Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

High concentration artificial CO2-water
immersion facilitates a recovery from muscle
fatigue after submaximal exercise
Yamamoto N (1) , Hashimoto M (2)
(1) Japan Red Cross Hokkaido Colllege of Nursing. Kitami. Hokkaido, Japan
(2) Teikyo University of Science. Adachi.Tokyo, Japan
yama@rchokkaido-cn.ac.jp
Introduction and Objectives
Clinical observations of CO2-hot spring (CO2 ≥1000 ppm) immersion revealed
the effects, an immersed part reddening, skin blood flow improvements, blood
catecholamine decrease, etc. Recently an apparatus was developed for making
water containing comparable CO2-concentration to natural CO2-hot spring water.
Studies using this artificial CO2-water and experimental animals revealed that
cardiac sympathetic nerve activity was decreased by bathing with the CO2-water,
which has long been assumed by the observation of human. In response to the CO2water
bath, the reduction of sympathetic nerve activity indicating stress may imply
the facilitation of muscle fatigue recovery.
We have demonstrated that repeated immersion of the forearm in CO2-water
augments the local muscle O2 consumption and blood flow using near-infrared
spectroscopy (NIRS).
In the present study we investigated whether an immersion into the water containing
high concentration CO2 (CO2-water) after submaximal exercise could
facilitate a recovery from muscle fatigue.
Materials and Methods
Six male healthy students (Age; 21-22 yrs, Height; 176.6±1.7cm, Weight;
65.0±2.2kg, %fat 14.6±1.6%) performed 10 min pedaling exercise at 60% Vo2max
were given one of the following 3 treatments in a different day; immersion into tapwater
(CO21000 ppm) (30 °C, 10 min), or
bathtub sitting rest (air) after exercise. Blood flow in the immersed skin (BF) and
electrocardiogram (ECG) were recorded continuously throughout the experiment.
Cardiac autonomic nerve activity was evaluated by R-R interval fluctuation power
spectrum analysis (PSA) using ECG. Muscles stiffness (right vastus lateralis dominant;
MS), blood lactate concentration (BLa), salivary cortisol (SCo), visual
alanogue scale in muscle (VAS) were evaluated at pre-exercise, immediately after
exercise, during immersion (at 5 min of immersion, not measured MS) and at 10
min after the end of immersion. Statistical evaluation of the data was done by
Balnea
2012, núm. 6, 336-337
336
ISBN: 978-84-669-1887-0
978-84-669-3482-4