Breathing exercise for Asthma
Today, Asthma is a common disease that affects many people. The number of people affected by Asthma is now increasing all over the world. In the United States, over 22 million Americans have asthma.
So, what exactly is asthma? Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory respiratory disease that makes patients to find difficulty to get air in and out of the lungs. When a person is affected by asthma, the breathing tubes (alveolar tubes) become sensitive and inflamed. The muscles around the airways tighten and become narrow, thus making it difficult to breathe fresh air in and exhale air out.
The most common symptoms of asthma are wheezing, constant coughing, and chest tightness during the cold weather and shortness of breath. Things like smoking, pollen, environmental pollutions, etc can trigger asthma.
Well, how can you treat asthma? Breathing exercises have become a very popular solution to reduce Asthma. Researchers from the UK University found that breathing exercises reduces the severity of asthma and improves quality of life with the help of anti-inflammatory medication treatment.
Effective breathing exercises commonly followed are:
- Pranayama (A Breathing exercise in Yoga)
- Buteyko (A Russian method of breathing exercise)
Pranayama: The regular practice of Pranayama helps us breathe deeply from the stomach. Pranayama is the art of breath control. The word ‘Prana’ signifies’ breathe’ and ‘yama’ means ‘control’. Thus, the word Pranayama can be understood as “Control of breath”. There are four stages of breathing in pranayama.
1. Inhalation
2. A pause before exhalation
3. Exhalation
4. A pause before inhaling again
Repeat these four steps fifteen to twenty times. With the regular practice of Pranayama you can reduce asthma disease
.
Buteyko: Buteyko exercise will reduce and control asthma and other respiratory disorders. In Buteyko techniques, you must inhale through the nose (not mouth), and exhale for as long as possible. You can repeat the process for 5 to 10 minutes and achieve better results.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
It has been proved that breathing exercises not only helps for asthma patients but also cures many diseases. Breathing exercises are very famous in India and is being practiced since more than 1000 years.