Heart rate variability behavior in young men after short-term carotenoid-containing supplementation

Hsien-Tsai Wu; Jian-Jung Chen

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14102

Heart rate variability behavior in young men after short-term carotenoid-containing supplementation

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 2;9(3):e14102. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14102. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Authors

Hsien-Tsai Wu¹, Jian-Jung Chen^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Section 2, Da Hsueh Rd., Hualien, 97401, Taiwan.
² Department of Chinese Medicine, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital , Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taichung, 42743, Taiwan.
³ Institute of Medical Sciences, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, 97002, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background: Heart rate variability can reflect the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), while carotenoids are good for CVD prevention. However, the acute effect of short-term carotenoid-containing supplementation on heart rate variability in young men is unclear.

Methods: Thirty young men between 20 and 29 years of age without personal or family history of cardiovascular diseases were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The anthropometric data, physiological parameters, and serum biochemical data were acquired, which were without significant difference between the two groups, at the beginning of trial. The participants in the experimental group consumed one pack of compound nutritional supplements in the morning (e.g., 10 AM) and another pack at night (e.g., 7 PM) each day. Heart rate variability was measured again once a month. Repeated measures analysis of variance with Roy's largest root test and Bonferroni post hoc test were applied for primary outcomes.

Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance indicated a significant time interaction effect for the estimated marginal means of percussion entropy index scale (T1 versus T3, T1 versus T4, and T2 versus T4 with p = 0.009, 0.005, and 0.032, respectively). Roy's largest root test indicates there were significant differences between the means of the index after the intervention between two groups only on T3 and T4 (p = 0.007, η ² = 0.232 and p = 0.028, η ² = 0.162, respectively).

Conclusion: Short-term carotenoid-containing supplementation could help young men by increasing heart rate variability capacity compared to controls over three months.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease (CVD); Carotenoid-Containing Supplementation; Heart Rate Variability (HRV); analysis of variance (ANOVA); percussion entropy index (PEI).