RAF
03-23-2005, 12:32 PM
'Quack' methods help with asthma
Adam Cresswell, Health editor
21mar05
SIMPLE chest exercises and breathing techniques allow patients to slash the use of medication to relieve asthma symptoms by up to 86 per cent.
The effectiveness of remedies once condemned as quackery by conventional medicine in managing asthma were confirmed in findings by Australian researchers released yesterday.
Introducing a delay before patients reach for their drugs could explain the improvements, say experts from Sydney's Wool**** Institute of Medical Research and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, who conducted the research.
Christine Jenkins, head of asthma research at the Wool**** Institute, said the results showed trial subjects cut their use of "reliever" medications such as Ventolin – used to reduce the severity of an attack once it has started – by 86 per cent.
Doctors were also able to scale back the patients' level of "preventer" medication, used to protect against attacks in the first place, by half.
"I think we now know for sure that these techniques are helpful," she said.
For the six-month trial, funded by the Co-operative Research Centre for Asthma, the 57 patients were randomly assigned to either an "intervention" group or a control group.
Subjects in the intervention group were instructed to perform breathing exercises, breathing slowly and shallowly through the nose, if they felt their asthma symptoms coming on.
Researchers taught the members of the other group to perform three chest exercises instead – an upper body rotation, a shoulder rotation and a forward curl – which they assumed would bring no benefits.
"What we found was that both of these sets of exercises, to our surprise, resulted in improvements in reliever use," Dr Jenkins said.
The latest results, released at the conference of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand in Perth, completes a remarkable turnaround for breathing techniques in asthma, one of the best known of which is the Buteyko method.
Founded 50 years ago by a Ukrainian doctor who believed asthma was exacerbated by deep breathing, the Buteyko method calls for regular, shallow breathing but until recently was viewed as tantamount to quackery by many doctors.
Dr Jenkins said the study did not test the Buteyko method specifically, but the results did reflect positively on breathing techniques in general.
The research team hopes to issue a DVD later this year illustrating the breathing techniques and exercises.
Adam Cresswell, Health editor
21mar05
SIMPLE chest exercises and breathing techniques allow patients to slash the use of medication to relieve asthma symptoms by up to 86 per cent.
The effectiveness of remedies once condemned as quackery by conventional medicine in managing asthma were confirmed in findings by Australian researchers released yesterday.
Introducing a delay before patients reach for their drugs could explain the improvements, say experts from Sydney's Wool**** Institute of Medical Research and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, who conducted the research.
Christine Jenkins, head of asthma research at the Wool**** Institute, said the results showed trial subjects cut their use of "reliever" medications such as Ventolin – used to reduce the severity of an attack once it has started – by 86 per cent.
Doctors were also able to scale back the patients' level of "preventer" medication, used to protect against attacks in the first place, by half.
"I think we now know for sure that these techniques are helpful," she said.
For the six-month trial, funded by the Co-operative Research Centre for Asthma, the 57 patients were randomly assigned to either an "intervention" group or a control group.
Subjects in the intervention group were instructed to perform breathing exercises, breathing slowly and shallowly through the nose, if they felt their asthma symptoms coming on.
Researchers taught the members of the other group to perform three chest exercises instead – an upper body rotation, a shoulder rotation and a forward curl – which they assumed would bring no benefits.
"What we found was that both of these sets of exercises, to our surprise, resulted in improvements in reliever use," Dr Jenkins said.
The latest results, released at the conference of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand in Perth, completes a remarkable turnaround for breathing techniques in asthma, one of the best known of which is the Buteyko method.
Founded 50 years ago by a Ukrainian doctor who believed asthma was exacerbated by deep breathing, the Buteyko method calls for regular, shallow breathing but until recently was viewed as tantamount to quackery by many doctors.
Dr Jenkins said the study did not test the Buteyko method specifically, but the results did reflect positively on breathing techniques in general.
The research team hopes to issue a DVD later this year illustrating the breathing techniques and exercises.