EFFECTS OF A SLOW-DEEP BREATHING PROTOCOL ON LOWERING BLOOD PRESSURE: A RAPID REVIEW

Background Hypertension is a major contributor to high rates of mortality in the United States and around the world. At the same time, the cost of pharmaceuticals continues to increase, and pharmacological noncompliance grows. There is a growing interest in the efficacy of alternative or integrative methods in lowering blood pressure. Regulated, slow deep breathing has been shown to have beneficial effects on blood pressures. Objectives The overarching goal of this study was to identify a non-pharmacological, easy to learn method that could be followed by patients in the home setting to control blood pressures. The target population was adults with hypertension. The intervention was a slow deep-breathing protocol or similar variants. The comparison intervention was either pharmacologic treatment or placebo (e.g., simple breathing exercise). The desired outcome was lowered blood pressure. The time frame was left open to see what studies have been completed, both short term and long term. This review set out to find what studies have been done to answer this question: In adults with hypertension, how does a slow deep-breathing protocol or a similar variant compared with pharmacologic treatment or placebo affect hypertension