breathing excersises

[elounda1]

Hello. I was diagnosed with Ipf about 18 months ago. I also have Barretts osophegus.
I get very breathless whenever I do anything. I seem to take short sharp breathes through my
Mouth. I can't breath properly through my nose, as it is always running.
I just wondered if there are any breathing excersises that I could try.

Thank you.

[Vicky Barber]

Hi Elounda1

Thank you for your post, with all respiratory conditions it is important to be doing regular breathing exercises, below is a link to our web pages on exercise

http://www.blf.org.uk/Page/Pulmonary-re ... on-for-IPF

are you using oxygen, is this the cause of your nose running or do you have allergies? either way its best to address this or it does irritate your chest.

Hope that helps

Vicky

[malcolmw]

I was told to practice breathing using the diaphragm rather than the chest muscles. I suggesy you try this, lie flat on your back and place one hand on the chest and one on the abdomen. As you breathe in try to make the abdomen rise whilst the chest remains still. And once you can do that then try breathing in the nose and breathe out through the mouth.

[Dr Joanna Porter]

Dear Elounda, I am so sorry to hear that you have IPF. I agree with the above posts and I think Malcolm gives you a very good guide to breathing exercises. I do think that if done regularly these can really help with some of the symptoms of PF. I am interested to hear about your mucus production. A lot of IPF patients do complain of excessive running of their nose and there is some suggestion that the mucus in IPF may be abnormal in some way. We are doing some studies here at UCLH with Breathing Matters and would be interested in seeing if this is a common complaint.

Very best wishes Jo