A recent study points out that a simple exercise to strengthen the respiratory muscles, five minutes a day, can lower high blood pressure and improve vascular health more effectively than aerobic exercise.
This new research, led by researchers at the University of Colorado, focuses on a type of breathing exercise known as inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST). Developed in the 1980s for patients with severe respiratory illnesses, this technique requires patients to vigorously inhale air through a handheld device offering resistance while sucking in the opposite direction.
Traditionally, these types of therapies are known to strengthen the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles through daily thirty-minute low resistance sessions. As part of this new work published in the Journal of the American Heart Association , researchers explored the potential benefits of shorter, high-resistance workouts on high blood pressure issues.
For this study, the scientists recruited 36 adults between the ages of 50 and 79 having higher than normal systolic blood pressure. Participants were instructed to perform thirty inhalations per day with a hand-held IMST device, six days a week, over a six-week period. Half of the cohort was subjected to a high resistance force and the other half to a lower resistance force. None of the participants knew which group they belonged to.
At the end of the six weeks, the participants integrated into the high resistance group experienced a sharp drop in their systolic blood pressure (a drop of nine points on average). According to the authors, such a reduction is greater than that obtained by walking thirty minutes a day five days a week . These effects would also be equivalent to those offered by certain hypotensive therapeutic regimens. Furthermore, these benefits lasted for six weeks. after the study.
Other positives:participants in this same group experienced a 45% improvement in vascular endothelial function (ability of the arteries to dilate when stimulated). Levels of nitric oxide, a key molecule in preventing arterial plaque buildup, were lowered, as were markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.
“We have identified a new form of therapy that lowers high blood pressure without giving people pharmacological compounds and with much higher adherence than aerobic exercise “, assures Doug Seals, main author of this work. "It's remarkable ". In practice, the authors suggest that these exercises could be useful for people unable to follow aerobic exercises.
A larger study involving more participants is also planned. For this work, the researchers will pit a twelve-week IMST diet against an aerobic exercise program to dig deeper into the effects.
