Effects of Self-acupunctural Hand Massage Using Aromatic Oil on Alleviating the Stress, Fatigue, and Vital Signs of Korean Middle-Aged Women.

The study aimed to examine the effects of self-acupunctural hand massage using aromatic oil on the stress, fatigue, and vital signs of Korean middle-aged women. A quasi-experimental study using a pretest/posttest control group, nonsynchronized design was employed. The study participants consisted of 55 middle-aged women (27 in the experiment group and 28 in the control group), who visited a community center in Seoul, South Korea. Self-acupunctural hand massage using aromatic oil as an experimental intervention was performed once per day, 6 minutes per session for the left and right hands each, for 3 weeks. A questionnaire was designed to measure the general characteristics, stress, fatigue, and vital signs (blood pressure and pulse rate). There were significant differences in the degrees of stress, fatigue, and vital signs (blood pressure) between the 2 groups. Self-acupunctural hand massage using aromatic oil decreased the stress, fatigue, and vital signs (blood pressure) of Korean middle-aged women. Self-acupunctural hand massage using aromatic oil can be utilized as an effective nursing intervention for decreasing stress, fatigue, and vital signs (blood pressure) for middle-aged women in clinical practice.

Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances exercise performance in peripheral arterial disease.

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) results in a failure to adequately supply blood and oxygen (O(2)) to working tissues and presents as claudication pain during walking. Nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability is essential for vascular health and function. Plasma nitrite (NO(2)(-)) is a marker of vascular NO production but may also be a protected circulating "source" that can be converted to NO during hypoxic conditions, possibly aiding perfusion. We hypothesized that dietary supplementation of inorganic nitrate in the form of beetroot (BR) juice would increase plasma NO(2)(-) concentration, increase exercise tolerance, and decrease gastrocnemius fractional O(2) extraction, compared with placebo (PL). This was a randomized, open-label, crossover study. At each visit, subjects (n = 8) underwent resting blood draws, followed by consumption of 500 ml BR or PL and subsequent blood draws prior to, during, and following a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise (CPX) test. Gastrocnemius oxygenation during the CPX was measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. There were no changes from rest for [NO(2)(-)] (152 ± 72 nM) following PL. BR increased plasma [NO(2)(-)] after 3 h (943 ± 826 nM; P ≤ 0.01). Subjects walked 18% longer before the onset of claudication pain (183 ± 84 s vs. 215 ± 99 s; P ≤ 0.01) and had a 17% longer peak walking time (467 ± 223 s vs. 533 ± 233 s; P ≤ 0.05) following BR vs. PL. Gastrocnemius tissue fractional O(2) extraction was lower during exercise following BR (7.3 ± 6.2 vs. 10.4 ± 6.1 arbitrary units; P ≤ 0.01). Diastolic blood pressure was lower in the BR group at rest and during CPX testing (P ≤ 0.05). These findings support the hypothesis that NO(2)(-)-related NO signaling increases peripheral tissue oxygenation in areas of hypoxia and increases exercise tolerance in PAD.