Would you also like the opportunity to be part of this fun group of pulmonary rehab graduates? Here is your chance. Join Jim and the PREP group as they again take to the seas, this time for a cruise to the Mexican Riviera, 7 days and 7 nights, starting on April 20^th, 2002. You are on oxygen? No problem! Jim will handle the details with the all the experience he has gotten over the years on previous successful trips. Call Jim Barnett toll free at 1-877-280-2777 to get the scoop on how you can join these seasoned and savvy travelers.

Roseanne .has a lot of questions about proper methods of breathing. She has conscientiously been trying all of them, including chest excursion, belts etc.. What confuses Roseanne is that her husband doesn’t feel that any of these techniques help him very much. He just breathes in and out through his nose and feels fine. What is going on here? This is a good observation and worth talking about.

If your husband has no respiratory disease, or impairment, it doesn't usually make any difference what techniques he uses or doesn’t use.  We suggest different techniques for you to help you compensate for the damage to your lungs, which no longer work at full efficiency. He probably doesn't usually need help.

Now, that being said, let me add that if he were a singer, or an actor or an athlete, he too would be training to use more efficient breathing techniques to get the very optimal physical response from his body.

Pursed lips breathing also can be helpful at various times to people without lung disease, most especially when they go to altitude. The amount of oxygen available at altitude decreases so pursed lip breathing can help those boy scouts who are hiking, or those healthy adults who are skiing, to breathe easier. Done properly it will increase the oxygen level of their body. Yes, even perfect lungs deliver lower oxygen levels as you increase the altitude you are at.

Many rehab programs use a tape or belt stretched around the ribs while practicing breathing to teach chest excursion. To answer some of your specific questions, if your chest expands, causing the tape to need to be loosened, of course it is because you are filling your lungs with air,  That is, you are breathing deeply and moving your ribs outward . Pulling the tape tighter as you exhale helps squeeze the air out of your lungs and reeducates your rib muscles do the same or to work more efficiently. Eventually they do the work themselves, without the reminder of the belt. You only need to use the tape or belt for a short while to get the general idea.
You inhale through your nose to warm, humidify and filter the air. Breathing out through pursed lips helps when you are short of breath.  It slows down your breathing, which is very important. It also helps you to breathe out longer than you breathe in, which is also very important if you have COPD. You needn't do it all the time, just when you need a little help to feel less short of breath. These techniques should help you to breathe more comfortably.  If they make you uncomfortable, you are probably working too hard at it! The staff at a good pulmonary rehab program could really help you a lot with some of these basics.