Other Health Conditions
Studies by a team of scientists at Britain’s leading Human Performance Research universities showed that people who exercise and strengthen their breathing muscles felt less breathless and found they were able to carry out activities which previously left them gasping for breath.
Specific Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) of the muscles we use to breathe has been demonstrated to increase their strength, resistance to fatigue and reduce breathlessness.
Any condition that prevents normal physical activity can lead to inspiratory muscle weakness, and in addition to asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Inspiratory Muscle Training has been found to be helpful for managing other medical conditions, including:
- Chronic heart failure and heart disease
- Neuromuscular disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Prior-polio
- Spinal cord injury
- Sleep apnoea and snoring (Heijdra et al., 1996)
- Exercise-induced paradoxical vocal fold motion
- Muscular dystrophy
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Voice and speech disorders
- Postoperative pulmonary complications
- Restrictive thoracic disease
- Severe chronic pulmonary hypertension
- Inspiratory stridor
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy
- Tetraplegia
- Myasthenia gravis
- Bronchiectasis
- Chronic hemodialysis
