A recent National Health Interview Survey reported that breathing exercises were the second most common complementary and alternative medicine practice in the United States, following only the use of "natural products." With such widespread interest in breathing exercises, alone or as a component of practices such as meditation, a need exists for research that examines not only its efficacy, but also investigates potential mechanisms of action. Indeed, a recent National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Meditation Workshop recommended research to clarify biological pathways by which meditation practices, including breathing exercises, can impact health. To explore mechanisms underlying the health effects of breathing exercises, new translational tools are needed that can measure breathing patterns in both the clinic and natural environment. The primary objective of the present proposal is the application of a new technology to the investigation of pathways by which breathing exercises can affect health. For this project, the health-related outcome measure to be studied is a major cardiovascular risk factor, blood pressure.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
99
The Mindful Breathing (MB)intervention is based on MBSR developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Participants will attend 8 individual weekly MB sessions. MB consists of closely "following the breath," throughout inhalation and exhalation, sustaining moment-to-moment awareness on the breathing process, and passively observing thoughts, affective states, from a non-evaluative or judgmental perspective. As attention wanders to concerns or thoughts, participants will be instructed to acknowledge and accept these without evaluation and return the focus of attention back to breathing. Participants in MB will have their breathing rate and PetCO2 monitored during the 8 training sessions with a breathing monitor.
This control intervention is designed to account for the effects of nonspecific factors such as enrollment in a study to enhance health with the associated expectancy effects, staff attention, and measurement procedures including the monitoring of PetCO2 and (Blood Pressure) BP, and completion of questionnaires. Participants who are randomly assigned to the Usual Care condition will receive care as usual for the management of their prehypertensive condition. UC participants will receive their usual care and have access to all Kaiser Permanente (KP) health education resources, such as KP's interactive healthcare guide, and online "Healthy Lifestyle Programs". We will assess the extent to which participants in both MB and UC used these resources.
Blood Pressure
Measured using Ambulatory, 24-Hr BP monitor
Time frame: Up to Week 25
Clinic (resting) blood pressure
Time frame: Up to Week 25
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