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Breathing Exercises And Management For Asthmatic


Submitted by Kevin Pederson on July 15, 2009
Normally, breathing occurs when the diaphragm muscle moves downward creating a negative pressure area that helps sucking the air in. After that the next phase takes place when the diaphragm returns to its original place, creating a positive pressure that forces the air outside the lungs. This process is called inhalation and exhalation, respectively.

In cases of asthma, the patient tends to use a very small portion of his (or her) lungs and this causes what is called the shallow breath. In the shallow breath, the patient breathes only from the thoracic part of the lung. The patient never fills his lung completely, so in order to compensate for the oxygen demand, he tends to breathe more quickly. The end result is that the thoracic and costal muscles are exhausted and the patient is left gasping for air during an asthma attack. The most common asthma symptoms are gasping for air and rapid exhaustion. This exhaustion occurs because the body tries to stop any extra non-vital activity so as to conserve the little oxygen that it receives.

Learning how to cope with asthma and breathe in a proper way is one of the most important methods in asthma control. In cases of mild asthma, a proper breathing regimen is enough to better the patient’s condition. Yoga is the best method to teach you how to breathe in a proper way, because the yoga itself depends on five principals; breathing is one of these five principles and it is called pranayama.

The basic action in pranayama is to inhale slowly from your mouth, fill your abdomen then count to 5, and at the end exhale slowly from your nostrils. This action helps the asthma patient to fill his lungs completely. This will help improve the condition of asthmatics as the slow respiration will allow more oxygen to reach the blood. It will also give the patient better asthma management as it tells the patient how he or she can avoid the asthma attack.

In a case of mild asthma, breathing exercises can be the best solution. The key factor is to prevent the shallow breathing which exhausts the chest muscles, and get the body to breathe slowly. A slow breath can help to develop better chest muscles for improved breathing. Breathing exercises for asthma are very easy to learn and help asthma patients live a life that is not fraught with the perils of this dreaded ailment.
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Yoga Breathing (Pranayama)