Healthy Breathing
How Exercise, Chiropractic & Correct Breathing Technique Can Help You Breathe Better.
Do you have trouble breathing? Are you asthmatic, a mouth breather, shallow breather, or just feel like you can’t get enough air in sometimes?
In our practice clients with these issues are advised to get their spine checked, start supervised exercise and learn correct breathing technique. All of which result in better breathing.
Exercise – How can it help? Many people including some elite athletes have improved their breathing with exercise. Even if you suffer from exercise induce-asthma there are some steps you can take outside of just taking medication that can improve your condition and may reduce or even eliminate your need for medication. (note – if you have exercise-induced asthma your breathing will not recover within 10 minutes of ceasing exercise – if you do recover, you’re probably just unfit!) First and foremost exercise in a supervised environment where your trainer knows your condition and the appropriate action plan should it become necessary to activate it. Next make sure you include a warm up and cool down period with gentle activity for 15-20 mins before and after exercise. Your diaphragm and lungs, like any other part of your body need to be exercised to work at their best. By gradually training them to increase their capacity and efficiency you may improve your symptoms. Swimming is a great exercise to improve your breathing but scuba diving should be avoided by people with severe asthma.
Chiropractic Care – How can it help? For starters the mobility of the thoracic cage, being the spine, ribs and sternum is vital to proper breathing. As you breathe in your ribs move in an upward and outward motion (like a bucket handle) allowing air to be drawn into your lungs and then down and inward to expel the air. Subluxations (slight misalignments in your spine) can cause this motion to be defective or decreased as the movement of the rib head is restricted at it's articulation with the thoracic vertebrae.
Also when there are subluxations at levels C3, C4, C5 in the neck area breathing can be compromised. This is because the diaphragm which is a large muscular dome under our lungs which works to draw air into the lungs takes it's nervous supply from these levels. So if there is interference to the messages travelling from the brain to the diaphragm and diaphragm to the brain breathing can be affected. Similarly when nervous supply to the lungs in the upper thoracic (mid-back) region of the spine are subluxated our lungs may not work efficiently.
Chiropractic adjustments restore the normal motion of the spine and ribs. They also eliminate subluxations allowing uninterrupted communication between the central nervous system and the diaphragm and lungs. So you can breathe better.
Correct Breathing Technique - WHAT??? Doesn’t everyone just know how to breathe? The short answer is no they don’t. In fact most of us have been conditioned to shallow-breathe to limit the amount our tummy expands. Take a look at how a toddler breathes, or an opera singer, their tummy sticks out as they use their diaphragm to really drag the air into the bottom of their lungs and get the greatest possible amount of oxygen in. Our lungs are HUGE, they stretch from above our collar bone all the way down to the bottom rib. Learning correct breathing technique allows you to use the entire lung to get as much air in as possible. This lmproved oxygenation of the tissues of your body, which results in improved tissue healing and repair.
Practise Breathing Exercises /Breathing Methods – Box Breathing, Alternate Nostril Breathing, Breathing Coordination, Boteyko Breathing Yogic Breathing are all useful techniques to improve your breath and your health
For more information and description of these exercises read or listen to Breath by Janes Nestor – He writes “Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, halt snoring, allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breath the same again.”
This book is definitely worth a read or a listen, it could literally change your life
Also talk to your CHECK qualified PT, Chiropractor, Physiotherapist, Swimming or Singing Coach to get help with correct breathing technique and breathing exercises.
Clients with breathing difficulties, including asthma often find their symptoms reduce or resolve when they incorporate exercise, chiropractic care and correct breathing technique as permanent lifestyle changes.