Breathing Well

A fit and healthy person breathes about 18 times per minute, 1.080 times per hour and 25,920 times every 24 hours. People do not give the breathing process a second thought and are not aware of how vital its role is. Breathing well provides many health benefits and is as important, if not more important than exercise and diet which are all essential for optimum health.

Breathing well confers many health benefits from calming stress, boosting energy and vitality, making the transfer of gases more efficient (taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide)), assisting in providing quality sleep. Many people for different reasons develop a shallow breathing habit such as bad posture, a sedentary lifestyle, mobility problems, breathing without conscious thought. Shallow breathing creates the situation whereby you don’t take in sufficient oxygen or expel carbon dioxide efficiently.

Breaking bad breathing habits and learning good breathing habits takes time, it requires conscious thought and the realsiation that the effort is as important as having a good dietary and exercise regime.

Simple – Breathe in slowly through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth as you do so mentally count up to four as you breath in and count down to four as you breathe out.

Posture is important – shoulders back, straighten the spine allowing it to take up a healthy ‘S’ shape and visulise open, wide and slow deep breathing. You will not fill and exercise your lungs by breathing into the upper part only and the mistake some make is judging deep breathing by the rise and fall of their chest area. As you breathe in and out rest your hands on your stomach it is the rise and fall of this area that indicates that the lungs are being filled to capacity not the expansion of the chest area alone.

Many people with autoimmune disease like multiple sclerosis live their lives alone with little or no social contact except for the attending carer’s and occasional brief visit from a health professional, doctor, nurse, social worker. Without support they have little or no opportunity to follow any regime that would enhance their quality of life. Unfortunately many sufferers deteriorate not because of the course of their disease but because of muscle atrophy and lack of stimulation.

People who experience mobility problems may say “How am I going to achieve this”? The answer is “with difficulty”. Many of them are confined to a chair or wheelchair during their waking hours and it is easy to become slumped over without realising it and others will have limb movement problems. There is no easy answer. Taking the opportunity to exercise the lungs while lying flat on your bed will assist some of you. Before sleep and after waking would provide the opportunity. Remember any exercise is better than no exercise.