In a new study, eight weeks of high-intensity training focused on the muscles that control breathing dramatically improved lung function and exercise capacity in adults with cystic fibrosis.

As an added benefit, the training seemed to reduce anxiety and depression.

These findings, reported in the medical journal Chest, compliment two previous studies documenting the benefits of breathing training in patients with asthma.

Training aimed at muscles involved in breathing “may have significant long-term health implications for patients with respiratory disability,” Dr. Stephanie Enright from the University of Salford in Manchester and colleagues conclude.

In the study, Enright’s team randomly assigned 29 adult patients to 8 weeks of supervised training at 80 percent or 20 percent maximal effort, or to no training.

Compared with subjects who received no training, those who received training at 80 percent maximal effort experienced improvements in lung function, exercise capacity, anxiety, and depression.

The benefits were less pronounced in the 20 percent effort group, suggesting that “training intensities of greater than 20 percent are required to significantly improve (lung) function,” the authors note.

SOURCE: Chest, August 2004.