Blogs

Something as seemingly simple as measuring breath and lung capacity can be dramatically affected by assumptions and biases in studies, as recent research into spirometry has shown.

As part of the Catch Your Breath research project, patients experiencing breathlessness have taken part in poetry workshops, finding new ways to express their experiences of their conditions.

Early modern books are all different, and studying them can uncover details about the communities of people who made, used and owned them over hundreds of years. Sally Nichols explores several copies of books by the Italian physician Prospero Alpini in the RCP library.

RCP fellow Sarah Walters died last year. She was a respiratory physician and expert in public health, and she also lived with cystic fibrosis well beyond the expectations of her childhood doctors.

Documents in our archives are of interest for all sorts of reasons. The stamps on the outside of envelopes and packages are often overlooked, but they have their own fascination, too.

Vocal coach and music therapist Phoene Cave explains the value of singing for people with lung disease.

Touching the king or queen was once thought to be a reliable cure for tuberculous disease. The ‘Royal touch’ was used by thousands of people for several centuries in an effort to cure a condition known as ‘the King’s evil’.

A new trail through the RCP garden of medicinal plants highlights species used to treat lung diseases and breathlessness in the past and today.

Making air pollution visible isn’t easy. Two artworks which dramatically show how the air around us can be laden with damaging particles are part of the RCP exhibition Catch your breath. The works were created by Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick.