Effect of breathing control on heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation in elderly living at home

Abstract

Slow breathing increases baroreflex sensitivity in elderly. The purpose of this study was to investigate how elderly (N = 10, 70.70 ± 5.27 years old, 6 women) responded in terms of heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2), when they learned predominantly abdominal and slow breathing (AB), without imposition of respira-tory frequency (RF). Results revealed that AB resulted in significant reduction of RF, and had significant beneficial (transient) effects in HR, SBP, SBP-DBP inter-val, and SpO2, principally for participants with mild isolated systolic pressure.