Helium Eases Breathing in COPD Patients

Filed in archive Diagnostics , Treatment on February 6, 2007

Not only for bobbing balloons and making voices squeak, now Helium has been found to ease breathing in patients with severe respiratory problems.

Helium-hyperoxia (40 per cent oxygen, 60 per cent helium) have been found by University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) to be able to increase exercise capacity of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by an average of 245%, compared to oxygen alone - the current use for treating these patients.

Patients with COPD have difficulty breathing out and often air is trapped in the lungs at the end of each breath; this has been shown to be one of the primary reasons for the shortness of breath experienced by these patients.

Combining the helium and hyperoxia slows down the frequency of breathing while making the air easier to breathe. This combined effect reduces the amount of air trapped in the lungs during exercise.

Study results were published recently in the American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine.

Find more details from the full report.