The Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) has published a study’s findings that could help us learn to breathe better and lower blood pressure in the case of hypertensive patients.
Titled “Time‐Efficient Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training Lowers Blood Pressure and Improves Endothelial Function, NO Bioavailability, and Oxidative Stress in Midlife/Older Adults With Above‐Normal Blood Pressure” the study tested a technique called “High‐resistance inspiratory muscle strength training” (IMST) – a novel, time‐efficient physical training modality.
How was the study carried out?
The researchers performed a double‐blind, randomized, sham‐controlled trial to investigate whether 6 weeks of IMST (30 breaths/day, 6 days/week) improves blood pressure, endothelial function, and arterial stiffness in midlife/older adults (aged 50–79 years) with systolic blood pressure ≥120 mm Hg, while also investigating potential mechanisms and long‐lasting effects.
They enrolled 36 adults in the study. All these volunteers were healthy and aged between 50 and 79 years; they also had healthy blood pressure numbers. Some of the volunteers performed just five minutes of the “high-resistance” IMST for six weeks. The rest were put in a placebo group where they were to go through the same amount of IMST at a lower resistance for the same period of time.
The idea was to see if higher IMST was effective in “helping ageing adults fend off cardiovascular disease.”
What did the study help find?
It turns out that the participants who were put through a more intense form of breathing exercise had a 9-point drop in their systolic blood pressure. This was a significant drop — the kind of “… reduction which generally exceeds that achieved by walking 30 minutes a day five days a week… a decline which is also equal to the effects of some blood pressure-lowering drug regimens,” said the study authors.
The benefits far exceed just the training period or the study period. It turns out that “even six weeks after they quit doing IMST, they maintained most of that improvement.”
Equivalent to aerobic exercise or vigorous walk:
The study authors point out that aerobic exercise is one of the most evidence‐based interventions to promote healthy cardiovascular ageing. But most of us are so short of time in our daily grinds that adherence to aerobic exercise guidelines (150 min/wk moderate‐intensity aerobic exercise or 75 min/wk vigorous aerobic exercise15) is poor, and not even half of the midlife/older adults meeting the guidelines.
The Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training or IMST exercises do almost the same benefit for your lungs that aerobic exercises promise. IMST is not meant to replace aerobic activity but to supplement it, warn the study authors.
Benefits 50+ adults:
Most 50+ individuals – not yet retired, with family in need of support – suffer from this low rate of adherence because of barriers such as lack of time, facility access, transportation, mobility issues, and financial costs of membership to exercise facilities. But if cardiovascular health is neglected at this key age, it could have negative ramifications later in life.
Therefore, there is a need to establish novel lifestyle strategies that overcome these barriers to achieve high adherence while also showing efficacy for reducing SBP and improving vascular health in midlife/older adults.
That is where Inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) steps in as an alternative form of physical training that uses the diaphragm and accessory respiratory muscles to repeatedly inhale against resistance.
“We found not only is it more time-efficient than traditional exercise programs, but the benefits may also be longer-lasting,” EatThis.Com cites Daniel Craighead, PhD, an assistant research professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder as saying.
The report in EatThis also states that the study showed how menopausal women could draw a particular benefit from this study that normal aerobics is unable to deliver. That is – of helping the inner lining of blood vessels function more efficiently.
Postmenopausal women benefit:
EatThis.com states that the study highlights that previous scientific research has found that postmenopausal women—unless they’re taking estrogen supplements—don’t “reap as much benefit from aerobic exercise programs as men do when it comes to vascular endothelial function,” which refers to the inner lining of your blood vessels. With IMST, they do.
“If aerobic exercise won’t improve this key measure of cardiovascular health for postmenopausal women, they need another lifestyle intervention that will,” Craighead noted in the release. “This could be it”.
How do you do it?
Buy a personal incentive spirometer – a handheld device that helps your lungs recover after a surgery or lung illness. Your lungs can become weak after prolonged disuse. A spirometer is like a personal toiletry item – not to be shared with others.
This device helps keep the lungs and the vascular system active and free of fluid. You can also buy (online, if not available in shops) a device called an inspiratory muscle trainer that you put to your mouth while simultaneously plugging your nose.
When you breathe into this device, it will provide resistance. One company that provides them is called Power Breathe. To use it, you do 30 “vigorous” breaths over the course of 5 minutes. None of these exercises should be undertaken on your own and/or without the advice of your doctor.
Stop immediately if you feel faint or dizzy. Consult your doctor before attempting again.
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