Do you go to the gym to strengthen your body? Well, you may be forgetting to train some of your vital muscles, namely those involved in breathing. New research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), shows that train breathing – or rather, train the muscles that allow it – every day can reduce high blood pressure and promote heart health.
The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are strongly linked, despite being often found in two different study disciplines, for example, shortness of breath is often one of the main symptoms of congestive heart failure, while pulmonary hypertension and right-sided heart failure are associated with structural lung disease, therefore it may come as no surprise that improving lung muscles can also improve heart function.
Hypertension is one of the major modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. As we age, the incidence of higher than normal blood pressure may also increase. For public health initiatives, addressing these hypertension is important.
One way to do this is to target the respiratory muscles. Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) is a method that involves breathing against a resistance device over a long period of time. This method was originally developed for athletes, but is now also being implemented in healthy adults and non-ventilation dependent patients.
What does the study specifically say about training breathing
In a recent studythe researchers took healthy volunteers (aged 18 to 82 years) and taught them a technique to train their breathing, a technique to be performed on a daily basis and in five minutes (30 breaths), for 5-7 days at the week and a grand total of six weeks, using a machine called PowerBreathe. This portable device looks like an inhaler but allows participants to train their breathing, specifically improving endurance through some techniques.
Blood pressure is normally measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg), as this measurement was used in early blood pressure monitors and is used as the standard unit measure, however as you know there are two numbers in blood pressure: systolic blood pressure (the first number) which is the pressure of the blood on the artery walls when the heart beats, e diastolic blood pressure (the second number) which is the blood pressure on the artery when the heart is at rest.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the normal blood pressure level is 120/80 mmHg.
In this study, participants who performed the breathing training technique and found that their systolic blood pressure had dropped by 9 mmHg, an exciting prospect as this type of exercise can easily be done at home or by people who are not able to do traditional aerobic exercise. The reduction in this blood pressure was also seen in a 6-week follow-up visit after the people who had stopped exercising.
Volunteers also saw a improvement of the bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO), this is an important factor as it can promote good blood flow and widen blood vessels: This combination will help prevent plaque buildup in the arteries. This NO improvement is due to a combination of decreased oxidative stress and increased endothelial NO synthase activation.
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