Acute effects of resonance frequency breathing on cardiovascular regulation

Slow breathing at either a fixed pace or at the exact resonance frequency are strategies commonly used to lower blood pressure or improve symptoms such as anxiety. Whether breathing at the precise resonance frequency or simply at a low pace induce different acute effects on the autonomic nervous system is unknown. We evaluated the acute effects of the two types of breathing exercise in young healthy men on blood pressure, sympathetic nervous system activity, and baroreflex function. We find that regardless of the breathing scheme, slow breathing induced sympatho ‐inhibition, decreased blood pressure and improved the efficacy of the cardiac baroreflex function. Our study demonstrate for the first time that breathing at the resonance frequency induces changes in the cardiovascular regulation similar to that of breathing at a slow pace. AbstractAcute slow breathing may have beneficial effects on cardiovascular regulation by affecting hemodynamics and the autonomic nervous system. Whether breathing at the resonance frequency (RF), a breathing rate that maximizes heart rate oscillations, induces differential effects to that of slow breathing is unknown. We compared the acute effects of breathing at either RF and RF  + 1 breaths per minute on muscle sympathetic nervous activity (MSNA) and baroreflex function. Ten healthy men underwent MSNA, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) recordings while breathing for 10 min at their spontaneous breathing (SB) rate followed by 10 mi...
Source: Physiological Reports - Category: Physiology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL RESEARCH Source Type: research