Acute Effects of Deep-Slow Breathing Exercise and Cranial-Visceral Manual Therapy on ANS Parameters in Healthy Adults

Acute Effects of Deep-Slow Breathing Exercise and Cranial-Visceral Manual Therapy on ANS Parameters in Healthy Adults

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of several manual therapy techniques on autonomic nervous system and to compare it with other groups in the study such as deep-slow breathing group and the control group. The measurements will take place right before and after the intervention to evaluate the effects of one single intervention.

All the patients will be clearly informed and will be included in the present study after their informed consent. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) will be evaluated using bio-sensors such as Photoplethysmography (PPG) and Galvanic skin response (GSR). The measurements will take place once for an individual. There will be three groups consisted of manual therapy, deep-slow breathing, and control groups. Non-invasive cranial and visceral techniques will be applied on the manual therapy group. The deep-slow breathing group will get an intervention consisting of deep-paced breathing to increase cardiac harmony. The control group will rest for the same amount of time as other interventions to distinguish whether the changes are related to intervention. After given consent, the participant will be assigned randomly to one of three groups. All the participants will be subjected to baseline measurement of the abovementioned metrics prior to intervention. All the interventions will take place in a controlled setting. After baseline measurement, the participant will take one of the three interventions which will take 30 minutes. After the data for each person is captured via sensors, it will be stored on a personal computer for further analysis and interpretation.

According to investigator's hypothesis, deep-slow breathing group will show signs of sympathetic withdrawal and parasympathetic dominance and that manual therapy group will also show same autonomic shift too.

Inclusion Criteria:

• To be between 18- 30 years old.
• To volunteer to participate in the study
• Not engaging in regular exercise.
• Not to have a chronical disease or history of chronical disease.
• Not to take any medication that affects heart rate variability.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Being outside of the range of 18- 30 years old.
• To have any kind of medical condition that disturbs the autonomic nervous system
• To have a chronical disease
• To have a regular medication
• To have/had head injury, intracranial bleeding or increased intracranial pressure.