5. Physiological Measurements on Qigong Beginner

Masataka Tanaka, Hideyuki Kokubo, Masahiko Hirasawa, Tomoko Kokado, Mikio Yamamoto and Kimiko Kawano* (*Nippon Medical School, Tokyo)

Keywords: ECG, R-R interval, LF/HF, sympathetic nervous system, qigong

We have been periodically making physiological measurements of qigong beginners in a qigong school by Various Simultaneous Measurements (VSM) to study their value changes during qigong trannung

The present subject was a 38-year old male who started training 11 months ago. Measurements were done during foot massage for 15 minutes, standing posture qigong for 15 minutes and Soubikou (a dy namic qigong) for 4.5 minutes, each with the eyes closed and opened. Measurement items were ECGs (electrocardiograms: bipolar leads below the collarbones) and respiration patterns (thermocouple sensors on the mouth and the nose). Activity indexes (LF/HFs) of the sympathetic nervous system were calculated as follows. The data, from equal intervals of 0.175s, were calculated from R-R intervals in the ECGs with the cubic spline interpolation. The power spectrum was obtained from these 512 data by Fourier transform. LF was the area frorn' 0.04 to 0.15 Hz and HF was the area from 0.15 to 0.5 Hz. LF/HF was calculated from them.

Analysis data showed differences when the eyes were opened and closed (Table 2). 1) Both foot massage with the eyes closed and standing posture qigong with the eyes closed showed lower LF/HFs than when the eyes were opened. 2) Both foot massage with the eyes closed and standtng posture qigong with the eyes closed showed longer respiration periods than when the eyes were opened. 3) Both foot massage with the eyes closed and Soubikou with the eyes closed showed smaller respiration amplitudes than when the eyes were opened.

Table 2. LF/HF and Respiration average with Eyes Closed and Eyes Opens

Item	Eye state	LF/HF	Respiration
			Periods(second)	Amplitude(V)
Foot Massage	Closed	1.19	2.6	17.4
	Opened	1.44	2.2	19.1
Standing Posture Qigong	Closed	1.11	2.7	13.2
	Opened	1.24	2.6	13.6
Soubikou	Closed	-	2.1	8.8
	Opened	-	2.1	12.2

Publication:
Tanaka M. Kokubo H. Hirasawa M. Kokado T., Taniguchi J., Yamamoto M. and Kawano K. : J. Intl. Soc. Life Info. Sci., 18, 98-108, 2000.