Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Dietary Sodium And Blood Pressure Changes In Hemodialysis Patients Undergoing A Liberalized Renal Diet Intervention, Lauren Eve Chan

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Investigate the impacts of individual liberalized renal diet counseling in conjunction with a volume reduction hemodialysis (HD) protocol.

Design & Methods: Twenty-three maintenance HD patients (age = 55.7 ± 13.3y, 47.8% female), consented and completed this pilot intervention. Across the six-month intervention, participants received thrice weekly dietary counseling about a liberalized renal diet. Liberalized renal dietary guidelines promoted a low sodium diet with greater unprocessed food consumption, decreasing foods eaten outside the home, and increased food label reading. Participant HD sessions were conducted per a volume reduction protocol, gradually decreasing patient post-dialysis weight by removing an additional 200-300 mL/session. …

Relationships Among Stress, Blood Pressure, And Heart Rate Variability In Meditators, Sangthong Terathongkum

Theses and Dissertations

PROBLEM STATEMENT: Growing evidence indicates that psychological stress contributes to cardiovascular diseases through complex neuroendocrine mechanisms. Psychological stress leads to several physiological responses including increased heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) as well as decreased heart rate variability (HRV) through alterations in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), specifically increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity and decreased parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity. Meditation is thought to induce an innate relaxation response leading to reduced psychological stress. Findings from past studies have provided inconclusive evidence regarding the direction and strength of relationships among stress, BP, HRV, and meditation practice. PROCEDURES: A …