The benefit of diet on paradoxical breathing and sleep in Osteogenesis imperfecta

We evaluated breathing (i.e.: thoracic contribution to tidal volume in the supine position) and sleep (i.e.: apnea-hypopnea index (AHI)) before and after a 6-month of restricted Mediterranean Diet on 22 volunteers with a confirmed diagnosis of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (median age: 37.8 years; 17 women; 13 type III). At the end of the 6 months, 8 individuals (median age: 38.1 years, 5 females, 3 type III) did not spontaneously follow the diet therefore serving as the control group (CtrOI) for the 14 (median age: 34.7 years, 10 females, 9 type III) who completed the program (DietOI). AHI tended to decrease in DietOI, while it even tended to increase in CtrOI. The thoracic contribution to tidal volume in the supine position of DietOI passed from almost no expansion before diet to a significant expansion after diet; while it was negative in CtrOI indicating systematic paradoxical breathing in the supine position. This pilot study show that the main beneficial effect of diet was a to significantly expand the thorax in supine position with a tendency to reduce the AHI index.