Asthma-Free Naturally

I mentioned having been intrigued by this article a couple of weeks ago. I decided that buying this book by Patrick McKeown would make sense if I were really serious about doing breathing exercises.

Like a lot of these self-help books, the "science" is probably completely bogus, but the anecdotal evidence that the advice helps is interesting if it's advice about a problem you really need to solve.

I had independently figured out that breathing through the nose actually helped during an asthma attack. So I believe some of the rest of the stuff about practicing breathing through the nose and I have been doing some of the recommendations. I'm not going as far as figuring out how to laugh with my mouth closed, but I did order some surgical tape to try taping my mouth shut while I'm sleeping. Instead of his nose unblocking exercise for nasal congestion, which sounds uncomfortable, I'm continuing to do the alternate nostril breathing I learned in Yoga class.

The advice about diet and exercise is fairly standard, and not particularly well-written. For example, here's the paragraph about meat:

Fruit and vegetables are of primary importance. A little meat is essential for good health, but for some people in the Western world it has become an obsession.

I don't know how many vegetarians the author would have known in Ireland in 2008, but you certainly can't talk to the population of Cambridge, Massachusetts that way.

I have completely stopped taking my steroid inhaler, and am controlling attacks by a combination of breathing exercises and the albuterol (rescue) inhaler. I'm not saying it's a complete solution, and when I get over the undesirable side effects of taking the maximum dose of steroid inhaler for so long after that cold in October, I may well go back to using it a bit. But it's possible that these exercises will help reduce the need for it.

So I'm making a qualified recommendation of this book. I don't really believe the thesis that asthma is a result of a shortage of CO₂, or that asthmatics take in 4-6 times as much air as normal breathers. But some of the recommendations probably help some people, and if you're having trouble with your asthma, it's worth thinking about.

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1. Steroid inhalers and voice range
2. Memorizing Poetry
3. Christmas Shopping Status