Lee HJ; Chae Y;
Park HJ; Hahm DH; An K; Lee H
Kyung Hee University, 1 Hoegi-dong,
Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea. E- handongmu@empal.com.
Vagal withdrawal and sympathetic overactivity accompany various types of stress. Qi training is reported to reduce sympathetic
hyper-reactivity in a stressful situation. Turo,
which is a type of dance that uses the Meridian Qi
System, may reduce the psychological symptoms induced by an imbalance of the
autonomic nervous system (ANS). We observed whether Turo
training alters psychopathological and psychological symptoms using the Symptom
Checklist 90-Revision (SCL-90-R) and examined whether it attenuates the stress
response to mental stress in healthy adolescent females using the power
spectrum analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Twenty-one subjects received
Turo training and 27 subjects were trained with
mimicking movements. The SCL-90-R was measured before and after the 2-month
training period. Heart rate (HR), total power (TP) and the LF/HF ratio of HRV
were compared between the Turo and control groups
during and after mental stress. The somatization and
hostility subscales of the SCL-90-R of the Turo group
were significantly lower than those of the control group after 2 months. The
increases in HR and the LF/HF ratio of HRV induced by the stress test were
significantly lower in the Turo group than in the
control group. The TP of the Turo group was
significantly higher than that of the control group. The psychological symptoms
and sympathetic activation induced by the artificial stress were significantly
reduced by the Turo training. These findings suggest
that Turo training can play a critical role in
attenuating psychological symptoms and stress-induced sympathetic activation.