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

目的：洗脚长期以来一直用于缓解疲劳，普通感冒和轻微症状，并且人们已经知道洗脚可以影响人体和精神。本研究旨在探讨足浴对植物神经和免疫功能的影响。方法：10名健康女性志愿者（21-24岁）参加本研究。在三天的时间里，他们经历了三次不同的考验。只坐着不泡脚（对照组），用42℃热水泡脚（FB），用42℃热水泡脚，足底气泡振动（B+V）10 min，测定心电图（ECG），评价自主神经功能。腓肠区皮肤血流量（BF）和心率变异性的频谱分析。作为免疫功能，白细胞亚群和淋巴细胞亚群测定三次;前，立即和后60分钟，用流式细胞仪分析。结果与讨论：B+V期间BF显著增加，但浴足结束后立即恢复至浴前水平。在频谱分析中，高频成分（HFC）增加，低频成分（LFC）/HFC的比值降低后，通常洗脚或B+V，表明增加副交感神经系统和减少交感神经系统。B+ V后，外周血淋巴细胞和NK细胞的杀伤活性明显升高。提示足浴可引起植物神经系统的生理性放松状态。此外，气泡和振动足浴增加NK细胞的细胞毒性，根据副交感神经系统的增加。认为机械刺激足浴是一种有效的强身健体方法。

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.