Live data from Hacker News

5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

colorado.edu

61–70 of 244 posts

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#61

Where can I buy one?

Amazon. PowerBreathe. Around $70.

There are various inhalation resistance trainers on Amazon for as little as $20. I'm doubtful the more expensive devices offer any benefits over the less expensive models. In fact the simpler less expensive models look much easier to take apart and clean. As long as you are breathing against resistance, you're getting a benefit.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#63

My wife has white coat syndrome. There was a time (~7 years ago). We were living in NYC. The doctors office was at the top of 5 flights of stairs and the elevator was out. Having just climbed 5 flights of stairs and telling the doctor she has white coat syndrome, they _immediately_ take her blood pressure. Noting it’s (unsurprisingly) high, suggests she go on blood pressure medication. A decision that would surely ha…

This is especially true for pregnancy. The provider you choose has an extreme amount of power over you towards the end.

For my first we were basically threatened and coerced for near zero medical reason to get "interventions". Before we got to the hospital we were promised one thing, but when we got there it was break her water or find a new provider and potentially have our baby die.

We trusted the doctors even though we both felt coerced and lied to. It all culminated in an unnecessary C-section 12 hours later because the doctor was already woken up for someone else. She said our baby was going to have a much worse outcome. That we would just have a c-section anyway so we might as well just do it.

I think we both deal with the team from that still.

Just remember to interview your doctor's and find local patient outcomes. We wish we had the first time.

The second went with minimal intervention and, fingers crossed, the third will go the same.

Also it's not that we are against needed intervention or chosen intervention. We simple want the best outcome for everyone. Intervention imo should be a last resort or as needed for patients like my wife.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#64
If you want to learn more about breathing I recommend checking out the book The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown. It's got a bunch of different breathing exercises and ways to measure progress. It basically reteaches you how to breath too, which is fascinating on its own. Worth checking out for sure.

https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breat...

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#65

I guess this would help some truly disabled people, but traditional exercise, even in similar time frames, offers so many additional health benefits than breathing techniques.

And weight loss. See:

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/heart/hbp_low.pd...

and

https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/wfhtn/documents/wfhtn_aha_...

My brother, who is probably about 70 pounds overweight, takes blood pressure medication. Won't even try losing weight. He claims that "everyone he knows" takes it and just resigned to having to use it.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#66
post #34

This is called Pranayam. We are doing this in India since ages... Good to see that 'experts' from Western countries taking baby steps to learn. Good for you guys! Keep it up. Note 1: Some 'expert' took my comment on their ego and downvoted my comment. Guys, my comment was encouraging. Taking it on your ego is your personal choice.

>This is called Pranayam.

Does Pranayam involve high-resistance inspiratory breathing?

Anyway, this is about scientific investigation, not received wisdom and cultural or religious practice. Conceivably they could have found no effect; would you have "congratulated" them then?

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#67
post #64

If you want to learn more about breathing I recommend checking out the book The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown. It's got a bunch of different breathing exercises and ways to measure progress. It basically reteaches you how to breath too, which is fascinating on its own. Worth checking out for sure. https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breat...

Amazing book! My nasal breathing definitely improved from few simple tips from the book, and I wasn't even particularly diligent with following the program very far. I'm sure I could get even more benefits if I adhered to the exercises more consistently.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#68
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm this is a great catch. The figures quoted in their Methods and Results ("from 135±2 mm Hg to 126±3 mm Hg") don't seem to match any in Table 2.

Those are casual systolic blood pressure readings (from 135±2 mm Hg to 126±3 mm Hg). Table S2 are ambulatory.

Do you have thoughts or resources on comparing the two types of readings?

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#70
post #53
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are going to study effects on blood pressure in your own physiology, I very much recommend getting a home device so you can take a lot of measurements. Blood pressure changes constantly for any reason or (as far as I can tell) no reason. When I take my own measurements, I take five measurements back to back without moving and see bigger swings that you did. I've seen that using three different home devices. I'…

It’s called the “white coat syndrome” — when you’ve just arrived to the hospital to make your appointment, and the nurse/doctor start taking your readings in a high-stress environment, the reading ends up being higher: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pr... I actually think this is why fitness devices like the Apple Watch (v8 is supposed to be able to check blood pressure) are great in that h…

Apple Watch 7 doesn’t measure BP. But yeah I get white coat syndrome every visit.
Post reply on HN