Asthma cure breathing exercises benefits

The primary purpose of these breathing exercises is to teach the asthmatic to exhale completely, letting stale air out of the lower part of the lungs, making room for fresh air to enter and fill the lungs. The exercises also tend to build up breathing muscles and increase their power. They assist, too, in loosening up muscles of shoulders, upper chest, and abdominal wall.

1. To develop abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing, lie on the back with knees drawn up. Place the hands on the upper abdomen, exhale, and let the hands sink in and contract the abdominal muscles. Then take a short breath, relax the abdominal muscles, making certain the upper part of the chest does not move during the process.

2. Also for abdominal breathing, sit on a firm bed or hard chair with the back supported. Place hands over lower ribs and, while breathing out or exhaling, contract the abdominal muscles. At the end of the exhaling, squeeze the ribs to push out any remaining air. Next, relax the abdomen and take a short breath while the lower ribs move out.

3. Breathing with the lips held close together is valuable since the greater effort required to let air out exercises the diaphragm, abdominal, muscles, and lower rib muscles. For variety, you can achieve the same purpose by blowing bits of paper across a table, blowing bubbles in water through a straw, and even by whistling or humming.

4. Sit with feet apart and arms hanging down loosely bend the body forward until the head is at knee level -at the same time breathing out, keeping abdominal muscles contracted. Then sit up and inhale.

5. To loosen shoulders, stand with feet apart and circle both arms so they cross each other in front of the face.

6. As a relaxing exercise, sit on a chair, shrug your shoulders quickly, then relax them, letting the arms hang down, and head, shoulders, and back sag. After you have worked for a time with these exercises, you can add others which are more advanced. 

Asthma cure - symptoms treatment medications preventive measures

 A patient knows that he is sensitive to pollen or a pet or a certain food. This helps in diagnosis. The physician can perform sensitivity tests for various common allergens. True bronchial asthma almost always responds to certain medications, and the relief provided by these constitutes still another aid in diagnosis. Not all cases of asthma are clearly allergic. There are asthma patients who seem to be reacting to infections of their bronchi or sinuses.

 Some physicians believe that such patients are sensitive to allergens in bacteria or' viruses (intrinsic asthma). Other doctors believe that there is an extrinsic allergen which is not apparent and that the infection only intensifies symptoms. The conflict is hard to re- solve because it is difficult to desensitize patients to the many bacteria and viruses that inhabit and infect the respiratory tract and sinuses.

There is also a type of asthma which seems to be entirely emotional. Yet, many allergists believe that in such cases there is a basic sensitivity to some allergen such as house dust and that emotional tensions act as a trigger or intensifier of symptoms. All of this must be considered by the physician when he diagnoses asthma and the outlook for the patient. 

If attacks are definitely related to an inhalational allergen such as ragweed or cat dander, then the physician knows the outlook is good. The patient will either avoid the allergen or be desensitized to it. And if avoidance or desensitization is not 100 per- cent productive, the patient will do well with one of the medicines used for treating asthma. Similarly, a patient with a strong emotional component can be helped greatly by psychotherapy.

For the patient with frequent attacks without clear-cut cause, there are several possibilities:

(1) The patient may do very well on the medications to be discussed shortly and with the help of other preventive measures.

(2) The patient may not respond well to treatment, may experience almost constant breathing difficulty, and se- verity may be great enough to en- danger the lungs through slow development of emphysema.

(3) In addition to the outlook described in (2), the patient may experience repeated bronchial infections not easily controlled with antibiotics.

(4) The patient may have frequent, extremely severe attacks. During such attacks, called status asthmaticus, the patient be- comes blue from lack of oxygen, exhausted from straining to breathe, and seems on the verge of death. Fortunately, with modern asthma therapy, death is rare but intensive care in a hospital is required. Windows should be kept closed, with a door ajar into an adjoining room with window open. Parched, dry air in the home should be avoided. 

An electric humidifier is valuable. Short of that, pans or trays of water can be kept on radiators.