By Dr. Tara Devi, O.M.D., Acupunture Physician and Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher since 1999
Namaste Fellow Yoga Enthusiasts and Friends!
How I Cured Asthma With Yoga in 6 Weeks
Do you, or anyone you know have asthma or other breathing difficulties?
Have you felt dissatisfied with the treatments and therapies available, with their side effects? Do you feel insecure, even scared, of what will happen if you lose your inhaler, and moreover, of who you will become if you continue to to be dependent on it or your breath and life? Have you ever wished you were exuberant and healthy, feeling the inner sense of well being that comes from a highly oxygenated and aerobic (more about this later) metabolism? Are you ready to discover new found energy, a well-spring of gratitude, and dazzling confidence AND health?
What Is Asthma Exactly?
Asthma (AZ-ma) is a chronic (long-term) lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing. The coughing often occurs at night or early in the morning.
Asthma affects people of all ages, but it most often starts in childhood. In the United States, more than 22 million people are known to have asthma. Nearly 6 million of these people are children.
Overview
The airways are tubes that carry air into and out of your lungs. People who have asthma have inflamed airways. This makes the airways swollen and very sensitive. They tend to react strongly to certain substances that are breathed in.
When the airways react, the muscles around them tighten. This causes the airways to narrow, and less air flows to your lungs. The swelling also can worsen, making the airways even narrower. Cells in the airways may make more mucus than normal. Mucus is a sticky, thick liquid that can further narrow your airways.
This chain reaction can result in asthma symptoms. Symptoms can happen each time the airways are irritated.
Sometimes symptoms are mild and go away on their own or after minimal treatment with an asthma medicine. At other times, symptoms continue to get worse. When symptoms get more intense and/or additional symptoms appear, this is an asthma attack. Asthma attacks also are called flareups or exacerbations.
It’s important to treat symptoms when you first notice them. This will help prevent the symptoms from worsening and causing a severe asthma attack. Severe asthma attacks may require emergency care, and they can cause death.
Why Health and Fitness Are Not the Same, Especially With Asthma!
What exactly do I mean between the difference between health and fitness? Fitness is the “physical ability to perform athletic activity.” Health, however, is defined as “the state where all of the systems of the body-nervous, muscular, skeletal, circulatory, digestive, lymphatic, hormonal, etc-are working in an optimum way….” says Dr. Phillip Maffetone, author of “Everyone is an Athlete”.
Most people think that fitness implies health, but the truth is that they don’t necessarily go hand in hand. It’s ideal to have both health and fitness, but by putting health first, you will always enjoy tremendous benefits in your life. If you achieve fitness at the expense of health, you may not live long enough to enjoy your spectacular physique. This optimum state of health and balance is achieved by training your metabolism to be aerobic, which literally means “with oxygen”.
Asthma and Fat Metabolism
What does retraining your metabolism have to do with asthma or it’s frequently associated conditions of fatigue, low blood sugar patterns, nervousness, allergies and fat metabolism problems? The biggest difference between health and fitness, asthmatics who go to the gym or who exercise is understanding the distinction between aerobic and anaerobic exercise, between endurance and power. Aerobic literally means “with oxygen”, and refers to moderate exercise sustained over a period of time. Your aerobic system is your system for endurance, and encompasses the heart, lungs, blood vessels, and aerobic muscles. If you activate your aerobic system with proper diet and exercise, you burn fat as your primary fuel.
On the other hand, anaerobic literally means “without oxygen”, and refers to exercises which produce short bursts of power. Anaerobic exercise burns glycogen as its primary fuel, while causing the body to store fat.
Dr. Maffetone says “Most types of exercise can be either aerobic or anaerobic. The level of intensity determines whether you are using your aerobic or anaerobic system. Walking, jogging, running, swimming, biking, dancing, etc. can provide either benefit. Lower heart rates make these exercises aerobic, while higher heart rates make them anaerobic….usually tennis, racquetball, basketball, and similar sports are anaerobic.”
Asthma sufferers, ever oxygen deficient, have trained their metabolisms to use glycogen, or sugar, as fuel, and to store fat instead of burn fat for fuel. As a result, most crave sugar, store a lot of mid-section fat, constantly feel hungry for the wrong foods, and feel fatigued as well as sleepless.
Most Americans & Asthmatics Live in an Anaerobic, Fat-Storing State…
being inundated with stress and demands and compounding it with the way they exercise. As a result, they train their metabolism to be continuously anaerobic, i.e. burn glycogen as a primary source of energy. When these levels of glycogen become excessively low, the anaerobically-trained metabolism turns to blood sugar as a secondary source of fuel. This immediately disrupts the level of health and vitality since the nervous system demands the use of two-thirds of your blood sugar. The blood-sugar deficit created by anaerobic exercise can cause neuro-muscular problems like headaches or disorientation.
Here are some tell tale symptoms directly related to excessive anaerobic training of your metabolism:
- Fatigue
- Recurrent Exercise Injuries
- Low Blood Sugar Patterns
- Depressiona & Anxiety
- Fat Metabolism Problems
- PMS
- Circulation Problems
- Stiff Joints
The solution, however, is simple. Stu Mittleman, who ran 1,000 miles in 11 days without a single injury, and myself, cured of asthma in 6 weeks, understand that health and fitness must go together. To accomplish this, stay tuned for the next post coming in a few days….
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