Asthma kills 6,000 people a year. Respiratory illnesses affect millions more. According to Teresa Hale, asthmatics and others with respiratory illnesses are breathing wrong. "We have been led to believe that deep breathing is good for us because it increases our oxygen intake. In fact, the reverse is true. The more we breathe, the less oxygen actually reaches the cells of our bodies," says Hale in Breathing Free: The Revolutionary 5-Day Program to Heal Asthma, Emphysema, Bronchitis, and Other Respiratory Ailments. Her breathing program, Breath Connection, teaches you to change your breathing patterns so that you won't need to wheeze, breathe heavily, or take gulps of air after exertion. Hale promises that five days on this program will reduce your need for medications, and regular practice often increases metabolism and leads to weight loss.

Breathing Free gives a self-test to assess your breathing and teaches several techniques to improve it. Hale explains how to adapt the program for mild, moderate, or severe asthma; emphysema; bronchitis; panic attacks; general health; and children with asthma. She also suggests dietary guidelines.

Hale's program is based on the work of Konstantin Buteyko of the former Soviet Union. It is easy to understand, but will take time and effort to master. But Hale says you have a choice: "Stay where you are, with your daydreams and your deteriorating health, or take control and make some effort to effect permanent change." Hale founded Britain's renowned Hale Clinic, whose clients have included Princess Diana, the Duchess of York, Tina Turner, Richard Gere, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. --Joan Price


From Library Journal
Anyone who has ever experienced difficulty breathing due to asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, or any number of other respiratory diseases will find hope and encouragement in the latest title by Hale and Simpson. The Breath Connection, a series of exercises developed at the world-renowned Hale Clinic in London and the result of 45 years of research, has led to the discovery that some 200 diseases, many respiratory in nature, are the result of dysfunctional breathing, or overbreathing. The Control Pause, a technique of holding the breath, allows the sufferer to restore the body's natural levels of carbon dioxide, oxygen, and pH. Hale, the founder of the clinic, and Simpson, a member of the U.K.'s Guild of Health Writers, throw in an extra bonus by including the breathing exercise program on cassette number six. These tapes have the potential to help hundreds, if not thousands, of library patrons suffering from any of these debilitating diseases. Highly recommended.-Marty D. Evensvold, Arkansas City P.L., KS Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
MAKE THE BREATH CONNECTION -- AND SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffer from asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, or other respiratory ailments? Far too often, people with these illnesses are prescribed medications that only mask symptoms, instead of really treating the underlying condition. If you are among this group, it's time for you to escape this prison and start Breathing Free.

Teresa Hale, founder of the world-renowned Hale Clinic, has created a groundbreaking treatment that can dramatically change the lives of anyone who feels the crippling affect these illnesses can have on their daily lives, in as little as five days. Called the Breath Connection, this revolutionary program is based on more than forty-five years of empirical research, as well as the Buteyko method, which focuses on dysfunctional breathing, or overbreathing, as the cause of more than 200 respiratory diseases.

Breathing Free is complete with line drawings and clear instructions on how to use these simple methods to reestablish normal breathing patterns to prevent and overcome attacks, restore healthy and restful sleep, and reduce the need for medication by up to 60 percent. For the many people who have lived with the struggle of breathing problems, Breathing Free provides hope for relief, better health, and a better life.


Book Info
(Harmony Books) Text on the treatment of asthma and respiratory illness taught at the Hale Clinic, London, UK. Based on more than forty-five days of practical and empirical research. Illustrated with line drawings and teaches a technique to retain breathing patterns and prevent or overcome attacks. For consumers.


From the Inside Flap
MAKE THE BREATH CONNECTION -- AND SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffer from asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, or other respiratory ailments? Far too often, people with these illnesses are prescribed medications that only mask symptoms, instead of really treating the underlying condition. If you are among this group, it's time for you to escape this prison and start Breathing Free.

Teresa Hale, founder of the world-renowned Hale Clinic, has created a groundbreaking treatment that can dramatically change the lives of anyone who feels the crippling affect these illnesses can have on their daily lives, in as little as five days. Called the Breath Connection, this revolutionary program is based on more than forty-five years of empirical research, as well as the Buteyko method, which focuses on dysfunctional breathing, or overbreathing, as the cause of more than 200 respiratory diseases.

Breathing Free is complete with line drawings and clear instructions on how to use these simple methods to reestablish normal breathing patterns to prevent and overcome attacks, restore healthy and restful sleep, and reduce the need for medication by up to 60 percent. For the many people who have lived with the struggle of breathing problems, Breathing Free provides hope for relief, better health, and a better life.


About the Author
TERESA HALE is the founder of the Hale Clinic, London's premier alternative health clinic. With a newly opened branch in New York City, Hale is working to expand her practice to Chicago, Los Angeles, and throughout the United States. Hale is also the author of The Hale Clinic Guide to Good Health. She lives in London.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Asthma kills thousands of people every year. Millions of others are severely debilitated by related respiratory illnesses every day of their lives. And asthma is on the increase -- it is now the only disease in the Western world that is increasing in epidemic proportions. Perhaps most frightening, modern medicine practices have done nothing to reduce the number of asthma-related deaths, and we are no closer to a cure than we were forty years ago. Over that time, the number of cases, and the number of deaths, has continued to rise. Doctors have little idea of how to prevent this disease, and its cause has remained one of medicine's modern mysteries.

But there is hope. This book introduces a program that will dramatically reduce the symptoms of all asthmatics and anyone suffering from bronchial disorders within as little as five days. By following the program, you can improve your health without the need for drugs or any of the traditional methods used to treat respiratory conditions. Most important, you will make fundamental changes to the way your body works, and, over time, all kinds of niggling health problems will be addressed.

This program involves learning to breathe. Across time, we have been led to believe that deep breathing is good for us because it increases our oxygen intake. In fact, the reverse is true. The more we breathe, the less oxygen actually reaches the cells of our bodies.

Breath Is Life

Gentle, regular breathing is a reassuring sign of peace and healthy rest. Most of us consider the calm rise and fall of the chest, the soft, steady rhythms of breathing itself, to be evidence of good health. Indeed, the physical act of breathing indicates that we are alive. It's not surprising, therefore, that people find it difficult to understand the concept that breathing shouldn't be an obvious function. When we breathe correctly, our chests do not expand and sink. Healthy breathing is quiet and shallow, and our chests barely move.

We breathe from the moment we are born. When an obstetrician gently slaps a new-born baby's bottom, that baby is encouraged to take his or her first deep lungful of air. The baby's noisy cry of protest as he or she releases that breath is evidence that he or she is alive and well, and there are few parents who don't breathe a deep sigh of relief themselves. But how ironic it is that a baby's first breath should be deep -- causing the baby to inhale much more oxygen than his or her tiny body needs and encouraging a damaging pattern of breathing that will be with the child for the rest of his or her life.

This may sound like an unusual concept. If breathing is an involuntary process, how can taking a natural, deep breath be wrong? The answer is quite simple. Breathing is not just involuntary. There are many factors that can cause us to breathe more or less, including stress, panic, emotion and -- most important -- habit. We can also adjust our rate of breathing, as we do when we hold our breath under water or blow out bursts of air when we exercise.

Most of us breathe incorrectly out of habit, and there are many reasons why this occurs. We are literally trained to overbreathe and have been led to believe that deep breathing is healthy. In times of stress, deliberation, or emotion, we are encouraged to take a deep breath. We have been taught that with every breathing motion we inhale healthy oxygen and exhale a toxic gas called carbon dioxide. Big, deep breaths of fresh air provide us with masses of essential oxygen; exhaling releases the poison. Oxygen is the gas of life, while carbon dioxide is the waste gas.

Therein lies the confusion.

The Carbon Dioxide Myth

Carbon dioxide is not a waste gas. It is one of the most important chemical regulators of the human body, and it is essential for the activity of our hearts, our blood vessels, and our respiratory systems. Carbon dioxide enables oxygen to do its work and, in reality, we need far more carbon dioxide than we do oxygen.

When we overbreathe -- that is, breathe more than the physiological norm -- we are actually getting less oxygen, not more. This happens because our bodies need to maintain a certain level of carbon dioxide in our blood in order for the red blood cells to release the oxygen we need. When we overbreathe, the balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen in the bloodstream is upset. We may be taking in more oxygen, but we are also breathing out more carbon dioxide, and without the carbon dioxide, our bodies cannot use the oxygen we inhale. We need certain levels of carbon dioxide in our bodies for them to function correctly. When those levels are too low, the chemical bond between oxygen and hemoglobin (which carries oxygen through our blood) increases. In real terms, that means that hemoglobin will not let go of the oxygen it is carrying, which makes it difficult for the cells of our brains, hearts, kidneys, and other organs to get the oxygen they need. As a result, the deeper we breathe, the less oxygen our bodies get.

We now know that all asthmatics overbreathe, and that this rate of overbreathing occurs during asthma attacks. If you stop overbreathing, your asthma will go away. The cause of asthma is hyperventilation, and the way to prevent it is to retrain your breathing.

This book seeks to educate all of us about the way we breathe. It is aimed particularly at asthmatics, parents and carers of asthmatics, and those who suffer from other respiratory conditions. But the fact is that we will all benefit from breathing correctly. We will show that scores of other debilitating conditions, from heart disease to emotional stress, can be relieved and in many cases helped by adopting our new approach to breathing and breath control.

ANNOTATION

"The Breath Connection, five-day program taught at the renowned Hale Clinic, has helped hundreds of thousands of sufferers to alleviate the worst symptoms of asthma and other illnesses."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

MAKE THE BREATH CONNECTION — AND SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffer from asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, or other respiratory ailments? Far too often, people with these illnesses are prescribed medications that only mask symptoms, instead of really treating the underlying condition. If you are among this group, it's time for you to escape this prison and start Breathing Free.

Teresa Hale, founder of the world-renowned Hale Clinic, has created a groundbreaking treatment that can dramatically change the lives of anyone who feels the crippling affect these illnesses can have on their daily lives, in as little as five days. Called the Breath Connection, this revolutionary program is based on more than forty-five years of empirical research, as well as the Buteyko method, which focuses on dysfunctional breathing, or overbreathing, as the cause of more than 200 respiratory diseases.

Breathing Free is complete with line drawings and clear instructions on how to use these simple methods to reestablish normal breathing patterns to prevent and overcome attacks, restore healthy and restful sleep, and reduce the need for medication by up to 60 percent. For the many people who have lived with the struggle of breathing problems, Breathing Free provides hope for relief, better health, and a better life.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal