The Lung Flute is a simple device that uses sound waves to vibrate wads of mucus in your chest cavity until they rip apart and become more easily cough-up-able. (For better or for worse, the ultimate "results" of using the Flute are not shown in the above video.) Handy, certainly. But why, you may be wondering, would such a thing end up on Popular Science's list of The Best Innovations of 2009? Easy. It's because you and your common cold are not the primary audience for a Lung Flute concerto.
The idea for the horn came one night in 1985. Hawkins, an acoustics engineer, and his colleagues began brainstorming how they could use sound to mess with various bodily functions. They joked about what frequency a toilet would need to vibrate at to force an uncontrollable bowel movement and, slightly more seriously, a way to dislodge goo in sick people's lungs. Months later, Hawkins was reminded of that discussion when he learned that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung diseases that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, makes breathing tough for 10 million people, and causes 127,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. "It's the number-four cause of death in the U.S.," he says. "I thought, 'Yeah, I should do something about this.' "
Today, doctors in Japan use the $40 Lung Flute as a tool to collect sputum from patients suspected of carrying tuberculosis, and in Europe and Canada it's used to help test phlegm for lung cancer. Clinical trials in the U.S. have shown that it is at least as effective as current COPD treatments. At press time, Hawkins expected the device to receive FDA approval any day, and says the reusable device could also provide home relief for patients with cystic fibrosis, influenza and asthma.
The Pied Piper of Mucus from Popular Science
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I need me one of those!!! After some serious seshing, I always feel like there is some deep down lung butter than I can't get out. This is a 420 friendly dream come true.
Is that "Hawkin" or "Hawking"?
I would imagine this could literally be a life saver for those with cystic fibrosis
This seems like something that would be pretty easy to build if one had the right measurements. Any non-chemical tool in the asthma arsenal is great in my book!
In any case, if they sell it, I'll buy it.
Sure beats getting your chest pummeled for days like in The Satanic Verses.
I CAN HAS A SONIC BONG?
I need one of these for a little girl with CF. I'd rather build it but I'm in for $40!
Crap. Now that the medical industrial complex has its slimy tentacles inveigled into this thing, you can't buy it any more.
http://medicalacoustics.com/Home/LungFlute/Therapeutic
Eventually, it will be available by prescription only.
Maybe it'll be OTC in Canada ?
I need one of these. I get awful bronchitis, this could save me.
After watching the video I can't see how one couldn't quickly assemble one of these out of a paper towel tube and a strip of paper or cellophane.
If I had a cold right now I'd go try it myself.
I wonder if it's available in the UK and Ireland? If it's a $40 piece of equipment in Japan, international prices might vary substantially (and not be locked in by perscription-only, FDA-approvial-linked price inflation).
Joining my voice with @lakelady and @Ito Kagehisa. I can think of two friends with chronic respiratory problems (including CF) for whom this might be life-saving.
As someone who just recently quit smoking I want one to help speed up the the cleansing of my lungs.
Going from this (admittedly pro-generic drugs) site, it seems like making the Lung Flute prescription-only would actually decrease possible sales for the makers, as compared to an over-the-counter classification. It's probably the FDA that has decided that you need a prescription to use it, should they approve it, and not the makers.
Very interesting item, in any case.
My wife would like this. She's a big fan of Phlegmish polyphony.
I'd think that with some experimentation, any of us would be able to figure out how to make our own. But since it has a reed, Bronchial Bassoon would be a better name.
As an experiment, I just took 10 short, sharp breaths while buzzing my tongue against the roof of my mouth. By the 9th I felt phlegm and coughed some up. Is the flute actually necessary?
Hmm. I just did the same thing, and coughed nothing up (and yes, I'm a phlegmy kind of guy). Then I took 10 short, sharp breaths with no buzzing and still didn't cough anything up.
So much for anecdotal evidence.
Your point isn't lost, though. I imagine that if this is approved (and even if it's not) there will be a few studies that look at its efficacy, controlling for all sorts of things. I'd hope that, anyway.
Thanks to the Swine Flu, I've been coughing up what I believe to be RUBBER CEMENT for a week. I wonder if one of these lung flutes would help to clear things out?
This should be quite easy to build at home.
Thank you USPTO!
I'd love to try one of these. I've had a chronic dry cough for a long time.
Daddy! Daddy! I want a lung flute NOW!
My electric toothbrush provides a very unpleasant session of coughing bits up every a.m., though they do tend to be more of the chronic sinus inflammation variety. I would be ever so grateful if my asthma specialist were able to prescribe this to me.
Spare me the suspense! What frequency would a toilet have to vibrate to cause an uncontrollable bowel movement?
This is indeed a wonderful thing (apart from the phlegm) but it's not a drug with side effects or hazards in any way, as far as I can see. It's only a medical instrument in the sense that it can be used medicinally - other than that it's just a device for inducing mild vibrations - so why does it need a prescription in order to buy it?
Jethro Tull approves.
I really hope that a chinese company does a knock off of this out of crazy neon coloured plastics and sells them everywhere.
My family doc seems to be bought and paid for by big pharma (even though he's paid by the CDN gov't) and every problem comes with a solution in a pill bottle as far as he's concerned.
He'd never, ever be convinced to prescribe me one of these.... and I need one if they do work as the videos seem to indicate.
Please Chinese counterfeiters and makers of dollarstore novelty plastic toys, clone this item and save lives!
re #18 here are the patents...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6702769.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6984214.html
my guess is that the prescription only thing probably has more to do with marketing than anything else. they can't market it as a medical device without FDA approval, and they probably couldn't prove the benefits/usage unless a doctor instructed a patient.
Having lived with asthma for 50 years and having suffered through several bouts of pneumonia I think this is frickin' great. Even a bad cold can threaten to kill someone like me once it settles in the lungs - by th etime I manage to recover and get my airways clear I feel like I've gone several rounds with Mike Tyson. Fatigue, muscle stress, and sleepless nights make recovery all the more difficult. Anything which can aid this is a welcome relief. Maybe I can nip down to Home Depot and make up one of my own with some ShopVac parts? Hmmm.
I'll take two!
i always just take a deep breath and push on my chest really hard while i cough. it takes a while and you might throw up, but hey.
Thanks for the patent links jonathan_v
I will have to try making one of these.
Maybe it will help with my asthma.
This one has cracked the scam:
Scixual | #15 | 10:13 on Tue, Nov.17 | Reply
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As an experiment, I just took 10 short, sharp breaths while buzzing my tongue against the roof of my mouth. By the 9th I felt phlegm and coughed some up. Is the flute actually necessary?
I can confirm this works,well done you busted the scam :)
After starting an intense exercise program this spring, I bought a cheapo massager unit from Walmart. It specifically said KEEP OFF BONES and was intended for soft tissue only, I used it on my chest one night while nearly coughing a lung up (I had MRSA in my lungs for 2+ months this summer)...it broke up the phlegm pretty quickly, and I think it was more important than the exotic antibiotics to getting me healthy.
$30 vs. $40...available now...
Smiths Medical makes a very similar device which uses the same concept. It is called the Acapella, and is regularly used by people with COPD, Cystic Fibrosis and other lung problems to help expel mucus. http://www.smiths-medical.com/catalog/bronchial-hygiene/acapella/acapella.html
@jaytkay: Jethro Tull, the inventor of the seed drill, or Jethro Tull, the band? Or possibly both?
It seems easy to make. I don't think it'll matter if its prescription-only or not.
No one got rich off kaleidoscopes.
I used to have to do various sorts of physiotherapy to clear my chest due to a lung problem. One idea I tried (on advice from a doctor) was using a piece of plastic tubing to blow bubbles into a milk jug full of water. It worked. Seems like this is the same sort of idea...
My childhood small-town very old school family doctor had a trick for clearing the sinuses that relies on the same principle, I think.
He would tap a tuning fork to get it vibrating, and then hold the non-forked and of it against various spots along the forehead and next to the nose, under the eyes. You could feel the vibrations gradually move further and further through the sinuses, and then whoosh! it would all come rushing out. It always worked, no matter how solidly clogged you were to start with.
This is the sort of thing that really should not be limited to prescriptions. There is absolutely no risk to the patient even if they misuse it in the most deliberately stupid ways possible.
Of course, if I were the inventor, I might sell a nearly identical device as a "children's toy" to bypass this restriction on availability.
The rest of us, though, may be able to snag one from overseas. Why pay considerably more than the item costs just to get the prescription for it so you can buy it?
Or the Flutter device: http://www.clementclarke.com/products/mucus_clearance/flutter/how_does_the_flutter_work/index.html
My mom is a respiratory therapist at a hospital. She herself has asthma and passed along the awesome genetics to my sister and I as well. I am familiar with the "Flutter" thing mentioned above, just a simple ball that bounces around in a chamber, changing the airflow, when you blow into it.
I am also familiar with the technique of laying on my stomach and having my mom beat the living hell out of my back and sides like a bongo drum to loosen the lung butter up. Nothing brings back horrifying childhood memories like the rhythmic sounds of me and my sister's lung cavities going PIT-PAT SMACK PIT-PAT BOOM BOOM PAT SMACK PAT PAT BOOM BOOM BOOM! That and the shill of the air compressor IN an old breathing treatment nebulizer.
My CF Niece could absolutely use this and save herself the time and hassle of other treatments, and her parents the expense of her treatments. Of course, once it's FDA approved and available by prescription, you can forget the $40 price tag. Reform isn't free you know...
I was born with CF and used the flutter device ( someone in the comments linked to it)
and it was amazing, it would really get the junk out of my lungs.
I would recommend anyone with CF look into the flutter asap.
it's pretty cheap too, as it's just plastic and a metal ball. It's also way more portable then the lung flute above.
Luckilly I just had my 2 year anniversary of my double lung transplant this week so I don't need it anymore .
But man I remember the hell of having crap in my lungs all the time
and trying anything to clear them out. And for me the flutter was 100x more effective than daily
CPT ( chest physical therepy) which is when someone actually beats on your chest to loosen the mucus.
Jonathan_v, anonymous@#32, FactWino, Clif Marsiglio, thank you for the links and suggestions!
Just yesterday I was thinking how fabulous technology might reduce the costs of healthcare. This is great, this could really help. Then I saw how this might require a prescription and wondered if the cost of this is going to artificially skyrocket because of that.
I'm still going to stubbornly hope for wonderous technology that will help us be healthier.
So, did they figure out what the brown note is?
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151766
just wondering how easy it is to clean as you say its re-usable. sounds a wonderful idea and would love one. thanks for making it!
Seriously, Does anyone have any idea how you could get one of these from Europe?
I'll take one!
Since you can't buy it yet, I'd suggest making your own (if you're handy). I have been recently fighting a chest cold and wanted a way to loosen the mucus, so I made my own- the body is made of heavy cardboard or oak tag, the reed is a plastic strip cut from a plastic pocket folder, with a toothpick for it to hing on. I can attest to the fact that it does work! I need to figure out how to post the plans for it online. I'm sure the actual lung flute works better, but like I said, mine does work. If anyone wants plans, email me at mfreeouf@hotmail.com
You don't really need one of those. I discovered years ago while trying to impress my cat that I could make a purring noise by vibrating my tongue with a gentle exhale.
Subsequent to reading about the Lung Flute I noted an effect similar to that reported, even though my cat remains unimpressed.