By Robert P. Nolan Guidelines for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in Europe and North America suggest that behavioral interventions (relaxation training, stress management, biofeedback or meditation) may assist the treatment of patients for whom psychosocial stress is of clinical concern. Several reviews have evaluated whether these behavioral interventions can be uti...

May O, Arildsen H, Møller M (Odense University Hospital, Odense and Horsens Hospital, Horsens, Denmark). Parasympathetic function during deep breathing in the general population: relation to coronary risk factors and normal range. J Intern Med 1999; 245: 287–94. Objectives. To examine the association between the parasympathetic function assessed by deep breathing-induced heart rate variability ...

Purpose Pulse pressure waveforms can be decomposed into individual harmonics using frequency-domain analyses. Based on the well-recognized phenomenon of pulse wave reflections, these harmonics are purported to play important physiological functions and form the basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) pulse diagnosis. Although breathing is considered an essential part of TCM and Qi Gong, it...

introduction: pulmonary hyperinflation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) can increase the breathing rate and reduce diaphragmatic movements by pushing the diaphragms downward and limiting their movements; this, in fact, can affect the breathing process. the purpose of this study was to compare diaphragmatic movements in copd patients and healthy ones and to evaluate ...

The variation in heart rate (HRV) at rest and during deep breathing (6 cycles a minute) of 88 professional lumber jacks was studied using a computer technique. The traditional indexes of HRV (CV, CVS, MEAN) were calculated and the spectral components of the HRV were also computed. There was a significant difference (p less than 0.001) between the HRV indexes during the deep breathing test in th...

OBJECTIVE We have recently demonstrated that early autonomic dysfunction, defined as low baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), could be functional and reversible. However, potential temporal changes in BRS have not yet been addressed by longitudinal studies in type 1 diabetes. Moreover, it is not known whether low BRS predisposes to hypertension or other nonfatal diabetes complications. RESEARCH DESI...

BACKGROUND Heart rate variability is a sensitive marker of cardiac sympathetic activity. OBJECTIVES To determine whether long-term hyperthyroidism induced by thyroxine suppressive therapy affects HRV. METHODS Nineteen patients treated with suppressive doses of thyroxin for thyroid cancer and 19 age-matched controls were enrolled. Thyroid function tests and 1 minute HRV were performed on all...

Dysfunctional breathing is a term describing breathing disorders where chronic changes in breathing pattern result in dyspnoea and other symptoms in the absence or in excess of the magnitude of physiological respiratory or cardiac disease. We reviewed the literature and propose a classification system for the common dysfunctional breathing patterns described. The literature was searched using t...

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate paradoxical diaphragmatic motion using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. A total of 27 subjects were examined, including 12 normal young adults, six control individuals, and nine patients with emphysema. With subjects in the supine position, 30 sequential sagittal MR images of the entire right lung were obtained during tidal and deep slow ...