Optimal Breathing

Chest Pains as an Indicator of Unbalanced and Constricted Breathing

I've lost several friends to heart attacks. I cold see that their breathing was bad. They did nothing about that and now they are gone. 

Breath is life. Because it influences every body function you can pretty well bet that poor breathing is contributing to or causing chest pain. If you are experiencing chest pains coupled with breathlessness call 911 or go to an emergency room immediately. First rule out an immediate life threatening danger.

OXYGEN AND THE HEART  
You breathe 10-30 thousand times daily. Your heart requires oxygen and can spasm or malfunction if there is too short a supply. Shallow respiration is a major cause of  heart conditions due to the heart's need for oxygen.

Germs, bacteria, viruses and cancer (other causes of heart challenges) are anaerobic and can't survive if there is a high concentration of oxygen.

If the breathing is out of  balance it causes major stress, thickening and acidifying of the blood.  When the blood is too acid, every healthy biochemical reaction is compromised. Heart function may be hindered by plaque causing the arteries to lose blood oxygen and nutrient carrying capabilities.

To Better Understand the Mechanics of Breathing.
Your ribs attach to a large bone in the center of your chest in the front. To help you breathe in, your muscles raise and expand your rib cage and to help you breathe out and they also must relax and let your ribs drop. Therefore, your ribs form a movable joint where they attach to your chest bone. It is common for people to get arthritis in these joints, which hurts particularly when they breathe (Tietze's syndrome) . Tietze's syndrome often goes away in a few weeks or months with no treatment but that does not mean the restriction of breathing is eliminated. Tietze's syndrome  may well be a marker of cause of an underlying breathing volume loss or hidden breathing pattern disorder. 

WHICH BREATHING EXERCISE?
Choosing the wrong breathing exercise can actually increase the possibility of shortness of breath. Your blood oxygen may increase by doing aerobic or breathing exercises, but the blood oxygen can rapidly be lost when breathing ease and volume are not maintained;  During  sleep for instance.  Sleep is A if not THE  leading time of natural death.

Because most people under or shallow breathe, I have found that opening the chest and retraining the mechanical breathing integration or coordination lessens or eliminates chest pain and makes a given breathing exercise more appropriate or effective.. You can most often relieve considerable cause of this kind of chest pain in a few minutes a day with our video training program.

Breathing problems may well be a pending heart issue instead of an immanent one. If the breathing becomes restricted it makes the heart work harder to get the body it's needed oxygen supply.  This connects an interdependence of the heart to how well you breathe. No wonder medical science calls it the "heart lung system".

WARNING
Doctors are finally discovering that shortness of  breath can be a sign of a pending heart attack.   The sobering thought  is that  " A Third of Heart Attack Patients Do Not Experience Chest Pains."  A new study says heart attack patients who do not experience chest pains are more than twice as likely to die than those who experience chest pains. (FPG International)".  They call the shortness of breath aspect atypical,  I don't. All the people that under-breathe or over-breathe are making the heart work harder and setting up an environment that accelerates heart stress and damage. Balanced breathing is the key.

The big question is when will an attack occur or can it be forestalled by learning how to breathe better? A colleague shared with me that a recent study showed that when post heart attack victims do breathing exercises they do not get heart attacks. When they DO NOT do the breathing exercises they DO get heart attacks again.  Our most popular breathing development program

THE DIAPHAGM AND THE HEART  
The diaphragm weakens and shrinks for many reasons (age, stress, illness, injury), the weaker and smaller your diaphragm becomes the harder your heart has to work.  There have been only a few clinical studies related to development of the diaphragm and most of the research has been done on rats and primates which breathe quite differently than humans.  Because of this many members of the medical community are not aware of the importance of the diaphragm.

I have collected video fluoroscopes of diaphragms in action, including my own. These fluoroscope videos give a deeper understanding of what breathing should look like and how it should function. I share them with students and clients.

How often is chest pain caused by hyperventilation? One study suggests that up to 90% of non-cardiac chest pain is thought to be induced by hyperventilation (De Guire et al 1992)    Reduce chest pain caused by hyperventilation

Can hyperventilation cause a heart attack?
In very rare cases, people who hyperventilate can have lower carbon dioxide blood levels that can cause a spasm of the blood vessels that supply the heart. If you already have heart disease, this spasm may be enough to cause a heart attack.
In the majority of patients with hyperventilation, chest pain is due to over-breathing, and over-inflation of the lungs. Without thinking about it, you use your chest muscles to try  expand your rib cage. This extra muscle work will feel like shortness of breath, and you'll have difficulty in taking a deep breath. Your chest muscles will become tired, just like your legs tire after a long run. That is why so many get so much relief with our video 176.

How can hyperventilation be differentiated from a heart attack?
The diagnosis of causes of chest pain should ALWAYS be made by a doctor. But many doctors know little of hidden breathing pattern disorders.

Clues that will be helpful include:
• Hyperventilation symptoms usually last longer (hours as opposed to minutes)
• Hyperventilation symptoms usually happen in younger people or stressed out adults
• Hyperventilation symptoms can get better with exercise but often worsen such as in sports induced asthma
• Hyperventilation pain will not be improved by heart medication
Reduce or eliminate hyperventilation

How does hyperventilation affect the functioning of the brain?
Chemical changes happen in the blood due to over-breathing. Hyperventilation causes the carbon dioxide level in the blood to decrease. This lower level of carbon dioxide reduces blood flow to the brain, which may result in weakness, fainting, dizziness, and confusion. To protect the brain from damage one will faint and resume normal breathing to restore blood flow to the brain. Reduce fainting from poor breathing

NON-CARDIAC CHEST PAIN
A person may experience chest pain even if heart illnesses have been ruled out. Non-cardiac chest pain can be the result of muscle spasms, onset of shingles (painful condition of the sensory nerves), or different types of neuralgia or nerve irritation (causes a band of pain radiating from the spine to the front of the chest or other areas). Those with osteoporosis may develop compression fractures of the spine which can cause chest pain as well. Patients can develop prolonged chest pain after surgery on the lungs or having bronchitis or pneumonia accompanied by a temperature of one hundred degrees Fahrenheit or above. Reduce or eliminate non-cardiac chest pain

Other breathing oriented factors that may be an indicator, cause of or worsening of chest pains.

1.Physical - Posture. (Necessary for optimal breathing)
Do you slouch at all?  In other words would you consider your posture to be less then correct? Improve posture

2. Physical - Unbalanced breathing
Stand and look into a mirror or just close your eyes or ask someone to observe you. Take a very deep breath, as deep as you can. Do you raise your rib cage, shoulders or do your neck muscles bulge out when taking a deep or very deep breath?  Rebalance breathing coordination 

3.Physical restrictions and sensations.
Stand erect or sit out on the edge of a chair. Close your eyes, go within and take the deepest in and out breath you can take, now. do another in and out breath, now. Then allow yourself to breathe normally, and open your eyes and reflect on: 

Did  you then or do you ever frequently experience  one or more of the following conditions?
1.   Unsatisfying breath
2.   Can't catch breath or deep breathing curtailed
3.   Tightness or pressure in the chest?
4.   Breathing feels stuck?
5.   Feel a hitch, bump or lump right below  your breastbone when you   try  to take a deep breath?
6.   Breathing feels like a series of events instead of one smooth internally coordinated, continuous flow?.
7.   Breathing is labored or restricted?
8    Breathing is shallow?
9.   Pain between the shoulder blades?
10.  Stiff neck?
11.  Lump in throat
12   Shoulder tension? 
13.  Jaw tension
14.  Tension around the eyes
15.  Do you find that you are often pressing your tongue to the top of  your mouth?
16.  Are you a mouth breather 
17.  Do you often sigh or yawn a lot?
18. Do you sit in a car, bus, train, plane seat more than a few hours daily?
    Do you ever experience: 
19.  Pulsing or stabbing feeling in and around ribs?
20.  Sore deep pain feeling like a band across the chest?
21.   Resting pulse rate over 62?
22.  Side stitches?
23.  Dizzy spells or  pass out?
24.  Can't hear associated with any of this list?
25.  Can't walk uphill and talk at the same time without getting short of breath?
26.  Get tired from reading out loud?
27.  Sleep on a soft mattress
28   Sleep on your stomach
29.  Hyperventilation
Reduce or eliminate physical sensations

4. Do you experience any of the following?
1.. Get drowsy when driving a vehicle
2.  Often fall asleep while sitting up when you would rather have watched the program, heard the speaker, saw the game etc?
3.  Get jet lag real bad.
4.  Do you sit in a car, bus, train, plane or office seat more than a few hours daily? 
Increase breathing ease and natural energy

5. Belly or chest breather?
Stand, place left hand on chest, right hand on belly. Breathe in: Does your left hand raise first?    If so you are a chest breathing. Bad news. Learn to belly breathe optimally.

6.Are you often:
a.  In an area with bad outdoor pollution  
b.  In a building without open windows?
c.  In a building with indoor pollution.
more about

8. Are you:
a. Sick more than in previous years 
b. Taking prescription medications?    more about

9. Do you experience any of the following?
a. shortness of breath  
b. breathlessness
c. chest tightness & pressure
d.  feelings of suffocation
e.  sweaty palms
f   cold hands
h.  tingling of the skin
i.  numbness
j.  heart palpitations
k. irregular heart beats
l.  anxiety
m. apprehension
n.  emotional outbursts
o.  stress
p.  tenseness
q.  fatigue
r.   weakness
s.  exhaustion
t.  dry mouth
u.  nausea
v.  lightheadedness
w. dizziness
x.  fainting
y.  black-out
z.  blurred vision
aa.confusion
bbdisorientation
cc.attention deficit
dd.poor thinking
ee.poor memory
ff. poor concentration
gg.impaired judgement
hh.problem solving deficit
ii. chronc pain
jj.headache
kk.trembling
ll. twitching
mm.shivering
nn.muscle tensions
oo.muscle spasms
pp.stiffness
qq.abdominal cramps
rr.bloatedness
ss.panic attacks
tt.too many thoughts that will not stop when you would like them to
uu. siezures
vv.high blood pressure
ww.can't meditate  
Address many at the same time.

10. Overweight  Address breathing and weight loss

11. Excessive stress  Address many at the same time.

CHEST PAINS

BREATHING EXERCISE #2. He is 73yrs. and sounded very pleased and enthusiastic - the best I've heard him in years!  PB, Hawaii .Develop Breathing to Naturally Reduce or Eliminate Chest Pains.