Exercise and shallow breathing reduce need for Asthma Inhalers

The American Lung Association reports that: "Exercises Reduce Need for Asthma Inhaler...Reuters reported on June 5, 2006 that a new study has found that shallow breathing exercises, as well as non-specific upper body exercises, can reduce the need to use a short-acting relief inhaler."

"A team of researchers assessed the outcomes of 57 patients with mild asthma who were randomly assigned to perform one of two breathing techniques twice daily for 30 weeks. After 16 weeks, an attempt was made to decrease the amount of inhaled corticosteroids the patients were taking for the long-term control of their asthma. They found that while the shallow breathing and upper body exercise approach were completely different, they resulted in similar improvements in asthma. Neither intervention had a significant effect on quality of life, lung function, or constriction of the airways in response to asthma triggers. However, both forms of exercise training were associated with an 86% reduction in the use of relief inhalers, and a 50% drop in the dose of inhaled corticosteroids."