Yang and Wang BMC Complementary and Alternative
Medicine 2012, 12(Suppl 1):P233
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/S1/P233
Yang, Y Wang*
From International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health 2012
Portland, Oregon, USA. 15-18 May 2012
Purpose
The Rescue remedy has been used as a stress relief formula
by practitioners of Bach flower remedies. The
objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of
Bach Rescue remedy on cardiac autonomic balance in
healthy women.
Methods
In this two-stage crossover trial, seven females (mean age
26±4 years) were randomlyassigned to a sequence of two
treatments (Rescue remedy and placebo) with a onemonth
wash-out period. The Rescue remedy consisted of
four drops of five flower essences (cherry plum, clematis,
impatiens, rock rose and Star of Bethlehem) dissolved in
brandy and 250 ml of distilled water. The placebo consisted
of four drops of brandy in 250 ml of distilled water.
Cardiac autonomic functions were evaluated by frequency
domain indices (LF, low frequency power and HF, high
frequency power) of heart rate variability at baseline and
after the intervention. Percentage changes were calculated
and compared between the Rescue remedy and placebo
groups using Wilcoxon signed rank sum test.
Results
Both the mean percentage changes of LnLF (natural
logarithm-transformed LF) and LF/HF ratio were significantly
different between the two groups. The mean percentage
change of LnLF in the Rescue remedy group
was -15.9+/-7.4% compared with 18.3+/-21.6% in the
placebo group. The mean percentage change of LF/HF
was -27.8+/-13.0% in the Rescue remedy group compared
with 53.2+/-89.1% in the placebo group.
Conclusion
This is the first study using a double-blind randomized
crossover design to evaluate the effect of Bach Rescue
remedy on heart rate variability in healthy women.
Increased parasympathetic activity and decreased sympathetic
activity were observed in individuals receiving
Bach Rescue remedy. These changes may explain the
stress relieving effect of Bach Rescue remedy.
Published: 12 June 2012
doi:10.1186/1472-6882-12-S1-P233
Cite this article as: Yang and Wang: P02.177. Effects of Bach Rescue
remedy on cardiac autonomic balance in healthy women. BMC
Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012 12(Suppl 1):P233.
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Yang and Wang BMC Complementary and Alternative
Medicine 2012, 12(Suppl 1):P233
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/S1/P233
© 2012 Yang and Wang; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.