forest bathing is beneficial to human health, perhaps through preventive effects related to several pathological factors.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Young Adult , Baths , China , Cytokines , Metabolism , Hydrocortisone , Blood , Life Style , Lymphocyte Subsets , Nature , Recreation , Stress, Physiological , Testosterone , Blood , TreesABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate spike wave reduction in electrocorticography (EcoG) monitoring for evaluating the outcomes of epilepsy surgery.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The epileptogenesis lesions in the target cortex was localized accurately using an EcoG monitoring system in 20 surgical patients with intractable EP. The spike numbers within 60 s were recorded before and after surgical resection of the epileptogenic focus. In cases where the spike number within 60 s was reduced by over 80% after the resection, the surgery was terminated, otherwise extended lesion resection, corpus callosotomy or multiple subpial transection (MST) was carried out with ECoG monitoring, and the spike number within 60 s was recorded. Antiepileptic drugs were routinely prescribed after the operations.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twelve patients exhibited a spike wave reduction by over 80% after resection or extended resection of the lesions, including 4 with cavernomas in the nonfunctional area, who showed a spike wave reduction by over 80% after extended resection of the cortex around the tumor. The reduction was still less than 80% in 4 patients with hippocampal sclerosis and 3 with neurogliocytoma in the functional area after the operations. According to the Engel assessments, 13 cases were in level I, 3 cases in level II, 1 in level III, and 3 in level IV. Seventeen patients responded favorably to the treatment, with a total effective rate of 85%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>For extra-temporal lobe epilepsy, a postoperative spike wave reduction beyond 80% indicate favorable outcome of the surgery, otherwise poor prognosis is expected. But in cases of temporal lobe epilepsy, no direct association is found between spike wave reduction and the prognosis of the patients.</p>
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult , Brain Mapping , Cerebral Cortex , Electroencephalography , Epilepsy , General Surgery , Monitoring, Intraoperative , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare therapeutic effects of catgut implantation at acupoint plus small dose of Paroxetine Hydrochloride and simple Paroxetine Hydrochloride.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eighty-eight cases of such disease were divided into 2 groups, a treatment group (n=54) and a control group (n=34). The treatment group were treated with catgut implantation at main points Dazhui (GV 14), Zhongwan (CV 12), Tianshu (ST 25), Ganshu (BL 18), Pishu (BL 20), Shenshu (BL 23), etc., plus oral administration of small dose of Paroxetine Hydrochloride; and the control group were treated with simple Paroxetine Hydrochloride. They were treated for 6 weeks. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) was used for assessment of the therapeutic effect.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The effective rate was 92.6% in the treatment group and 85.3% in the control group with a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05); at the end of the first week and the second week of treatment, the score for HAMD in the treatment group significantly decreased as compared with that in the control group (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Catgut implantation at acupoint plus small dose of Paroxetine Hydrochloride has a better therapeutic effect on somatic form disorders.</p>