Health Q and A
Vocalist diet included in
Building Healthy Lungs Naturally Beware of long term breath following exercises.
Message: dear mike,
From Mike: Man
or Woman - Which Breathes Better? michael, From Mike: Dear Mike: From Mike: In searching for info that aired last week on studies
about mental testing and developing mental practice sessions to enhance,
increase and hopefully slow down sluggish or loss of memory as one ages,
the article on breathing came up. It was the first article I'd seen
about breathing and its affect on memory. I forwarded it to a friend who
had asked if I knew of ways to improve memory, including research
sources. Also, I believe that many people whose bodies are
disproportionately shaped breathe incorrectly which increases the degree of
lopsiddedness or excessive bellies and eventually hunched backs produced
from those imbalances. If we breathe correctly as we do all physical
things in our day to day lives, as well as when we exercise extra, we
will stand straighter, taller and slimmer and hopefully learn to
repeat those efforts and outcomes regularly. Dear Mike,
That is sad for people that do not breathe well or want faster
progress. They often need more then the "Alexander Technique" allows
for, as wonderful as it can be. Like they say 'breathing is so easy a child can do it'. We only need to
get out of the way and stop interfering. I respectfully disagree.
Many need radical and rapid improvement lest they get lost to the
inadequacies of teachers that know little of accelerating breathing
development and subject themselves and their students/clients to the
risks of illness, drugs and steroids that await those with
undetected
breathing under-development If you tell me which State you live in I could tell you a good Alexander
technique teacher that can clarify you what we Alexander people are
teaching to our pupils. I have worked with teachers already. You have
not worked with me and obviously know little of what I teach.
Optimal Breathing compliments ALL modalities because it relates
specifically to breathing. I've not run across anything it will not
augment.
Page 9
They can be wonderful for some and harmful for others. I use a
scientifically proven biofeedback device to measure blood carbon dioxide
saturation and learn that even the slightest attention to the breathing
can sometimes cause the inhale to develop a subtle and almost
undetectable to the eye or inner sensing, erratic breathing sequencing
during the exercise that develops into a permanent breathing pattern
disorder. What is
perceived as relaxation may be better or worse then it was before but
along with a long term tendency to cause or exacerbate what I call
UDB. If
you've tried them and felt they did not work for you, you may have UDB.
I am writing to request your kind assistance relating to a problem
with my health which is caused by anxiety (as surgeons Have told
me). The problem is that I have difficulty in breathing.
Whenever I am in stress, or worry about something I cannot catch my
breath. In these situations I need to take a deep breath in
order to relax. If I cannot catch the deep
breath, I do not feel good and my head spins slightly. Doctors have
told me that this problem is related to anxiety and have given me
medication . X-rays of my lungs have shown no problems.
I would like to ask whether this breathing problem is directly
related to anxiety or whether it can be due to problems with other
organs such as my heart or lungs.
I look forward to your response and how I can solve this problem.
I read your test scores. From my experience, breathing problems most
often cause heart problems. Not the reverse.
Anxiety is most often caused by some form of compromised or poor
breathing.
Dr. Sheldon Hendler, MD Ph.D states that "breathing is the FIRST
place not the LAST place one should investigate when ANY evidence of
disordered energy presents itself."
I recommend
http://www.breathing.com/sob-program.htm
Blessings,
mike
i would appreciate something in the range of comparison between
differences in athletic breathing for men and women. regardless of
equality claims, it seems that reality discovers subtle differences in
all other areas. perhaps there are none but at this point i am unsure.
thanks for the spinning article it should be very helpful to your
readers. by the by, i prefer the CLEAR PASSAGE strips which i
feel are an improvement upon the original product. should you and
others continue to push breathe right, they will be gone and i shall
have to make my own.
personally, i find the gym bike to be a boring entree to fitness. my
primary task in that area is on the speed and heavy bags which i
preface with a little Tibetan caffeine. in between 3-round sets on the
heavy bag i do abbreviated sets of lat pull downs, dumbbells, and leg
machine routines.
I observe that women breathe deeper, easier and more balanced in
general. I suspect that historically less stress and having
babies gets the breath back in balance or stronger, unless C Section
intervenes.
But these days stress is hitting the female sex as well. Women's lib
is getting hoisted on its own petard and it is also a good thing that
women are getting more freedom to be who they want to be. But that
comes with a price and the price is the stress of the hunter/warrior
that the man used to get to shoulder. We must ALL learn to
re-establish and maintain our maximal breathing ability
What puzzles me is that with all the really good and safe oils out there
you are paying so much attention to canola. I think it is bad. I care
not so much what Andrew says about it because as good as Andrew is, the
medical model in general has a much wider toleration of toxicity then I
am comfortable with. So with any doubts I just go to what is safe and
sound. Federal laws give me even less security or a sense of
rational safety. Study prescription drug side effects to learn more
about that. Get Russell
Martino or Udo Erasmus' EFAs and be pretty safe and sure.
mw
From Mike: See
http://www.breathing.com/exercise2.htm and
http://www.breathing.com/e3live.htm
I was just reading your web site and realized that you don't seem to
understand what the Alexander Technique really is about. If you would
study F.M. Alexander's life more closely you would find out that he was
known in his time as the 'breathing man' and the funny thing is that he
was not even teaching people to breath! He was and we Alexander
Technique teachers are teaching our pupils to become aware their harmful
unconcious habits that will interfere with their bodies functions,
including the breathing, walking, biking scratching your head and so on.
Ah
yes. I have always thought of Alexander technique with this in mind.
Great stuff.
With a good Alexander Technique teacher a pupil can learn to redirect
the energy by letting herself widen and lengthen instead of contracting
into herself and so pressing the lungs and intestines as well as
preventing the legs and arms to move freely. Now there is much involved
in this and few lessons are needed to get the full understanding. One
Optimal Breathing lesson/session is quite adequate to get huge change.
Repeat HUGE. Many more factors needed then widening and lengthening to
accelerate this breathing improvement as quickly as it can be done.
Breath is life. When you are out of breath nothing else matters.
Why take longer? The body can be changed rapidly without pain. Take it
as far as it can go each session/time. The breathing gets better and the
entire body adjusts around it to balance physically and energetically.
Good understanding of the Alexander Technique in the guidance of an
skillfull Alexander Technique teacher and putting the understanding into
practice will among many things improve breathing, but please note, it
is a side product not an end in it self.
One can teach different breathing techniques but if a pupil still has
harmful uncouncious habits, for example pulling their head back and
locking their neck the pupil WILL do the breathing excercises with the
pulled back head and a locked neck. Pulled back head goes with
shortened back which restricts the ribs to open up and side ways, and so
on and so on... I agree.
Here is only a taste of what the Alexander technique is about. It is a
very hard to understand and people who want quick fixes will not stick
with it! Optimal breathing is not about quick fixes or only breathing
exercises. It is about hands-on diaphragm development techniques,
exercises, breathing exercises, ergonomics, nutrition, attitude,
sound production, vibrational healing and respiratory spiritual-psychophysiology.
Our training is 3 years and it is intense with anatomy lessons and lots
of practical work to first improve our own use and then focusing working
on pupils. I welcome your integrating Optimal Breathing Techniques
into your Alexander Technique work. A few New Yorkers are adding
Stough's work into Alexander Technique. My work is similar in
some ways to Carl's but I believe it is as or more beneficial for many.
The length of my training is evolving but so far 5 years seems to be a
minimum.
Alexander Technique is only 100 years old and unfortunately some of
the training schools in the world are not really Alexander
Technique.....sad but true. My teacher John Nicholls was trained (over
20 years ago) by Walter Carrington who F.M. Alexander himself asked to
continue his training school after he would die. My other great teacher
Carolyn Nicholls is soon starting with other highly regarded Alexander
Technique teachers setting standards for A.T. training schools so each
student gets the best possible training and that the public can get the
right idea of what we are about.
I would like to ask you kindly NOT to put together Alexander,
Feldenkrais and Yoga. Alexander Technique is nothing like Yoga or
Feldenkrais and it would be sad to give that impression to the public.
To me they have striking similarities in the way they adjust the body to
open up to easier breathing.
Lots of voice work, breathing work, singing teachers and the like are
doing work with the Alexander Technique teachers. Both ways it is
rewarding. I agree that Alexander Technique is valuable. It is just
not breathing specific. My work is. That is all I say about it.
Kind of short notice but we
have a space in a class near you next month if
you want to opt in. (she did not. mw)
http://www.breathing.com/school/main.htm
With Great Respect I wish you a nice day and hopefully I hear from you,
L.
Message: Dear Mike,
What a fascinating website. I am suffering (with ever more symptoms)
from muscle fasciculations. I suspect that I regularly hyperventilate. Anyway my muscles and nerves are hypersensitive and
start to feel more and more painfull. I have checked out your website
but couldn't find any references to "fasciculations" and
muscle spasms. Could this as well be a problem of "bad breathing"?.
Please help me, I feel more and more desperate and anxious, out of
control.
From Mike:
Bad breathing can cause or make some spasms worse, including seizures.
http://www.breathing.com/video-ds-bhln.htm.
Hi Mike,
I have been working with the reflexive breath. I thought I would try and combine breathing with prayer, so I used a variation of the Jesus Prayer that I found in Orthodox Christianity. I said half the prayer on the inhale, and the other half on the exhale, trying to maintain the reflexive breathing pattern. I got very powerful results.
It is really amazing how this Optimal Breathing process integrates so many other processes.
Thanks, Rick
From Rick:
RICK
Panic Attacks on Almost a Daily Basis
Thank you for your recent e-mail. I have
been having panic attacks on almost a daily basis for the last 6
months. Recently realized I have been having them on and off over
the last many years. I am taking both Zoloft and Alprazalam which
have helped immensely they treat the symptom not the cause. but I still continue to have difficulty with the feeling of
satisfied breathing. I want to be rid of the Alprazalam as a minimum
but cannot eliminate the breathing symptoms which I understand help
to bring on the attacks. Even the Alprazalam is not eliminating or
alleviating the breathing difficulties. It cannot because the
issue is probably mechanical that upsets carbon dioxide and oxygen
balance.
After reading several publications and through discussions with my
Doctor I feel I have developed poor breathing habits. I have tried
several of the breathing techniques described in these publications
but am having difficulty retraining myself. The more I think about
it the worse it gets. Going to sleep many times is the only way I
can get relief some days. My Doctor believes that I am
hyperventilating. Probably so I agree but I also think that it
is easy for me to hyperventilate due to the way that I breath.
www.breathing.com/articles/udb.htm
I also have Lupus and through the years have had several
inflammations in and around my lungs which may have caused the bad
breathing habits to develop. I quit flying 16 years ago due to
continual flare ups of my Lupus accompanied by breathing
difficulties which were probably really panic attacks. Makes
sense to me My Lupus has been inactive for two years. I have
just had a complete physical and am in good general health. A year
ago I went through extensive lung function tests which resulted in
no major lung problems but a comment that even though I thought I
was inhaling and exhaling as hard as I could it appeared I wasn’t
trying hard enough. Exact opposite of what you need to do.
I exercise on a regular basis, eat no sugar or flour products, use
minimal alcohol and caffeine.
My goal is to kick my poor breathing habits, control my panic
attacks, get off the Alprazalam and be able to fly in comfort. Can
you help? Yes. Can you come here to North Carolina? If not get
www.breathing.com/video-ds.htm
mike
Over the last couple of years i have been getting sinusitus on a regular basis as well as other chest infections, but recently it has got worse and now my breathing seems more shallow and i feel the need to hold my breath in order to make myself breathe again. my friend says her asthma is like this, and i had to attend hospital (a&e) the other night because my breathing is starting to panic me since it is constant, whether i am exercising or not. The doctors seemed to fob me off saying there is nothing wrong with me but i really am worried because i feel like i am not getting enough oxygen, any ideas?
From Mike: Very likely asthma or what is often referred as such. See www.breathing.com/articles/udb.htm there are several components to most shortness of breath often called asthma. The MDs mostly miss one or two. Get this program.
Mike,
I am a band director and have been looking for a set of breathing
exercises that will accomplish a couple of goals:
the first, of course, is to give my students a better sound which
is accomplished through better breath support.
the second is to help them calm down and focus at the beginning of
class, which should lead to more order and better discipline in
class.
Somewhere in a magazine i saw a
set of breathing exercises that varied the length of the inhale,
hold, exhale and rest cycles to achieve more focus, relaxation,
calmness, energy, and other goals. Unfortunately, the article was
lost before I made a copy. Do you have a book on this type of
breathing, or know of anything that might help me?
Thanks, Scott Blain
From Mike: Hmmm. I went back to my high school glee club and trained them in some great stuff. Go to www.breathing.com/video-ds.htm. Please tell your colleagues about your successes as well. mike
Breathing Problem. It Comes and Goes
Dear Mike -- For years I've had what I simply refer to now as my
"breathing problem". It comes and goes, some weeks or months being
worse than others. However, the problem is present more often than
not, and it's extremely discouraging. I've had a couple of
inconclusive pulmonary function (or similar) tests and they were
inconclusive. I'm 45, quite active, and I've never been a smoker. When
working out I don't usually experience the problem. The symptoms: I
feel I must constantly try to yawn, in order to get in enough deep
breath. UDB. Sometimes I'll go for minutes attempting
to yawn before I'm successful. My lungs end up feeling sore and
strained, and my neck and ribs and upper back really hurt with all the
effort. Sometimes my throat feels closed up. These symptoms are
usually worse later in the day. UDB.
My doctor feels the problem is related to soft-tissue neck injury
I sustained after being rear-ended ten years ago, and says my neck and
back tension are probably the main culprits. However, at times the
problem is severe enough to make me wonder if there's a tumor inside,
squeezing my respiratory system. Have you encountered this kind of
problem before, and, if so, what do you suggest?
yes. you must rule out
tumor but it may well be UDB
www.breathing.com/articles/udb.htm
Dear Mike:
Do your techniques or exercises generate just as much capacity as activities commonly described as aerobic?
From Mike:
The key is how much energy is expended in accumulating the energy.
What is the "cost" of accumulating that energy.
We are looking at Better Breathing Exercise #2, the 176 video exercise
called Side to Side. To be optimal you must also expand the rib
cage and cause an increase in the rise of the diaphragm.
The Energy Program includes the DVD #176 and Exercise #2.
mike
From Mike: The 8 steps are for everyone but one must use the steps that make the most sense. The key is to first know what all the options are. Unless they are focusing on a specific goal or problem such as on the bottom of our programs page, most people get the 176 and 169 videos and the BHLN and go from there.
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