Immediate Effect of Cold Spinal Spray on Autonomic Variables in Hypertensive Individuals - A Randomised Control Trial

Background: Hypertension (HTN) has become an important public health issue. From the past few decades, different classes of antihypertensive drugs are used in treating HTN and non-pharmacological complementary therapies like naturopathy are efficiently employed. Clinically naturopathic physicians were using the cold spinal spray as one of the therapy in managing hypertension. It is important to understand the immediate efficacy and underlying mechanism of cold spinal spray in, patients with primary hypertension. Methods: Pre diagnosed primary hypertensive subjects are screened as per the criteria of diagnosis and 60 subjects were selected after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Subjects were randomly assigned and group one underwent 20 min of cold spinal spray (CSS) whereas group two was made to lay down in the same tub for 20 min. Baseline assessments were done followed by 20 min of intervention and finally, immediate post-assessments were done. Data were assessed and analyzed. Results: Group one with CSS intervention showed a significant decrease in low frequency (LF), low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio and an increase in high frequency (HF) after the intervention (p˂0.01). Group two without intervention showed decreased LF/HF ratio, increased LF and HF but LF increased after the intervention but was not significant (p˃0.01). Comparing the groups showed a significant difference in all components of HRV (p˂0.05) and group one have more significant results than group two. Conclusion: Comparing both the groups, results suggested a significant decrease in sympathetic activity and a shift of sympathovagal balance towards vagal dominance immediately after the intervention of cold spinal spray is observed. Therefore CSS can be helpful in the immediate reduction of blood pressure in primary HTN patients.