Issn Print: 0195-9131

Publication Date: 1996/05/01


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DOES FOREHEAD ELECTRICAL STIMULATION ENHANCE RECOVERY FROM A MARATHON?701

O. Ilyinsky; C. Zolfoghary; J. Stray-Gundersen

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The brain antinociceptive system (BANS) participates in maintainence of homeostasis. Activation of this system can depress pain and may help in recovery from different types of stress. Opioid peptides (OP) may be involved in this process and blood levels may reflect the level of BANS activation. Forehead electrical stimulation (FES) has been used to activate BANS and produce analgesia. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the FES can improve the recovery after marathon (M) running stress and if so, what is the mechanism. 15 male recreational runners, age=39.0±1.6 were randomly separated into an experimental (EXP, n=7) and control (CON, n=8) groups. Blood was drawn on the day before the marathon; then after 45min of the 1stFES after the M; after the 2ndFES the next day; and on the 8th day post M. Plasma was assayed for β-endorphin (BE)-ρmol/L; ACTH-ρg/ml; CPK-IU/L. Level and location of pain were determined by pain diagrams filled in at each time point. Table
Results are reported as the mean±SD and a l-way, repeated measures ANOVA, as well as, correlation statistics were used. There was significantly less pain after the 2ndFES procedure in the EXP. On the 8th day the pain sensation was the same in both groups. There were no differences in[CPK] between EXP and CON, suggesting no differences in speed of recovery. Immediately after the marathon, BE & ACTH increased in parallel: corr. coef.= 0.889; p<0.01) but varied independantly thereafter. There were no correlations between the changes in the level of BE and the pain score. FES can be used as pain depressor post marathon, but did not seem to speed recovery and did not influence blood opiate levels.
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