Patients with hypertension can benefit from strengthening their breathing muscles. Researchers have discovered that regular exercise for the diaphragm and other breathing muscles promotes heart health and lowers blood pressure.
“The muscles we use to breathe atrophy, just like the rest of our muscles tend to do as we get older,” explains researcher Daniel Craighead, an integrative physiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“We found that doing 30 breaths per day for six weeks lowers systolic blood pressure by about 9 millimeters of mercury,” Craighead says. According to him, those reductions are about what could be expected with conventional aerobic exercise, such as walking, running, or cycling.
Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic physician who studies how the nervous system regulates blood pressure, says a sustained 9 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure has a significant impact. “That’s the type of reduction you see with a blood pressure drug,” Joyner says. Many common blood pressure medications reduce blood pressure by about 9 mmHg. Combining multiple medications reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease by 35% and 25%, respectively.
In addition to preventing high blood pressure, the training is beneficial. Inclusion of controlled strength training to preventive care is promising, Joyner says.
“Taking a deep, resisted, breath offers a new and unconventional way to generate the benefits of exercise and physical activity,” Joyner concluded in an editorial that was published alongside a prior study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
What are the benefits of breath training for lowering blood pressure? According to Craighead, endothelial cells line our blood vessels and promote the production of nitric oxide, which protects the heart. In addition to widening the blood vessels, nitric oxide enhances the flow of blood, preventing plaque buildup in the arteries. “What we found was that six weeks of IMST [inspiratory-muscle strength training] will increase endothelial function by about 45%,” Craighead explains.
Meditation or mindfulness practices that involve deep diaphragmatic breathing have long been known to lower blood pressure.
