Breathe for Life

© John W Travis MD, MPH

The following is one in an ongoing series of columns entitled Simply Well by John W Travis MD, MPH.

Adult humans normally breathe at the rate of one breath every six to eight seconds and inhale an average of sixteen thousand quarts of air each day. If nothing is done to restrict breathing, it will happen naturally and fully. But people continually inhibit natural breathing in many ways—poor posture, tight or binding clothes, "speed eating," exposure to noxious substances, smoking, lack of exercise, plus habitual patterns of emotional stress.  

When breathing is obstructed or suppressed, the cells in the body do not receive the full amount of oxygen necessary to carry out their assigned functions. You may feel sleepy or irritable, or develop a headache. One reason that exercise is so valuable is that it forces you to breathe more fully, literally replenishing your dwindling supply of oxygen.   Hindus call it prana—the life force carried in the breath.

Many languages use the same word for both breath and spirit, or life force. In Hebrew, the word for soul or spirit is rauch. In Greek, it is pneuma. In Latin, spiritus. Each of these words also means "breath." In English, to inhale is to "inspire"—to take in the spirit. To exhale, or expire, means to release the spirit.

All of life can be observed as a taking in and a giving out, of movement and rest, of controlling and letting go. The way you breathe is an excellent metaphor for the way you live your life.   The information and exercises recommended here encourage you to start paying attention to your breathing as a form of relaxation, stress reduction, and healing.

Breath and Stress

Stress is inevitable—you need it to stand upright against the force of gravity. That’s known as eustress, or positive stress, the kind that motivates you to get a job done on time or to do something that you thought was impossible. 

When endangered by something in the environment or upset by disturbing thoughts—such as frightening expectations or memories like those associated with grief or panic—the body reacts to protect itself. It triggers a set of automatic responses, including increases in heart rate, in blood flow to the muscles, and in the rate of breathing. These responses are designed to energize the body to do battle, to run away, or to freeze.  

When the danger is real, the alarm state is necessary and important.   But there are many less dangerous forms of stress in your life that have the potential of wearing you down and causing a variety of health problems. Many people live in a constant state of alarm.

"Stress plays some role in the development of every disease," writes Hans Selye, MD, in his classic work, Stress without Distress.   If stress is balanced with relaxation or attitude-change methods, the continual surge of energy supplied by the response to stress can be modified or even channeled for creative purposes. If stress levels remain high, disease and breakdown will often result.

Take a moment to recall some of the stressful situations in your life. Are there difficult people, either adults or children? Interruptions when you’re trying to work or rest? Is there too much work, too little time? Are they driving in traffic? Smog and noise?

Worries about your own health, or the health of someone in your family?

About The Author

John W. Travis, MD, MPH, is the creator of the Wellness Inventory and its parent, the Wellness Index. He is the founder and co-director of Wellness Associates, a consulting and publishing group whose mission is to transform the culture from its current focus on authoritarianism/domination into......more

http://www.healthy.net/Health/Essay/Breathe_for_Life/473

Exercising in your 70s 'may stop brain shrinkage'

I found this in the news and wanted to share it with you.  I think  it’s very pertinent to our conversations...

By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

Regular exercise protects the brain, experts suspect.

Exercising in your 70s may stop your brain from shrinking and showing the signs of ageing linked to dementia, say experts from Edinburgh University.

Brain scans of 638 people past the age of retirement show those who were most physically active had less brain shrinkage over a three-year period.

Exercise did not have to be strenuous - going for a walk several times a week sufficed, the journal Neurology says.

But giving the mind a workout by doing a tricky crossword had little impact.

The study found no real brain-size benefit from mentally challenging activities, such as reading a book, or other pastimes such as socialising with friends and family.

 More research is also needed to tease out how physical activity might be having a beneficial effect” End Quote Dr Simon Ridley Alzheimer's Research UK

When the researchers examined the brain's white matter - the wiring that transmits messages round the brain - they found that the people over the age of 70 who were more physically active had fewer damaged areas than those who did little exercise.

And they had more grey matter - the parts of the brain where the messages originate.

Experts already know that our brains tend to shrink as we age and that this shrinkage is linked to poorer memory and thinking.

And previous studies have shown that exercise helps reduce the risk of dementia and can slow down its onset.

But scientists are still baffled about why this is.

'Never too late'

Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, delivering oxygen and nutrients to brain cells, which may be important.

Or it may be that as people's brains shrink, they become less inclined to exercise.

Regardless of why, experts say the findings are good news because exercise is an easy thing to do to boost health.

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "This study links physical exercise to fewer signs of ageing in the brain, suggesting that it may be a way of protecting our cognitive health.

"While we can't say that exercise is the causal factor in this study, we do know that exercise in middle age can lower the risk of dementia later in life.

"It will be important to follow these volunteers to see whether these structural features are associated with greater cognitive decline over the coming years. More research is also needed to tease out how physical activity might be having a beneficial effect."

Prof James Goodwin, head of research at Age UK, the charity that provided the funding for the research, said: "This research re-emphasises that it really is never too late to benefit from exercise, so whether it's a brisk walk to the shops, gardening or competing in a fun run it is crucial that, those of us who can, get active as we grow older."

You don’t need to be living in Okinawa, to enjoy good health and vitality.

The question of why we want to put off the negative effects of growing old and why we want to make improvements on looks and vitality may sound vain. But we’ll see that there is much more to it than just that.

Ageing has its virtues in that, gaining experience through time; you become wiser, and that is most of what can be said about it in a positive tone.

On the other hand, wrinkles, hair loss, flabby arms and eunuch kind of sex drive are hardly things to look forward to.

We can take some inspiration from the inhabitants of Okinawa, a Japanese island with a world-record on longevity. People there do not just exist for longer.  The Okinawans are renowned for radiating vibrant health, vitality and mental wellness right into their nineties.

What we can learn and take away from the Okinawans in the way of attaining a similar state of being? Admittedly, living our lives in our hectic metropolis doesn’t make it easy for us to replicate their lifestyle. Still, we can identify some patterns from the Okinawans lifestyle that when applied -  even in our personal circumstances – can have positive results.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Much progress has been made in the understanding of why we age, how we age and what we can do to slow down that process. And of course, what I am talking about here has nothing to do with the knife or Botox.

What I’m talking about here are some things that anyone can do, and you don’t have to shell out thousands of pounds to do them. Once you start, you will be amazed!

And it will be better starting today, because time will continue on without you. It doesn’t make any pits stops because you haven’t decided what you want to do.

Believe it or not, there are ways that you can be 60 in age and look 40 in your mind and body! These processes have nothing to do with buying any expensive creams that may or may not work for you. There are more productive and normal ways available to you in order to regain your youthful years without having to sacrifice lots of money or time in doing it.

The respected ragtime pianist Eubie Blake once said, “If I had known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” And that is exactly the point: we should live our lives as if we will never die. In other words, we should live our lives taking care of our bodies, emotions and spirituality.

According to some agreement in scientific research, at present our potential life span is of about 120 years. And the beauty of it is that we can actually enjoy those many years of life with a lot of energy and joy. It doesn’t have to be and existence of aches and ailments. In short, we can stay younger for longer.

As we will see studying the examples of the people of Okinawa and other world’s longevity spots, one of the fundamental components of health and longevity is what we put inside our bodies. Just as we are careful of putting only high octane fuel in our cars for optimal performance, we should choose carefully the food we eat.

Yes, the right diet is essential to prevent age-related diseases, together with some light daily exercise and subsequent relaxation to avoid stress.

In line with this blog’s theme, future posts will be revealing the “secrets” behind these people’s exceptional good health and longevity. And as I already mentioned, there aren’t really secrets, but principles that, when applied, can make a huge difference.

Of course, I am going to discuss some specific things that I discovered are really helpful. For the time being, let me just say in general that fresh food, an active lifestyle, lots of fresh air and a positive mental attitude are all part of it.

Most of us don’t live in Okinawa, but with a little knowledge and an adventurous spirit, we can gradually incorporate these ideas in our daily routine.

It is true that some of the things I will be suggesting we can buy from our local supermarket or a health-food shop, some other we can order from the Internet. There are some things that we can’t possibly buy anywhere, such as a happy relationship with our partners and our children. But even in these areas there are things we can do to reduce stress and enhance our happiness and that of others. I’m going to touch on each of the things that helped me in all these areas.

What are the “secrets” of feeling and looking young?

You don’t need to set out into a perilous journey like Gilgamesh, to discover the secrets of the fountain of youth, or sell your soul like Dorian Gray just to keep a youthful appearance.

There is no doubt that the human body is a wonderful machine, made to last, renovate and rejuvenate itself - as long as we take good care of it. In this, there is no much difference with any other machine which for a useful life of service needs good routine maintenance.

I’ll start examining some strategies that I found very useful in the process of rejuvenating body and mind. In order for this to have a lasting motivating meaning, the first question we need to answer is WHY?

Why we would want to rejuvenate our bodies and minds? Also, what rejuvenation is and, what it isn’t.

The best place to start your rejuvenation project is right where you are just now.

That of course will be a very different place for each one of us. It will depend on our age, our lifestyle and eating habits, our makeup, and our culture and our mental attitude.

Regardless of all those variables, you can be very confident that with a little determination and attention to yourself, the application of the secrets will gradually produce good results.

It would be an exciting journey that would have the first rewards when you’ll start feeling great, looking at the mirror without feeling uncomfortable and especially when people would start asking if you had a Botox treatment or something because you would look so much younger than your age.

The secrets to staying young embrace every area of one’s life: physical, emotional and spiritual. I will be suggesting small steps in all these areas that will lead to sustainable changes for the better.

How are you feeling just now? Do you feel old? Do you feel rusty? Tired? Lacking motivation and joie de vivre? Lacking physical flexibility?

Do you yearn for the days when you used to jump out of bed each morning ready to meet the challenges of the new day, full of excitement and the joy of being alive?

All those reasons and many others are healthy grounds to want to rejuvenate your mind and body.

I can’t promise that these secrets will magically improve your health and make you look 20 years younger overnight. As we said above, that will depend very much on where you are just now. But they will give you the key to open doors you probably didn’t even know they exist.

I just want to remind you again, that the secrets I have here to share with you are not originated from my own imagination. In every field or hill, people who know anything, stand on the shoulders of those who climbed there before them. In fact, what I like to call “secrets”, are not really secrets at all. They have been known to mankind for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. A lot of what is known to foster human longevity is in reality very simple things. Sometimes deceivingly simple, which make its benefits, unbelievable to many.

Please don’t allow the apparent simplicity of some of those secrets deceive you. They all belong to a heritage of knowledge and ideas which are the foundation of a youthful and healthy life..

As you come across something you think may be useful for your personal situation, please don’t take the procrastinating stand of “Mmm, yeh... very interesting – I’ll keep it on file” type of attitude. Go on and implement plans to try it!

Remember that when it comes to your own health and wellbeing, only you can do something about it. No one else will!

No one but you can rejuvenate yourself. No one but you can achieve that.

In my next post, I’ll start writing about something of substance, not just spin. I’ll start sharing with you some ideas that, if applied, will immediately produce visible results in reversing already existing effects of ageing. I’ll be talking about internal and external methods that include eating habits, herbs and nutritional supplements.

Remember: the ravages of age are not totally avoidable, but there is a lot we can do to keep them at bay for as long as possible.