Breathing Training and Pulmonary Illness

Summary

This video explains the normal breathing process and what happens in restrictive and obstructive lung illness. It helps patients with a pulmonary illness understand the techniques they can perform to help them breathe better even though they have a pulmonary illness. Pursed lip and diaphragmatic breathing are demonstrated.

Details

• The function of lungs:
  • Your lungs remove carbon dioxide, a waste product, from the blood.
  • Your lungs deliver oxygen to the blood.
• The path of air:
1. When we breathe, air containing oxygen enters our trachea.
2. The trachea branches into two bronchial tubes which, in turn, branch many times into smaller and smaller tubes, called bronchioles.
3. Bronchioles end in microscopic air sacs called alveoli, where oxygen and carbon dioxide is exchanged.
4. Your body uses several muscles when you breathe to help your lungs move air in and out.
• The diaphragm:
  • The diaphragm is the most important muscle in the breathing process.
  • It is a sheet of muscle that lies below your lungs.
  • It contracts and expands each time to help pull oxygen into the lungs and push carbon dioxide out.
• Other muscles also help you breathe:
  1. Front of the abdomen
  2. In between your ribs
  3. In your upper chest and neck

• Two Types of Pulmonary Disease:
  1. Restrictive Pulmonary Disease:
     • Makes getting air into the lungs difficult, so the body must work harder to breathe in.
     • Can be caused by infectious and malignant diseases, or be drug induced.
     • Examples include:
       • interstitial fibrosis
       • rheumatoid pulmonary disease
       • pneumoconiosis
       • sarcoidosis
  2. Obstructive Pulmonary Disease:
     • Lungs become overinflated, flattening the diaphragm, and making it difficult to get air out of the lungs.
     • Examples include:
       • emphysema
       • asthma
       • chronic bronchitis
• The effect of a pulmonary disease on your breathing process:
  • Regardless of the type of disease, the body begins taking quick breaths as it struggles to breathe.
    • When you take quick breaths, you don’t use your diaphragm correctly.
    • A greater demand is placed is placed on the upper chest muscles.
  • Your muscles quickly become overworked and begin to tire out, making breathing even more difficult.

• Breathing Training:
  • You cannot reverse the damage of a pulmonary illness, but you can train yourself to breathe better.
  • Breathing training can help make you less short of breath, and enable you to be more active.
  • Depending on your illness, you may find one breathing technique more helpful then another.
• Diaphragmatic Breathing:
  • Involves retraining the diaphragm to push stale air out of your lungs.
  • Example given.
• Pursed Lip Breathing:
  • Helps remove stale air from your lungs by helping keep your airways open longer.
  • Example given.
• The goals of breathing training:
  • For patients with restrictive pulmonary disease:
    • to slow down the breathing in and breathing out cycle
  • For patients with obstructive pulmonary disease:
    • to slow down the breathing out cycle

• Utilize Your Breathing Techniques:
  • Use breathing techniques with all your daily activities.
  • They can help you become less fatigued and short of breath.
• Other ways to reduce shortness of breath:
  1. Don’t hold your breath when being physically active.
  2. Always exhale when you exert.
  3. Balance activities with rest.
  4. Pace yourself.