Guard Your Child's Lungs

When your children and grandchildren are grown, many of their adult breathing problems will have originated with respiratory mistakes made in childhood. Because so many pulmonary problems are IRREVERSIBLE, it is crucial that we devote ourselves, as responsible adults, to PREVENTION. Prevention is far cheaper and less painful than chronic bronchitis, breathing allergies, asthma, and even lung cancer. Many toxic substances that can be temporarily irritating to adults are devastating to young lungs.

1. Keep ALL second-hand smoke and smoke-polluted materials away from children.
2. Have all filters, fireplaces, and vents checked and cleaned regularly.
3. Allow for good overall ventilation in your home (especially basements and bathrooms) and try to air things out even in winter. Appliances should vent to the OUTSIDE.
4. Be cautious with any spray or aerosol product around children – air cleaners, cleaning ingredients, pesticides, disinfectants, moth repellents, hair spray and such.
5. Ventilate well when you bring in new furniture, carpets, flooring and drapes. Research the adhesives and padding being used before you purchase. Freshly dry-cleaned clothes aren’t so swell either.
6. Vacuum often. Keep a child’s room free of anything that catches and holds dust. Keep the pets out of your child’s room since pet dander and dust mites are a lethal combination.
7. Be careful choosing the lawn and garden ingredients you use around a child’s play area.
8. Never idle your car in an attached garage.

Be well (you AND the kids). Breathe beautifully.

Insomnia, Impatience And Wasted Time

WASTED TIME is actually FOUND TIME. Such fragments actually add up to a potentially productive total by the end of your week if you prepare ahead of time.

In ADVANCE select a couple of your favorite breathing exercises that don’t require a lot of movement. Actually, deep slow steady breathing will do or you could simply begin by counting your breaths.

Since there never seems to be enough time to practice mindful breathing, meditation or contemplation, planning ahead will help you do something useful during those unscheduled disruptions of your schedule. You will be taking charge of the situation and using your time wisely.

So when the bus is late, when the elevator is slow, when you are on “hold” for days, when you are stuck in gridlock, launch one of your pre-planned breathing exercises and be grateful for the luxury of that rare bit of found time.

Otherwise, you will trigger stress chemistry that squirts into your body and your time will be worse than wasted.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Elegant Engineer

Mother Nature had to engineer a system that would (24/7) feed oxygen into your blood stream, remove the spent carbon dioxide as the same time, scrub, warm and moisten all incoming air, press down gently to massage your guts every few seconds and upwards to massage the lower lungs and she had to do everything within about a 12-inch stretch from nose to lungs as the crow flies.

Nature also had to compensate for the human body moving at vastly different speeds and stretching into extreme positions. The design had to compensate for the fact that some of us are quite small and some are huge (some start small and become huge) and some are two years old and some are ninety.

Some live in the desert and some live where the snows rarely melt. Some live below sea level and some at 12,000 feet. Nature had to find a way to mend broken ribs stronger than new.

The entire pulmonary system had to function either on automatic or manual, as necessary, and as life evolved, the system had to be stable and yet adapt to changing external conditions over time.

Mother Nature is determined that you Live Long and Prosper. May you be worthy of Her brilliance.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Deep Breathing – When?

When you sleep, you breathe deeply, slowly and beautifully. Once you awaken and you are slammed by your hectic day, your breathing begins to creep uphill into the narrow, rigid and tight upper ribcage. By dinner the stress of your day is written all over your upper body - clenched jaws, hunched shoulders, tight neck muscles and shallow erratic breathing.

Shallow inhibited breathing changes the cadence, tone, pitch or your voice and people do react subconsciously to the quality of your voice. As the day progresses, you are working harder and harder for less and less oxygen and your blood is burdened with spent fuel. It is important to break this tension cycle.

Deep slow breathing gives you maximum oxygen and cleansing power for minimal energy expended. Stop frequently, close your eyes, relax your shoulders and your jaws and lower your breathing into your lower elastic ribcage. All systems will relax automatically. It takes only a few breaths to re-boot your machine.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Know Your Enemies: Bacteria or Virus?

VIRUSES DO CAUSE COLDS AND FLU.
BACTERIA DO NOT CAUSE COLDS AND FLU.

When your antibiotic is properly matched to your particular type of BACTERIA, the medicine usually flattens your SYMPTOMS within 48 hours. If you haven’t improved within three days, you may have a mismatch or there may be something else going on. In that case, check with your doctor’s office just to be safe.

When the antibiotic kicks in and you begin to improve, do NOT stop taking your medicine until every last pill has been swallowed. After the first few days, the bacteria have been knocked down but not out and will stay busy adapting to your partial dose of antibiotic. Hit them with a full blast so you will bounce back but they won’t.

There isn’t much to do with a virus-induced cold except tough it out and use common sense: lots of rest, lots of fluids and lots of hand washing.

Never badger your doctor for a prescription unless you know you have a bacterial infection like pneumonia or bronchitis. Overuse of antibiotics has created nasty new medicine-resistant bugs that are increasingly difficult to kill and bugs that have no conscience about killing you. Gesundheit!

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Fight the Hump

We begin life in a curled-up fetal position and as the decades fly by, our bodies begin to drift back into that initial pose. As long as the vertebrae are balanced more or less one atop the other, gravity’s pull is straight down through the center of the stack. But when you slouch (either unavoidably or carelessly) you lose the bone-over-bone balance. When there is no longer a strong bony stack under your heavy head and shoulders, you are losing the tug-of-war with gravity. Once your head is no longer balanced over your tailbone you are heading for a heap of trouble.

Fortunately, scientists have come a long way in understanding the part osteoporosis plays in our posture. We are learning the importance of monitoring the intake of calcium and vitamin D, of resistance exercise, of bone-density testing, of the role of strong and flexible support muscles. Prevention and awareness are your most effective weapons. Don’t wait till your spine is riddled with tiny fractures and atrophied discs.

Remember that ideal breathing springs in part from an open, flexible, relaxed, erect ribcage. The ribcage should be balanced directly above the pelvis. Deep lung tissue is devoted to oxygen deliver and it relies on ribcage muscles and the diaphragm to do the pumping and squeezing to actually move the air. It is a daily battle to retain your height and good posture as you age but the battle is important. A compressed warped ribcage leaves you with compressed warped breathing.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Small Star

Small Star is one of those meditation-in-motion exercises that are useful when you feel too fragmented to move directly from a crazy busy day into a subtle quiet deep breathing exercise.

1. Bring palms together in front of your breastbone with your elbows resting against your sides. Keep your shoulders down and relaxed and your eyes open. Breathe through your nose.
2. With palms and fingers still together (as in a gesture of respect) fan your joined fingers apart about an inch (thumbs and index fingers moving toward your chest and little fingers moving forward, away from you).
3. During each inhalation, slowly pull the heels of your hands apart about four inches. Pull the length of your fingers apart also but the fingertips stay glued together.
4. As you breathe out, gradually press your palms together again. Keep your movement and breathing smooth, quiet and easy. As always, breathing leads and movement follows.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.