A Natural Way to Improve Breathing (Part 1)

Traditionally, individuals with COPD use medication to help improve their breathing. Whether the medication is in the form of pills or inhalers depends on the specific condition, its severity and availability of the medication in various forms. Physicians prescribe these medications in increasing numbers each year, but are all of these prescriptions necessary?

Many people believe that there is a simple, non-pharmaceutical, healthy program that improves general health and in particular the breathing mechanism. Based on the concept that the body's ability to heal itself has been neglected by western medicine until recently, involves a series of breathing exercises designed to help the individual learn to utilize the body's own autoimmune healing resources. It works on the concept that the best healer of all is our own body. Research has shown that diet, exercise and stress reduction are the keys to freeing the body's own healing power.

Logic should tell us that the practitioners of "natural healing", who have been around for centuries, would not continue to use techniques that are ineffective. The cultures of China and India are most recognized as those which practice such "natural healing" techniques, but in reality cultures around the world have techniques to improve health which do not require pharmaceuticals or invasive techniques in order to work. Instead, they use proven, tried and true methods, which include learning and practicing breathing techniques which improve the lung capacity and help the body relieve stress. These two factors can help to improve breathing in COPD patients.

Most of us with COPD have tried multiple treatments in an attempt to find the one that works for our unique problems. Sometimes by doing this, we encounter treatments which actually do more harm than good. For example, some inhalers have side effects of increasing the heart rate, blood pressure or cause anxiety problems. They can also affect the voice quality in some people, result in sore throats and are difficult to use, so the maximum benefits of the medication are not received. Each of these treatments is not cheap, and for some the luxury of being able to try and then discard a treatment as ineffective is not an option financially.

Natural techniques, utilizing breathing exercises, however, are free. The do not have any side effects, and they can be practiced by anyone, anyplace and at any time. If for some reason they do not provide the anticipated results they do not have withdrawal symptoms. In other words, they only can do good or be neutral in their effect. There is not possibility that they will cause harm to the body. This is an advantage which can not be ignored.

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