A gust of cool air eases breathlessness

A simple hand-held electric fan could provide rapid relief:

The device, held six inches from the face and aimed at the central area of the face and the sides of the nose, reduces breathlessness in less than five minutes, suggests new research.

Medics believe cool air activates nerves in the face that are stimulated when people dive into cold water, prompting the body to conserve oxygen.
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It [breathlessness] is caused by a wide range of conditions, including asthma, heart failure (where fluid accumulates in the lungs) and lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes emphysema and bronchitis.

A wide range of treatments is used for the conditions, including steroids, morphine and inhalers, to help reduce inflammation and spasm in the airways of the lungs.

But many people are helped only partially by these therapies. The team of doctors and physiotherapists behind the research, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, stumbled on the idea of using a hand-held fan.

They followed up reports from patients that their symptoms are reduced when they feel a cool draught from an open window or door.

Doctors at the Breathlessness Intervention Service at Addenbrooke’s studied 50 patients. They found the method so effective that they are providing all of their patients with a basic three-blade hand-held fan when they are referred to the clinic.
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Meanwhile, new research has revealed that broccoli sprouts — three to four-day-old broccoli plants — could help tackle bronchitis.

Researchers have discovered that a key compound in young broccoli plants seems to lower inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

A clinical trial is about to start where patients with the disease will be given concentrated extracts of the broccoli compound, an antioxidant called sulphoraphane, daily for four weeks.

The 90 patients on the trial will get one of three options: a low dose of the antioxidant; a high dose; or a placebo.

The aim of the trial, at the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centres, is to test the idea that sulphoraphane may reduce the harm that leads to lung damage in COPD.

Previous research has shown the lungs of patients with COPD have significantly lower levels of anti-inflammatory antioxidants.

The researchers add that there is not enough evidence yet to show that eating broccoli would have similarly beneficial effects.