Breathing exercises...
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"Larry Leggo" larr...@sympatico.ca
Anybody have info on breathing exercises for asthma???
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Colin Campbell activated_...@earthlink.net (remove underscore)
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 07:54:31 -0400, "Larry Leggo" Only the people pushing scams.
BTW: You haven't a distant clue what you're talking about. In fact, you couldn't get a clue during the clue mating season if you stood in the middle of a field of horny clues, smeared your body with clue musk and did the clue mating dance.
Richard Friedel s3e0...@mailin.lrz-muenchen.de
Hi Larry, Undoubtedly the simplest breathing exercises for asthma are those using inspiratory muscle trainers (SIMT = specific Inspiratory muscle training). Do an Internet search with the key words inspiratory training to get material from various different manufacturers.
You breathe in thru a small device costing 10$ upwards. There are also sophisticated systems for connection with a PC. The inspiratory muscles and more especially the diaphragm are recruited and strengthened so that the asthmatic is able to overcome narrowing of his airways.
This sort of stands to reason, although conventional presentations of asthma never mention overcoming resistance in this way.
Also the devices reduce SOB (being short of breath) as opposed to the actual airway narrowing as measured by the peakflow meter and felt as lack of physical condition. Often SOB is what mostly bothers the patient.
There seems to be a parallel between SIMT as used for asthma and to train athletes and incentive spirometers used for postoperative patients to re-establish deep breathing and get rid of atelectasis (failure to ventilate areas of the lungs). In asthma there may be air trapping in the lungs and this might also explain the effect of SIMT.
It is often objected that in asthma the lungs tend to be become over-inflated so that the patient cannot easily breathe out. However, trials of SIMT (in which breathing in is made more difficult) seemed to work on asthmatics quite generally.
The effect of an SIMT device can be tried out by simply putting a finger into your mouth between your teeth and lips to leave a gap and then breathing in the this gap so that your cheeks are pulled in a bit. There may then be the feeling that the gap is somehow directly wired with the action of your diaphragm. The smaller the gap, the more powerful the diaphragm action - a bit like the effect of a reliever in some cases. This "pursed lips inhale" may in some respects be better than using a device, since it is easy to vary the gap and therefore more sensitively control the diaphragm.
As with all physical therapy protocols, there is the danger of using tricks, which provide some relief but generally do more harm than good.
One of such tricks is to hold one's breath to stave off an attack of asthma, because of cause the aim of breathing exercises should be to normalize breathing, that is to say breathing at a normal rate (liters of air per minute).
A good address for breathing exercises is the IARP website, see f. i.
http://www.ohiou.edu/isarp/conf_02/papr_4.htm about hyperinflation in asthma and COPD by Professor D. Hillsman of the University of California.
It is generally agreed that authentic diaphragmatic breathing is effective against asthma. Unfortunately the issue is a bit confused because the diaphragm not only has the function of inhaling but also of pushing the abdomen outwards. Judging from instruction offered by breath therapists on the Net, the methods are wrong, because the student is told to put one hand on the chest and the other on the abdomen and then to minimize chest movement and increase abdomen movement. This works without breathing at all. See page 10 of Prof. Hillsman's article on "belly puffing". So make sure that the diaphragm is actually being used for breathing in diaphragm exercises. Its action can be felt by f. i.
simply sniffing.
As should be clear the SIMT exercises tie up with the idea of breathing in against a resistance which in breathing without the SIMT device should be in the nose (or throat). The standard medical opinion is however that resistance in the nose should only be that due to the nose's function of warming, humidifying and filtering the air.
Furthermore a doctor would normally advise against anything tending to obstruct an asthmatic's breathing.
In yoga (pranayama) alternate nostril breathing and ujjayi (oceanic breathing) in the throat also produce an effect like SIMT, but it is probably much weaker typically. In SIMT the resistance may be 30 cms water column.
Generally it is well to note that asthma treatments are seen in the framework of effects on lung function as measrued by instruments. The valuable role of breathing maneuvers in curbing attacks may overlooked. Regards, Richard Friedel
Richard Friedel s3e0...@mailin.lrz-muenchen.de
Take a look at papers by Professor Deane Hillsman of UCLA -
http://www.ohiou.edu/isarp/conf_02/papr_4.htm Dynamic Hyperinflation physiology. His outfit (ISARP) may be seen to be highly respectiable and sicentific.
Colin Campbell activated_...@earthlink.net (remove underscore)
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 21:29:47 +0200, Richard Friedel I apologize for the tag line. This one is reserved for the most ignorant of people. I used it on an idiot who thought that it is a 'war crime' for a nation to do something that he disagrees with politically and forgot to change to a regular sig.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits." Einstein
northshore ...@aol.com (NorthShoreCEO)
Try this site, the exercises are buried in all the text of this page: http://www.perf2ndwind.org/html/breathing.html
northshore ...@aol.com (NorthShoreCEO)
This is a pretty irresponsible statement. Breathing exercises are extremely important and part of pulmonary and respiratory therapy. I guess National Jewish Medical and Research Center, along with nearly every other hospital are "pushing scams".
Richard Friedel s3e0...@mailin.lrz-muenchen.de
Yes but the system of learning diaphragmatic breathing by sensing movement of the chest and abdomen is vigorously attacked by Professor Hillsman of UCLA: See: "BELLY PUFFING. In a wide spectrum of neurologic and muscular diseases, patients develop so-called "Trick Movements" in an attempt to compensate for lost functionality. There are good Trick Movements which aid functionality, and bad Trick Movements which interfere with functionality. The physiotherapist must learn to recognize undesirable Trick Movements and eliminate them, while enhancing productive compensatory movements. Belly Puffing is a bad Trick Movement.
Belly Puffing is easy to perform, and therapists should learn the technique to gain insight as to how readily this can be done. Lying supine (in order to eliminate an artifact of abdominal content movement), practice puffing the abdomen in and out. Then, puff the abdomen out while exhaling, and pull the belly in while inhaling.
Normally of course the abdomen expands due to decent of the diaphragm on inspiration, and conversely contracts as the diaphragm rises on expiration. The Belly Puffing trick movement is therefore an abnormal artifact, which is exactly opposite of normal abdominal breathing movements. It must be carefully watched for, and eliminated.
A traditional technique to teach "Diaphragm (or Abdominal) Breathing" is to have the patient place one hand on the anterior upper chest and the other just below the xiphoid. The patient is then instructed to not move the upper hand while breathing in, and simultaneously make the lower hand move outwards with inspiration. This traditional technique should be abandoned, as it encourages the abnormal Trick Movement of Belly Puffing." (http://www.ohiou.edu/isarp/conf_02/papr_4.htm , page 10) Activation of the diaphragm is a key feature of recent research on the effect of sniffs. See Eric Verin, "Effects of muscle group recruitment..." Eur. J. Appl. Physiol (2001) 593-598. As far as I can see there is no belly pushing in authentic yoga. The diaphragmatic excesses should be controlled by the breath. Diaphragmatic breathing is often learned by singers using sniff maneuvers rather than belly pushing.
At any rate a smart, prolonged sniff as in Verin's study can sort electrify the diaphragm, turns it on. And this seems to be much more specific. You can do the hand on chest and tummy stuff without breathing at all.
Maybe the PLB in the Website you mention would give the same or better results as sniffing in expert hands, but for communication among Internetting folks I'd have opted for "sniffing" (but not at others' experience, of course) as a basis.
It does definitely seem that proper diaphragmatic breathing leads to a yummy feeling related to, but distinct from activation of the pelvic muscles and to kundalini effects. It appears to counter bronchospasm.
You treat yourself to authentic diaphragmatic breathing and this stops the constriction. From what we know of diaphragmatic breathing and asthma, this seems to make sense. Regards, Richard Friedel.
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