Emphysema patients pulmonary function improved by very gentle rebounding.

The physical therapy department at the University of Michigan medical school reported, about 1980, that the very mild up and down motion from gentle rebounding on a mini-trampoline would very significantly improve the functional breathing capacity of people with severe emphysema. This improvement was separate from the exercise portion of this motion since someone else could do the bouncing while the patient simply sat on the middle of the trampoline. Now, nearly 20 years later, when anyone contacts this department there is no longer anyone there who knows anything about this breakthrough.

I am terribly disappointed that this valuable discovery has been swept under the rug in such a short time. I have had to accept that the medical monopoly refuses to acknowledge any inexpensive, safe and very effective approaches discovered; since these kind of approaches can be construed as being in competition with the licensed physician/prescription system presently in control of this country. However, I still mourn when things like this happen.

I can give you no more information than to suggest you do a literature search for any research about combining rebounding and emphysema published in the late '70s or early '80s.

I CAN tell you the gist of the findings that were reported but I did not save the article since I was still, at that time, naive about the pervasive efforts of MY profession at suppressing such information. I just assumed that the findings would be expanded upon and would soon be the "standard of practice" in at least THIS country. Instead, it has been buried as too inexpensive and also being something that any non-licensed person could provide.

If I had late stage emphysema, I would get a mini-trampoline for my home and very gently bounce on it for about 10 minutes twice a day. If I was so far gone as to not be able to bounce myself, I would find a friend willing to bounce on it the same amount of time WHILE I was sitting on the center of the trampoline. Just that much would be enough to start showing results in a couple of weeks. As soon as I was enough improved that I could do it myself, my friend wouldn't have to come over any more. Just sitting on the mini-trampoline and rhythmically waving your hands and forearms up and down will quickly start an up and down motion of the entire body that would do a lot of good.

The important thing to remember is that, apparently, what does the good has nothing to do with this being exercise. The effects accrue from the reciprocal up and down motion.

The minimum amount that works is 10 minutes twice a day and more helps more.