Being Connected

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Being Connected

A "Clean Restore" for Your Body?

When you do a clean restore or recovery on your computer, you reestablish its initial factory condition. You wipe the slate clean of all the accumulated junk - viruses, spyware, and unnecessary programs you've amassed. This results in a clean, lean machine that runs significantly faster and works much better. Extending the connectivity metaphor, is it possible to do a "clean restore" on your body? In one sense, no you cannot and in many ways that's a good thing. You wouldn't want to erase all the things you've experienced and learned in your lifetime that help make you who you are. These memories are also retained by the cells of your body, and your environmental experiences can significantly impact your DNA. In another sense, though, it is possible to do a "clean restore", on a cell-by-cell basis. As a matter of fact, your body's cells are constantly renewing themselves and in effect doing their own versions of a clean restore. If you provide the appropriate inputs in the form of nutritious and healthy food, plenty of exercise, and get enough sleep, your new cells will be smarter, faster, and even better than the ones they are replacing.

We live in a time when being connected is very important for most people.  Have you ever experienced anxiety when you are out and about and realize you've left your cell phone at home? For teenagers, having a cell phone can be considered a status symbol, but it's also a connection to their social network.  Cell phones can be lifelines for many people.

And how about the internet?  How many of us begin to experience withdrawal symptoms if we're separated from our Internet connection for even a short while?  Have you experienced the angst of suddenly being without access to the web?  Do you tend to check your email or Facebook constantly throughout each day?

 

Being electronically connected to the the external world may help us to feel secure, but it's even more important to be well connected in the physical world - both physically and socially. In the electronic world we are connected to networks, primarily by our internet connection. In the world of our own physiology, networks are also the crucial element.  In this case we are referring to the neurological networks which comprise our nerve system.¹

This nerve system consists of the brain, cranial nerves, spinal cord, spinal nerves, and miles of peripheral nerves which connect the spinal cord and spinal nerves to every other cell in the body.
In the body, the rules are simple. If there is a problem with a cell's connection to the nerve system, the result is that the cell's activities become disorganized. If the disconnection or interference continues, the cell eventually becomes diseased and may even die.

In a similar scenario a cell may be connected, but because of problems in the nerve system itself, the cell is receiving nerve signals that are inappropriate or inaccurate. The end result is the same - the cell's activities become disorganized until it becomes diseased and eventually dies. If enough cells are affected in this way, the person develops symptoms and becomes sick.

 

"Problems" within the nerve system are often the result of what we refer to as spinal subluxations.  This simply means that there is reduced mobility between one or more pairs of spinal vertebras, with associated spasm or spinal muscle tightness, spinal nerve irritation, and spinal joint inflammation. When this happens, the free flow of information between the nerve system and the rest of the body becomes compromised - causing both ends of the network to receive information that is ineffective and inappropriate.  This results in what can be thought of as a "system crash" in the form of symptoms and disease.

Chiropractic health care is especially designed to restore effective connectivity and communication between your nerve system and your other body systems.² Your Millar chiropractor specializes in identifying the spinal subluxations at the root of the problem, restoring proper balance to your spine and nerve system by applying safe, gentle and affective chiropractic care.  As optimal functioning begins to be restored, improved levels of health and well-being naturally result.

Social Connections - Do You Need to "Unplug"?

Are you spending more time communicating with people electronically while your in-person social interactions are diminishing?  Human beings are social creatures who evolved over countless millennia interacting with their local "tribe" and other social groupings.  Our social interactions remain an important part of our well-being.  Research suggests that having at least two or three close friendships significantly improve a person's health, happiness and even longevity.

Taking the time and energy to develop and maintain your close friendships will pay many dividends throughout your lifetime.  If you are raising teenagers, encourage them to avoid becoming dependent on electronic social networking, and help them to understand that electronic relationships and accumulating a lot of Facebook "friends" are not good substitutes for real relationships.

Many people who have decided to "unplug" from their electronic lives for a month or longer - by limiting online activities, texting, television, video games, or any other activity that has become too much of a crutch or distraction - are amazed at how much more productive and satisfying their lives become.  They report a surprising feeling of relief and freedom, after adjusting to being unplugged from the constant distraction of their smart phones and other devices, along with improvements in their personal relationships and an increased sense of inner peace.



¹Coward LA: The hippocampal system as the cortical resource manager: a model connecting psychology, anatomy and physiology. Adv Exp Med Biol 657:315-364, 2010

²Taylor HH, Murphy B: Altered central integration of dual somatosensory input after cervical spine manipulation. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 33(3):178-188, 2010

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A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

A Healthy Lifestyle Helps the Planet

The Tranquility of Nature

It is well-known that meditation offers profound benefits in terms of reducing emotional turmoil, anxiety and stress.  It also provides the possibility of improving immune system function and lowering a person's blood pressure. You can enjoy the same benefits by communing with nature - admiring the beautiful colors as the sun dips below the horizon, taking a leisurely stroll through a wooded area, or walking barefoot along a sandy shoreline.  Spending time in a nature creates a marvelous feeling of tranquility and peace in most people, which can also improve their health and well-being. It may take a bit more effort for city dwellers to find a patch of green, but the benefits are worth it. Green spaces, including green-trails, rooftop gardens, and stands of trees, can be an oases of tranquility amid the stress and hurry of city life. Even adding houseplants to your home is a simple way to help you connect with the natural world.  Not only that, but they can also help purify your the air you breathe by reducing toxins in your home.

Has it ever occurred to you that the choices you make to increase your health and well-being may also improve the health and well-being of the planet?  They can, especially when there are a large number of people making the same healthy choices to improve their welfare, and that of their family and community at large.

Maintaining a health-enhancing personal lifestyle with regard to nutrition and fitness can have a positive impact on the both the local environment and the global biosphere. Our personal choices and the positive actions we take can make a difference. When we make life-affirming choices to get fit, remain fit, and eat a health-promoting diet, it often has a positive affect on everyone and everything around us.

Consider how you get to work.  For most Americans driving to work is a lifelong habit that they don't even think about. But driving a car or truck with a typical internal combustion engine produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Every gallon of gas burned pumps 17 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If you walk or ride a bicycle to work, you are gaining not only the vast health benefits of exercise for yourself,^1,2 but you're also helping to reduce GHG emissions which can help to stabilize the overall climate.

If you live too far away from your place of work to reasonably walk or bike there each day, perhaps you could arrange a car pool with your co-workers and bike or walk to their home on days when you're not the designated driver.

Buying local farm products and produce is not only good for you, but good for the planet also.  Food is usually much fresher, tastier, and more nutritious when it doesn't have to be transported across the country or from the other side of the world - which also saves on fossil fuel and reduces the emissions involved. Did you know that on average, food consumed in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles to get to your local grocery store? Foods that are grown locally eliminate most of the fossil fuel resources that are otherwise wasted in transporting non-local items. Check out LocalHarvet.org and EatWild.com - Alabama for local farms near you.

In addition to supporting local farmers, tending your own garden or participating in a community garden is a health-enhancing activity that offers a triple benefit.  First of all, food production doesn't get more local than your own garden, saving fossil fuel resources and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.  Secondly, you'll be adding the freshest vegetables to your family's diet, providing an abundance of natural vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that are necessary for good health.  And last but not least, gardening is terrific exercise! It's the kind of exercise our forebears used to get, way back when people didn't sit in chairs at their desks all day long.


The side benefits of participating in health-promoting activities don't stop there.³ For the most part, healthy people don't wind up in the local hospital emergency room. Resources saved include fossil fuels burned by high-speed ambulances, fossil fuels burned to produce electricity used to power life-saving medical devices, and energy utilized to produce the vast amounts of medical supplies consumed in an emergency procedure, including syringes, IV set-ups, and towels, wipes, and disinfectants.  Additionally, if you are able to keep yourself healthy by maintaining a health-promoting lifestyle, chances are you will avoid or at least minimize the amount of prescription drugs you take during your lifetime.  This benefits you by avoiding the expense and side effects, but it also benefits the planet because you're not adding to the increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals that end up in the water we all drink.

Making an effort to improve your health and that of your family has a huge multiplying effect. Your chiropractor knows that all body systems are deeply interconnected and must work together to produce good health.  It is the same with the population and the many different living systems that make up Planet Earth. Your Millar chiropractor can provide you with detailed information regarding good nutrition and health-promoting exercise that can help make a real difference in not only your own health, but that of your community.


¹Villegas R, et al: The cumulative effect of core lifestyle behaviours on the prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia. BMC Public Health 13(8):210, 2008
²Christie BR, et al: Exercising our brains: how physical activity impacts synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus. Neuromolecular Med 10(2):47-58, 2008
³Booher MA, Smith BW: Physiological effects of exercise on the cardiopulmonary system. Clin Sports Med 22(1):1-21, 2003
 

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Above-Down, Inside-Out

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Above-Down, Inside-Out

The Nerve System and Chiropractic Care

How is it that chiropractic health care can be so effective across so broad a range of conditions? One of the main reasons is because chiropractic focuses on optimizing the nerve system by normalizing its function. The nerve system directs and coordinates all the functions in your body. A properly functioning nerve system can help your body recover from many kinds of problems. Chiropractic physicians are specialists in analyzing and correcting nerve interference, which in turn helps your body function more optimally. Chiropractic care helps to reestablish the free flow of information between your brain and the rest of your body. When the various systems of your body receive accurate information - on time and in the right sequences - they can do the jobs they were designed to do. The result is the full expression of vibrant health and well-being.

Dr. B.J. Palmer, one of the founders of chiropractic, used the phrase "Above-down, inside-out" to describe the inner workings of the human nerve system which connects the brain and spinal cord to all parts of the body, including cells, tissues, glands and organs.

This was Dr. Palmer's way of addressing the complexity of human physiology all at once. From a high-level viewpoint, he was describing how the central nervous system communicates with the rest of the body. One major conclusion is that the brain originates nerve signals that flow to the spinal cord and from there to the glands, organs, cells, and tissues - and is therefore the master controller of all the other systems. The cardiopulmonary, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal systems are all ultimately controlled and regulated by activities within the brain. 

Dr. Palmer was also referring to the organizing intelligence responsible for all the operations of a living organism. This concept, referred to as "Innate Intelligence", was advanced by his father Dr. Daniel David Palmer.  Dr. B.J. Palmer expanded upon his father's work, and promoted the idea of Innate Intelligence as he helped the field of chiropractic become the second largest healing arts profession in the United States.

In this paradigm of "above-down, inside-out," the guiding, intrinsic force that maintains ongoing health and healing is Innate Intelligence. It is this inborn intelligence that knows precisely what each cell needs to meet its energy requirements and thrive. Innate Intelligence knows precisely how to create a new antibody to fight a previously unencountered virus or bacteria. Innate Intelligence knows how much insulin is needed to properly use the carbohydrates you consume. And on, and on.

It is clear that disorder within the nerve system can interfere with the body's ability to carry out the instructions of Innate Intelligence. Symptoms, pain, disorders, and disease result from such nerve interference. Chiropractic treatment helps the nerve system function optimally, thus helping to restore health and well-being.^1,2,3

¹Nguyen LT, et al: Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Self-Rated Health Status: Results from a National Survey. J Gen Intern Med Nov 5 2010 (Epub ahead of print)

²Millet JD: Progress in complementary and alternative medicine research: Yale Research Symposium on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Yale J Biol Med 83(3):127-129, 2010

³Ahn AC, et al: Applying principles from complex systems to studying the efficacy of CAM therapies. J Altern Complement Med 16(9):1015-1022, 2010

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Lifestyle Choices

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Lifestyle Choices

Enhancing Your Lifestyle with Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic physicians are experts in achieving and maintaining wellness. They can teach their patients how to begin safe, effective exercise programs. Chiropractors can also teach their patients how to design healthy food plans that can improve their own health and well-being and that of their families. Healthy lifestyles are an important aspect in the overall chiropractic approach to long-term wellness. Chiropractors are highly trained in nutritional science and rehabilitative exercise. In addition to your hands-on chiropractic adjustments and other treatments, regular vigorous exercise and a healthy nutrition plan will assist you in regaining high levels of wellness and well-being.

The fitness craze was initiated in the United States in the early 1980s by a group of celebrities, (most notably Jane Fonda,) who understood that regular exercise is crucial for health and well-being.

Although many of their methods were flawed, these early pioneers helped to promote the idea that physical fitness is very valuable in and of itself - an idea that has seeped into the collective consciousness over the last thirty years. But although most people are now aware of the importance of physical fitness, many still fail to take any action on their own behalf in this critical area.

Typically, a person will procrastinate about beginning an exercise program for many years while the extra pounds continue to accumulate. Then when they have finally become frustrated enough to take action, they will often join a gym or hire a personal trainer, and buy new workout gear in a flurry of activity.  Then, after the initial burst of enthusiasm begins to wane during the first month or two, more often than not the typical fitness-seeking person loses their interest, and their motivation to continue seems to evaporate along with it. Gyms and other fitness facilities across the globe profit by selling new memberships, with the full knowledge that most new gym members will discontinue their efforts within four to six weeks.

But fitness is important. And from an even broader perspective, lifestyle largely determines the risk of many diseases such as cancer, heart disease,  cerebrovascular disease (including hypertension and stroke), and pulmonary disease - which accounted for more than sixty percent of the 2.4 million deaths in the United States in 2007.¹ It is now widely understood that each of these conditions is primarily what we consider a lifestyle disease. In the case of cancer, less than 10% of occurrences are due to an inherited condition. The balance are a result of lifestyle choices such as excessive alcohol consumption, overweight and obesity, smoking, and lack of exercise.²

One of the best things you can do for yourself to help ensure your long-term health is to make regular vigorous exercise a life-long habit.  For those who have been sedentary for many years, enjoying a daily walk is usually a great way to begin a life-long exercise program. Begin with a modest five or ten minute walk, and eventually build up over over the next couple months to a 30-minute walk each day.  You can even break it up into two or three shorter walks during the day - perhaps a fifteen minute walk in the morning to start your day off right, and then another fifteen minute walk in the evening to help release the day's accumulated stress.  Once you've gotten to the point of walking about 30 minutes each day, you can gradually increase your walking pace to make it a bit more challenging. Once you've achieved this, you may enjoy alternating basic strength-training workouts with your walks.

Fitness does more than enhance your lifestyle though.  It also improves your state of mind.  Once a person becomes fit, they are very often motivated to remain fit. A person who becomes fit will often notice they naturally begin to make healthier food choices than they had previously.  Sugary drinks, ice cream, doughnuts, cake, potato chips and candy suddenly begin to lose their appeal. Water, organic whole foods, organic apples, raw nuts and protein smoothies become more appealing. People who develop a fitness enhancing lifestyle find themselves losing weight, easily and naturally.  They are free from stress-inducing diets and the feelings of deprivation.  Gone are the days of drastic weight loss and gaining the weight back plus a few extra pounds for your trouble.  Instead, the pounds just slowly but surely disappear because the person is exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet.³

People who become fit are motivated to maintain their results by continuing their improved, life-enhancing habits.  This new, healthy lifestyle becomes their preferred lifestyle.

¹Xu J, et al: Deaths. Final data for 2007. Natl Vital Stat Rep 58(19), May 20, 2010

²Kirkegaard H, et al: Association of adherence to lifestyle recommendations and risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective Danish cohort study. Brit Med J October 26, 2010 (Epub ahead of print)

³Brietzke SA: A personalized approach to metabolic aspects of obesity. Mt Sinai J Med 77(5):499-510, 2010

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Are You Flourishing?

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Are You Flourishing?

Chiropractic Care Can Help You Flourish

Health problems can make it more difficult to fully participate in life. For example, chronic back pain can make a person  anxious and irritable.  It can limit a person's activities, saps their energy and wastes valuable metabolic resources. Being in pain and the resulting physical limitations can also become emotionally draining. Chiropractic care may offer significant benefits in the treatment of back pain and many other physical ailments. Gentle chiropractic treatment helps reduce pain by increasing mobility and lowering the inflammation in affected ligaments, tendons, and muscles. As the person's pain disappears, their interest in daily activities begins to expand. Reducing pain is an important factor in increasing involvement in life. As optimal health and physical functioning is restored, the person's ability to thrive and flourish is restored as well.

How do you decide how well your life is going? Whether you're fulfilled and happy vs. just going through the motions? Whether you're stagnant or instead expanding and developing yourself as an individual?  To put it simply, do you awaken feeling excited at the prospect of a new day? Or do you instead wish that you could remain hidden beneath the blankets, putting off your daily routine for as long as possible?

"Flourishing" is a term long-used by philosophers to describe a state of ongoing positive engagement with life.^1,2 When a person is flourishing, he or she is not only an engaged and interested participant in life, but also tends to expand and widen their range of experiences. Many of us think of our plants and gardens when we think of the word "flourishing". A plant or tree that is flourishing is replete with new branches, leaves and buds.  The bark of a tree that is flourishing is often a deeper, richer shade of brown than one that is not. Its leaves will be a more vibrant green in the summer and display more intensely colored foliage in the fall. All the flourishing tree's semi-moving parts will be joyously turned toward the sun's life-giving rays.

Sociologists and Psychologists often characterize well-balanced individuals as happy.  But "being happy" seems like a relatively passive state.  Of course it's wonderful to be happy, but being happy is more of an emotional, subjective state of being.  A person is happy in response to something else. In contrast, when a person is flourishing they are an active participant in creating their happiness. Someone who is flourishing is the initiator rather than the responder. They are in the driver's seat, and get to say how things are going to go.

So how can we achieve a state of flourishing? As always, it's the journey, not the destination, that provides the biggest payoff - in this case, a fulfilling, joyful life.  Don't think of flourishing as an endpoint, but rather think of it as a moving target. We need to be proactive to replenish, reinvigorate, and revivify our lives each day.  It takes some effort to live a full and satisfying life, rather than merely exist. Living this way requires imagination, interest, action and creativity. Flourishing is an outcome of taking an active and proactive role in one's life and participating fully in all the wonderful aspects of life.

 

¹Menk OL, et al: Exploring measures of whole person wellness: integrative well-being and psychological flourishing. Explore (NY) 6(6):364-370, 2010

²Fosha D: Positive affects and the transformation of suffering into flourishing. Ann NY Acad Sci 1172:256-262, 2009

 

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Make a New Year's Resolution to Try Chiropractic Care

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Make a New Year's Resolution to Try Chiropractic Care

Choosing a Chiropractic Physician

Depending upon the size of your community, there may be an abundance of choices for every profession. Physicians of various specialties, podiatrists, optometrists, accountants, business consultants, psychologists, and attorneys occupy the office space in professional buildings. How can  make sure you choose the one who's right for you? The best option is often to ask friends and family for a recommendation.  With a personal recommendation, you have real-world information - you have it on good authority from people you trust that the specialist is skilled and competent - you're not flying blind. When meeting a new professional, you should expect to be treated with respect and your time should be valued. The office itself should be pleasant and comfortable. The office staff should be friendly, professional and eager to help you as you adjust to a new environment. And most importantly, your chiropractic physician should be willing to take the time to answer all your questions. When you're with the chiropractor who's right for you, as with any other professional, you'll have the experience that you're in the right place.

It's New Years again already, and perhaps you're determined that this will be the year that you actually follow through with your New Year's resolutions. This is finally going to be the year that you make your self and your health a priority.  You'll eat better, exercise regularly, lose weight, and you're finally going to find our whether chiropractic care can make a positive difference in your life.

If you're like most people, you've probably been thinking about doing more to improve your health for many years. Perhaps you even have family and friends who have been recommending chiropractic health care to you for a very long time. You decide you're ready to take action and you make an appointment to see your local chiropractic physician.

Chiropractic health care is more important now than ever before. Today, many Americans are lacking health insurance or are underinsured.  Deductibles, premiums and copayments seem to keep rising while most household incomes have been stagnant.  Because Chiropractic treatment is both corrective and preventative in nature, it tends to be a very cost effective choice and can play a large part in solving our current health care crisis.

In contrast to most medical care, Chiropractic care is low-cost while providing high value. Chiropractic treatment  focuses on the musculoskeletal system - bones, muscles, and joints - but first and foremost, it addresses and optimizes the functioning of the nerve system.  Simply put, chiropractic care makes your nerve system more efficient. And an efficiently functioning nervous system is crucial for optimal functioning of all other critical body systems - your cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, endocrine and digestive  systems.

Chiropractic care utilizes a hands-on approach, and you'll notice that your visits with your chiropractor provide real, personal interactions between you and your doctor. Your chiropractic physician is highly trained in a variety of disciplines - including nutritional evaluation and restorative exercise - and he or she will make recommendations that are specially designed for your particular needs.

Chiropractic care itself - called spinal adjustments - is gentle and relaxing. Immediate results often include decreased pain and muscular tension, and a noticeable increase in mobility of the neck, back, hips, and shoulders.  For patients with back-related pain, improvement is often noted within 24 or 48 hours.  People also often report sensations of increased alertness and increased focus after chiropractic adjustments, and an increased feeling of relaxation, ease and general well-being.

Additional profound benefits of chiropractic care derive from its direct effect on nerve system functioning.¹ Although chiropractic health care is not specifically a treatment for headaches, menstrual cramps, asthma, allergies or digestive problems, improvement in one's health may occur across the board as an indirect result of chiropractic therapy.

So, chiropractic care provides a tremendous amount of "bang for your buck" - a lot of health benefit for your health care dollar. And at your chiropractor's office, you not only receive the benefit of treatment but also the benefit of your doctor's vast health-care knowledge - you learn about how your body works and how to best take care of it naturally. The original meaning of the word doctor was teacher, and your chiropractor is an educator as well as a health-care provider, interested in all aspects of your health and well-being.<sup>2




1</sup>Bronfort G, et al: Efficacy of spinal manipulation and mobilization for low back pain and neck pain: a systematic review and best evidence synthesis. Spine J 4(3):335-356, 2004
²Johnson C, et al: Chiropractic and public health: current state and future vision.
J Manipulative Physiol Ther 31(6):397-410, 2008

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Using Breathing Exercises To Reduce Asthma

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Using Breathing Exercises To Reduce Asthma

Tips to Help Minimize Asthma Symptoms

Make sure you change your furnace filters regularly, and choose filters that remove dust mites, mold spores, pollen and other allergens. Avoid all chemical fragrances including perfumes, and fragranced personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion and deodorant.  Ask your family and friends to use fragrance free products. Use fragrance free laundry detergents and dryer sheets to avoid toxic fragrances that can trigger severe asthma attacks. Use an air purifier to help clean the air in your home. Use special mattress and pillow barrier covers that block dust mites. Eat foods with omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, or take a good fish oil or krill oil supplement. Supplement with vitamin C (ideally in a natural form such as Rose Hips, and including bioflavonoids), which can help to reduce allergies and wheezing. Make sure you receive regular chiropractic treatment. Chiropractic adjustments, especially to the thorax spine, are extremely important in the treatment of chronic asthma.

Approximately 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma; and almost half of them are children. Over the years, corticosteroid inhalers have been the most commonly prescribed treatment for Asthma.

A recent study found that special breathing techniques can reduce the necessity of using these reliever inhalers by more than 80% and reduce the dose of preventer inhaler that is needed in mild asthma by half, according to this research.

This study, which was published in the journal Thorax¹, compared the effect of two different breathing techniques on the use of medication, symptoms, lung function, and quality of life among 57 adults with mild asthma.

One technique had the participants focus on shallow, nasal breathing with slow exhalations.  The other technique relied upon relaxation and general upper body exercises.

To qualify for the study, subjects required the use of a preventer inhaler and also needed reliever inhaler at least four times a week.  These participants were then randomly assigned one of these two breathing techniques.

Over a period of 30 weeks, the subjects were required to practice their assigned breathing exercises two times a day for approximately 25 minutes. They were further encouraged to use an abbreviated version of their exercises instead of their reliever inhaler, and to only rely on the reliever inhaler if the exercises failed to halt the asthma attack.

Researcher Professor Christine Jenkins, of the the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, found that the use of reliever medication fell by 86% in both exercise groups.  This drastic improvement began within weeks of starting the exercises, and was maintained over eight months.  She writes: "Breathing techniques may be useful in the management of patients with mild asthma symptoms who use a reliever frequently."

By the end of the study, the participants dropped from using around three puffs of their reliever inhaler each day to approximately one puff every third day.  Preventer dose requirements were also cut in half.

Another promising treatment for bronchial asthma is the natural anti-inflammatory Boswellia, which we often recommend to patients to reduce musculoskeletal inflammation and pain.  In a 1998 study,² asthmatic patients given the gum resin of Boswellia serrata resulted in 70% improvement evidenced by disappearance of symptoms, versus only 27% of the control group who showed improvement. 



¹ Thorax 2006;61:651-656 doi:10.1136/thx.2005.054767
² Eur J Med Res. 1998 Nov 17;3(11):511-4

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