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Parkinson's: Do incentive spirometers help improve breathing?

Parkinson's Disease | Last Active: Sep 6, 2021 | Replies (5)
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@mariew

Sure!
Mom is 87 years old. She's had Parkinsons for a long time. She developed a chin quiver about 30 years ago, but no other symptoms. Now she cannot function mentally and physically without the right dose of levadopa/carbadopa. I am a physical therapist and I have been having her do balance and strength training with me for many years and that is going well. Recently the volume of her voice has gotten soft. She just started speech therapy for speaking louder and clearer. I noticed that she doesn't take a deep breath before speaking. I think she'd be really motivated to "make the ball or bar go higher" if she could have a visual cue for how to increase her breath volume. I'm just not sure if working on inspiration or exhalation has the most gains. (She doesn't have any swallowing issues at present)

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Replies to "Sure! Mom is 87 years old. She's had Parkinsons for a long time. She developed a..."
Teresa, Volunteer Mentor | @hopeful33250 | Jun 16, 2021

Hello @mariew,

I appreciate your providing a bit more information about your mom's current health condition. She is so fortunate that she has a daughter who is a physical therapist!! I appreciate all of the time you are giving to her.

As you know, a soft voice is very typical of Parkinson's. I am glad to hear that she is receiving speech therapy. That should be helpful. It is hard to say if any of the inhalation/expiration devices would be helpful to her or not. Have you discussed the use of these with her speech therapist?

I have used one expiration device that I purchased online. However, it is not the type that has the balls that go up as you inhale/exhale. It is a bit different as I have a paralyzed vocal cord (specialists do not believe that it is related to PD but they consider it idiopathic in origin).

Since the reasons for using these devices is different and is dependent on the type of breathing problem you really need the opinion of an expert.

Has she been seen by an otolaryngologist or a pulmonologist to determine where the breathing difficulty is located?

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