Effects of short-term warm water immersion on cardiac baroreflex sensitivity in healthy men

Warm water immersion (WWI) causes dizziness presumably due to a substantial drop of blood pressure. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effects of short-term WWI on cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and the contribution of arterial stiffness to the cardiac BRS. Twelve apparent healthy men (44 ± 12 years) performed the single stand-up test after 5-min sitting in the bathtub without (Control) and with 41 °C warm water at the heart level (WWI). Cardiac BRS gain was evaluated by R-R interval response to the standing-induced drop of systolic blood pressure. In addition, before and 10 min after the single stand-up test, carotid arterial β-stiffness index was evaluated in the supine rest. BRS gain was blunted (2.9 ± 1.6 vs. 1.8 ± 1.1 ms/mmHg, P = 0.005), whereas β-stiffness index was not changed significantly after WWI. BRS gain correlated with β-stiffness index before (r = - 0.626, P = 0.028) and after WWI (r = - 0.672, P = 0.015). ANCOVA revealed that these slopes of linear regression lines remained unchanged after WWI (P = 0.350). These results indicate that a short-term WWI acutely deteriorates cardiac BRS. Individuals with stiffer arteries are relatively more susceptible to WWI because of their poor baseline BRS, which might be one of the causes of bathing-related falling in elderly persons as well as frailty.