COPD
Studies show that patients with COPD using IMT, increase their exercise capacity, improve quality of life, and decrease dyspnea.
Drug-Free Airway Clearance
COPD can cause an excess of mucus production, causing you to cough. Coughing is your body’s natural way of expelling mucus, but sometimes coughing isn’t enough and can be tiring. You may be prescribed mucus-thinning drugs, but there’s a drug-free therapy too, known as PEP and OPEP devices.
PEP (positive expiratory pressure) and OPEP (oscillatory positive expiratory pressure) offer drug-free airway clearance therapies.
OPEP devices, such as Shaker, combine the benefits of PEP with airway vibrations, or oscillations, which ‘shakes’ the mucus to break it down, enabling it to move up the airways. This ‘shaking’ happens as you force a deep exhalation through the device, allowing removal of the secretion to be coughed or huffed out.
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 in the perception of dyspnoea.
Inspiratory muscle training and expiratory muscle training improve respiratory muscle strength and can be used as part of the treatment during pulmonary rehabilitation of people with severe COPD.
Improve Breathing Strength & Reduce COPD Symptoms
Studies show that by training your inspiratory muscles with POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) you will increase breathing strength, resistance to fatigue and reduce shortness of breath during physical activity. Furthermore, it’s shown that POWERbreathe IMT has a part to play in the treatment of COPD in a home setting, as part of pulmonary rehabilitation and in clinical practice.
POWERbreathe IMT is a clinically-proven method of reducing your COPD symptoms. It is drug-free and has no side effects or drug interactions so can be used alongside your regular COPD treatment; just speak to your GP first. Read Precautions and Contraindications.
POWERbreathe IMT exercises your inspiratory muscles using the principles of resistance training. You simply breathe in through the device against an adjustable resistance, improving your breathing strength and stamina. It’s like a dumbbell for your diaphragm. Not only will this help you improve your capacity for exercise by reducing dyspnoea, but it will also help to strengthen your inhalation. And if you need to take inhaled oral therapies, it’s likely IMT will help increase the effectiveness of your medication and inhaler use.
In addition to improving breathing muscle strength and stamina, studies show IMT generates:
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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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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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Stroke
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 […]
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Downloads
Patient Leaflet for Healthcare Professionals
The Effects of 1 Year of Specific Inspiratory Muscle Training in Patients With COPD
Impact of inspiratory muscle training in patients with COPD: what is the evidence?
Laryngeal widening and adequate ventilation by expiratory pressure load training improve aerobic capacity in COPD
POWERbreathe Medic IMT is practical to enhance dyspnea sensation, exercise capacity and lung function in farmers with occupational COPD
