Modulating Heart Rate Variability through Deep Breathing Exercises and Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation: A Study in Healthy Participants and in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are associated with an impaired autonomic nervous system and vagus nerve function. Electrical or physiological (deep breathing—DB) vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) could be a potential treatment approach, but no direct comparison has been made. In this study, the effect of transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS) and DB on vagal tone was compared in healthy participants and RA or SLE patients. The vagal tone was estimated using time-domain heart-rate variability (HRV) parameters. Forty-two healthy participants and 52 patients performed 30 min of DB and 30 min of taVNS on separate days. HRV was recorded before and immediately after each intervention. For the healthy participants, all HRV parameters increased after DB (SDNN + RMSSD: 21–46%), while one HRV parameter increased after taVNS (SDNN: 16%). For the patients, all HRV parameters increased after both DB (17–31%) and taVNS (18–25%), with no differences between the two types of VNS. DB was associated with the largest elevation of the HRV parameters in healthy participants, while both types of VNS led to elevated HRV parameters in the patients. The findings support a potential use of VNS as a new treatment approach, but the clinical effects need to be investigated in future studies.

Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation decreases vagally mediated heart rate variability

“…Second, future studies may extend our work by recording additional physiological parameters, such as respiration, as HF-HRV and breathing are closely linked (Grossman & Taylor, 2007;Jensen et al, 2022;Soer et al, 2021). Third, future studies could benefit from incorporating additional biomarkers, such as salivary alpha-amylase (Bach, 2014;Giraudier et al, 2022), or muscle sympathetic nerve activity (Clancy et al, 2014) that provide complementary information on the activity of the sympathetic or parasympathetic system.…”

State- and frequency-dependence in autonomic rebalance mediated by intradermal auricular electroacupuncture stimulation

“…Primary state is an essential factor influencing HRV improvement with iaES. There are individual differences in the therapeutic effects of taVNS, which are related to ANS state ( Wu et al, 2021 ; Jensen et al, 2022 ). ANS imbalance is involved in several diseases or disorders or could occur as a result of trauma, specific drug use, or exposure to toxins.…”

Assessment of the Application Status of Transcutaneous/Percutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Musculoskeletal Pain: A Scoping Review for Utilization in Korean Medicine and Subsequent Research

“…건강보험심사평가원의 DAMI ver 2.0 10) 을 기준으로 19 편 논문의 연구 설계를 분류하였다. 무작위 대조 연구(randomized controlled trials)가 모든 논문 중 14편 [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] 으로 가장 많은 비율을 차지했고, 전후 비교 연구(before after study) 가 3편 [25][26][27] , non-comparative study에 속하는 증례 보고 (case report)가 2편 28,29) 이었다. 근골격계 통증에 대한 체 계적 문헌고찰 논문은 존재하지 않았다(Fig.…”