How and Why We Should Consider Breathing Patterns

Physical therapy school teaches you some of the fundamentals of the respiratory system: anatomy, physiology, breathing patterns, etc. While these are important, sometimes the assessment and treatment techniques are over-simplified. Not all breathing or respiration deficits can be managed by attempting to train diaphragmatic breathing. The Manual Therapist recently had a post that reviewed some of the physiology and implications of managing breathing, along with the use of something called a Capnotrainer. What is really interesting about this post is how the physiology of the respiratory system impacts us as clinicians and what we can expect to see. This is something often lost upon us as we are scrambling to prepare an exam. With a true understanding, we can more appropriately select interventions for our patients.

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