Healthwatch: Musical Medicine
By: Tara Joyce
Updated: January 29, 2013
Bernard and Barbara Swanekamp have a lifetime worth of memories. But after a lifetime of smoking, Bernard also has chronic lung disease, COPD.
Luckily life has been easier the past year thanks to the lung flute. Some people with COPD have excess mucus in their lungs. When the blow into the flute, sound waves are sent down the airways, mobilizing that mucus. Studies show using it twice a day improves lung congestion and other COPD symptoms. It may also help protect against potentially fatal respiratory illnesses like pneumonia.
Usually Bernard winds up in the hospital once or twice every winter, thanks to the flute, last winter there was nothing.
Luckily life has been easier the past year thanks to the lung flute. Some people with COPD have excess mucus in their lungs. When the blow into the flute, sound waves are sent down the airways, mobilizing that mucus. Studies show using it twice a day improves lung congestion and other COPD symptoms. It may also help protect against potentially fatal respiratory illnesses like pneumonia.
Usually Bernard winds up in the hospital once or twice every winter, thanks to the flute, last winter there was nothing.
