Additive Benefits of Twice Forest Bathing Trips in Elderly Patients with Chronic Heart Failure.
- Author:
Gen Xiang MAO
1
;
Yong Bao CAO
1
;
Yan YANG
2
;
Zhuo Mei CHEN
3
;
Jian Hua DONG
4
;
Sha Sha CHEN
1
;
Qing WU
1
;
Xiao Ling LYU
1
;
Bing Bing JIA
1
;
Jing YAN
1
;
Guo Fu WANG
1
Author Information
- Publication Type:Letter
- MeSH: Aged; Chronic Disease; Complementary Therapies; methods; Forests; Heart Failure; blood; drug therapy; therapy; Heart Function Tests; Humans; Interleukin-6; blood; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain; blood; Oxidative Stress; Recreation; Treatment Outcome; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; blood
- From: Biomedical and Environmental Sciences 2018;31(2):159-162
- CountryChina
- Language:English
- Abstract: Chronic heart failure (CHF), a clinical syndrome resulting from the consequences of various cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), is increasingly becoming a global cause of morbidity and mortality. We had earlier demonstrated that a 4-day forest bathing trip can provide an adjunctive therapeutic influence on patients with CHF. To further investigate the duration of the impact and the optimal frequency of forest bathing trips in patients with CHF, we recruited those subjects who had experienced the first forest bathing trip again after 4 weeks and randomly categorized them into two groups, namely, the urban control group (city) and the forest bathing group (forest). After a second 4-day forest bathing trip, we observed a steady decline in the brain natriuretic peptide levels, a biomarker of heart failure, and an attenuated inflammatory response as well as oxidative stress. Thus, this exploratory study demonstrated the additive benefits of twice forest bathing trips in elderly patients with CHF, which could further pave the way for analyzing the effects of such interventions in CVDs.
