Breathing - as easy as in and out!

Breathing - it's as easy as in and out! Isn't it?? 

Well now then - the answer to that is a resounding NO - it blooming well isn't sometimes.  
Its not even about taking a deep breath, even small breaths can be tricky. 

Just do something for me, right now. Check YOUR breathe........... holding it? Breathing from your nose? Breathing from your belly?? Little shallow breathes?? Or actually are you breathing ok?? 

Tricky isn't it.....! 

I've just started practicing Yoga and I realised pretty quickly into our first lesson that:-

  1) I was unable to breath in much more than to a count of 3  
  2) I actually don't breath very well 
  3) I breath so shallowly it's no wonder I get so many headaches - I'm just not moving the     oxygen round my body. 

Yet in an attack or exacerbation how many asthmatics get told by health officials or worried relatives to 'try to calm down' or 'try to breath properly'. 

A lot less these days I must admit, yet talk to people with Asthma and they will tell you it still gets said.

Well there's a few things about that as well:- 

1) Never in the history of being told to calm down (in ANY situation) have I ever not wanted to hit the person who suggests it (!)

2) When you are unable to get any breath into your lungs and each breath feels like it may be your last I guarantee you'll probably be breathing/gasping faster and harder than many people will (thankfully) ever know. 



However, if you'd like to understand a fraction of what it feels like to be struggling to breath, try this - Get a clothes peg and put it on your nose. Then get a very heavy coat or three and put them on. Try strapping a really heavy weight on to your chest too if you can. Then get a small straw and try to breath through it.............. 
That my friends is a little tiny bit like it feels when you're in the midst of an Asthma attack. 

So what am I doing to try and get my breathing better? Well Yoga firstly. I've found a lovely, intelligent and empathetic teacher - Jules. I'm already almost able to breathe in and out to the count of 4. Secondly, though the power of Twitter I have found an excellent site with some brilliant videos and good, sound advice about Breath Re-Training. Thirdly, I endeavour to walk the mutts at least twice a day if the weather allows it - but hills are still a bit tricky for me.  

Back to this website though  http://www.breathestudy.co.uk  I came across this through Twitter and the people I've started following, and some of them have started to be interested in my ramblings. There appears to have been a lot of work done on Breathing and Re-training of breathe. What I have become interested in is a programme of work undertaken at the University of Southampton, from 2011 to 2016.  

Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to carry out a programme of work (Breathing REtraining for Asthma Trial of Home Exercises – known as BREATHE) they have developed and tested a new way of delivering breathing retraining for asthma.

Now I am NOT a health professional - just a patient, but what they've written and the videos they've produced are excellent and I think worth a watch! I'd also give this blog post a read as Professor Anne Bruton gives information in black and white. 

https://anniebruton.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/results-of-the-breathe-asthma-trial-the-end-of-a-long-research-journey/

What would YOU like to see me write about??? Do let me know and if you have any comments on this post, please let me know. 

Till the next time - this blog now has it's own 'hashtag' - #buggerofasthma - so if you twitter about this blog, I'd love you to use it. 


(P,S Apologies for different colours in typeface - Blogger decided to do this his/her own way!)