New way to lower blood pressure: Strength training breathing muscles
You suck at a straw that has resistance to sucking. The current regimen being used by researchers is 30 inhalations per day at high resistance.
"IMST can be done in five minutes in your own home while you watch TV."
The benefits were significant. Systolic bp dropped 9 points on average (exceeding benefits of 30 minutes walking 5 days a week), and equivalent also to some bp-lowing drug regimens. 6 weeks after the 36 older adults tested quit the training, most of the health benefits remained. (They' got funding to do another test with 100 people.)
It's not yet known how it works: How strengthening breathing muscles ends up lowering blood pressure. A guess they have is that it causes cell lining blood vessels to provide more nitric oxide, causing them to relax.
It also strengthens diaphragm muscles.
IMST stands for High-Resistance Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training.
