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Life extension through proper breathing

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Healthy Living and Optimum Breathing
by Mike White, of Breathing.com


Healthy living and optimum life span require healthy breathing. Do you know how to breathe right? Based on my research, it is most likely that you do not. At the end of this article, you can take a test to see how your breathing compares to others.’ I have spent years learning proper breathing techniques, so much so that I have written a book about it titled “Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing.”

How well you breathe plays a major part in how healthy you are. You can’t live healthfully without a healthy breathing capacity. Not only does breathing supply the body with needed oxygen, the simple movement of the lungs helps to move the various liquids around inside the surrounding organs, movement that even helps with the digestion of food. The oxygen carried into the lungs oxygenates the blood, which then carries the oxygen to all of the many millions of cells throughout the body. The blood then carries gasses back to the lungs to be exhaled. And all of this activity depends on a healthy set of lungs.

Better breathing is possible for everyone. Proper breathing helps to energize the body and give it strength. Have you ever seen a professional weight lifter as they are about to lift an iron bar loaded with heavy weights? The last thing they do before lifting is take in a big breath of air.
Live foods are also an important key in this energy relationship. Natural food enzymes do the work of digestion and assimilation much better than the enzyme supplement companies may lead one to believe. Raw food is critical to health and longevity. But, because we only eat a few times per day, but breathe thousands of times daily, breathing can be even more so. The two together create a powerful combination of biochemical superiority, and the foundation for extended, illness-free, robust, healthy living.

Lifespan & Breathing

The Framingham study, which consisted of 5,200 people, and lasted 30 years, proved that lung volume (FEV1) is a primary marker for the health of a person. Most of us access only 10-20% of our full breathing capacity, leaving us short of energy — or at the very least compromising optimum health and well being. The Framingham study showed that those with an abundance of lung volume were healthier than those with shallow lung volume.

Clinical studies from Dr. Mannfred von Ardenne and others prove that oxygen, wellness, and life-span are totally inter-dependent on proper breathing. Otto Warburg received the 1931 Nobel prize for proving that cancer cannot live in a high oxygen environment. Neither can many types of germs, bacteria, and viruses. This is why it is important to keep the lungs healthy, and learn to breathe properly.

The key to better breathing is to know for yourself how good your breathing is. There are primary factors of breathing involving volume, ease, strength, coordination, and cellular conditioning. The easiest to measure is volume, which is one primary marker of aging. As you age, the capacity of breath decreases. But, as other exercises help maintain strong muscles in the torso and extremities, breathing exercises can help maintain healthy lung capacity. Those who know this are professional singers, who may spend many hours in classes learning to control their voices and increase their lung capacity and breathing strength.

Take this simple test to measure your FEV1, or Forced Exhalation Volume.

BASELINE

The baseline is done to measure your present breathing volume and efficiency. It assesses your vital oxygen capacity, or VO2, and Forced Exhalation Volume - FEV1 (1= how much breath you can blow out in one second), plus breathing efficiency. For best results have someone read this to you as you do it, or record it and play it back as you go through the steps.

  1. Stand with your knees slightly bent as if you were about to sit down.
  2. Make sure your chin is a few degrees above looking straight ahead.
  3. Thrust your tailbone as far forward as it will go. Then as far backward. Let your tailbone come to gently rest in between the middle and the furthest point forward.
  4. Now close your eyes and become aware of your breathing for at least five breaths. Be aware of the inhalation, exhalation, and the movement of your lungs, tummy, and chest cavity. When you breathe in, let your tummy expand so that you get a deep breath
  5. Wait for a natural exhale, and then, at the bottom of this effortless exhale, make a “sssssshhhh” sound through your clenched teeth — as if you are trying to quiet noisy children across the room. Do this until you have very little, or no, air left. The “sssssshhhhh” should force the breath out (with your belly muscles assisting).
  6. Then, when you feel you must breathe, let the breath begin to come in and take as deep of an in-breath as possible. At the top of this deep in-breath, you can pull-in, then begin counting (counting requires slight exhalation of air to make sound) very softly, but clearly, and quickly (like an auctioneer who is whispering), in the language you are most familiar with, up to as high a number as you can, with one continuous, long, slow exhale.

Notes. During this exhalation number counting, do not:

Count if you can, fast enough to average 4.5 per second — meaning that, in 10 seconds you will reach 45 without missing any numbers. Make sure you include pronouncing the twenty, thirty, forty, fifty portion of the number count (twenty-five, twenty-six, etc.), and start over again at 1 if you reach 100. How high a number did you reach?

Oxygen uptake and the length of the exhale are interdependent. I can reach 200-250. How high of a number count did you reach? Did you tighten any muscles to get there? You should have been mostly relaxed, throughout your body, neck, and face.

The number count is your “baseline.” It indicates a combination of how much volume of breath you were able to store, and how efficiently you used it.

My research lead me to believe that below 100 on the number count means you may well have a serious health challenge, or a condition that may invite one. If you are below 60, there is much to be desired in your state of health.

Learning to Breathe

Don’t let your age convince you that you are too old to learn how to improve the strength and volume of your breathing. If you are motivated to change, that is the first step to making it happen. Just make absolutely sure that you do take action. Don't panic, don't worry, just take calm, quiet action remembering that it is never too late for you to begin breathing better. Everyone can surely make a big change in their lives when they learn to breathe better.

I recommend that you make a goal of reaching 175 consistently, i.e.: daily. What you will learn in the “Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing Manual” will guide you to do more healthful breathing. The techniques and exercises in the manual and tapes in the Breathing Kit are strategically chosen to effect this. Also covered are a wide variety of health and personal empowerment issues. Once you have the manual, you may call or e-mail me with any questions.

The Optimal Breathing system increases vital capacity, aspiratory capacity, functional reserve capacity, total lung capacity, tidal volume, and expiratory reserve volume. It decreases lung dead spaces, and non functional alveoli. It also invites increased oxygen uptake/utilization (QO2), as well as reduced oxygen cost of breathing. Forced deeper breathing can restrict easier, larger, deeper breathing.

Breathing ease and oxygen increase strengthens every healthy biochemical reaction in the human body from:

I am dedicated to optimizing your health, well being, and your exercise and/or sports performance, extending your life span and reducing your reliance on excessive medication. My programs include a free email newsletter; free breathing tests; numerous articles on related topics; a breathing manual consisting of twenty-five years of accumulated research and insights; recorded breathing exercise cassettes with opportunities for special individualized training, or “intensives,” and on-line recommendations concerning breathing.

Breathing really is life. How much of it do you want to have?

Visit Mike's Site: https://www.breathing.com

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