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Escape From Asthma

Escape From Asthma

By: Michael Lingard
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 This show is based on fifteen episodes that explain how every asthmatic can reduce or eliminate their medication and gain better control of their asthma by learning how to improve their breathing along with making a few other lifestyle changes.2019 Escape From Asthma Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Science
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Episodes
  • Escape from Asthma

    Escape from Asthma
    Mar 1 2019
    Escape from Asthma Episode 1 The Buteyko Method & How It Helps Asthmatics. This is a series of fifteen five to ten minute episodes that will give you all you need to know about the Buteyko Method of Breath Training to improve the management of your asthma. This course of training is free and you will learn how you will be able to manage on far less medication, have better control of your asthma and have improved energy and sleep by simply improving your breathing and a few other lifestyle changes. The Buteyko Method has been subjected to clinical trials that have proved its effectiveness and millions across the world have benefitted from the training. Until now training was either in small classes or one to one courses and would cost hundreds of pounds and even internet-based courses have been over a hundred pounds usually. With the new facility of the podcast we can offer quality training to every asthma sufferer who has access to the internet for free. If you find this course has been useful, you may want to explore the full potential of the Buteyko Method and seek further training and help from a Buteyko Educator where you live. When you decide to take this course you may want to buy my book I published to compliment the podcast course. It will give you far more information about the method and also has a section for recording your breathing exercises, entitled “The Breath Connection - The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Health” just click HERE to view or order it. Breath training is a powerful tool for healthcare and will usually change the need for medication significantly. You are advised to discuss this with your doctor or asthma nurse before commencing this course and to review your progress from time to time with your asthma practitioner. You might want to buy my book to help explain what you are doing, entitled “Doctor’s Guide to the Buteyko Method” that outlines in medical terms the essentials of the Buteyko Method. HERE Make sure you listen to the episodes in order from 1 to 15 as each adds to the earlier ones. So let's begin with some facts. First, every asthma sufferer over-breathes or suffers chronic hidden hyperventilation and according to Professor Buteyko this is the main reason they have all the symptoms of associated with asthma. Professor Buteyko spent all his life studying the effect of breathing in health and disease. Now millions of asthma sufferers worldwide have discovered by learning to improve their breathing and a few other lifestyle changes they have been able to either eliminate all the need for medication or reduce the dosage by 75% or more. The first medicine to be reduced is reliever medication and once all reliever medication has been removed and the patient is free of symptoms, then they can begin to reduce the preventer medication with the guidance from their doctor. Safety is paramount in this re-education programme. You will learn all about the physiology of breathing and how over-breathing can generate the symptoms every asthmatic suffers from. It might be true that some people are predisposed to develop asthma because of genetics, but they also need to breathe badly to trigger the symptoms of asthma. Many parents are happy for their children to take asthma medications but we must realize every medicine carries adverse side-effects and if we can safely minimize the medicine required, that makes good sense. Many doctors have referred their asthma patients to Buteyko Educators and have had excellent results, but sadly these doctors are the exception and most will simply follow the drug protocol guidelines laid down by their professional body. You may ask, if this approach is as good as we are suggesting why is it not more widely used by the medical profession. They argue that more research should be done to confirm the benefits, and that would be reasonable considering the millions of asthma patients who would be affected, but sadly, most medical research is funded by the drug companies and they are not prepared to fund research that would demonstrate patients could manage without their medications. This especially is true since up to 20% of their income is derived from asthma medication and they have responsibility to their shareholders. The last major research trial was conducted in Canada and funded with a million dollars by a benefactor who had enjoyed the benefits of the Buteyko Method. So it would seem that if we are to wait until more research is done before accepting this approach to asthma management, we could be waiting a long time. Meanwhile you can decide for yourself whether to give it a try, it is safe, the commonest side-effect is the need for less medication, it’s free and will require only a few hours of your time doing exercises. The benefits will amaze you and you will be better able to control the condition yourself. In the next episode I will explain how asthmatics are different and what happens when they breathe is too ...
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    6 mins
  • Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training

    Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training
    Mar 8 2019

    Episode 2. Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training
    As an asthmatic you may have never considered yourself as suffering from over-breathing, especially as you have often found yourself short of breath and needing to breathe more. This is the paradox that many people don't understand; that an asthmatic seems to suffer from shortness of breath and needs to breathe more but the cause of their asthma is the fact they are breathing too much. The reason for this is we all need to breathe around five litres per minute at rest, and our breathing is controlled by the level of carbon dioxide in our lungs that ideally should be between 5% and 6%. We produce all the carbon dioxide ourselves, in fact far more than we need, so breathing is the way we control this. If the carbon dioxide level is too high breathing is increased automatically to expel the surplus, if too low, breathing is reduced to conserve it.

    So why does carbon dioxide matter? Professor Buteyko called carbon dioxide the hormone par excellence as it has a profound effect on all of the body’s functioning. When carbon dioxide levels fall too low smooth-muscle wrapped around airways, blood vessels and other hollow organs begins to contract. This is the sensation every asthmatic feels when an attack is imminent, airways narrow & constrict and make it hard to breathe. Most asthmatics also breathe through the mouth rather than through their nose and this causes extra irritation of airways which leads to increase production of mucus. Most asthmatics have more mucus producing cells in their airways and lungs. Breathing through the nose filters out dust and irritants and so mouth breathing leads to more irritation of the airways. Also when we breathe too much there is an increase of histamine production that makes us more sensitive to pollen and other allergens. Most asthmatics do not breathe through their nose but through their mouth. The nose is for breathing, and the mouth is for eating and talking. When we breathe through the nose dust and irritants are filtered out, the air is warmed if it is cold, the air is moisturized if too dry and most bacteria are killed off while passing through the nose so protecting us from infections of the chest.

    When carbon dioxide levels are low the blood carrying the oxygen to all the cells in the body doesn't releases oxygen readily and holds onto it. This creates a sensation of a shortage of breath that makes us try to breathe even more, but as we breathe more we expel even more carbon dioxide and the problem gets worse.
    So perhaps you see why breath training is essential for asthma sufferers.

    **Let's check whether you are really breathing too much now. **
    We're going to measure what Professor Buteyko called the “Control Pause” (CP).
    The control pause is the maximum comfortable breath hold after exhaling while at rest. It gives a fair measure of how well your body is oxygenated. If you are breathing normally and have good oxygenation, you will be able to hold your breath for 45 to 60 seconds without any effort. If you are very poorly oxygenated you may need to take a breath almost immediately or manage only a few seconds before you have to take another breath in.
    So let's try it now.
    Make sure you're sitting comfortably and relaxed and that you haven't just eaten as this will affect the result, wait at least an hour after eating before checking your control pause.
    Keep your mouth shut and breathe in through your nose a normal breath, breathe out through your nose and then hold your nose. Checked the time on your second hand of a watch or start a timer. Hold your breath until you feel the need to take another breath in, release your nose and breathe in.
    Note how many seconds you were able to hold your breath.
    This was your control pause. The next episode will discuss how well your breathing is and what the control pause means.
    You can purchase my book that accompanies this podcast for revision and recording your exercises entitled "Better Breathing Means Better Health" HERE
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    6 mins
  • What's Your Control Pause & How's Your Breathing

    What's Your Control Pause & How's Your Breathing
    Mar 11 2019
    Asthma Episode #3 What’s Your Control Pause & How’s Your Breathing? Welcome back to episode three of escape from asthma entitled “What's your control pause and how is your breathing?” Now you know your control pause, what does it mean and how can you improve on it? As an asthma sufferer I will be surprised if your control was much higher than 20 seconds as most patients I have taught with asthma have a control pause in the teens anything from 13 to 19 seconds. If your control pause was under 10 seconds you are breathing almost 3 to 4 times more than normal and need to try to change this urgently because your medicine will not change your breathing, but will simply control the symptoms. If you achieved 20 to 25 seconds with your comfortable breath hold your breathing is about 2 to 3 times more than normal. A control pause of 25 to 35 seconds still means you are over-breathing, almost twice much as you need but you will only have problems when under stress or hit by any of the triggers that make your asthma worse. If your control pauses 35 to 45 seconds it is good for any asthma sufferer, but you will still benefit from improved breathing in many other ways. It is very unlikely that your control pause was over 45 seconds as this would mean your breathing would be normal, a very rare situation for any asthmatic. A control pause of 45 to 60 seconds is what we should all try to achieve and this will be the target for this full training course. If you have any doubts that your asthma is not due largely to over-breathing you could try and purposefully breathed heavily for a minute or so and you will properly feel many of your symptoms coming on. You may in fact need to take medication to help reduce the symptoms after this exercise. However I would not recommend this procedure except under the supervision of your doctor or asthma nurse. You may have been given two types of medication, Reliever medication that you can use whenever you feel tight chested or wheezy, this opens the airways but also increases your breathing rate. If you are using the reliever medication more than twice a week you will have been given a Controller medication, this is a steroid that will reduce inflammation of the airways and calm your breathing down. You may have been told to take the controller medication on a regular basis, if so, that is what you have to do until your breathing has improved so much that you don't need any reliever medication and don't have any symptoms. At that stage you can discuss with your doctor ways of reducing your controller medication safely. At the end of this course we will also give you advice on how to do this. So just to let you know what the rest of this course will cover I’ll give you an outline of the next episodes. Already you have been advised to try to always breathe through your nose and not to mouth breathe. However many people find it difficult to nose breathe because it is congested or stuffy, this is in part because they haven't been using their nose in the past and as the old saying goes “If you don't use it, you lose it!” So the next episode will tell you how to unblock and clear your nose to get it back to perfect working order. Later you will be told to download a free workbook that summarizes most of the course content and you will use it to record your exercises. You will learn how to reduce your breathing through relaxation, you will have advice on good posture for better breathing and what is the best way of avoiding over breathing when asleep. You will learn how to check your pulse, how to reduce coughing bouts and a later episode will explain how certain foods may cause a problem for asthmatics, and you will be given a dietary screening that will help you improve your diet at the same time that will improve your breathing. You will learn how to avoid mouth breathing when talking and how to use the control pause or reduced breathing as an alternative to your reliever medication. Towards the end you will learn about anti-hyperventilation exercises that you will be able to use whenever you feel your breathing is getting out of control, at times of stress or after exercise. You'll be told what danger signs you should be aware of and went to see your doctor. And finally when you have improved your breathing you will be told how to stop exercises and monitor breathing with just a minute check-up each day. You'll be given a summary of the Buteyko Method for your doctor to read so that he or she knows what you're doing and can help you on your way. The next episode is entitled “Nose Clearing & Your First Buteyko Exercise” At this stage you might prepare for the full course by buying the eBook "The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Asthma Management" HERE or my book that accompanies this podcast entitled "Better Breathing Means Better Health" HERE
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    6 mins

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