Dynamic Breathing - check out the book on Amazon

Breathing is such an automatic process that we’re not usually aware of it unless there is a problem. It comes as a shock when you notice that you’re having difficulty breathing. And it’s easy for panic to set in.

I’ve been an occasional asthmatic for over 20 years.

Initially diagnosed after the birth of my daughter – for two or three years I had quite bad episodes but since that time I’ve been affected less often.

My airways tend to react in late spring / early summer, after a cold or virus and after any kind of exercise. Especially if moving from a cold environment into a heated one.

I guess I would classify myself as having mild symptoms. While I always have puffers with me I only use them when I need them.

The last time I needed to use them I had a virus – my asthma kicked in quite quickly and I started taking my puffers. But instead of relieving the symtoms I felt very shaky, anxious and had slight palpitations.

This was almost more frightening than the tightness, wheezing and breathing difficulty I was experiencing! Although I don’t use them regularly they were my security blanket.

So when I came across the book “Dynamic Breathing – how to manage your asthma” in my local library I borrowed it. I’ve renewed the book thrice now and have reread it as many times.

It appealed to me because it seemed to offer some practical help for asthmatic sufferers.

In all the 20 years that I’ve had asthma I’ve attended asthma clinics and been shown how to use inhalers but I’ve not been given any practical ideas for self help or management of symptoms. So I was hoping to find some helpful information but not really expecting too much.

What a pleasant surprise! Although it is only a slim volume it packs a great deal of information both scientific and practical into it’s 100 pages ( including appendixes and references).

Just to whet your appetite I’ve jotted down just a few of the topics covered in the book. I’ve selected items which I found interested me and which I would like to draw your attention to.

The list could easily have contained another half dozen topics from the book.

There are equally important chapters on the diaphragm and the surrounding muscles, exercises, posture and body mechanics, stretching and movement and of course information on medication and various other aspects.

The main reason I picked these topics from Dynamic Breathing is that I was amazed by what I read. That bad breathing habits could be contributing to the unpleasant symptoms of an asthmatic episode was a complete surprise to me. Also all three topics illustrate different aspects of the book, both the explanations of why your breathing is important and also the practical techniques which are found throughout the book.

Take the first item on my list Why Nose-Belly breathing is best.

• Over the years I’ve been aware that how we breathe is important – I’ve gone to Yoga classes, read books and such but I didn’t know that some of the unpleasant panicky feelings I was experiencing during asthmatic episodes could have been made worse by my breathing patterns.
• Dynamic Breathing explains in great detail just what happens in both good “nose-belly” and bad ‘mouth-chest” breathing patterns. The book explains how bad breathing patterns can disturb your body chemistry. One of the reasons for this is that during mouth-chest breathing carbon dioxide levels can drop too low causing a variety of symptoms which can aggravate the original asthma symptoms.

symptoms caused by a sudden drop in carbon dioxide levels – racing heart or feeling faint, for instance – understandably lead to tension, anxiety or panicky feelings. Page 10 – Dynamic Breathing

mouth breathing flushes out too much carbon dioxide….. mast cells in the tissues…give warning signals to the airways… activating higher histamine levels in the blood and triggering bronchoconstriction…..blood flow to the brain may be reduced….. leads to feelings of suffocation and panic. Page 11 – Dynamic Breathing

• Not only does the book explain why these effects happen it explains why good “nose-belly” breathing helps and how to exercise to make nose-belly breathing a habit.

Next on my list is  Why nasal and sinus health is important

• Think of your nasal passages and sinuses as the bouncers at the club doorway – they  are there to stop the harmful substances getting through to your delicate lungs. They’re protecting you 24 hrs a day if you’re a nose breather. Of course if you’re a mouth breather then you’ve no protection at all – the troublemakers just breeze straight in.

When the nose is affected by an allergen or congestion this can also trigger bronchoconstriction.

With nose-breathing, air enters the body in a more controlled flow; making acute hyperventilation virtually impossible. Page 15 – Dynamic Breathing

• Because the nasal passages and sinuses filter the air they are often the first to be affected by any irritants. Dynamic Breathing explains why it’s so important to look after your nasal passages and sinuses. There are also recipes for a nasal wash and instruction traction for sinus congestion relief.

Last on my list is How to cough easily and without straining

• Although this sounds gross – Dynamic Breathing explains a technique which will enable you to clear your airways without straining or making your symptoms worse.
• The ACBT technique is explained in detail. It makes use of the nose-belly breathing learned in the earlier part of the book and alternates with mouth breathing to help clear the airways.
• There are also tips and hints to try to overcome the dry irritating cough which can be so exhausting.

This is a book which bears reading and re-reading.

The authors, Dinah Bradley and Tania Clifton-Smith have produced a book which I am certain will be a great help to asthma sufferers and their families.

Further reading: Asthma Statistics in UK

British Lung Foundation

Kick Asthma

August’s Book of the Month is “Dynamic Breathing – How to manage your asthma” by Dinah Bradley and Tania Clifton-Smith. It’s a slim volume, just 105 pages, in the Overcoming Common Problems Series by Sheldon Press.

The book is written by two practising respiratory physiotherapists with a wealth of experience in breathing pattern disorders.

In the introduction the authors say this:

We want to show those with asthma the value of physical coping skills – i.e. learning what’s happening on the outside of the chest wall and including this as a vital part of asthma self-management.

This book should definitely be on every asthma sufferers bookshelf.  It explains the importance of correct breathing. Gives exercises to help develop good breathing habits and explains the adverse effect bad breathing habits can have during an asthmatic episode.

Link to Amazon to buy

When I ordered James Wong’s book I must have been thinking of the days when we were kids and made our own scent from rose petals.

Well – that was the idea – but after the petals had soaked for a few days no-one was daft enough to try out the resulting gunge. I’m pretty sure we didn’t produce anything remotely resembling perfume.

But of course we were just making it up as we went along – we had no idea about making infusions, decoctions, infused oils, tinctures, salves, balms or creams. In the book James briefly explains all the different ways of preparing plants but the bulk of the book is taken up with the remedy recipes – there are over 100 recipes – so plenty to choose from.

James suggests that if you want to make a start and try out some of the remedies you should begin by working on your personal ailments first.

It is possible to buy all the ingredients – you don’t have to be green fingered. But if you want to try to grow your own he lists which plants you should grow and which ingredients you should buy from health food or herbal suppliers for each particular ailment.

In the recipes section the remedies are grouped by ailment which makes it easy to find just what you’re looking for. Many of the ingredients are exotic e.g eucalyptus leaves but there are loads of everyday plants there as well such as nettle, fennel and peppermint.

If you are looking for detailed growing tips then you won’t find them in this book but there are loads of recipes for all sorts of ailments and also cosmetic and beauty preparations.

There are over 100 remedies but here are a couple which caught my eye:-

• for  dermatitis or eczema sufferers  - he suggests trying an oat and chamomile bath bag made very simply from oats and chamomile flowers contained in a muslin bag. Run the bath, soak the bag in the bath for a few moments, use it as a gentle exfoliator on your skin and then leave in the bath while you soak for 10 minutes or so. Repeat twice a week.
• for digestive problems – there’s Angelica and Mint Cocktail for Indigestion and Fennel Sugar Mice for Flatulence

And there are some really lovely recipes for cosmetic potions such as

• Yoghurt, Lime and Strawberry Face Pack which exfoliates and nourishes the skin
• Oats and Almond Moisturizing Body Cream
• Roman Chamomile and Lavender Acne Steam

If like me you are pretty useless in the garden you’ll find the calendar useful with it’s pointers on which tasks to do in spring, summer, autumn and winter.  Things like little snippets on how to grow berries, how to plant up pots, how to dry leaves, when to pick. There are also features on how to Plant a chamomile seat which I really fancy trying and how to grow your own citrus fruit.

He’s also included a list of links to online plant suppliers for some of the more specialist items.

The publisher also provides an online resource for the book with additional audio and video information at http://www.harperplus.com/jameswong/ – I checked out a couple of the videos which were brief at only 2 minutes or so  - but I haven’t checked them all out.

I’m not sure that I have the green fingers to grow my own – but the chamomile seat appealed to me as did growing my own citrus tree.

Wasn’t there a children’s nursery rhyme about growing your own citrus trees? or was it a nut tree?

Pity there wasn’t a section for Memory problems!

Strike that – just checked the index and there are 5 listings for Mental Performance.

It seems that a university education offers no protection against a closed mind.

“Homeopathy is witchcraft” says the deputy chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee according to the article in The Telegraph.

Now my knowledge of homeopathy is basic at best but I think that not only should people be able to make up their own minds as to its efficacy but they should have other therapies available to them if they wish to make use of them in addition to using the NHS.
However I don’t think that complementary therapies should be funded by the NHS as I’ve always had the suspicion that the two approaches are fundamentally incompatible.
The worrying trend I see in the BMA Junior Doctors Committee’s decision is that there appears to be a new breed of young doctors with God complexes who feel that they know everything already and are unwilling to learn from anything unless there’s scientific proof attached. This naive approach probably rules out many existing medical practices. I wonder if any of them watched the documentary “Mental A History of the Madhouse” which documents the closure of the mental hospitals and the barbaric treatments dished out to those too vulnerable to be able to stand up for themselves.
At least homeopathy is not responsible for carrying out 17000 lobotomies in the UK alone never mind world wide.
Homeopathy was born out of Samuel Hahnemann’s disgust with the existing medical practices.

“For several centuries, a whole range of causes, which I could not begin to enumerate, have led to the downgrading of that divine science, clinical medicine, to the level of a wretched, money-grubbing exercise in the whitewashing of symptoms and a demeaning traffic in prescriptions, in fact, God forgive us, to a more mechanical trade in which Hippocrates is lost to sight amidst a rabble of charlatans.” quote from Creighton University Medical School

When I go to see my GP next I hope and pray I see an open minded person who has my wellbeing at heart and advises me to the best of his or her ability and not one of these young doctors who seem to be more interested in scientific dogma than healing.

You know the feeling – you’ve just finished one thing – just got used to having a little spare time when before you know it you’ve committed to doing something which will take up loads of time and effort. It could be stressful but instead it’s something to look forward to. That’s just what I’ve done – I’ve signed up to a Holistic Massage course which will keep me busy for the next 9 months or so. Not sure how I’ll fare but looking forward to the challenge. The course looks quite physically demanding – who knows I might lose some weight!

When I was younger Open University courses kept me busy for a few years – but around 10 years ago I decided I would only go for things for enjoyments sake and not in order to improve my employability.

I’ve always enjoyed attending classes – when my eldest son needed a new bed – a woodwork class at a local school and a very helpful tutor and 6 months later – one very sturdy pine bed.

Another day course took me down to Liverpool to Pearsons Glass where I attended a Stained Glass Course. I’m sure my dad thought I was daft trailing all the way down on the train but I loved it and brought back lots of little projects to give away. Come to think of it I’d still like to go back and do a Glass Fusing Course. That’s one for the future.

You’re never to old to learn something new. So what have you got planned to keep you busy this year?

One of the ways I’d like to develop the site is by increasing the number of courses which are listed. I find it frustrating to try to find interesting courses myself. I’m impatient and don’t really want to look through hundreds of sites to find something which suits me. I’m particularly hoping for an increase in the number of local events / classes.

So if you are in Moffat and are looking for a Yoga class you might be able to find out on Footfairy.

The format at present is a simple text listing which I think is fine for now but may need to change in future.
It’s not intended as an advertisement for the course purely as a convenience for potential attendees – making it simple to find courses on the topic or at a location which suits.
So I made my first foray into the world of mass emailing – by mass I think I mailed around 230 reflexologists -it was a bit of a shambles and after my third or fourth abortive attempt I finally gave up. So I’m about to try again. I’m not really a fan of unsolicited emails but on the other hand but it’s about time I stopped waiting for my ship to come in and began to swim out to meet it. ( Just a little reference to Dr Gary Woods book which is my Book of the Month for April 2010)

Never underestimate the power of your mind to affect your health!

I’d had  a nasty sore throat and chesty cold and had to start taking my puffers which I rarely need to do. Since I’d felt really bad when taking the puffers with palpitations and generally a nasty reaction I made an appointment with our  GP and he took some routine blood tests. When a letter arrived a week later with the results showing a mild elevation of two liver enzymes I was feeling better by this time so I wasn’t that worried. However  the letter suggested that if I’d consumed alcohol the day before the test then this might have influenced the result. Since I hadn’t had a drink for the last couple of months this rattled me a little.

So off I went to my trusty bookshelf and found the excellent book by Xandria Williams  called The Liver Detox Plan: The Revolutionary Way to Cleanse and Revive Your Body

This is an excellent book which explains how important your liver is, how it affects your health if it’s under stress and how you can adjust your diet to lessen the load on your liver which will help it recuperate. It’s not a new book –  first published in 1998 – but well worth a read if you’re looking to detox.

What I like about this book is that it concentrates on how you can make a difference in your life and the health of your liver by practical means using diet mainly but also suggesting supplements and herbal remedies for those who wish to take these.

So I re-read the book and have decided to try to improve my diet.  I’ve  added a couple of supplements to my daily routine – although I don’t always remember to take them.

Deciding to take my health into my own hands I felt good again in contrast to the way I felt when I received the letter.

You’ve got to ask yourself why a few printed words on a piece of paper can affect the way you feel.  But it can do!

By the way the repeat blood test was fine!!