Healthy Breathing

Breathing can be trained for both positive and negative influences on health. Chronic stress can lead to a restriction of the connective and muscular tissue in the chest resulting in a decrease range of motion of the chest wall. Due to rapid more shallow breathing, the chest does not expand as much as it would with slower deeper breaths and much of the air exchange occurs at the top of the lung tissue towards the head. This results in "chest" breathing. You can see if you are a chest breather by placing your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your abdomen. As you breathe, see which hand rises more. If your right hand rises more, you are a chest breather. If your left hand rises more, you are an abdomen breather.

Chest breathing is inefficient because the greatest amount of blood flow occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs, areas that have limited air expansion in chest breathers. Rapid, shallow, chest breathing results in less oxygen transfer to the blood and subsequent poor delivery of nutrients to the tissues. The good news is that similar to learning to play an instrument or riding a bike, you can train the body to improve its breathing technique. With regular practice you will breathe from the abdomen most of the time, even while asleep.

Breathing exercises such as this one should be done twice a day or whenever you find your mind dwelling on upsetting thoughts or when you are experiencing pain.

* Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. When you take a deep breath in, the hand on the abdomen should rise higher than the one on the chest. This insures that the diaphragm is pulling air into the bases of the lungs.
* After exhaling through the mouth, take a slow deep breath in through your nose imagining that you are sucking in all the air in the room and hold it for a count of 7 (or as long as you are able, not exceeding 7)
* Slowly exhale through your mouth for a count of 8. As all the air is released with relaxation, gently contract your abdominal muscles to completely evacuate the remaining air from the lungs. It is important to remember that we deepen respirations not by inhaling more air but through completely exhaling it.
* Repeat the cycle four more times for a total of 5 deep breaths and try to breathe at a rate of one breath every 10 seconds (or 6 breaths per minute). At this rate our heart rate variability increases which has a positive effect on cardiac health.

Learning these techniques will relieve stress and improve your overall well being.

Medical Tourism

Thousands of patients are exploring a new option in today's complex and costly arena of health care. With the costs of medical procedures skyrocketing, here in the U.S., companies are popping up that help patients find quality care in overseas hospitals. One of the oldest companies to offer these services is PlanetHospital. Here is a description of what they do, as taken from their web site:

"PlanetHospital facilitates quality, affordable, and immediate medical care with some of the best surgeons from around the world. We also source innovative and promising medical care being done around the world and make it easy for our clients to access them. Our clients include individuals who are paying for their own medical care, self insured corporations, and insurers. PlanetHospital has representatives in each destination we offer. Real doctors and nurses are available to answer questions. We do not mark up surgery costs. Only Planet Hospital has a follow up care network. We even help our clients get reimbursed for their procedure through their health insurance."

All types of procedures are available; ortho, dental,obesity, heart, cancer, cosmetic, elective, medicine of tomorrow, fertility, etc. To give you an idea on savings, consider the cost of heart bypass surgery. The cash price for this procedure, in the U.S., can range from $122,000 - $176,000....if you have insurance, it might range $54,000 - $79,000. For this same procedure, overseas in a first rate hospital with high caliber surgeons, it would range $10- 20,000. A considerable difference!

With so many people without health insurance, medical tourism is now becoming very popular with people who simply cannot afford the costs that U.S. hospitals and surgeons are charging. For those with serious illnesses and limited funds, there are now viable options for excellent health care and in the example of PlanetHospital, they can take care of all the arrangements.

Healing Music

Our body has the ability to heal itself. It is when our bodies fall out of balance that we become ill. Fabien Maman, a French composer, acupuncturist, and bio-energeticist, believes that each individual has one particular frequency that is unique to each person. This frequency, which he calls the "fundamental sound" has been verified at the cellular level under a microscope. Just as each person has their fundamental sound, he also believes that certain types of music have different affects on the mind and body depending on the time of day or the season in which it is played. We must pay close attention to how we feel in relationship to different sounds or music that we hear as they all can have a different affect on us.

As described by Amrita Cottrell in this amazing article"It has been proven that music affects us physically, psychologically, emotionally and spiritually. We know that our responses to music are far more complex, subtle and far-reaching than can be proven scientifically. However, science has measured observable physical effects, such as changes in blood flow through the fingertips or the speed of muscle reactions to sound. New areas of understanding in the field of blood chemistry, show the connection between the body's release of endorphins and neuro-peptides and changes in emotion." She goes on to tell about the research, of Fabien Maman, that has been done on cancer cells, using music. It showed that cancer cells were not able to support a progressive accumulation of vibratory frequencies. With the use of music, cancer cells could not hold their cellular structure and collapsed....drastically shrinking breast cancer tumors. This is a fascinating article that I would encourage everyone to read.

A few years ago, Linda and I came across a CD of healing tones, put out by Dr. Andrew Weil, and we put it on to play some nights while we are falling asleep. It has a calming affect and my thought is that even if we fall asleep, that on a cellular level, the music is being "heard". I do not have to be awake for the good affects to be felt. It is very calming and restorative. In this hectic world that we all live in, we need someplace to go where we can meditate or relax and rejuvenate ourselves. I encourage you to discover what your "fundamental sound" is and incorporate it into your daily lives to achieve balance and harmony.

Life Vest

Was watching one of those medical shows last week and they told about an item that has the potential to save a lot of lives. It's called LifeVest and it's the first wearable defibrillator. Here is the description from the manufacturer's website:

The LifeVest (Life Vest) wearable defibrillator is the first and only wearable defibrillator for patients at high risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The non-invasive device, approved by the FDA in 2002, provides emergency defibrillation and has been worn by over 9,000 patients, and has a 98 percent first shock success rate for treating patients for SCA without requiring bystander intervention.

LifeVest (Life Vest) Wearable Defibrillator

Timely emergency defibrillation is the single most important factor in saving a SCA victim's life. If it detects a life threatening rhythm, the LifeVest alerts the patient to allow a conscious patient to prevent a shock. If the patient is unconscious, the device delivers emergency defibrillation in the form of an electrical shock to restore normal rhythm. The entire event, from detecting a life-threatening arrhythmia to automatically delivering an emergency defibrillation shock, usually occurs in less than a minute.
Life Vest Emergency Defibrillation

The LifeVest wearable defibrillator is worn outside the body rather than implanted in the chest. The LifeVest system consists of two main components: (1) an electrode belt and garment that surrounds the patient's chest, and (2) a monitor that the patient wears around the waist or from a shoulder strap. The LifeVest electrodes are dry and non-adhesive to provide patient comfort. The monitor weighs about 1.8 pounds, making it the lightest external emergency defibrillator available.

All of this can be done without any bystander intervention. How great is that for high risk patients to have the peace of mind that they can lead a normal life knowing that this device is watching over them. Another great medical innovation !

Painless Cavity Filling

For those of you who dread having a cavity filled, there is good news. A new procedure, using a laser, makes getting a filling a quick and painless procedure.The Waterlase cavity-filling system chips away decay and plaque in the tooth with shots of water and a laser, then the cavity is filled with a liquid composite and sealed with a curing light, resulting in a painless, five-minute procedure that allows the patient to work, eat and drink immediately after. How cool is that ? No numb lip, with the sensation that you're drooling all over the place or have a droopy smile on your face. No shots to dread or the pain of drilling to get the cavity. It's a new day for our kids....no childhood trauma of going to the dentist to get a filling !