The American Heart Association has summarized the blood pressure-lowering effects of several alternative approaches and provided recommendations for their use.

Here’s what we know in people with blood pressure (BP) levels higher than 120/80 mmHg. (more…)

Breathlessness (aka dyspnea) is difficult to manage in palliative care.

Researchers in the UK reviewed and ranked the most effective nonpharmacological strategies. (more…)

Surveys suggest many people with asthma use it, often without the knowledge of their healthcare providers.

Researchers at the University of Southampton, in the UK, reviewed the evidence. (more…)

MayoClinic.com tells us, “When fibromyalgia pain or fatigue is severe, you might not be thinking clearly… Having a plan to follow gives you a sense of control over your signs and symptoms.” (more…)

During the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting, researchers at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, in Perth, Western Australia reported less distress, and improvements in pain, fatigue, nausea, appetite, sleep, breathing and bowel function. (more…)

Researchers at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, in Brazil, evaluated the effectiveness of inspiratory muscular training on strength, resistance, functional performance, and quality of life among chronic stroke survivors. (more…)

Asthma affects over 15% of Australian Aboriginal people. This is at least 50% higher than in non-indigenous Australians.

Researchers at the University of Southern Queensland, in Australia, studied whether Aboriginal people would engage in music lessons to increase their knowledge of asthma and support management of their asthma. (more…)

Researchers from several US medical schools surveyed the students. (more…)

Researchers at Arizona State University, in Tempe studied the effects of breathing rate following thermal pain in women with fibromyalgia syndrome. (more…)

There was a significant difference in patient satisfaction, according to researchers in Chicago.

But what about their pain? (more…)

Normocapnic hyperpnea is a form of endurance training for respiratory muscles.

This study reports it’s useful in people with myasthenia gravis. (more…)

 Researchers from the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil evaluated the effectiveness of chest physiotherapy during the immediate postoperative period among patients who had elective upper abdominal surgery. (more…)

Medscape has published a review written by clinicians from around the US.

Let’s focus on 6 supportive care options for chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, aka chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis. (more…)

 Researchers from the University of Ferrara, in Italy tell us yoga-derived breathing improves gas exchange in patients with chronic heart failure and in people exposed to high-altitude hypoxia.

Here’s what they found in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). (more…)

The use of prayer is rarely queried in surveys of CAM use. Here are the highlights from a Centers for Disease Control survey on the use of CAM. It’s based on interviews with more than 31,000 adults. The report is available here (then go to the “Barnes PM” link) and here. (more…)

 Here are the results of a Cochrane review of non-drug options in advanced stages of malignant and non-malignant diseases. (more…)

Here’s a follow-up to earlier posts here, here, and here on the use of CAM in the US as surveyed by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (more…)

Get out your MP3 player if you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

As the researchers from the University of Hamburg state in their ivory tower way, “Auditory distraction might… serve as an intervention for the reduction of dyspnea [difficulty breathing] during exercise in this patient group.” (more…)

Medscape has published a review.

Here’s a summary of CAM options. (more…)

People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) sometimes claim to experience immediate subjective benefit when they purse their lips while exhaling. It’s called pursed lips breathing and results in a positive expiratory pressure (PEP).

Are they wasting their breath? (more…)