The Effect of Therapeutic Breathing Exercises and Pranayama on Forced Vital Capacity and Forced Expiratory Volume of COPD Patients

Purpose: To investigate the effect of therapeutic breathing exercises and pranayama on forced vital capacity and forced expiratory volume of COPD patients. Methods: 30 patients aged 40 -50 years suffering from COPD (Chronic bronchitis) and under treatment process of chronic bronchitis at S. S. hospital, IMS, BHU, Varanasi, India.30 COPD patients was randomly divided in three equal group i. e., control, therapeutic breathing exercises and pranayama training exercise group, each group having 10 COPD patients. The Pre Test -Post Test randomized group design was used for the study. The Pulmonary function testing (PFT) was used to measure forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume (FEV1) of COPD patients and score of subjects was recorded in liters. The therapeutic breathing exercises group and pranayama training group was taken 6 weeks therapeutic breathing exercises and pranayama training with our daily life activity and control group was performed our daily life activity without any specific training program. Results: The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test was performed to investigate the effect of therapeutic breathing exercises and pranayama on forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume (FEV1) variables between -within groups two times (before and after treatment), using the least significance difference (LSD) confidence interval adjustment method as post -hoc. The adjusted posttest mean and standard error of mean, for forced vital capacity (FVC) of CG 1.86±0.37, TBE 2.26±0.36 & PT 2.15±0.37 and for forced expiratory volume (FEV1) of CG 1.28±0.03, TBE 1.71±0.03 & 1.69±0.03 respectively. The results of the study showed that there is significant effect of therapeutic breathing exercises and pranayam training on forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume (FEV1) of COPD Patients. Conclusion: The therapeutic breathing exercise and pranayama training improves forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume (FEV1) of COPD Patients after 6 weeks of training program.