Asthma March 17, 2000

An interesting story related to childhood asthma appeared recently that I wanted to go over with you. This is a well-written article, and it is also a good example of how people are passing over or missing the insidious effects of poor breathing. It is like watching a search plane flying right over you but unable to see you as you frantically wave for help.

Click here to access this article. Then come back to this page for some insights that may be of some value.

We already know that children have lost much of their breath by age 10. This was before asthma, and now it will probably be worsened by asthma. But it was bad before, and that is the insight. Why? How do I know?

The signs of an asthma attack are some of the same signs I look for in non-asthmatic people. Raising the shoulders, neck muscles bulge out, shoulder raise. These are sign of breathing blocks, not necessarily of asthma. Breathing blocks invite asthma. Not the other way around.

"Inexplicably," it says about asthma's increase in Colorado. Inexplicably? Ritalin is the drug of choice; latch-key children run amuck; single-parent families with drop-dead tired stress levels at the end of the work day; nutritional ignorance is the norm with sugar and caffeine the drugs of choice: in some places, environmental pollution can be viewed, smelled and even felt on one's skin.

City kids are harder hit. No kidding! Why do you think the suburbs got so popular? That is until even the suburbs became little cities.

I know dust mites can cause breathing problems. Roach feces and general germs as well, but listen up here. The main reason for asthma is STRESS, POOR POSTURE and undiagnosed TRAUMA. Poor breathing habits are running rampant. To treat these with prescription drugs is just addressing the symptom, not the cause. Every health problem in the world is made worse by poor breathing. If the restricted breathing is not addressed, then the child will grow up with a compromised respiratory system subject to the well-meaning but often damaging results of drugs and steroids.

Now they are blaming genes. Good God. Where does this passing the buck stop. It seems to me that the more we discover stuff that supposedly causes our problems, the more problems we get from the very things we discover. They called this medical students disease when I went to college. It appears to be rampant these days.

I like the "inside and inactive" suggestions. "The child hasn't been expanding his lungs, and he's had a much longer exposure to indoor allergens." Good stuff. Activity makes them breathe. Within reason, even outside where the air is not as good as it could be. It was smoggy in Long Beach in 1955, and I smoked a pack and a half of Camels a day for 18 years, but I STILL got to grow up and develop a 4.2 inch chest expansion and a consistent 200 number count.

Hopefully the children will be exercised before the constriction sets in. Hopefully but not likely very soon unless some group, schools, say grandparents or "elders," take the helm and create activity centers for working parents so the kids can "play" and engage in singing and athletics.

They are blaming genes and asthmatic patents. Bet you take a close look at the stress levels and nutrition, and you will learn more than the gene pool ever could say. I hate it when they cop out like that.

For the inner city poor, I would bet on the nutrition and stress again. Poor parents have even fewer options.

The problem with the stress levels as a source of the problem is that air can be cleaned, nutrition can be changed, even rampant outgassing of pressed glued wood and toxic house cleaners and all the things covered in Debra D's books will give you more insight on all of this.

But when the breathing gets distorted, it will not rectify itself without movement, stretching and making sound; even then sometimes not. It just stays to overdrive the nervous system just as a car would if it revved the engine to maximum 6000 RPM while at a stop light or in the garage.

As long as they blame genes or the environment, they will overlook the damage that has already been done and continue to drug and cut to make up for their lack of understanding. God, I know they mean well but the lack of breathing education that is taught in the schools is surfacing in so many, many ways.

Without understanding that the breathing need be looked into, we will continue to try and arrest the symptom instead of the cause. Immune system failure is caused largely by thymus and spleen malfunction. The thymus is situated between the lobes of the lungs. Children that raise their shoulders when taking a deep breath are evidencing restricted chest expansion and massage of the thymus area. Lymph nodes need to be moved with the expansion and contraction of the breath and movement of the body otherwise they congest and collect bacteria and invite recurrent disease.

"Hygiene is healthful, but we may want to look at what we left behind." That is scary comment because it seems to overlook the peace and serenity of the countryside. The natural order of things. Inner city turmoil seems to be accepted as a given.

I suspect the East German children had fewer options and were restricted to basics. Simplicity is often more healthy than excess.

I believe stress and nutrition are the primary culprits. That and the barrage of chemicals and food additives they sneak into us. They meaning the chemical/industrial complex. Now they are trying genetic engineering and that is more about shelf life and making foods pretty at the marketplace at the cost of natural enzymes. Enzymes actually make food rot normally, and digest in your body as well. Practically NO NE talks about enzymes. Try www.living-foods.com for more on enzymes.

The key insight here is that "Liu said the allergens that trigger asthma attacks do not cause asthma in the first place." This, to me, goes back to the body's ability to withstand allergens if it is prepared to do so.

I moved (stress) three times in 12 months and started sneezing 3-6 times in succession 20-30 times daily. I got some thymus substance from my preventative medicine MD's office (health food stores have it as well), took it and stopped sneezing in two days. I also finished moving. If anything, the environment got worse because I did not have a vacuum, and the house was wall-to-wall carpeted.

A client had just gotten out of the hospital after a week due to an asthma attack. I worked on her breathing coordination, and she never went to the hospital again and reduced her inhaler usage to zero in about a month. Went from walking across the living room to two miles a day in about three weeks.

If you add over-the-counter medications and the rest of man-made pollutants, you will find out why being out in the country is so much a better place to live and breathe. Even with the dust and germs. Waynesville is in the mountains. It is very close to the country. I like it here.

As Swami Beyondananda says, "Be a Fundamentalist--ensure that the FUN always comes before the MENTAL. Realize that life is a situation comedy that will never be canceled. A laugh track has been provided, and the reason we are put in the material world is to get more material. Have a good "laughsitive" twice a day, which will ensure regularity."

When you laugh and play more, you breathe more.

So y'all come visit, ya' hear? And while you're here, you can learn to breathe better...in more ways then one. I guarantee it.

If you can't make it here, then try bringing me there, or try the following self-help series.

God bless you