NCT04592718

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

The Effects of Four-week Breathing Interventions on Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Heart Rate Variability, and Psychological Measures in Runners

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 63 (actual)
• Sponsor: Old Dominion University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Conditions

• Gastrointestinal System--Abnormalities
• Anxiety
• Visceral Pain

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Slow deep breathing plus breath counting	Participants will perform a daily 5-min slow deep breathing exercise for 4 weeks. A breathing rate of 6 breaths per minute will be targeted. In addition, participants will count their breaths during the exercise.
BEHAVIORAL	Normal-paced breathing plus breath counting	Participants will perform a daily 5-min normal-paced breathing exercise for 4 weeks. A breathing rate of 15 breaths per minute will be targeted. In addition, participants will count their breaths during the exercise.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-10-20
• Primary completion: 2021-06-30
• Completion: 2021-06-30
• First posted: 2020-10-19
• Last updated: 2021-09-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States