“The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath”

““The thing is that asthma is so fixable,” said Dr. Elaine Davenport, who works in Oakland’s Breathmobile, a mobile asthma clinic whose patients often cannot afford high prescription costs. “All people need is medicine and education.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath...

Taking Dr. Davenport’s quote a step further as to education, as a professional martial arts instructor, I have seen scores of students, adults and children, either eliminate or greatly alleviate their asthmatic symptoms after improving their breathing ability through traditional martial arts breathing techniques (but not limited to the realm of martial arts).

Many times, a parent tells me their child has “cold-induced” or “sports-induced” asthma.  In 5 years teaching full-time, after over 6000 lessons and over 800 students, I can count with two hands the number of times someone had asthmatic symptoms extreme enough to use an inhaler.

Why?  Every of our martial arts lesson starts with at least 5 minutes of breathing exercises.  The exercises use diaphragm breathing (belly breathing) to teach students how to utilize the largest, bottommost part of their lungs.

For our students spending 15-30 minutes every week on breathing compared to $175 a month or more medication, the cost is worth it.  Is there time and effort involved?  Yes, but it’s a small price compared to the financial savings plus not being worried about securing medication, the price of which you don’t control.

Kind regards,

Bob Lee

Head Instructor

3rd Degree Black Belt

http://www.bodymindsystems.com/asthma-deep-breathing-abdominal-breathing.html