title: Improvement of heart rate variability by eurythmy therapy after a 6-week eurythmy therapy training.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Eurythmy therapy (EYT) is a mind-body therapy used in anthroposophic medicine. Recently, the authors were able to show that at comparable workloads, EYT stimulated heart rate variability (HRV) whereas conventional ergometer training attenuated HRV. Furthermore, a long-term improvement of quality of life (QoL) and stress coping strategies by EYT could be shown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of EYT training on HRV.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 23 healthy women (mean age = 44.57 ± 8.04 years) performed 10 hours of EYT over a period of 6 weeks. Electrocardiograms were recorded before and after the EYT trial. HRV was quantified by the extent of high (HF), low (LF), very low (VLF), and ultra low frequency (ULF) oscillations of heart rate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Autonomic regulation was significantly changed following the EYT training compared with baseline. Especially the proportion referring to the total power (P) of HF/P and LF/P increased, whereas ULF/P and (ULF+VLF)/P decreased after the training period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EYT shifted the autonomic regulation proportionally referring to the total power mainly caused by changes of ULF and VLF components of HRV. The LF and HF spectral components were also decreased following EYT while their proportion in relation to the total variance of the power spectrum was increased. The proportional enhancement of the higher frequency and the decrease of the ULF and VLF components are probably an indicator of an improvement of autonomic regulation processes by more relaxed physical activity after the EYT training, thus supporting the plausibility of the improved QoL and better stress coping strategies.
authors: Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Otto Heubner Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. georg.seifert@charite.de
authors: Georg
authors: G
authors: Seifert
authors: Jenny-Lena
authors: JL
authors: Kanitz
authors: Kim
authors: K
authors: Pretzer
authors: Günter
authors: G
authors: Henze
authors: Katharina
authors: K
authors: Witt
authors: Sina
authors: S
authors: Reulecke
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Voss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D026441:Mind-Body Therapies / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life