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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Health
- Business Standard
Blowing a conch shell could help manage moderate sleep apnoea, study finds
Indian trial finds that regular conch shell blowing may improve sleep quality, reduce breathing interruptions, and ease daytime sleepiness in people with moderate obstructive sleep apnoea New Delhi The traditional Indian practice of blowing a conch shell—or shankh—may offer a surprising, low-cost aid for managing moderate obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a new study suggests. OSA occurs when the upper airway repeatedly collapses during sleep, causing pauses in breathing, loud snoring, and poor sleep quality. The gold standard treatment, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), is highly effective but often suffers from poor patient adherence. Researchers from the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in Jaipur explored whether blowing a shankh could be an alternative for people with moderate OSA who struggle with standard treatments. Inside the study approach The randomised controlled trial, published in the European Respiratory Journal Open Research, involved 30 adults diagnosed with moderate OSA. Participants were split into two groups: Intervention group: Trained to blow a left-turned shankh for at least 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for six months. Assessments included Impressive results after six months The conch-blowing group showed notable improvements compared to the control group: Daytime sleepiness was reduced by 34 per cent 30 per cent showed marked improvement in overall sleep hygiene. Approximately 20 per cent reduction in the AHI signifying that episodes where breathing stops completely (apnoea) or partially (hypopnoea) dropped by about one-fifth Sleep quality improved significantly They also had better oxygen saturation and reduced body mass index (BMI). Measuring the impact of shankh blowing on sleep apnoea. (Photo: AI generated) How blowing a conch shell helps Blowing a shankh involves deep inhalation followed by forceful exhalation through the shell's narrow opening, generating vibrations. This acts as a form of respiratory muscle training, similar to playing wind instruments, which has also been shown to help in OSA. The study says that the benefits of shankh blowing comes likely from strengthening the upper airway muscles, making them less likely to collapse during sleep. The intervention group also showed a noticeable reduction in neck size, which may induce upper airway remodelling that helps improve breathing. A public health challenge A 2023 systematic review published in Sleep Medicine Reviews estimated the overall prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in India at 11 per cent, affecting 13 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women. Based on these figures, around 104 million working-age Indians are living with OSA, including 47 million with moderate-to-severe forms. This represents a major public health challenge for the country and adds significantly to the global burden of the disease. According to the researchers, the conch shell-blowing trial was first of its kind and conducted on a relatively small sample size. They stressed that larger, multi-centre studies are needed to confirm these findings and fully establish its role as a tool for OSA.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Health
- Indian Express
Sleep apnea keeping you breathless and sleepless? Try blowing a conch shell, says study
When a 42-year-old man came in with snoring so severe that he had to sleep in another room so as not to disturb his wife and woke up in fits and starts, Dr Rajeev Gupta put him through a sleep test. The man was found to be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder where your upper airway repeatedly becomes blocked or narrowed during sleep because of flaccid throat muscles and reduces oxygen flow in the blood. Dr Gupta recommended a sleep aid that forces the airways open but his patient could not just adapt to it. So he put him on a conch shell-blowing routine, twice daily, with a trainer. Within 12 months of this drill, regular walking and a low fat diet, the man's snoring subsided, his daytime sleepiness went down and his throat muscles became stronger. 'I gathered anecdotal evidence through all my patient outcomes and then decided to do a clinical trial on effects of conch shell-blowing on sleep apnea. Already, some studies on usage of wind-blown instruments like saxophone had shown positive results in reducing symptoms like snoring and sleep-disordered breathing. This led to our hypothesis that shankh-blowing might offer similar advantages. Our trial showed promising results; patients felt more alert during the day and had fewer breathing interruptions at night after regular blowing of the shankh,' says Dr Gupta, study author and chair, Preventive Cardiology & Medicine, Eternal Heart Care Center & Research Centre, Jaipur. The study by Dr Gupta and his colleagues has just been published in the European Respiratory Journal Open Research. Though small, it is significant because it eliminates the need for bulky breathing devices like the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine, which is the gold standard treatment. Conch shell-blowing can even be used as complementary therapy. 'We tested this technique on 30 patients. Now we need to confirm the results through larger, longer-term, multi-centre studies in India and other countries to assess sustained benefits,' adds Dr Gupta. Excerpts: What did the study find? We divided 30 patients into two groups; 14 were trained to blow a conch shell twice daily for a total of 10-15 minutes (with 30 seconds of blowing into the shell and gaps to draw in fresh air) while 16 practised deep breathing exercises. After six months, those in the conch shell group showed a 34 per cent improvement in sleep, better sleep quality, lower daytime sleepiness and better oxygen saturation. The hypoxia index, which is a measure of the severity and duration of oxygen deficiency in the body, decreased by 4.4 events. In terms of overall sleep hygiene, 30 per cent in the conch shell-blowing group showed marked improvement compared to the five per cent improvement in the control group. Why conch shell-blowing is effective As we fall asleep, all our muscles relax naturally, including those in the throat. But in obstructive sleep apnea, the same muscles relax too much, causing the soft tissues in the back of the throat, such as the tongue, palate and tonsils to collapse and narrow or completely close the airway. This disrupts breathing in patients and forces them to wake up intermittently in the night, gasping for fresh air. Conch shell-blowing involves breathing in deeply and exhaling into a spiral-shaped shell. This action creates strong vibrations and airflow resistance, which strengthens both the tongue and throat muscles and prevents them from collapsing easily. This is a far easier drill to follow twice a day than remaining hooked to a CPAP machine, which delivers a continuous stream of pressurised air through a mask worn over the nose or mouth, keeping the airways open during sleep and preventing pauses in breathing. The patient has to maintain the same sleeping posture. How have the results held in patients who were not part of the study? I had first discussed the concept in an article published in the RUHS Journal of Health Sciences in 2018. Privately, I recommended it to patients of sleep apnea who somehow could not take to the CPAP machine. So going by anecdotal evidence, the conch shell-blowing patients have been able to stay up to four years off the CPAP machine. Can conch shell-blowing be a reliable therapy? If the results hold in larger trials, it can. It will be a cheap and at-home option for the billion people who suffer from sleep apnea.
