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Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (TNV) may be effective in helping aging adults cope with common problems badociated with aging, including depression, heart rate variability, and sleep.
Beatrice Bretherton, Ph.D., a researcher at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leeds, has evaluated in three recent studies whether a single session of tVNS, as well as that administered daily for 2 weeks, can help to improve the autonomous function attenuated. in aging patients.
Investigators altered the surface electrodes on the tragus and connected them to a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation device for all three studies, including healthy volunteers aged 55 and over. This therapy involves stimulating the auricular branch of the vagus nerve to the outer parts of the ear.
The first study included 14 participants who received only one session of tVNS and sham, while the second study included 51 volunteers who underwent a single stimulation session. In the last study, 29 patients received tVNS daily for 2 weeks.
They calculated the variability of heart rate and baroreflex sensitivity for the three studies while badessing the quality of life (qol), mood, and sleep in the third study.
"TVNS has promoted an increase in vagal tone measurements and has been badociated with a greater increase in baroreflex sensitivity than simulacrum," the authors wrote. "Two weeks of daily tVNS have been shown to improve measures of autonomic function, as well as aspects of quality of life, mood and sleep."
Only 15 minutes of treatment with tVNS significantly increased the variability of the heart rate, in part because of the reduction in sympathetic nerve activity. Parasympathetic activity is also likely to increase with stimulation due to the increase in spontaneous sensitivity of cardiac baroreflex, even in young, healthy men.
The researchers believe that tVNS treatment may be particularly effective in the elderly, as it induces larger increases in heart rate variability among participants with lower initial variability.
A single session of tVNS was badociated with a greater increase in BRS compared to a simulacrum, while promoting a shift towards parasympathetic prevalence in a larger cohort of older participants with a daily tVNS improving resting vagal tone at some volunteers.
The results of the study also showed that participants with a higher baseline sympathetic prevalence had more pronounced improvements in self-balancing measures, suggesting that it is possible to identify who is most likely to derive more substantial benefits from tVNS treatment.
"Participants with high scores of tension, depression, anger, and confusion during Visit 1 reported greater improvements at Visit 2 than those with low scores," the authors wrote. Those who have experienced better improvements in terms of ease of falling asleep, time spent falling asleep, quality of sleep and ease of waking up at visit 2 have values lower than the visit 1 " .
Autonomic changes impair cardiac function, emotions, mood, and bowel function in geriatric patients. These changes could also play a role in other conditions, such as heart failure, hypertension, and depression.
The researchers believe that the results of the study show that tVNS could be used as a non-invasive functional technique for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, as well as to contribute to the progression of obesity and diabetes. type 2.
The study, titled "Effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in people aged 55 or older: potential benefits of daily stimulation," was published online in Aging.
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