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Phil Tompkins wrote: > people with PD tend to become shallow breathers. This could increase danger of pneumonia if you get laid up with a bad cold, the flu, etc. Dr. L. and also a physical therapist I know recommend practicing deep breathing.< Thursday May 28, 1998 Deep breathing can improve fitness http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/health/story.html?s=z/reuters/980528/health/stories/deep6_1.html NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Simple breathing techniques can lower respiration rates and help cardiac patients to maintain healthy blood oxygen levels and become more physically fit. A team led by Dr. Luciano Bernardi at the University of Pavia, Italy, compared blood oxygen levels in cardiac patients and normal subjects during both spontaneous breathing and periods of controlled breathing, in order to determine the effect of respiration rate on arterial oxygen saturation. The study, published in the May 2nd issue of The Lancet, established an optimum healthy breathing rate of six breaths per minute. Resting blood oxygen concentrations of 50 patients with a history of chronic heart failure were lower and more variable than those of 11 healthy volunteers. The authors explain that low blood oxygen levels "may impair skeletal muscle and metabolic function, and lead to muscle atrophy and exercise intolerance." When asked to breathe at a rapid 15 breaths per minute, both heart patients and control subjects showed an increase in blood oxygen levels. But blood oxygen also increased in both groups when subjects were asked to breathe at either three or six breaths per minute, indicating that controlled breathing at a range of rates results in deeper breaths and more oxygen in the blood. Because breathing at a rate of three breaths per minute is difficult to maintain, Bernardi and colleagues suggest a rate of six breaths per minute "as an ideal compromise." In a follow-up study, 15 cardiac patients were assigned to one of two experimental groups. One of the groups learned "complete yoga breathing," a style of respiration that encourages slow, deep breathing at a rate of about six breaths per minute. Those patients continued practicing the breathing method at home for an hour a day. After a month, the patients practicing the breathing technique breathed more slowly, had higher levels of blood oxygen, and performed better on exercise tests. The authors conclude that their findings support other studies "that report beneficial effects of training respiratory muscles and decreasing respiratory work in (cardiac heart failure patients), or physical training in general." They suggest that "the effects of slow breathing could be additive to other forms of treatment." SOURCE: The Lancet 1998;351:1308-1311. -- Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada [log in to unmask]