ABSTRACT
Controlled studies adopting different techniques of breath control such as ‘Integrated Approach to Yoga Therapy (IAYT)’ including Pranayama,2,4 Buteyko breathing5,6 and Sahaja yoga7 have demonstrated benefi ts in patients with asthma. Singh et al.8 have demonstrated that even with the use of a device (Pink city lung exerciser) that slows down breathing and alters the ratio of inspiration to expiration to mimic Pranayama breathing, there was an improvement of airway hyper-responsiveness. Systematic review by the Cochrane group9 concluded that breathing exercises for asthma resulted in reduced use of short acting beta-2 agonists and better quality of life (QOL) scores. No improvement of the disease process, as evidenced by reduction of airway hyper-responsiveness, better lung functions or reduced dose of inhaled steroids for asthma control were found. This highlights the need for further studies in the use of breathing techniques in asthma.
