A COMPARISON ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOGA AND AROMATHERAPY MASSAGE USING LAVENDER TO DECREASE BLOOD PRESSURE IN ELDERLY

The more a person’s age will affect the physical change. It may cause a change of cardiovascular system. One of ailments caused by cardiovascular change is hypertension. It is a leading cause of death in the world. One of the hypertension management is Yoga that can cause vasodilation of blood vessels and blood flow thus it can lower blood pressure. The purpose in the study was to identify the effectiveness of Yoga gymnastics compared by Aromatherapy massage using Lavender to decrease blood pressure in Nursing Home of Tresna Werda Puspakarma Mataram. The research used pre-experimental design namely two group pretest-posttest designs with sampling technique was purposive sampling. The sample was 20 respondents in each group that in accordance with criteria which have been set. The instrument was observation guideline and data analysis employed t-test. The result of statistical test on 9 respondents in each treatment group indicated there was a significant change of respondents’ blood pressure who were given either Yoga exercises or Aromatherapy massage using Lavender with t-count was higher than t-table (2.26), whereas Aromatherapy massage (t-count = 7.30) was more effective than Yoga activity (t-count = 4.296) to decrease blood pressure in Elderly. It can be concluded that Aromatherapy massage using Lavender is more effective than Yoga activity in decreasing Elderly’s blood pressure in Nursing House of Tresna Werda Puspakarma Mataram. This research is expected to be applied as one of therapy to figure out the increasing of blood pressure especially in Elderly.

Cardiovascular effects of serotonin in the nucleus of the solitary tract

The cardiovascular regulatory role of serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] in the solitary tract nucleus (NTS) was investigated in urethan-anesthetized Wistar rats. Unilateral microinjection of 5-HT (5 nmol in 50 nl) into the NTS evoked depressions of both arterial pressure (-20 +/- 1 mmHg) and heart rate (-43 +/- 6 beats/min). Induction of bradycardia and hypotension was repeatable and consistently obtained with injections into the NTS but not into neighboring structures. Microinjection of the nonselective 5-HT receptor antagonist methiothepin or the 5-HT1A/5-HT1B antagonist pindolol prevented any cardiovascular change by subsequent microinjection of 5-HT into the NTS. In contrast, microinjection of the 5-HT2-selective antagonist ketanserin or the 5-HT1A antagonist spiroxatrine had no effect on the subsequent effects of 5-HT. Bilateral vagal denervation prevented the bradycardia induced by 5-HT, whereas the vasodepression remained intact. These data provide evidence that 5-HT in the NTS evokes vagal chronotropic cardioinhibition and sympathetic withdrawal and suggest that this action is mediated by 5-HT1 serotonergic receptors, possibly of the 5-HT1B subtype.

Cardiovascular change and hypothalamic norepinephrine release in response to environmental stress

The major objective of this study was to compare the magnitude and duration of cardiovascular (CV) responses to acute environmental stresses with the associated patterns of noradrenergic activity in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and posterior nucleus (PH) of the hypothalamus. Simultaneous microdialysis samples of extracellular norepinephrine (NE) were collected at 5-min intervals from PVN and PH and the CV responses were recorded before, during, and for 15 min after acute shaker (cage oscillation) stress or inhalation of ether vapor in freely moving rats. Five minutes of shaker stress, 60 and 150 cycles/min, elicited pressor responses coupled with increases in dialysate NE from both PVN and PH in a frequency-dependent manner. Tachycardia occurred at 150 but not 60 cycles/min. Ten minutes after 60 cycles/min and 15 min after 150 cycles/min, NE efflux in PH was still increased, whereas in PVN it returned to control as had arterial pressure and heart rate. Ether vapor elicited a transient CV response but a continuing efflux of NE in PH and PVN. Urethan anesthesia raised baseline values of dialysate NE in PH and PVN but significantly attenuated cardiovascular and dialysate NE responses to shaker stress. We conclude that acute environmental stress simultaneously elicits CV responses and the efflux of NE from PVN and PH but, during or after stress, CV values may return to control levels while NE efflux remains elevated in PVN and/or PH.