Yoga breathing exercises could help sufferers of mild asthma and may help reduce their use of low-dose drug inhalers in wheezing attacks.
Researchers from the Respiratory Medicine Unit, City University, Nottingham, call for more studies of ways of improving breathing control which they say have been largely ignored by Western medicine.
While yoga practitioners have long believed in the benefits of pranayama breathing exercises for asthmatics, this has been hard to study formally. But, using a Pink City lung - a device that imposes slow breathing on the user and can mimic pranayama breathing exercises - it was possible to measure the effects of controlled breathing in a hospital trial.
Two simulated pranayama exercises were tested: slow deep breathing and breathing out for twice as long as breathing in.
In asthma, the airways become restricted making breathing difficult. It is increasing in the UK, with more than three million children and adults affected, and are responsible for 2,000 deaths annually.
The doctors used standard clinical tests to measure the volume of air patients were able to blow out in a second and to test the irritability of their airways. After yoga, their airways were two times less irritable,
Though asthma patients should not stop their medication, they should experiment with breathing exercises.
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Yoga is a wonderful discipline that teaches students postures that can tone, and stretch every part of their body every time they execute the pose. It encourages discipline, strength and clarity of mind; it demands focus, on concentration and an open mind to embrace thoughts, postures, breathing techniques, which the student may not have encountered before.
Many of the full yoga postures will be too difficult initially for the average student, but this should not be discouraging as in any routine there will be exercises, which are too advanced at the beginning. This then provides opportunities of progression for the student which should be welcomed.
Typically yoga classes have mixed ability groups. There will be those who have studied yoga for many years and who are fairly flexible and there will be those who are new who find it difficult to bend or stretch into the full posture.
Within every class or practice session there will be a complete yoga set, which need to be completed to the best of the student’s abilities. The teacher will guide the student from start to finish throughout the postures and will be able to correctly position the student should alignment not be quite right.
Practicing a complete yoga set at home without being under the teachers watchful eye, would make it harder for the student to be aware of correct positioning so it is beneficial for students to at least start off their yoga studies at a class so that they do not learn technical bad habits.
Flexibility in yoga comes very quickly even to the disabled, elderly or infirm, as the movements are gentle in many styles of yoga, the body is not put under a great deal of strain as in other movements and indeed the complete yoga set is meant to compliment, encourage and motivate the student to carefully achieve all of the positions within it.
In a matter of months, the student has settled into the way of the yogi. The student takes on a different awareness regarding health issues, spiritually becomes much more aware, breathing is enhanced, posture is greatly improved and the discipline is helped by continued practice of the compete yoga set.
Yoga enthusiasts soon realize that yoga is not just a physical exercise routine; it quickly becomes a way of life and with many positive benefits, which are noticed and endorsed by those around the student.
Personal satisfaction comes when the student is able to practice the complete yoga set including all of the advanced positions without stress or strain.
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