As your heart beats it sends blood, rich with oxygen, throughout your body. This oxygen-rich blood nourishes your heart and other muscles and organs. This process however becomes more difficult if you have heart disease, because this oxygen-rich blood flow to your heart reduces. This results in extreme tiredness and shortness of breath, making even everyday activities feel like hard work.

But did you know that your breathing muscles, specifically your inspiratory muscles, can influence how well your heart functions? Inspiratory Muscle Training can help people with heart disease by strengthening the breathing muscles, improving lung function, reducing breathlessness, boosting exercise ability, and enhancing overall quality of life. The patients in this study used the POWERbreathe Classic Light Resistance for their home breathing exercise programme. We would suggest using the newer POWERbreathe Medic Plus IMT device.

POWERbreathe Medic Plus IMT device

POWERbreathe Medic Plus IMT

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The POWERbreathe breathing training had such an effect because, just like other muscles in your body lose tone and become weaker with age, so too do your breathing muscles. And, just like other muscles when trained become stronger, so too do your breathing muscles. Training your inspiratory muscles to improve their strength and stamina reduces breathing fatigue. When your breathing muscles become weak then your heart must work harder to pump oxygenated blood around your body. This places more of a strain on your heart.

The good news is that strengthening your breathing muscles with Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) can help. So, in this blog, we discover how POWERbreathe IMT could be an important step towards improving your heart health.

Your lungs and heart work together to make sure that your blood is flush with oxygen and transported throughout your body. Firstly, your lungs draw air in with every breath to enrich your blood. Secondly, your heart then pumps this oxygen-rich blood across your body. But if the muscles you use to breathe in, your inspiratory muscles, become weak, breathing becomes more difficult and this beautiful system doesn’t work as well. The result? You’re not taking in as much oxygen as your body needs. Also, your heart must work harder to ensure your body receives the much-needed oxygen-rich blood.

Heart Disease and Breathlessness

A reduction in the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart can result in heart disease, possibly caused by a blockage. This reduced flow places a strain on your heart making it weaker or stiff which can lead to heart failure. At the same time, breathing becomes more of an effort. Anyone with heart failure will experience a vicious circle of increasing breathlessness and fatigue, as the heart isn’t pumping efficiently. In fact, breathlessness is one of the most common symptoms of heart failure.

Heart Failure Symptoms

  • Experiencing breathlessness, a lot of the time.
  • Being more tired than usual.
  • Feeling lightheaded.
  • Swelling of the ankles and legs.

Breathlessness due to weaker breathing muscles in those with heart failure will contribute to:

  • Dyspnea, or shortness of breath – this makes basic tasks like walking or climbing stairs feel more difficult.
  • Low oxygenation – this results in generally lower energy and a decline in general health.
  • Poor exercise tolerance – this can lead to being less active and weakening further the heart and other muscles. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Another reason heart failure patients experience breathlessness is fluid can start to build in the lungs as the heart isn’t pumping effectively. This is called pulmonary oedema and makes it harder for anyone with heart failure to breathe.

The Role of POWERbreathe IMT in Breaking This Cycle

Inspiratory Muscle Training, or IMT, applies the principles of resistance training to your breathing muscles. In a similar way that weightlifting can strengthen the muscles in your arms, POWERbreathe IMT strengthens your inspiratory muscles by making them work harder with each breath. Several studies indicate that for patients with heart disease, IMT is associated with the following advantages:

  • Stronger inspiratory muscles.
  • Improved oxygen delivery to support circulation and energy levels.
  • Better quality of life – allowing for greater physical activity and independence.

One such study found that patients with cardiovascular diseases who performed IMT, such as with POWERbreathe, for 12 weeks, improved their inspiratory strength and endurance, resulting in improved exercise tolerance, helping them stay more active.

In another study, IMT was found to improve the strength of the inspiratory muscles in people with heart failure and weak breathing muscles. It was also found to help these people become more active, breathe better during exercise, recover faster, and feel an overall improvement in their quality of life.

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K-Series IMT

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How POWERbreathe IMT Supports The Heart

As previously mentioned, your heart and lungs work as a team. You can tell this for yourself when you exercise. The higher the intensity you exercise, the more your breathing becomes challenged, and you feel out of breath. As a result, your heart rate and blood pressure increase to compensate. If you have heart failure, this will make you feel very uncomfortable, because your heart is already under strain from having to work harder, because of this heart disease.

Training your inspiratory muscles with a POWERbreathe IMT breathing muscle trainer strengthens your main breathing muscle, the diaphragm and intercostal breathing muscles, thereby ensuring the following benefits:

A study in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were asked to perform IMT combined with inspiratory biofeedback. They used the POWERbreathe K5 with Breathe-Link® live feedback software. These patients were able to maintain their inspiratory muscle strength and key lung function parameters by the time they were discharged from the hospital.

So having read this, imagine having heart failure and feeling too short of breath to even stand up and get dressed. After a few weeks of using POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training that feeling of breathlessness will reduce. This will give you more confidence in moving around and you’ll feel you have more energy. This real benefit in practical life corresponds with the research findings that IMT can make daily life easier in those with a heart condition.

POWERbreathe K5

K5 IMT

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IMT In Heart Disease Treatment

With much research into the benefits of IMT in different patient groups, IMT is shown to be a proven way of strengthening weak breathing muscles in people with heart conditions. In fact, this review also suggests that IMT could be a helpful complementary treatment, as it is drug-free, for supporting heart health, particularly in managing heart rate and blood pressure.

Improve Quality of Life through Better Breathing

If every breath becomes a struggle, it’s easy to understand why you’d feel limited in what you can do. Many people with heart conditions stop exercising for fear of not being able to breathe well enough. But this is a vicious circle as reduced exercise leads to further deconditioning of the heart and lungs and worsening of symptoms over time.

Breaking the Vicious Circle of Inactivity

Performing IMT with POWERbreathe will help to break this circle of shortness of breath, inactivity, muscle weakening and worsening symptoms. It can help by improving the strength and stamina of the breathing muscles, helping the person to breathe more effectively and efficiently, so they feel more capable and confident in daily life.

How POWERbreathe IMT Can Help Restore Independence

Training the breathing muscles with IMT helps to make them stronger and improves breathing endurance. This can ease breathlessness and improve daily activity levels for people with heart failure.

Also, Inspiratory Muscle Training helps the breathing muscles use oxygen more efficiently, reducing strain and fatigue in people with chronic heart failure.

Take Control of your Heart Health with POWERbreathe IMT

Although living with heart disease may feel like a daunting prospect, even something as simple as improving your breathing can help to make you feel better. By training your inspiratory muscles with scientifically proven, drug-free POWERbreathe IMT, you can:

  • Breathe easier and reduce breathlessness
  • Support better circulation and lower heart strain
  • Improve your ability to be active and independent
  • Enhance overall quality of life

Learn more about how POWERbreathe IMT can help you improve your quality of life when living with heart disease.