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Unbalanced Dysfunctional Breathing - UDB©

Does your breathing feel small, unsatisfying, or inadequate or weak, stuck,  sometimes as if it's barely there, suppressed or held back, it seems to go in the wrong place when trying to breathe deeply. Your breathing just doesn't "feel right", but you're not sure what's wrong or why.

The Way You Breathe Can Make You Sick!

Read about the conditions below that seem to fit your situation. Print a copy or download the pdf here

UDB Definitions PDF

Our breathing tests show that as breathing volume, depth, balance and ease decrease, there is a much higher correlation of diagnosed illnesses.
Silent disease(s) may be slowly developing.   

   

This UDB check sheet is an alert to increase your awareness related to health conditions in life that are directly and indirectly impacted by the quality of how well you breathe. This check sheet below calls to our attention many factors of life that we may not have considered as being connected with breathing.  The "hidden" conditions that serve to encourage further investigation about whether your breathing might be lessening and your health might be negatively impacted without your knowledge.

The U in UDB stands for  Undisclosed  Undetected  or Unbalanced

The D stands for Deep and/or Dysfunctional   B stands for Breathing

Unbalanced Deep Breathing.  Undisclosed Dysfunctional Breathing.  Undiagnosed Dysfunctional breathing. breathing pattern disorder

UDB ruins breathing exercises, meditations and attempts at stress management. UDB causes or worsens high blood pressure, shortness of breath, hyperventilation, overbreathing, anxiety, panic attacks, seizures, nervous disorders, depression, pain, asthma, COPD and most illness. Also, it is probably present in most if not all aspects of psychosomatic (mindbody or bodymind) disorders.

Breath is life. What is correlated and occurring in your being and doing that is connected with the way your are breathing. Because breathing is a moment to moment 24/7 activity the key is to make sure the way you breathe is not influenced by or caused by, or worsening any of the following.
Close your eyes, go within and take the deepest in and out breath you can take, now take another in and out breath. Then allow yourself to breathe normally, and open your eyes and reflect on whether then or if you often experience any of the following conditions correlated with possible obvious or hidden breathing dysfunction. If this list seems too long please consider oxygen's and breathing mechanic's relationship to life.

Conditions existing now…
1. Addiction
2. Allergies
3. Altitude makes breathing harder
4. Anxiety
5. Anger
6. Apathy
7. Apnea
8. Attention problems
9. Autism

10. Back pain: low mid upper  (circle)
11. Bed wetting

12. Belch a lot.
13. Bowel or rectum disorder
14. Blood sugar swings
15. Breathing Problems: asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, COPD, other
16. Breathing feels like a series of events, instead of one smooth
coordinated continuous flow
17. Breathing feels stuck
18. Breath heaving
19. Breathing labored/restricted
20. Breathing is shallow
21. Breathlessness
22. Can’t catch breath or deep breathing curtailed
23. Can’t feel breath in nostrils
24. Can’t meditate
25. Can’t relax
26. Can’t sleep on back
27. Can’t walk and easily talk at
the same time
28. Chest is large and stiff
29. Chest pain
30. Chest sunken
31. Chest tightness after surgery
32. Chest wall pain
33. Chronic cough
34. Chronic pain

35. Cold hands or sweaty palms
36. Cold temp bothers breathing
37. Confrontations make your voice pitch go up
38. Confused or sense of losing normal contact with surroundings
39. Constant fatigue
40. Constipation, cramps in abdomen or below sternum, or
side stitches
41. Depression
42. Digestion poor
43. Diaphragmatic impairment
45. Dizzy when excited/anxious
46. Do you often PRESS your tongue to the roof of your mouth?
47. Dry mouth
47. Exercise induced asthma
48. Fanny sticks out in rear  49. Fall asleep watching TV or at
theater when you would rather watch the program
50. Fear is excessive

51. Feel a hitch, bump, or lump right below your breastbone when you try to take a deep breath

52. Feelings of suffocation

53. Finish other’s sentences for them

54. Furrows brow often
55. Gasping a lot
56 Get tired from reading out loud
57. Get drowsy from driving a vehicle

58. Gerd-acid stomach
59. Grind or clench teeth
60. Headaches
61. Heart condition or attack
62. Heavy breathing
63. High blood pressure
64. History of being choked
65. History of other abuse or trauma
66. Hold breath a lot
67. Hormonal fluctuations
68. Hot flashes
69. Hyperventilation, overbreathing
70. Hypoglycemia
71. Irregular heartbeats
72. Irregularly formed rib cage (Can you see it in a mirror?)
73. Jaw tension
74. Jet lag
75. Look in a mirror and breathe as deeply as you can. Do your neck muscles bulge out? Do your shoulders or collar bones rise?
76. Lump in throat
77. Migraines
78. Mitral Valve Prolapse
79. Mouth breather
80. Nervous quiver in voice
81. Nightmares
82. Nodules
83. Obese
84. Often catch yourself not breathing
85. Often shift weight from side to side while standing
86. Orgasms: Time to achieve:
Easy (five minutes) 

hard (longer)
87. Panic attacks
88. People have difficulty hearing you and they are not partly deaf
89. Phlegm often

90. Phobic
91. Poor boundaries
92. Poor posture
93. Pregnant
94. Perfectionist
95. Public speaking
96. Pulsing or stabbing feeling around ribs
97. Reduced pain tolerance
98. Reflux
99. Repetitive strain injury
100. Ribs flair outward at bottom during inhale
101. Sallow complexion
102. Scoliosis or abdominal
 curvature of the spine
103. Seizures 
104. Self esteem poor
105. Shortness of breath
106. Shortened stride
107. Shoulders rounded downward
108. Sigh or yawn often
109. Singing poorly
110. Sleep problems

111. Smoking
112. Snore
113. Soreness or pain in throat with “prolonged”
vocal use.
114. Sore deep pain that feels like a band across your chest
115. Speech problems
116. Stiff neck
117. Stressed out
118. Stomach tense and  unable to relax it
119. Stroke
120. Sunken chest
121.
Superman Syndrome

122 Sustaining low tone  difficulty
123. Swallowing difficulty
124. Swim-can’t  as well as  you use to or tried and get short of breath.
125. Talking on the phone makes you short of breath
126. Tension around the eyes
127. Tense overall feeling
 (hypertension)
128. Thoughts run amuck
129. Ticklish in your ribs or armpits
130. Tightness around mouth
131. Thoracic insufficiency
syndrome
132. Tightness, soreness or
pressure in chest or below  breast bone
133. Type “A” personality
134. Upper note singing problems
133. Upset stomach or irritable
 bowel syndrome
134. Vertigo
135. Vision blurred, cataracts, 135B. eyesight  better in AM than PM __
136. Voice is: VCD -vocal chord dysfunction, clear,  labored, held back, strained, natural, thin, strong, weak, dynamic, heavy, smooth,  clears throat often, chest,
whispery, stutters, quiver, squeaky, restricted, choppy, laryngitis, hoarse, crackly, disconnected, raspy, broken, breathy, erratic, monotone, tentative, nasal, throaty, mumbles, nervous, slurred speech, spasmodic dysphonia
138. Voice feels weak
139. Wake from sleep suddenly not breathing
140. Use a mechanical breathing device while sleeping
142. Washboard abs
143. Wake up tired a lot
144. Wheezing
145. Worsened breathing  following laughter:  Breathing is mainly

 (SH)=Shallow; (L)=Labored;

 (F)=Fast; (SL)=Slow;
 (B)=Belly;  (HC)=High chest;
 (CO)=Cough; (R) Restricted; (HB)=Hold breath; (E)=Erratic; (O)=Other

UDB Definitions. A work in progress

If you are unclear about how some of the above relate to breathing you will find insights about them included within the Optimal Breathing Kit   I assure you they are all either directly or significantly indirectly influenced by the way you breathe.

Do you or someone you care about have UDB?

UDB can make you anxious, make you sick or sicker, make you think you are sick or crazy, destroy your energy, keep you fat, steal your personal power, hinder your voice and shorten your life. Your may know there is something wrong with your breathing. You may feel ok but your breathing may still still be severely unbalanced. 

First, bend over and notice how much harder it is to breathe. Please just do that right now so you get the feel of what I am saying.

This breathing difficulty is because your muscles are restricting the ease and depth of your diaphragm and rib expansion as they relate to 360 degree functionality. There are many expressions of this, without even being aware of them. More about that in a few paragraphs.  Properly supported breathing is similar to the foundation or basement of a building supporting the upper structure but having little else to do with its internal functioning.

Many breathing related health issues are sub-clinical. They are not detected by traditional diagnostic methods. The diaphragm and rib cage do the inhaling and exhaling. Any other muscle being engaged is purely supportive. Proper support/guidance from accessory breathing muscles is similar to how an elevator shaft guides the elevator but does not carry the passengers though it may enclose them. Bend the shaft (poor posture) and the elevator will not rise or if you are used to thinking of this as an umbrella opening, it will not open as easily or at all; or book stacking, the books will reach a certain height and prematurely cease rising, inhibiting ease and depth of the next inhale. As a result, the oxygen cost of breathing greatly increases and the Autonomic Nervous System functioning becomes over-stressed and distorted. Keys to my own breathing development lay hidden for 45 years. It took so long because I had, what I learned to describe as Unbalanced Deep Breathing Mechanics or what I now call UDB©.

I’ve observed that, MANY others live 24/7 with UDB, just as I did. Some KNOW there is something wrong with their breathing but don’t know what it is and what to do about it. Others go from health professional to health professional, spend thousands of hours and small fortunes in medical expenses that often include harmful medications. Their breathing development problem remains undetected

Attempts at taking a forced deeper breath, or struggling against shallow or restricted breathing can trigger or worsen UDB.  UDB can act like a warning sign much like hypoglycemia can be a predictor of  potential diabetes. This “Hidden” or tendency towards UDB lies waiting to present itself. 

UDB and its relationship to living.
Deeper easier breaths bring deeper people friendly feelings. We feel more strongly and live more passionately. With more passion comes bigger mistakes, bigger dreams and bigger dreams coming true.  When the deeper breaths are out of balance the deeper feelings invite distorted responses. Life and living comes out bent, misshapen, crooked.

BEWARE
You cannot tell bad, good or great breathing by merely observing it. The breathing development student MUST be trained to sense and feel it from the inside out so that he or she can guide self and others properly. Function and or skill levels may also be extremely relevant. 
UDB STRIKES or is WORSENED by stress, trauma, fatigue, fear, anxiety, panic or even positive emotions. Because it can hide itself so well, Many with UDB seem “normal”. These "normal" people worry me.

One of our long term goals is to enable health professionals, coaches and trainers to quickly spot what might be a breathing issue so it can be addressed instead of overlooked and cause a direct or indirect worsening of a health or performance issue.  This check sheet is step one.
Step two is attending our school or getting one of our home study courses.

Breathing Assessment Tip.
Begin by observing someone breathing, having asked them to take deep in- breaths and relaxed out breaths on their belly, on a fairly hard surface such as a hard mattress, massage table or a carpeted floor. The breath should begin in the low back and slowly rise /move upward to the mid back but without the lower back reducing in size. If it begins in the mid or upper back or the low back gets smaller this is a sure sign of UDB.

Below is an example of an extreme case so you can see if perhaps you or someone you care about might be a candidate for breathing development.  Lesser degrees of intensity become apparent as one becomes more familiar with the above UDB possibilities.
From a recent web site visitor.
Dear Mike, I could not breathe, I was having terrible pain in chest, in my back, in my neck and I couldn't breathe.  I thought I was dying!! So I decided once again to get on the internet and this time I searched on this subject..."......" before I was doing a search on chest pains and nothing...just lots of fear that I was dying from a heart failure (since my dad's side has lots of heart failures and strokes) which maybe could have been from anxiety something I have really bad. But back to the pain and gasping for air, I got the optimal breathing kit ..and OH MY GOD. I feel so much better!!! Still a little dull pain but nothing like the stabbing, sharp, unbearable pain I was having. Now maybe I can go sleep for awhile instead of listening and watching my husband sleep soundly and comfortably while I lay there and panic with very intense pain wondering what I am dying of and when it will be. I have suffered a long time from this chest pain...too long!! And I have suffered long enough with anxiety and panic attacks, I have had without knowing it since I was a little girl. My mom was very abusive emotionally and physically. I read a lady's testimony and just cried.. We both suffered from the same abuse growing up...when I would get a beating I would hold my breath, or get yelled and so on...it hit me yes that's why I can't breathe...I would hold my breath, and emotions came out of me that I did not know were there. It feels so good to get some air into my lungs!! As soon as sleeping beauty wakes up I will take the free breathing tests and order the right tape for me. I cannot wait to get some air in me and get rid of the chest pains!!!  Thank you so much for giving me this chance to breathe again!!!  Sincerely, Stephany as I am very tired, so please excuse me if I wandered off a little with my story".

From Mike to everyone:

Please go into all this more deeply to help guide you toward effective methods of developing your breathing and/or reducing or eliminating UDB. Our Deepest Calm,
Breathing Development Fundamentals or most popular program are the ones that satisfy most people. You may well be able to improve your breathing on your own with one of our self help programs. However, we always suggest you see a health professional when any sort of disordered energy presents itself. Bring this UDB list with you. 

From Mike: There are varying kinds and degrees of UDB.  Take our free breathing tests and learn what we recommend.

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"Breathing is the FIRST place not the LAST place one should investigate when any disordered energy presents itself."

Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD Ph.D., The Oxygen Breakthrough


"He who breathes most air lives most life."

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"Mike's Optimal Breathing teachings should be incorporated into the physical exam taught in medical schools as well as other allied physical and mental health programs, particularly education, and speech, physical, and respiratory therapy."

Dr. Danielle Rose, MD, NMD, SEP
 

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The breathing improvement techniques, practices and products outlined in this publication are extremely gentle, and should, if carried out as described, be beneficial
to your overall physical and psychological health. If you have any serious medical or psychological problem, however, such as heart disease, high blood pressure,
cancer, mental illness, or recent abdominal or chest surgery, you should consult your health professional before undertaking these practices.

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