Variation of autonomic nervous function index by TaiJiQuan breathing method

Abstract

The effects of TaiJiQuan breathing on Electroencephalogram(EEG), state anxiety and heart rate were investigated. Subjects were 57±4.4 years old and had 4.6±2.3 years experience of TaiJiQuan exercise on average. The level of state anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure and EEG were measured in sedative condition, just after TaiJiQuan breathing, and 30 minutes after the breathing respectively. The results were summarized as follows. I) The level of state anxiety just after the breathing was significantly lower than in the sedative condition. II) The heart rate just after the TaiJiQuan breathing was significantly lower than in the sedative condition. The frequency of heart rate CVRR and HF/LF>1 was significantly increased just after the breathing. III) The blood pressure in systolic and diastolic period was mostly constant during the experiments. IV) The EEG during sedative condition, just after the breathing and 30miniutes after the breathing did not show any significant differences. However, the α1% component was more frequently than β2% component and α2% component was more frequently than θ% component and β2% component significantly. That TaiJiQuan breathing had an effect of decreasing state anxiety and relieving psychological stress. Moreover, the subjects with continuous exercise of TaiJiQuan breathing were presumed to have a good habit of daily breathing and α1 and α2component are more dominant in their EEG. Therefore TaiJiQuan breathing without any physical movements had good enough effects on our mental health improvement and that this breathing was expected to be applied to a patient with a restriction in their physical movement.