A simple breathing exercise, which takes only five minutes per day, can reduce blood pressure and improve vascular health. It could also dramatically lower your risk of developing serious heart disease.This almost sounds like an infomercial. We didn't even mention that you can do it in your own home while watching TV.This is not a gimmick. New research shows that this is the real deal. It's a very convenient and simple-to-use technique that could help improve the health and well-being of millions, particularly older people with high blood pressure or other cardiovascular issues.Doug Seals, an integrative physiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, says that he has found a new form of therapy that lowers bloodpressure without using pharmacological compounds. It also adheres better than aerobic exercise.(CU Boulder).It's known as Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training, or IMST. This is a type of physical training that focuses on strengthening the diaphragm. The device acts like an asthma puffer and provides resistance to your inhale.The invention of IMST was originally developed decades ago to aid critically ill patients with respiratory diseases. It uses only mild or moderate resistance.Recent research has shown that this same technique, when combined with high resistance and for a short time only, can provide a variety of health benefits. This includes improving sleep quality in patients suffering from sleep apnea, lowering bloodpressure, and decreasing stress perception.A team of integrative physiologists from the University of Colorado Boulder led a clinical trial where 36 healthy adults were given IMST for six weeks.Half of the cohort was randomly assigned to high-resistance IMT. This involves using devices that make inhaling through more difficult, which gives your breathing muscles a harder workout.Half of the group did IMST for six more weeks. However, they were given a placebo treatment: a low-resistance version of the device.Except for that crucial difference, the experiment was identical for both groups. The participants used the device to inhale for 30 minutes each day for six consecutive weeks. Each session lasted around five minutes and lasted approximately six days.Six weeks later, the high-resistance IMSST treatment group saw significant drops in systolic pressure (SBP). This was greater than or equal what can be achieved by implementing other healthy lifestyle strategies such as aerobic exercise and blood pressure-lowering medication.The researchers explained that this improvement in SBP was clinically significant because it is associated a 30% to 40% lower risk of death due to cardiovascular disease. They also noted that the effects lasted many weeks after the experiment ended."The casual SBP reduction was sustained by six weeks of abstaining IMST. About 75 percent of the initial reduction was retained."The IMST group also experienced significant improvements in vascular function, which suggests that their artery health has improved. However, arterial stiffness was not affected in this short experiment. While markers of systemic inflammation were lower.Although the mechanism of high-resistance IMT is not fully understood by researchers, it's possible that breathing exercises cause cells in blood vessels to produce more Nitric Ox, which allows muscles to relax and increases blood flow.Although they believe a longer-lasting intervention could lead to even better results, the team acknowledges that their study must be replicated in larger experimental settings to learn more.Although IMST is not recommended for high-resistance until more extensive studies are conducted, it is clear that this technique is easy to commit to. 95 percent of the participants completed the 5-minute exercises and no one dropped out.It is important to remember that adults are less likely to adhere to the recommended 30 minutes of exercise per day than they were in a study."Taking deep, resisted breaths offers a novel and unconventional way of generating the benefits exercise and physical activity," Mayo Clinic researchers Michael Joyner, and Sarah Baker, wrote in a commentary.These findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
