Breathing Right for Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases are complex disorders involving a compromised immune system. To date, the Western medicine has not been able to come up with any effective cure, except recommending toxic pharmaceutical drugs to control the symptoms. One of the underlying causes of autoimmune diseases is stress, which also plays a pivotal role in aggravating the disease symptoms.

Surprisingly, stress has much to do with breathing—yes,  the way you breathe can adversely affect your whole body system, including your immune system. In addition, breathing right can also reduce your stress, both the physical and the mental stress.

Your Creator has given you powerful lungs, which are capable of taking any strenuous workout well into your seventies. But your respiratory system may be severely compromised due to cigarette smoke, alcohol, gallstones in the liver causing allergies, disorders of the nose and nasal cavities, and diseases of the bronchi and lungs.

Your body wellness replies on breathing right.

Breathing gives you invisible food to all your body cells and organs by supplying them with life-giving oxygen. Your intake of oxygen depends on the quality of the air as well as the how deeply you breathe in and out. All centenarians have one thing in common: they all breathe deeply and slowly. Conscious deep breathing may calm and integrate your body and mind, contributing to overall peace of mind, which is important to your physical and mental health.

The secret of breathing right is to take your lungs everywhere and breathe deeply and slowly. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, many people simply take breathing right for granted.

The wrong way to breathe

• Hold in your stomach or have a flat stomach while breathing in and out.
• Take rapid, small, and shallow upper-body breaths (leading to aches and pain). 
• Exhale carbon too quickly (disturbing the balance of acidity and alkalinity in your body–known as the pH level).
• Use your neck and upper-back muscles to breathe (resulting in high blood pressure and racing heartbeats).

The right way to breathe

Breathe with the diaphragm: breathe deeply through your nose; your belly and diaphragm should move noticeably while breathing.

How to breathe right:

• Sit comfortably in a relaxed mode with your feet resting comfortably on the floor.
• Place your hands on your stomach.
• Breathe in slowly through your nose on a count of five, while gently pushing your hands up on your stomach.
• Hold your breath for a count of five.
• Breathe out slowly through your mouth on a count of five, while pushing your hands down on your stomach.
• Repeat. Allow your eyes to close as your breath deepens and your belly begins to rise and fall.
• Begin your 10-15 minute breathing session several times a day until your breathing becomes second nature to you.

Optimal breathing benefits the flow of qi (internal vital force). In the Orient,

Yoga, Qigong, and Zen meditation, all teach correct breathing as the basic principle for practice.

Breathing right leads to correct posture, which also affects the natural flow of qi, which is the internal life force energy responsible for transporting oxygen and nutrients to different organs and tissues in your body. Good posture contributes to breathing right. Incidentally, rodents, with the shortest breaths in the animal kingdom, also have the shortest lifespan. Therefore, breathing right is an important component of your body's overall  wellness.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau