Frequently Asked Questions (Miscellaneous A-M)

Question: Has there been research to determine the best possible environment for people to live in ie; humidity, temperature, air purity, and oxygen concentration. If there is where could the results be found.

From Mike:
Probably different opinions depending on nutrition, lifestyle, stress. My choices would be moderate to low humidity, cool to comfortably warm climate, absolute clean air, 21.8 % oxygen, sea level to 1,700 feet*. Lots of negative ions. *Studies show that that is as high as you want to go before the altitude stresses instead of conditions.

FROM A RESPIRATORY THERAPIST HEAD OF DEPARTMENT WITH 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE

Mike sorry not to get back to you sooner but here goes. Blood gases can show many things, the one thing I'm interested in is the PO2 which is the oxygen level (shown in mmHg not a percentage). The critical value for a PO2 is 40 mmHg. There are people who "compensate" or are able to tolerate lower levels than that because of their lung disease process. Pulse oximetry shows the amount of oxygen level as a percentage. This is done with light diffusion, where light passes through the nail bed and is picked up by a microprocessor and is displayed on a screen as a percentage, along with the patients pulse. I've seen levels as low as 57%, right before someone dies. As far as the life support thing, any of these lab values certainly warrants ventilator support and supplemental oxygen would be given with the vent. Fine tuning the oxygen level would be done after the patient has been placed on the vent for while not very long). I'm not good with vents as I have very little call for them nor the experience due to the low volume of critical patients kept here in a small hospital. Hope this has helped

The manual and tapes are easy, step by step self directing teaching and training tools. Some seem to need clarification at some time or other. E-mail me with any questions.

Dear Mike:

I would love to talk to the bra fitter you were talking about. Does she have an email address?? Victoria's Secret has a new bra fitting certification program, but supposedly it only lasts for one hour!!! And you get a certification for it!! It's appalling. So, I would like to try and connect with some fitters who have gone through specific training to be fitters.

From Mike:
There is an actual certification program, but it is for people to fit mastectomy patients and the program is longer than one hour. I have to find out more information. I'm really concerned about the women who will be fitted by fitters from these stores.

I hope I will not embarrass you, I am asking this question in regards to a trivia question which is, how many breaths a day does a healthy adult take.

From Mike:
Optimal would be depending on the activity engaged in. Deep deep rest could be less than one but as a practical matter perhaps three. Eight is good but not great. Pauses are critical. See the BREATHING TEST ANSWERS for more insight on pauses.

Beyond that the longer, slower, effortlessly deeper breaths taken in most any activity would seem to be superior than faster ones. I repeat effortlessly because many force the breath which force actually restricts the deepest easiest breath. Recommended Program

Question regarding the breathing tests: In the medical field we see the rates of respiration as 16-20 in an adult as Normal and anything above or below this norm is when we look for other things that might possible be the causes, athletics vs trauma of any type (from illness long or short term or immediate induction of stresses.)

T.S.

From Mike:
Good question.

Essentially the traditional medical field focuses on illness. The alternative medical field on health. Pay very close attention to the clinical studies page relating to Cross Sectional Studies as opposed to longitudinal ones.

Cross sectional studies include undiagnosed sick people. Sick from the standpoint of the "norm" being to low to be really healthy or "normal". For example, including 5 morons in a group of 5 geniuses is bound to lower the class averages.

Including those with non optimal health in a given group to establish clinical norms will lower the expectation of acceptable health quality and allow for increased undetected poor health to worsen because no one sees the need to take action. Too-wide parameters instead of narrower ones in a blood test is another example.

See "Clinical Studies."

btw, there is ample evidence that athletics is good to a point but harmful after that. Where is that point? The wider the so called norms are the sooner the athlete develops signs of trouble that are overlooked by contemporary assessments. Lots of sports induced asthma and heart attack these days. If the parameters were tighter they would be dissuaded or better counseled regarding the activity that is worsening or causing the problem.

I believe that a 20 breath rate means that the person's nervous system is constantly stressed and will need constant medical attention of some sort. Like running a car engine at 5,000 RPM while at a stop sign or in the garage. The engine will burn out much sooner.

Mike

Dear Mike:

Thought you might find this interesting. I received this information from Dr. Andrew Weil. He said "that despite the scare stories, canola oil is not toxic. I suspect that your Internet informant might be confusing two varieties of the rapeseed plant (Brassica napus). Oils from the original rapeseed plant, a member of the mustard family, have been used as industrial lubricants. Rapeseed oil contains very high levels of a potentially heart-damaging compound called erucic acid, so plant scientists created a low-erucic-acid hybrid they called "canola" for use in cooking. (Most food-oil plants, including flax, peanut, corn, soy and sunflower, have been similarly crossbred to produce varieties with greater or lesser amounts of certain fatty acids, so this process is not uncommon) By federal regulation, canola oils can contain no more than 2 percent erucic acid: most varieties contain far less. Organic (unsprayed and not genetically modified), expeller-pressed canola oil is a moderately healthy oil that can be used for cooking when olive oil is not appropriate. It is mostly mono-unsaturated fat, with less saturated fat than olive oil and some omega-3 fatty acids." So how do we tell if it is not genetically engineered and safe? Any suggestions? Thanks for your help, J. McG...

From Mike:
What puzzles me is that with all the really good and safe oils out there you are paying so much attention to canola. I think it is bad. I care not so much what Andrew says about it because as good as Andrew is, the medical model in general has a much wider toleration of toxicity then I am comfortable with. So with any doubts I just go to what is safe and sound. Federal laws give me even less security or a sense of rational safety. Study prescription drug side effects to learn more about that. Get Russell Martino or Udo Erasmus' EFAs and be pretty safe and sure.

Mike

Is it possible to raise up a caved-in chest by exercise or other sorts of self workouts on your sternum?

From Mike:
Yes. The strapping techniques in the video as well as perfect posture should help that a great deal.

Dear Breathing.com

I have heard that breathing exercises such as slowly in and out for 4 counts each way and holding in between for 10 counts will gradually increase ones chest size. I believe the term is a "barrel chest." I am just wondering about the mechanics of this. How effective is this and how exactly does it work and can be maximized? Would this be worthwhile for someone with a flat chest? Thank you for your time and expertise.

From Mike:
Dear Chris

I do not advocate breath holding. One can increase chest size but it must be done with care not to create a stiff chest lest the lungs be restricted in their contraction and the heart not massaged enough by the rise and fall of the maximal excursion of the diaphragm.

The recorded audios, video and exercises in the manual will add to chest size without breath holding.

Recommended Program

I am currently working on a proposal to our local hospital for Complimentary and alternative medicine. I want to know from a clinical/hospital base, are there any contraindications for optimal breathing? Thanks.

From Mike:
Applied properly, there are none. It depends on the situation. You must learn what optimal breathing looks and feels like then apply it to your special situation. Optimal Breathing School

Mike

When practicing diaphragm type breathing is a chemical released in the body?

Thanks very much, Dawn E

From Mike:
Interesting question. Endorphins relate to breathing quite a bit. So do respiratory neuropeptides. Adrenaline as well if the breath is high chest or stressful. Whether they are directly related to the diaphragm function I do not know. I suspect the answer is yes. The breathing process causes them to proliferate but only if the breathing is done in a certain way. Optimal Breathing techniques and exercises create extra amounts of great feeling states so I suspect the diaphragm is a leading contributor as we work with it quite a lot.

Mike

Mike, I'm a SLP working with a newly assigned post-operative abdominal & aorta aneurysm condition of 6mo of shortness of breath. On my evaluation today, he was supine in bed & was winded just by doing tongue exercises to his cheek. Is there anything I can do if his condition does or doesn't involve the diaphragm? Are your 8 steps for post surgical patients such as this CVA patient?

From Mike:
The 8 steps are for everyone, but one must use the steps that make the most sense. The key is to first know what all the options are. Unless they are focusing on a specific goal or problem such as on the bottom of our programs page, most people get the #176 Rapidly Improving Your Breathing Video #169 2.2 Seminar on Breathing videos and the #191 Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing manual and go from there.

Dear Mike, What a fascinating Web site. I am suffering (with ever more symptoms) from muscle fasciculations. I suspect that I regularly hyperventilate. Anyway my muscles and nerves are hypersensitive and start to feel more and more painful. I have checked out your Web site but couldn't find any references to "fasciculations" and muscle spasms. Could this as well be a problem of "bad breathing." Please help me. I feel more and more desperate and anxious, out of control.

From Mike:
Bad breathing can cause or make some spasms worse, including seizures. Recommended Program