Physical and physiological effectiveness of an overall health care program for middle-aged Japanese women with mild obesity: A pilot study

Abstract

This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of an overall health care program (OHCP) for middle-aged Japanese women through assessing physical and physiological changes. The OHCP consisted of diet modification with natural alternative foods, walking and stretching exercises, and body massage and cupping treatments. Sixty-seven participants were assigned to one of three groups during a 3-year study period (2011-2013). The OHCP was performed for 3 months in each year. After the OHCP, most participants had significant decreases in the blood levels of triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyl transferase, and cholinesterase; body weight; body fat percentage; and body-mass index. The oxidative stress markers varied among the study years; however, a significant decrease in blood reactive oxygen-derived metabolites and a significant increase in the relative antioxidative potential were observed in 2013. In 2013, participants who were randomly selected for autonomic nervous activity measurements immediately before and after body massage and cupping treatments showed a significant predominance in parasympathetic nervous activity after the treatments. These results indicate that the OHCP in the present study is an effective and prompt method as a complementary treatment to improve the pre-obese or mild obese status without any noticeable physiological stress in most middle-aged women. However, because of the limitations of this study, the findings of this study need to be confirmed.

Keywords: autonomic nervous function; blood examination; body-mass index; middle-aged women; physiological stress.

Fig. 1

Correlations between (A) body weight and BFP, (B) CK level and total walking time, (C) body weight and TG level, and (D) BMI and TG level, with regard to changes in participants undergoing OHCP. BFP = body fat percentage; BMI = body-mass index; CK = creatine kinase; OHCP = overall health care program; TG = triglyceride.

Fig. 2

The correlation between (A) the values of d-ROMs and BMI. (B) A comparison of d-ROMs values between the two participant groups with a low BMI or high BMI. BMI = body-mass index; d-ROMs = reactive oxygen metabolites-derived compounds. * Indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05), compared to the value in participants with a BMI < 25.

Fig. 3

Changes in autonomic nervous balance in 13 subjects who received the body massage and cupping treatments. The upper-right graph shows a box plot of the LF/HF ratio before and after the treatments. HF = high-frequency power; LF = low-frequency power; LF/HF = ratio of LF power to HF power.