Resperate: Can it help lower my blood pressure?

What do you know about a portable electronic device called Resperate that supposedly helps lower blood pressure by slowing your breathing? Does it work?

- Cindy / California

Mayo Clinic hypertension specialist Sheldon Sheps, M.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.

Answer

Resperate is a device approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing stress and lowering blood pressure. The device costs about $300 and may not be covered by your insurance.

Here's how it works. Resperate analyzes your breathing pattern, creates a personalized melody and transmits it to earphones. You synchronize your breathing to the melody that you hear through the earphones. The goal is slow, deep breathing — 10 breaths a minute — with particularly long exhalation.

The theory behind Resperate is that many people with high blood pressure have increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system — the part of your nervous system that controls blood flow. Slow, deep breathing reduces this activity, allowing blood pressure to return to normal.

To produce a persistent reduction in systolic pressure (the top number in your blood pressure reading), perform these breathing exercises for 15 minutes several days a week. Studies of people with high blood pressure who use Resperate as directed report an average decrease in systolic pressure of 14 mm Hg. However, it may take a few weeks to see a benefit.

In addition, the reduction in blood pressure isn't permanent. If you stop doing the breathing exercises, your systolic pressure will rise again.