Moderate Pressure Massage Elicits a Parasympathetic Nervous System Response

Summary & key facts

In a randomized trial of 20 healthy adults, researchers recorded EKGs during a 3-minute baseline, a 15-minute massage, and a 3-minute postmassage period. Moderate pressure massage raised the high-frequency (HF) heart-rate variability measure and lowered the LF/HF ratio, which the authors say indicates increased parasympathetic (vagal) activity peaking in the first half of the massage. Light pressure produced the opposite pattern (decreased HF and increased LF/HF).

Key facts:

• The study randomly assigned 20 healthy adults to either a moderate pressure or a light pressure massage group.
• EKGs were recorded during a 3-minute baseline, a 15-minute massage period, and a 3-minute postmassage period.
• Heart rate variability measures used were high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF), and the LF/HF ratio as noninvasive markers of autonomic nervous system activity.
• Participants who received moderate pressure massage showed an increase in HF and a decrease in LF/HF, which the authors interpret as increased vagal (parasympathetic) activity.
• Those who received light pressure massage showed a decrease in HF and an increase in LF/HF, which the authors interpret as a sympathetic nervous system response.
• The reported parasympathetic effect for moderate pressure peaked during the first half of the 15-minute massage period.

Abstract

Twenty healthy adults were randomly assigned to a moderate pressure or a light pressure massage therapy group, and EKGs were recorded during a 3-min baseline, during the 15-min massage period and during a 3-min postmassage period. EKG data were then used to derive the high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF) components of heart rate variability and the low to high frequency ratio (LF/HF) as noninvasive markers of autonomic nervous system activity. The participants who received the moderate pressure massage exhibited a parasympathetic nervous system response characterized by an increase in HF, suggesting increased vagal efferent activity and a decrease in the LF/HF ratio, suggesting a shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic activity that peaked during the first half of the massage period. On the other hand, those who received the light pressure massage exhibited a sympathetic nervous system response characterized by decreased HF and increased LF/HF.

Topics

Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Categories

Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine Health Sciences Medicine

Tags

Afferent Alternative medicine Anesthesia Autonomic nervous system Baroreflex Blood pressure Cardiology Central nervous system Efferent Heart rate Heart rate variability Internal medicine Massage Medicine Parasympathetic nervous system Pathology Sympathetic nervous system