Stroke
Inspiratory Muscle Training and Expiratory Muscle Training significantly improve your breathing strength, as well as, how well your lungs work in helping you to breathe.
Effect Of Breathing Fatigue In Stroke Recovery
Not only does stroke affect you psychologically and cognitively, but physically too. One aspect of stroke is the feeling of extreme tiredness, or post-stroke fatigue, making movement feel harder and requiring more energy leading to a reduction in tolerance to exercise.
Respiratory muscle strength is impaired after stroke and respiratory weakness will cause dyspnea (shortness of breath), contributing to post-stroke fatigue. The good news is that research shows Respiratory Muscle Training (RMT) to be effective at improving exercise tolerance post-stroke as it improves respiratory function and inspiratory muscle strength which are important when being physically active, exercising, and during rehabilitation sessions.
Reduce Breathing Fatigue And Improve Recovery Post-Stroke
Respiratory muscle training can improve inspiratory muscle strength and POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) is scientifically proven to improve breathing muscle strength, stamina and reduce breathing fatigue.
In fact, this review considers IMT (a component of RMT) to be effective for improving pulmonary function and cardiopulmonary endurance, as well as, reducing pulmonary infection incidence in patients after stroke. Another study finds inspiratory muscle training improves inspiratory function in chronic stroke patients. And this further study shows improvements in exercise capacity, sensation of dyspnoea and quality of life in the IMT group.
When studying respiratory muscle training in stroke patients with respiratory muscle weakness, dysphagia, and dysarthria, this trial finds that Inspiratory Muscle Training with IMT, along with Expiratory Muscle Training with EMT, significantly improves respiratory muscle strength, forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume per second, and fatigue in stroke patients with respiratory muscle weakness. They also found that training the breathing muscles in this way enhances the improvement in post-stroke dysphagia and dysarthria, concluding that 6-weeks of inspiratory and expiratory training is a helpful therapy in stroke patients.
Researchers also find that people who’ve had a cerebrovascular accident have weak respiratory muscles and are at greater risk of associated pneumonias. However, non-pharmacologic treatment, including breathing techniques, and therapeutic exercise training help to improve the effectiveness of a cough and prevent stroke-associated pneumonia.
Research also recommends that the physical therapist must take into consideration Inspiratory Muscle Training, such as POWERbreathe IMT, for improving physical function in stroke patients.
Another technique for improving lung expansion and pulmonary ventilation, although not strength, which is often compromised in stroke patients, is incentive spirometry.
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Neuromuscular Disease
Respiratory complication is one of the most common progressive conditions associated with neuromuscular disease or disorder (NMD) and may be the result of inspiratory muscle weakness. You’ll notice signs such as extreme shortness of breath from slight effort, also known as dyspnoea; and use of your accessory respiratory muscles, which indicates effort when breathing. This […]
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Blood Pressure
Research aired on NPR (National Public Radio) in the USA highlighted findings of how daily breath training with POWERbreathe IMST, using the POWERbreathe K3, can work as well as medicine to reduce high blood pressure. A subsequent retrospective analysis of the aforementioned research provides the strongest evidence to date that POWERbreathe IMST (Inspiratory Muscle Strength […]
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Pre and Post-op
Breathing Effort Following Surgery Breathing complications after major surgery can include pneumonia, bronchospasm and respiratory failure. In fact, weakness of the inspiratory muscles (the muscles you use to breathe in) was found in 25% of preoperative cardiac surgery patients in this trial. Inspiratory muscle weakness can also be the result of a number of causes, […]
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Asthma
Breathing Effort In Asthma You’ll be familiar with symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. If your asthma is not well controlled you may find it difficult to breathe; breathe with short shallow breaths; or feel that you can’t maintain your usual level of activity. Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT), […]
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COPD
Breathing Effort In COPD If you have COPD, emphysema or chronic bronchitis, you will have weak breathing muscles, making it harder for you to get air in and out of your lungs. Dyspnoea, a feeling of difficult, laboured breathing or shortness of breath, is common in COPD, and breathing muscle weakness is a contributory factor […]
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Covid Recovery
Because COVID-19 is a new infection, long-term research has yet to be conducted. However, this article highlights a link between inspiratory muscle performance and COVID-19. The Risk Reduction Model in the article suggests home-based respiratory muscle training (RMT), such as POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT), could be prescribed to patients with impaired respiratory performance. RMT […]
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Heart failure and Disease
Breathing Effort In Heart Failure And Heart Disease Heart failure usually results from another disease, most commonly coronary heart disease. They have similar symptoms, including shortness of breath (known as dyspnea) and fatigue which affect how physically active you are. With heart failure, your heart is unable to properly pump blood around your body, causing […]
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Every year, Stroke Prevention Day reminds us to pay more attention to protecting ourselves against stroke. This year’s focus is on high blood pressure because it is the leading factor behind a stroke. But the good news is that there are practical steps you can take to reduce your risk. This blog investigates how to […]
