i was thinking last night as some serious sound waves were passing into my body that you could use sound waves to break up mucus in the lungs

the lungs are like sponges, its hard to remove mucus by trying to suck the mucus out, i’ve had a cold/ cough for the last few weeks and i noticed that when strong sound waves were passing into my lungs that it was breaking up the mucus

as an experiment forumers with the various life threatening conditions with lung problems could experiment with this idea?

you’d need to rig up a speaker/s and put them onto your lungs, try front and then try back to see if this method will help loosen mucus in the lung. percussion music might be played , or various music styles to see which is most effective?

I’m reminded of the ‘Mythbusters’ seach for the ‘poo note’ – a sound frequency which would loosen one’s bowels.

Despite trying every frequency from 1 Hz up, with the subject surrounded by a truly massive speaker stack, no such note was found.

If it won’t wobble your guts, it’s not likely to shake up your lungs, either.

after writing the thread i went loking and found that there has been some interest in using sound to break up mucus

theres something called the lung flute

The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the ‘Lung Flute’ as an ‘incentive spirometer’ device for positive expiratory pressure (PEP).

PEP is the exhalation of air against resistance, usually induced by means of a one way valve. The ‘Lung Flute’ functions in a way similar to other devices, such as the ‘Flutter’ oscillating PEP, and the ‘Acapella’ PEP device, which both use mechanical actions (a steel ball, and a lever with a magnet on one end, respectively) to cause interruptions or oscillations in the exhaled air flow, inducing vibrations on the air in the lungs.

While of therapeutic benefit, these devices don’t involve or rely on the production of sound to achieve their effects, which are similar to those achieved by the lung flute.

i’m thinking that just placing speakers to your chest or back could do the same job

wookiemeister said:

i’m thinking that just placing speakers to your chest or back could do the same job

Doubt it. seems that the benefits are from ‘back pressure’ variations in the air pressure in the lungs, and not sound waves, as such.

For what appears to me to be a similar mechanical effect, which also doesn’t involve sound, try Googling ‘jet engine compressor stall’ and read about ‘surging’. There’s an effect which can really shake up the insides of an air-breathing pressure mechanism!

‘jet engine compressor stall’

an “unstart” in the j58 and quite violent a +mach 2.