Cardiovascular Control during 60 d Head-down Bed Rest:Chinese Herbal Medicine as a Countermeasure
LIU Jie-xin
LI Yong-zhi
Bart Verheyden
LIU Xiang-xin
CHEN Zhang-huang
CHEN Shan-guang
XIE Qiong
André E Aubert
Abstract：Objective To investigate the effect of CHM (Tai Kong Yang Xin Prescription) during 60 d headdown bed rest( HDBR), on cardiovascular autonomic control and arterial baroreflex function. Methods Fourteen male healthy volunteers were randomly allocated to control group ( n = 7) and CHM group ( n = 7 ). Cardiovascular variability and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) were assessed before, during and after HDBR. Results In all subjects, there was a progressive rise in heart rate, which remained higher until 12 d of recovery.Mean arterial pressure gradually increased until day 56 of HDBR and then returned to baseline after 12 d of recovery. BRS and respiratory sinus arrhythmia decreased during HDBR and remained suppressed until 12 d of recovery. Low-frequency power of systolic arterial pressure increased during HDBR and remained elevated during the recovery. These responses were not different between control and CHM groups. Although the optimal time delays (Tau) of BRS showed a shift towards higher values after 56 d of HDBR in both groups, there seems to be a partial recovery after 12 d of recovery in the CHM group only. Conclusion As used in this setup, CHM have shown an effect on the Tau, in faster recovery toward pre-bed rest values.
Keywords：head-down bed restcardiovascular variabilityautonomic nervous systemChinese herbal medicine
Publication Date：2009-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 391-398 )