Abstract
This study represents a comparison of the functional interrelation of fatigue and cognitive, cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems in a group of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients compared with those in healthy individuals at different stages of analysis: at baseline and after changes induced by whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) combined with a static-stretching (SS) program. The study included 32 patients (Fukuda criteria) and 18 healthy controls. Fatigue, cognitive, cardiovascular and autonomic function and arterial stiffness were measured before and after 10 sessions of WBC with SS. In the patients, a disturbance in homeostasis was observed. The network relationship based on differences before and after intervention showed comparatively higher stress and eccentricity in the CFS group: 50.9 ± 56.1 vs. 6.35 ± 8.72, p = 0.002, r = 0.28; and 4.8 ± 0.7 vs. 2.4 ± 1, p < 0.001, r = 0.46, respectively. Before and after intervention, in the CFS group increased fatigue was related to baroreceptor function, and baroreceptor function was in turn related to aortic stiffness, but no such relationships were observed in the control group. Differences in the network structure underlying the interrelation among the four measured criteria were observed in both groups, before the intervention and after ten sessions of whole cryotherapy with a static stretching exercise.
Highlights
Whole body cryotherapy (WBC) has been proven to be a safe and efficient form of physiotherapy in both sports medicine and clinical settings.WBC activates physiological mechanisms that maintain a constant core temperature
Our exploratory analysis showed differences in the network structure underlying the relationships between cognitive function, fatigue, cardiovascular and autonomic function in both general topology and amongst specific nodes and their interactions
In part we confirmed the results of a previous study, where a disturbance in autonomic and cardiovascular homeostasis and glucose metabolism were noted in the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients [32]
Summary
Whole body cryotherapy (WBC) has been proven to be a safe and efficient form of physiotherapy in both sports medicine (e.g., skeletal disorders [1,2] and acute and chronic injuries [3]) and clinical settings (e.g., fibromyalgia [4] and neurological disorders [4]). In their review Kruse and Scheuermann described the unequivocal influence of acute and long-term stretching exercise responses on aortic stiffness, cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system functioning, an increase in parasympathetic and decrease in sympathetic activity [20]. It might be applied in CFS patients to treat secondary symptoms. WBC with a stretching program might improve autonomic nervous system function [5,6,7,20] A previous CFS study using a network analysis approach showed evidence of disturbance glucose metabolism and in homeostasis in the autonomic nervous and cardiovascular systems [32] It seems that autonomic nervous system function, cognitive function and aortic stiffness could be related to fatigue in CFS. The aim of this study was to explore differences in the relationship among fatigue, autonomic nervous system function, aortic stiffness and cognitive function in CFS compared to controls, both before and in response to whole body cryotherapy and static stretching
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