No one enjoys living with the symptoms of asthma, especially during the moments when you feel under attack and unable to breathe. It is not just a minor annoyance, but can lead to feelings of panic, anxiety, and nervousness, as well as create psychological and physiological trauma. While the condition may not ever just disappear and there may not be a catch-all natural asthma remedy, there are ways to manage and minimize the symptoms by taking control of your diagnosis and making a concerted effort to live a healthy life as someone who suffers from the disease. In terms of treatment, it’s never a good idea to invest all your hope in one particular natural asthma remedy and disregard your regular schedule of treatments. Most people who have a form of severe asthma are on medication to treat symptoms. Supplementing the prognosis your doctor has given you with certain helpful diet and exercise regimens may help to alleviate some of your suffering. For instance, many people find that using various herbal products like pollen or various other natural remedies may be helpful in reducing problems, but you should exercise caution in making sure your treatment doesn’t further complicate your condition. If at all possible, work with your medical doctor to see if you can put together a plan to regulate the use of your medicine with an alternative natural asthma remedy in order to see what might work for you. Keeping a record or journal in which you record all of the times you suffer from symptoms and what you have used to alleviate them will help you to see more objectively what works best for you. Asthma can be triggered by a host of stimuli: from pollution or the fragrance of someone’s cologne,...

Most of us do not pay attention to our breathing unless we are having difficulty. Then, we pay attention. But for the most part, since breathing is automatic, we tend to ignore the way we breathe and believe that it takes care of itself. There is a big difference between mindless and mindful breathing. The way that you breathe when you are unaware, may be influenced by other facets of your overall health and the lack of awareness of our habitual breathing can cause damage to our health. For instance, when we chronically over-breathe, our breathing can become a struggle as we gasp for air. When we are nervous and tend to be anxious, we may find ourselves breathing heavily through our mouths and hyperventilating at times. If our nostrils are often “stuffed-up” as though we have a perpetual cold, our breathing may be characterized by an open mouth as we more or less ignore the function of our nostrils. Whatever the case may be, most people breathe poorly, out of habit and lack of awareness, according to some experts. Mindful breathing, as contrasted with mindless breathing, is marked by inhalations and exhalations that involve taking in just the right amount of air to best benefit your body’s needs, according to our activity level. Too much air, and our body’s cells, tissues, and organs will also suffer from oxygen deprivation. That may sound strange, but it is true. Mindless, heavy breathing means not enough carbon dioxide, which is necessary to deliver oxygen through the blood to the tissues that need it. Normalizing your breathing means learning to breathe in mindful way rather than mindless over-breathing or hyperventilating – which is so prevalent in our society. One can mindfully reduce the breaths in order to...

Runners know that the way you breathe is key to performance when doing athletic training or covering long distances. Exercising muscle groups that we use for breathing help many runners to perform better and not be totally out of breath by the time they cross the finish line. One problem that occurs, however, is that a lot of runners tend to breathe by expanding their chests rather than the abdomen. Improved breathing, not only for athletes and runners but for everyone, concentrates energy expended and wastes as little as possible. Breathing from the chest, however, which seems to come more naturally to us when we are actively exercising, tenses up the upper part of the body and causes the shoulders to rise and fall. That kind of expenditure of energy is better used in the effort you put forth in pressing forward on the run. We can improve breathing and focus energy better by concentrating regularly on how to allow the abdomen to expand rather than the chest. When we inhale, the stomach should fill up and the belly should swell out a little. The chest, on the other hand, should remain relatively still. Breathing this way consciously, in measured increments or periods of times, is an exercise that will not only gradually improve breathing, but also build up the stomach muscles that we need to use in order to breathe healthily. If we really want to improve breathing and enhance performance—not only in track and field, but in the ways we expend energy just going through our daily lives— we will make the effort to take the time to learn how to breathe correctly. Another factor that is important to consider is that when we seek to improve breathing techniques, we should not...

Sleep apnea can be a terrifying condition from which to suffer, not usually if you are the one who suffers from it, but for a family member who lives with and witnesses it. Usually, it is accompanied by snoring, light sleeping, or possibly other restless bodily movements. When it occurs, you simply stop breathing. Your spouse may suddenly notice you are no longer snoring and become alarmed. It may last a few seconds, or even as long as two minutes. Your body forces you, in effect, to hold your breath while you are asleep. Sleep apnea is one way your body tells you that there is something physiological occurring with your breathing, and there are numerous, sometimes extremely impractical and even painful medical treatments for it. It may be beneficial, however, to listen to what your body is saying rather than merely try to treat the symptoms. Sleep apnea is basically your body telling you that it is getting too much oxygen (that is also the reason you are snoring – mucus has developed in excess in your nostrils to try to slow down the oxygen flow). Oxygen is a good element and is necessary for organ vitality. But too much of anything isn’t good for anyone, and in the case of taking in too much oxygen, also known as hyperventilation, too much means that the carbon dioxide you don’t exhale isn’t allowed to do its job. While the process of using oxygen in your cells produces carbon dioxide that we exhale, some of it remains in our blood in order to regulate how much oxygen is used in our cells. When oxygen floods the system, the carbon dioxide that remains in the blood is overwhelmed, and not able to regulate effectively. For some...

Anyone who has ever had asthma knows that it is a serious and frightening disease, not only because of its symptoms, but also because of the terror and panic of not being able to breathe and the real possibility of death. It is estimated that every day in the United States about forty-four thousand people have an asthma attack. Nearly ten percent of those have symptoms so severe that they go to an emergency room. Around a quarter of those who have an attack are actually admitted to a hospital. And every day, nine people die from asthma. That means that there are more than three thousand and three hundred deaths from asthma every year in the United States. And according to conventional medicine, there is no asthma cure. Given these kinds of stark statistics, it’s obvious that asthma should not be taken lightly. Death rates due to asthma have increased in the last thirty years by 50% across all groups, while an increase of deaths for those who are under nineteen is a startling 80%. According to the economists, the toll that asthma has on the medical industry in the United States now exceeds $18 billion. Facts and figures such as these could cause someone with serious asthma to start hyperventilating, but panic and fear is probably not the best path. Nearly sixty percent of all those who have asthma claim that they find relief from their symptoms by not only using their prescribed medication, but seeking alternative treatments to help them cope with symptoms. While some treatments claim to offer an asthma cure, almost all research had indicated that sufferers who practice breathing exercises – whether they learn it from various strands of Yoga, meditation, or from specialists who teach people how...

Adenoids, not to be confused with tonsils, are made up of lymphoid tissue in the upper pharynx. Enlarged adenoids are often the precursor to other health problems and symptoms that may not only decrease quality of life, but can also lead to more serious health concerns. When adenoids become increasingly enlarged, they cause the bronchial pathways to narrow and trigger the creation of more mucous; allowing less oxygen to reach vital parts of the body. This often leads to recurrent respiratory infections, chronic cold-like symptoms, coughing and hacking, stuffy or runny nose, loss of sleep, headaches, grogginess and a reduced ability to focus or concentrate; as well as the potential for more serious health problems. Most often, the presence of enlarged adenoids occurs in children, and as breathing pathways are blocked, a common recommendation is surgery to remove the adenoids. Enlarged or infected adenoids can be very painful and cause a lot of hacking and coughing and misery, especially for children. The thought of just getting rid of them by adenoid surgery may seem like a logical choice, but unfortunately it isn’t always the best prognosis. Adenoids surgery is often not very effective. Recent studies have shown that children often improve and inflammation will decrease over time without surgery. Various alternative methods may be used to help alleviate symptoms of enlarged adenoids, as well, and at the very least can keep infected adenoids from spreading the infection to other parts of the body. Many people find good results from gargling with salt water, alternating between cold and hot water, in order to increase blood circulation near the adenoids and reduce swelling. Others report that mixing lemon juice with warm water and drinking it has helped some people to reduce the size of enlarged adenoids....