Having COPD can make it hard to breathe as it taxes both the lungs and the heart, but a new study offers a possible solution: Using an air purifier helped patients’ hearts work better.
RELATED: Breathe Easier: 10 Everyday Ways To Open Your Lungs
How air purifiers can help with COPD?
Researchers found that when people with COPD, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, consistently used air purifiers, their hearts were better able to adapt their heart rates in response to daily demands, something known as heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a key measure of overall heart health. In fact, the participants who used air purifiers daily saw a 25% increase in their HRV.
Study author Dr. Sarath Raju, an assistant professor of medicine who specializes in lung diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, explained that an increase in HRV is important.
“People with poor HRVs are at risk for a number of cardiac problems, such as heart attacks or a worsening of COPD symptoms,” he says. “All of these things increase the odds of someone with COPD being hospitalized, which is of course something we want to avoid.”
RELATED: Essential Oils For COPD that Help You Breathe Better
The study also looked at the role of what scientists call ultrafine particles, tiny pieces of irritants in the air that people breathe. Raju and his colleagues found there was an association between the presence of these particles in a person’s home environment and a negative impact on lung health.
“This indicates that the indoor air environment plays an especially important role for people with COPD, and both doctors and patients should be aware of this information,” Raju adds.
Dr. MeiLan Han, a professor of pulmonary diseases, critical care medicine and internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said the study findings are potentially important because “we know that air pollution has a lot of bad effects on our cardiovascular health. So anything to improve this for people will be helpful.”
Han notes that the data is “a bit difficult to interpret because the air quality in each individual household of the study was likely very different, and this variability makes it harder to draw specific conclusions about the impact of the air purifiers.”
Still, Raju is optimistic that “using air purifiers might provide a positive, affordable and sustainable method that can improve