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Evidence summaries

Breathing Exercises for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Breathing exercises appear to improve functional exercise capacity in patients with severe COPD. Level of evidence: "B"

The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations (lack of blinding and incomplete accounting of outcomes).

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 16 studies with a total of 1233 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Breathing exercise was compared to other mode of treatment. Most had severe COPD: the mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 30% to 51%. The breathing techniques studied included pursed lip breathing (breathing out slowly with the lips in a whistling position), diaphragmatic breathing (deep breathing focusing on the abdomen), pranayam yoga breathing (timed breathing with a focus on exhalation), changing the breathing pattern using computerized feedback to slow the respiratory rate and increase exhalation time, or combinations of these techniques.

Breathing exercises appeared to be safe for people with COPD. Breathing exercises over four to 15 weeks improved functional exercise capacity in people with COPD compared to no intervention. Yoga breathing, pursed lip breathing and diaphragmatic breathing improved the distance walked in six minutes by an average of 35 to 50 meters in four studies. No consistent effects were observed on dyspnoea or health-related quality of life. Outcomes were similar across all the breathing exercises examined. When added to whole body exercise training, breathing exercises did not appear to have any additional benefit.

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search: 2012-04-06

    References

    • Holland AE, Hill CJ, Jones AY et al. Breathing exercises for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;10():CD008250. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords