Frequently Asked Questions (Asthma & Bronchitis)

From Mike:
Because holding your breath constricts the upper chest and invites later problems with overactive accessory breathing muscles.

Daily for five minutes, or when an asthma attack is occurring, lie on your back, take a big belly breath, raise your leg and make a shhhhhh sound all the while you are slowly lowering your leg. Repeat 5-10 times with each leg until the attack subsides. Let me know how that works for you.

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-- Regards Barbara

From Mike:
Asthma can be a little different from person to person. I have received good reports from #120 Better Breathing Exercise #1 and #130 Better Breathing Exercise #2. I would add the manual so that you can get other insights that may aid your recovery and maintenance. Rapid Breathing Development

From Mike:
I agree that the medical industry often overlooks basic information about the breathing process. The breath-measuring meters can actually make the problem worse by causing one to tighten up the rib cage on the forced inhalation and exhalation. I am not convinced that the peak flow is an adequate measure. Many people with good peak flows have not had the internal sense of power of people with much less peak flow. There is something to be learned here. I reach 200 consistently. Take the Breathing Tests for hidden signs of breathing blocks. Purchase products #120 Better Breathing Exercise #1 & #130 Better Breathing Exercise #2 for an exercise, and strengthen your insights with my study called #191 Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing.

Meanwhile try this. Optimal Belly Breath Exercise. Extending the Exhale and Strengthening the Diaphragm. Stand, make an ssssss sound until you have no air left. Then let the big effortless unassisted in-breath occur. At the top of the in-breath make a strong OM, Ah, HA, SHAH sound slowly repeated as long as you can. Pull the belly muscles above and below the naval into the spine as you maintain the Ha sound. Keep your chin above the horizon and make sure you do not bend forward during this exhale. When you no longer can make a strong Ha sound, let the easy breathing reflex occur. *Can be very good for asthma. Do 10-20 times twice a day. Observe if your inhaler use is diminishing. May be contraindicated for those with emphysema and COPD. Diet, environment and attitude are also very important. By attitude, I mean that many are convinced they will be asthmatic for life and perpetuate the illness this way. Asthma can be beaten.

-- Mike

But I know I don't breathe as well as I could which is what interests me about your site because I believe proper breathing is a huge help in maintaining health, especially as you get older. I also smoke which is not good, but it is a habit I have been unable to break except once in a while. During bronchial illness or asthma attacks, I don't smoke. I'm not insane, just addicted. So I'll read your articles and see what you say. It's a good site, I've seen much worse done by experts. And maybe when I've decided I want to stop smoking, I'll consider your program although I lean towards hypnosis which I like for bad habits. Thanks again for your sensible response which made me believe you are intelligent, considerate and not a fraud. There are a lot of those out there.

Sincerely yours,
-- Mona R

From Mike:
You can improve, but you will not NOT regain your breathing until you work directly on the mechanics of breathing.

Herbs, Chinese medicine and stopping smoking will help greatly, but it still will not regain what you have lost. That is where the significant health and longevity is. You can regain what you lost, but you MUST work at it. I smoked 18 years and now have a 4.2-inch chest expansion.

The Stop Smoking program will add volume and ease to your breathing. It is much less expensive then supporting, as good as they can be, alternative medical professionals.

Breath IS life. What is your choice of the kind of breath you will have?

-- Mike

-- M.D., California

I recently perused a book by a woman named Hale who described a remarkable discovery in breathing to treat Asthma and Emphysema. "SHALLOW BREATHING" (!) Actually Shallow relates to the total amount of breath used -- the main point of the doctor's evidently very successful work hinges on -- CO2 DEPLETION!

Evidently -- most asthma, etc. patients hyperventilate and have a CO2 deficiency which reduces the amount of tissue-available O2. The technique revolves around the "Lock" -- whereby after a normal exhalation, one holds the breath for increasing extended periods. I think the approach is compatible with SLOW abdominal breathing. Are you familiar with this work -- what do you think?

From Mike:
Read about breath holding.

I've read it. It is a mixed blessing. If it works, great. It does not always work. AND if it does work, it trains you to underbreathe which is, I believe, essentially an illness model bias.

Read about hyperbaric oxygen.

I believe your slow abdominal insight is a better one for the long haul. Several breathwork professionals including myself are engaged in a discussion group about this. You can stay in touch with us by subscribing to the newsletter. So far, the opinion is that it gives short-term benefits and the wrong insights for long-term health and well being.

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From Mike:
Breath heaving, or straining to breathe during the final moments of a long-distance race or the entire time during a sprint causes the breathing coordination "lock up." The accessory breathing muscles that ordinarily support the breath become overactive and actually get in the way of an easy full deep breath. Sort of like having ten people hold your hand while you try to sign your name. There are two people that work on these muscles and integrate techniques to improve breathing coordination that I know. Only I am in North Carolina.

Seems to disappear when I lay in bed. What is it and how can I get rid of it?

From Mike:
Exercise-induced asthma comes along with precursors of a subtle sometimes undetectable constricted chest and poor breathing coordination. Get the Rapid Breathing Development program.

I also suffered for many years depression and self doubt and very short attention span; focus not!!! If you could shed some light/advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards,
-- Shaun J

From Mike:
Great, another raw foods success story. It is interesting to me that every case of asthma I have heard of has a significant mechanical breathing component. Glad the wheezing part is over. I believe that asthma has three components: 1) environment, 2) diet, and 3) the way we breathe (or don't breathe). When they all are present in varying degrees, asthma or what medical science calls asthma appears. (Its need for all three components to be at their worst is misunderstood, misdiagnosed or overlooked.)

What I see for you is that it has just backed away because you have handled one of the three components, diet. I believe it is still there (under the surface) and may reappear in later years if you are athletic, highly stressed or grow old, older and/or your posture gets poor.

I would investigate surgery (get THREE opinions) as well as get the Rapid Breathing Development program level 3 or 4. to learn how to develop your internal breathing coordination optimally.

-- Mike

Any thoughts?

From Mike:
Asthma has a lot to do with physical breathing restrictions as well as autonomic nervous system energetic imbalance.

The diaphragm shrinks irregularly up and down like a one-half football (curved portion upward) turning from a half of a plum to a wrinkled prune with shrink lines up and down from top to bottom like a pin-striped suit. As it shrinks, it is reduced in height, irregularly like from a football's oval to the skyline of several hills. The more it shrinks, the more it puts stress on the entire nervous system.

I suspect that the shrink pattern has something to do with trauma to the excessively shrunken area. When the body gets traumatized, it gets stiff. For example, being tackled with a helmet in the kidney area in football or falling out of a crib or down stairs creates stiffness in the muscles and connective tissues surrounding the immediate area of impact as well as perhaps hundreds of other muscles and tendons. Optimal breathing coordination is hindered. And if the stiffness is not softened by proper exercise or bodywork or whatever, then the body, in that area, will become more dense and less supple and tend to not expand/or contract as well as it could. Children can even grow up with that bias, and the traumatized area and imbalance gets larger and more significant as they grow older and larger.

This throws the entire breathing balance into a more or less erratic function, and if the imbalance is chest-dominant, then asthma, which is primarily a high-chest breathing-dominant malady, may appear.

See if the below page gives you more insight on this.

Read about diaphragm development.

If you have the #191 Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing manual, you will understand it even more. Another option for you is to have a phone consultation with me.

From Mike:
The bronchitis will help constrict the lungs and invite either bronchitis and/or asthma to return. let me know if you can't get rid of either and/or keep getting one or the other.

In any event, you should release the restriction your breathing has experienced due to the asthma or bronchitis. That means doing techniques described in our Rapid Breathing Development program.

From Mike:
Your hair salon is not the root cause of your problem, though it may worsen it temporarily. If the salon were the problem, everyone else would have asthmatic bronchitis, which is highly unlikely.

The way you breathe is the cause. This is probably worsened by what you eat, your bending over too often to cut hair (not bending may not be an option) and/or your type of or lack of exercise.

I suggest you get the RECOMMENDED PROGRAM Special, read the manual, work with the video, practice #120 Better Breathing Exercise #1 and #130 Better Breathing Exercise #2 for two weeks each and then ask me any questions you may have at that point or along the way.

-- Mike

The Doctors have diagnosed me with Bronchia Asthma. I am on inhalants and other medications for asthma.

When I am NOT talking, I feel fantastic! As soon as I start to talk, I become drained of energy and when I talk I have to PUSH every word out of my mouth. I literally could cry and have cried after hanging up the telephone because I am exhausted and it feels like my nerves are stretched to the hilt.

I can run on the treadmill and feel fine, but if I am walking and talking to someone, I become very short of breath and have to practically gasp for breath to talk.

When I talk in normal conversation, i.e., just sitting around, if I take in a lung full of air, I can talk okay in short spurts. BUT, once I use up my lung of air, I have to pause take another lung of air and continue to talk.

In my business I talk a lot! And it is affecting by business. I do not say everything I want to say to my client, because I don't have the energy to do so. And I definitely try to avoid being asked to do any type of public speaking, because I definitely would have to refuse to do any public speaking because there is no way I could speak continuously without becoming breathless.

My pulmonologist said he did not know what I meant when I said I could not walk and talk at the same time! So he has not helped me at all!!!

Can you help me?

From Mike:
The last person that could not walk and talk did so after 4 private sessions with me. Another with asthma used her inhaler 8 times the day of our first session and after that no times in the next two months.

Come to my office for an intensive. I guarantee major results or click here for one of our special programs

-- Mike

The Prednisone was awful on her and an apparent allergic reaction to the dye for a test almost killed her.

In 1948, Mom was 17 and diagnosed with pneumonias. (I was born in 1951) and her father had arranged for her funeral and had even ordered the flowers! Some angel back then recognized the virus as being something she contracted from one of her friends who had been in the service in the Philippines. They sent to the Philippines for a vaccine which, seemingly miraculously, saved her life at the last moment. (Most pleasantly for me and my siblings!)

Now she is off the Prednisone, and we need another angel!

Do you know what this virus and/or vaccine could be? Some say the mitochondria would still be there. (I'm a layman, obviously!) is that possible? What treatments would you recommend? Would Microhydrin and MMX help her breathe? What about systemic enzyme therapy? Bromelain?

I'm going to use information from your site to try to help. (Please help us any way you can! (Feel free to edit this letter for your site if needed.)

Thank you! Charles & Mary H

From Mike:
It is interesting to see the progression from bronchitis to fibrosis. This is logical. Had the medical people used natural means initially, she may well not have gotten worse and recovered.

You seem to be looking for a magic bullet (an alternative expression for some ONE thing that will make THE difference). I would not do that if I were you. I would address the problem on every level possible holistically--including coming to Waynesville if you are able. See 8-Steps Overview. Good luck. She is lucky to have such caring children.

I have retired early from the airlines. I have contacted bronchitis, I'm sure, from the years of breathing bad air full of cigarette smoke. I have gone into acting on the local stage, and am in a play that starts rehearsals today, Monday. I need to know if there is an over the counter remedy that I can use. Like maybe a spray, or even something new like that, that I can get from my doctor. I would visit the doctor, however, I'm always told that there is nothing they can do. I refuse to take a steroid. That would knock it out. I took it before, but don't want to again. I need to stop my coughing, which isn't as bad this year, an allergy, since I have stopped flying. I have to be able to perform at the end of October. I will try oregano, and geranium oil, which I have. Antihistamines just make my nose bleed, don't seem to help the cough. Do you have any other suggestions? I will try Flax Seeds. Can you help?

From Mike:
If the oregano oil does not work, you better get here to Waynesville. Whether the oregano works or not, with your airline connection, you are in an enviable position to be able to fly here (near Asheville) and get some real serious speaking and breathing work done.

Stay away from the quick fixes, or you will just dig a deeper hole that leads to over-the-counter junk, steroids, surgery and confusion. Remember, even opera singers develop breathing problems. See sick-buildings for deeper understanding of poor breathing environments. Airplanes are often effectively sick buildings with wings. If you are working on a plane that flies a lot, I recommend cleansing.

From Mike:
I am a naturalist and this web site is about self help. I cannot get in the way of your MD relationship because they have strict licensing rules that protect them even when their choices cause worsening conditions or death. But I can give you an opinion. You CAN beat bronchitis.

Develop & Cleanse your breathing.