• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.400-407
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• 2008

A health index was proposed that evaluates personal health state from both measured physiological variables and survey questions. Four health indices were defined such as cardiovascular index, stress index, obesity index, and management index. The total health index was calculated by summing these four health indices. Physiological variables such as blood pressure, heart rate variability(HRV), accelerated photoplethysmograph(APG), and body fat percentage were non-invasively measured and a survey questionnaire that asks personal health state, exercise intensity, and food preference was developed. The suggested health index was applied to thirty eight persons including 30 patients and 8 normal persons with an average age of 51.8. The average health index was estimated to be 75.1 out of 100 points. Young age group(below 50) and men group showed higher health indices than the aged(over 50) and women groups. The correlation coefficient between the cardiovascular index and stress index was found to be 0.513, which means stress is related to cardiovascular health state. The correlation coefficient between the measurements and survey questions was 0.385 for the cardiovascular index. It was as low as 0.182 for the stress index. More case studies may improve correlations between measurements and survey questions, and then, the current health index system may develop as an effective tool to evaluate personal health state.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.510-524
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• 2009

Objective : This study was designed to find the correlation between Sasang Constitution and heart rate variability(HRV). Method : There were 665 subjects (280 men and 385 women), between 39 and 72 years old. in a rural community. Sasang Constitution was diagnosed by a Sasang constitutional specialist using PSSC (Phonetic System for Sasang Constitution), face and tongue photo and checkup-list. A structured-questionnaire was used to assess the general characteristics. HRV was recorded using SA-2000 (medi-core). HRV was assessed by time domain and by frequency domain analysis. Metabolic syndrome was defined on the basis of clustering of risk factors, when three or more of the following cardiovascular risk factors were included : blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, triglyceride HDL-cholesterol, and abdominal obesity (waist). Because of the skewness of the data, logarithmic transformation was performed on the absolute units of the spectral components of HRV, and the resulting logarithmic values and normalized units were compared between the groups by a logistic regression. The 95% confidence interval (CI) of the odds ratio was used and calculated from the data laid out for a cross sectional study. Results : 1. Odds ratios of Taeeumin and Soeumin in female adults below 60 years old were significantly lower than that of Soyangin in LF norm and LF/HF ratio. Odds ratios of Taeeumin and Soeumin in female adults below 60 years old were significantly higher than that of Soyangin in HF norm. 2. There was no significant correlation between HRV and Sasang Constitution in female adults from 60 years old and over. 3. There was no significant correlation between HRV and Sasang Constitution in male adults. Conclusion : There is a statistically significant correlation between the HRV and Sasang Constitution. There is a tendency of increase in the sympathetic activity in Soyangin. There is a tendency of decrease in the parasympathetic activity in Taeeumin and Soeumin.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.112 no.4
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• pp.544-553
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to reveal the thermal comfort and physiological and psychological effects of spending time in broad-leaved forests in suumer. Thirty-one university students (with an average age of 21.4 ± 2.1 years) participated in the study, and a within-subjects experimental design methodology was used. The participants moved to an experimental site (with a crown closure of 76.6%) or a control site (25.9%), sat on a chair to eliminate the impact of movement, and rested for 5 minutes with closed eyes. At this time, thermal comfort, heart rate variability, heart rate, and forehead temperature were continuously measured. After that, blood pressure and pulse rate were measured, and a subjective evaluation was conducted. As a result, spending time at an experimental site showed a statistically significant decrease in the predicted mean vote and the percentage of dissatisfied values, enhancement of parasympathetic nerve activity, decrease of forehead temperature, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, pulse rate, and improvement of personal thermal sensation (thermal sensation vote and comfort sensation vote). In conclusion, it was found that a forest with high crown closure reduces thermal stress and induces physiological and psychological relaxation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.320-332
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• 2024

The aims of this study were to compare the differences in hemodynamics between cigarette smoking and using heated tobacco products (HTPs) and to determine the acute effects of using HTPs on cardiac autonomic regulation. Another goal was to examine the acute cardiac autonomic responses when using different tobacco sticks in HTPs. Sixteen healthy male smokers completed an open-label, randomized, crossover trial consisting of non-smoking (NS), cigarette smoking, and the use of two different HTPs (IQOS with HEETS; lil SOLID with Fiit). Sub-trials, which included NS, lil SOLID with Fiit, and lil SOLID with HEET, were performed on eight smokers among the total subjects. Hemodynamic variables, such as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate variability were measured before, during, and 30 minutes after using each tobacco product. Using HTPs resulted in a significant increase in both SBP and DBP, comparable to smoking cigarettes. Cardiac sympathetic activity significantly increased, and cardiac vagal tone (CVT) significantly decreased after acute exposure to HTP aerosol, similar to the effects of cigarette smoke exposure. Furthermore, differences in the withdrawal of CVT were observed when using different tobacco sticks in the same HTPs. The findings of this study indicate that acute exposure to HTP aerosol increases the hemodynamic burden and disrupts cardiac autonomic balance, similar to exposure to cigarette smoke. Moreover, depending on the type of tobacco stick inserted into the HTP device, acute withdrawal of CVT may have been enhanced.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2011

Physiological signals such as body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and heart rate variability and biomechanical workload for stress analysis were investigated during the cherry tomato harvesting work in a greenhouse. The skin temperatures raised $0.05^{\circ}C$/min, $0.03^{\circ}C$/ min, and $0.08^{\circ}C$/min in standing, stooping and squatting postures, respectively. Breath rate significantly increased from 18 to 28 breaths/min during the cherry tomato harvesting work. As the heart rate during the work ranged from about 72 to 110 beats/min (bpm), the cherry tomato harvesting work appeared to be a light intensity task of less than 110 bpm. The worker's average energy consumption rate in three positions during 43 min working time was 65.74 kcal (91 kcal/h in 70 kg). This was a light intensity of work, compared to 75 kcal/h in 70 kg of basic metabolic energy consumption rate of a worker with 70 kg weight; The maximum shear force on the disk (L5/ S1) due to static workload in the cherry tomato harvesting work was 446 N in the stooping posture, 321 N in the squatting posture and 287 N in the standing posture. Acute stress index expressed with the heart rate variability, increased parasympathetic activation up to about 70 while workers were doing most agricultural work in this study. This study provided a system to measure quantitatively workers' physiological change, kinematics and kinetic factors without any restrictions of space in the greenhouse works.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.76-84
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• 2004

1. Objectives This paper is intended to find out Sasang Constitutional difference on Autonomous Function after Acupuncture stimulation in healthy subjects. 2. Methods of Research Nineteen healthy volunteers(Soyangin 6, Taeumin 7, Soeumin 6) had acupunctured perpendicularly into the Hapkok point(LI4) and the Taechung point(Liv3). Heart Rate Variability, Mean Heart Rate and Blood Pressure were checked 4 times(before and after Acupuncture stimulation) to evaluate Autonomous Function. 3. Results & Conclusions The conclusions were as follows 1. There was no statistically significant Sasang Constitutional difference on sympathetic activity and parasympathetic activity before Acupuncture stimulation. 2. Acupuncture stimulation caused a statistically significant increase in the parasympathetic activity in the whole subject. 3. After Acupuncture stimulation, there was a statistically significant increase in the parasympathetic activity in Soeumin and a tendency of increase in the parasympathetic activity in Soyangin. But there was a tendency of increase in the Sympathetic activity in Taeumin.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.76-85
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• 2010

In general, anesthetic depth is evaluated by experience of anesthesiologist based on the changes of blood pressure and pulse rate. So it is difficult to guarantee the accuracy in evaluation of anesthetic depth. The efforts to develop the objective index for evaluation of anesthetic depth were continued but there was few progression in this area. Heart rate variability provides much information of autonomic activity of cardiovascular system and almost all anesthetics depress the autonomic activity. Novel monitoring system which can simply and exactly analyze the autonomic activity of cardiovascular system will provide important information for evaluation of anesthetic depth. We investigated the anesthetic depth as following 7 stages. These are pre-anesthesia, induction, skin incision, before extubation, after extubation, Post-anesthesia. In this study, temporal, frequency and chaos analysis method were used to analyze the HRV time series from electrocardiogram signal. There were NN10-NN50, mean, SDNN and RMS parameter in the temporal method. In the frequency method, there are LF and HF and LF/HF ratio, 1/f noise, alphal and alpha2 of DFA analysis parameter. In the chaos analysis, there are CD, entropy and LPE. Chaos analysis method was valuable to estimate the anesthetic depth compared with temporal and frequency method. Because human body was involved the choastic character.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to analyze the responses of breath-counting meditations with the psychological test and the physical index. Methods: Breath-counting meditation was applied to 10 normal adults. Then, clinical research State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), State-Trait Anger eXpression Inventory (STAXI), Psychosocial Well-being Index Short Form (PWI-SF), Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument-Korean version (BEPSI-K), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and Vital Signs (V/S) were carried out to analyze the responses of breath-counting meditations. Results: 1) Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) decreased on the fifteenth day of breath-counting meditation, and Body Temperature (BT) increased on the fifteenth day. In addition, respiration decreased throughout the period of breath-counting meditation. 2) Standard deviations of N-N interval and Total Power (TP) of HRV all significantly increased on the fifteenth day of breath-counting meditation. 3) Scores of STAI1, STAXI1, STAXI2, and PWI-SF decreased after the breath-counting meditation. Conclusions: The results suggested that breath-counting meditations have positive responses to anger, anxiety and stress.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2014

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of Breath-Counting Meditation according to Personal Characteristics through the changes of Vital Signs (V/S) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Methods: 41 adults were classified according to gender and A-type behavior, then each group was compared for the changes on V/S and HRV through Breath-Counting Meditation of 10 minutes. Results: 1) Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were both significantly decreased in females, and the respiration level decreased significantly in both the male and female groups. 2) Respiration level decreased significantly in both the A-type and Non-A-type groups. 3) LF decreased significantly in both the male and female groups. HF increased significantly in both the male and female groups. 4) TP, LF and LF/HF increased significantly and HF decreased significantly in the Non-A-type group. Conclusions: Breath-Counting Meditation has respiratory effects for all groups and HRV of male, female and Non-A-type groups.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.77-82
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation application on the autonomic nervous system of human body. Methods: Participants were seventeen healthy adults. Standard deviation of all normal N-N intervals(SDNN), root mean square of successive differences(RMSSD), low frequency(LF), high frequency(HF) were compared in pre and post Mean values after intervention. Data were analyzed in Wilcoxon's signed-ranks test. Results: The results of this study is that sistolic blood pressure and pulse rate decreased mean value after non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. High frequency, low frequency, SDNN, RMSSD increased mean value in heart rate variability after intervention. But that is not significant except for SDNN. Conclusion: Non-invasive vagus stimulation by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation effect on parasympathetic nerve stimulation, and then it might be effective method for autonomic nerve balance control.