Four-week Breathing Interventions on Gut Symptoms, Heart Rate Variability, and Psychological Measures in Runners

Old Dominion University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Visceral Pain; Gastrointestinal System--Abnormalities; Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Slow deep breathing plus breath counting; Behavioral: Normal-paced breathing plus breath counting

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04592718

1655312

Details and patient eligibility

About

Recent research has suggested that stress and anxiety levels are associated with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in endurance athletes (runners, cyclists, triathletes). Yet, there has been limited attempt to evaluate whether GI symptoms during running can be mitigated by interventions designed to reduce stress and anxiety. Thus, this study will evaluate the effects of four-week slow deep breathing and mindful breath counting interventions on subjective and objective measures of stress/anxiety and GI symptoms in runners with mild-to-high anxiety and that are prone to GI symptoms during runs.

Enrollment: 63 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• At least 18 years of age
• Run at least 15 miles per week
• Access to internet
• Access to a smart phone that is compatible with iOS or Android applications
• Score at least a 5 on the GAD-7
• Report to have experienced GI symptoms "sometimes", "often" or "always" during runs in the previous month.
• If on a psychotropic medication, must be on a stable dose for the past 3 months.
• Live within the contiguous United States

Exclusion criteria

• Younger than 18 years
• Run less than 15 miles per week
• Do not have access to the internet
• Do not have access to a smart phone that is compatible with iOS or Android applications
• Score less than 5 on the GAD-7
• Report to have "never" or "rarely" experienced GI symptoms during runs in the previous month
• Are being prescribed a psychotropic medication and have not had a stable dose for at least three months.
• Do not live within the contiguous United States

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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63 participants in 3 patient groups

Slow deep breathing plus breath counting

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this group will do a daily 5-min slow deep breathing exercise (6 breaths/minute) and will also count their breaths

Treatment:

Behavioral: Slow deep breathing plus breath counting

Normal-paced breathing plus breath counting

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this group will do a daily 5-min normal-paced breathing (15 breaths/minute) and will also count their breaths

Treatment:

Behavioral: Normal-paced breathing plus breath counting

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this group will serve as a control and will not do any breathing exercises or breath counting.