COVID-19 pandemic: study on simple, easy, and practical relaxation techniques while wearing medical protective equipment.

BACKGROUND: No studies have reported on how to relieve distress or relax in medical health workers while wearing medical protective equipment in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study aimed to establish which relaxation technique, among six, is the most feasible in first-line medical health workers wearing medical protective equipment. METHODS: This was a two-step study collecting data with online surveys. Step 1: 15 first-line medical health workers were trained to use six different relaxation techniques and reported the two most feasible techniques while wearing medical protective equipment. Step 2: the most two feasible relaxation techniques revealed by step 1 were quantitatively tested in a sample of 65 medical health workers in terms of efficacy, no space limitation, no time limitation, no body position requirement, no environment limitation to be done, easiness to learn, simplicity, convenience, practicality, and acceptance. RESULTS: Kegel exercise and autogenic relaxation were the most feasible techniques according to step 1. In step 2, Kegel exercise outperformed autogenic relaxation on all the 10 dimensions among the 65 participants while wearing medical protective equipment (efficacy: 24 v. 15, no space limitation: 30 v. 4, no time limitation: 31 v. 4, no body position requirement: 26 v. 4, no environment limitation: 30 v. 11, easiness to learn: 28 v. 5, simplicity: 29 v. 7, convenience: 29 v. 4, practicality: 30 v. 14, acceptance: 32 v. 6). CONCLUSION: Kegel exercise seems a promising self-relaxation technique for first-line medical health workers while wearing medical protective equipment among COVID-19 pandemic.

The Effects of Acupuncture at Real or Sham Acupoints on the Intrinsic Brain Activity in Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients.

Accumulating neuroimaging studies in humans have shown that acupuncture can modulate a widely distributed brain network in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Acupuncture at different acupoints could exert different modulatory effects on the brain network. However, whether acupuncture at real or sham acupoints can produce different effects on the brain network in MCI or AD patients remains unclear. Using resting-state fMRI, we reported that acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) induced amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) change of different brain regions in MCI patients from those shown in the healthy controls. In MCI patients, acupuncture at KI3 increased or decreased ALFF in the different regions from those activated by acupuncture in the healthy controls. Acupuncture at the sham acupoint in MCI patients activated the different brain regions from those in healthy controls. Therefore, we concluded that acupuncture displays more significant effect on neuronal activities of the above brain regions in MCI patients than that in healthy controls. Acupuncture at KI3 exhibits different effects on the neuronal activities of the brain regions from acupuncture at sham acupoint, although the difference is only shown at several regions due to the close distance between the above points.