Asthma Forum - Traditional Japanese breathing

A special feature of the current understanding of asthma is that only drugs can control asthmatic breathlessness.

Another feature is that yoga and other breathing routines may cure asthma or that asthma may cure itself, but that such cures are not reproducible, unlike the effects of asthma drugs which are.

Here a peculiar phenomenon of breathing should not be forgotten in the understanding of asthma, namely that healthy breathing demands pressure in the abdomen. Breathing with the abdominal wall relaxed as an experiment becomes very shallow and on exertion almost asthmatic. So it seems that abdominal pressure is a controlling factor in switching between healthy normal deep breathing and shallow breathing with an asthmatic tendency.

This knowledge can form a useful key to selecting one of the very many yoga and like breathing methods.

There is the traditional Japanese tanden breathing method relying on abdominal pressure, see f. i. http://www.hav erhill-shotokan.org/SSaysTanden.htm
%u201CTo breath properly, start by relaxing your shoulders; your chest will then also relax. Focus your concentration in the abdomen. Push your stomach out while inhaling (as if the air you inhale is slowly filling up your stomach) and relax it during exhalation. Maintain a constant flexing of the abdominal muscles whether inhaling or exhaling. Contract only the muscles of the abdomen while relaxing other muscles in your body. Relax the throat and do not tighten the chest muscles. The overall feeling will be one of pulling you breath down lower within you.%u201D
(Unfortunately such instructions tend to be embedded in material connected with the martial art and with meditation, which is less relevant and may be ideological).

See also Oriental Breath Therapy by Dr. Takashi Nakamura, pages 75 to 77, headed %u201CRelationship between breathing and abdominal pressure%u201D In a 700 word description he says

%u201C It is vital that the upper body be relaxed while undergoing this exercise.
The muscles in the neck, chest, shoulders, face, head, and hands are all be totally loose. The waist, the legs and the abdominal region, however, m�ust be concentrated on fully. Unless the points mentioned above are paid attention to, especially by beginners, a rush of the blood to the head or dizziness may occur.
Continuous pressure is to be imposed on the lower abdominal part%u201D

One then takes the physical therapy approach, like pointing out some weak muscle in the back and then suggesting remedial exercises (against back pain) this may well be enough to motivate him as being logical. This may be seen as an approach of the Japanese method.

Anyway it seems to have worked perfectly well with me owing to the association between lack of abdominal pressure and asthma symptoms such as wheeze and breathlessness.

The approach of maintaining abdominal pressure and seeing how symptoms are improved leads to success.
The whole thing at long last has turned asthma into a rewarding challenge. Reach for the stars, but keep your feet on the ground.