A New Study: RESPeRATE May Prevent Hypertension

A new peer-reviewed clinical study, just published in the Journal of Applied Physiology by researchers from Quebec’s McGill University, determined that RESPeRATE lowers blood pressure within one session, even in young healthy individuals. It also found that RESPeRATE effectively reduces muscle sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure in both genders, despite having lower baseline values in women.

The study concludes that RESPeRATE may be an effective preventative therapy against the development of hypertension.

Study Objective:

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is an effect of sex on BP and associated autonomic responses to an acute 15-min session with the RESPeRATE device among young healthy individuals.

Based on the 2017 American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for blood pressure (BP) management 46% of adults in the United States have hypertension . These numbers are equally concerning for women as for men— 43% of adult women are hypertensive and that approximately 16% of adults with high BP have drug-resistant hypertension the evaluation and establishment of non-pharmacological treatments is clearly a public health priority.

Given that even slightly elevated BP is associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events slightly elevated BP is associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events slightly elevated BP is associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events.

Slow breathing (SLOWB; <10 breaths/min) has a variety of favorable effects on the cardiovascular system, including the clinically relevant effect of reducing BP (36). Even in normotensive middle-aged women and men, a single 2-min bout of SLOWB has been shown to reduce systolic BP (SBP) by 3.4–3.9 mmHg (27). Persistent reductions in 24-h ambulatory BP have been observed after as little as 1–2 wk of daily SLOWB sessions.

As a result, in 2013 the AHA issued a Class IIA recommendation for SLOWB as an effective adjuvant treatment to lower BP in hypertensive individuals.

Main Findings:

Contrary to the studies hypothesis, the researchers found that BP responses to RESPeRATE were not sex-dependent in the population of young, normotensive individuals. Rather, induced similar decreases in BP in individuals of both sexes.

Their finding that RESPeRATE acutely reduces systolic BP is in alignment with past research. However, they are the first to demonstrate that these trends are also observed in young female individuals, despite having lower baseline BP compared to males.

The study also found that in both female and male individuals, RESPeRATE reduced muscle sympathetic nerve activity and sensitized the cardiovagal efferent arm of the baroreflex (in response to increasing SBP only).

The researches say this data provided compelling preliminary support for the use of RESPeRATE an anti-hypertensive tool for use in young female individuals, a clinically-relevant finding.