Study about the effects of footbath on immune functions and autonomic nervous system and its usefulness.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Objectives : Footbath has long been used for the relief of fatigue, common cold and minor symptoms and it has been known that footbath can influence human body and the mind. This study was designed to investigate the effect of footbath on autonomic nerve and immune functions.Methods : Ten healthy female subjects (21-24 years of age) volunteered to participate in the present study. They experienced three different tests on the three different days ; only sitting without soaking their feet (Control), a footbath with soaking their feet in hot water at 42℃ (FB), and a footbath with soaking their feet in hot water at 42℃ with air-bubble and vibration given to the sole of the feet (B+V) for 10 min. Autonomic functions were evaluated by measuring electrocardiogram (ECG) and skin blood flow (BF) of sural region and spectral analysis of heart rate variability. As immune function, leukocytes subsets and lymphocytes subsets were measured three times ; before, immediately and at 60 min after footbath, using flow cytometric analysis. Cytotoxicity of natural killer (NK) cells against K562 was determined by europium-release assay.Results and Discussion : BF increased significantly during B+V, but returned to the before level immediately after the end of the footbath. In spectral analysis, high frequency component (HFC) increased and a ratio of low frequency component (LFC)/HFC decreased following usual footbath or B+V, indicating increased parasympathetic and decreased sympathetic nervous systems. A number of lymphocytes and NK cells cytotoxicity increased significantly after B+V. These results suggested that footbath might induce physiological relaxed condition in autonomic nervous system. Furthermore, footbath with air-bubble and vibration increased NK cells cytotoxicity according to an increase in parasympathetic nervous system. We thought that footbath with mechanical stimulation would be an efficacious method in physical improvement.