About 5.4 million people in the UK suffer from asthma, a chronic lung disease that causes symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness.
It used to be thought that exercise could trigger symptoms or make attacks worse.
But new research suggests that yoga and breath control, combined with aerobic exercise such as brisk walking or swimming, can actually improve patients’ lung function.
A team from Henan Normal University in China analyzed the results of 28 studies involving 2,155 people with asthma and examined the effects of different types of exercise.
Yoga and breathing exercises can help improve lung function in adults with asthma
About 5.4 million people in the UK suffer from asthma, a chronic lung disease that causes symptoms such as coughing
They found that breathing techniques, relaxation, yoga and exercise all helped improve lung function, including the amount of air a person could exhale at one time.
Breathing techniques include diaphragmatic training, also known as “abdominal breathing,” where the abdomen moves instead of the chest with each breath.
Meanwhile, relaxation training focuses on becoming aware of tension in the body and mind, while yoga involves a variety of movements to stimulate circulation.
Lead author Shuangtao Xing said: ‘Breathing training combined with aerobic exercise and yoga training appears to be particularly beneficial – it opens up potential avenues for effective treatment approaches.
“These findings should provide valuable insights for healthcare professionals prescribing exercise training for the treatment of adult asthma patients.”
The study, published in the journal Annals of Medicine, calls for further trials to test the different exercise techniques in asthma patients.
A separate study recently showed that eating leafy green vegetables can lead to healthy lungs and help prevent asthma.
People with low levels of vitamin K – which is abundant in spinach, kale and broccoli – are more likely to say they suffer from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and wheezing, according to the study.
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