Breathe in, breathe out, and repeat.

Inhale through your nose for a count of five. Hold your breath for five counts. Exhale slowly through your nose for five counts.

How do you feel? More relaxed? Calmer? Perhaps even more awake?

The impact of conscious breathing on your immune system

Breathing is something we rarely think about, yet it plays a crucial role in our well-being. Although breathwork has long been a central component of meditation and yoga practices, conscious breathing is now emerging as a discipline of its own. From personalized breathing sessions to apps like Calm and Headspace, and curated Spotify playlists for breathwork – when was the last time you truly paid attention to your breath?

Intentional breathwork offers immediate benefits for the body, mind, and emotions. Studies show that it also provides long-term advantages, including reshaping and strengthening the neural pathways that connect breathing to the brain’s emotion regulation centres.

But what exactly is conscious breathing?

“Conscious breathing means being aware of when you inhale and exhale,” explains Burnout Advisor and Clinical Hypnotherapist Charlene Gisèle. “Most people aren’t aware of their breathing patterns, nor do they breathe consciously. We’re taught in basic science classes that our lungs absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, but the deeper mechanics of breathing, such as the role of the diaphragm and the lymphatic flow triggered by deep breaths, are unknown to most.”

How does conscious breathing benefit the immune system?

From a scientific perspective, controlled breathing helps regulate our stress response. When we’re under stress, our immune system becomes weakened because stress lowers the body’s levels of lymphocytes (white blood cells that help fight off infection).

Lower lymphocyte levels make us more vulnerable to illnesses like colds and other infections.

In essence, more stress = a weaker immune system. However, controlled breathing can counteract this, taking us out of the “fight or flight” mode and restoring balance.

“Breathing is vital for regulating the lymphatic system, which is responsible for detoxifying the body by transporting lymph fluid, filled with infection-fighting white blood cells, throughout the body,” says Charlene. “Just like the heart circulates blood, deep, conscious breathing helps move lymph fluid, enhancing immunity.”

Regular and consistent breathwork can be a form of preventative healthcare. “Breathwork is directly tied to lymphatic flow, which is in turn linked to immunity,” explains Charlene. “Our immune system is our defence mechanism against viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens.”

Conscious breathing exercises to support your immune system

Diaphragmatic (Belly) Breathing

Breathing from your diaphragm helps to activate this important muscle and promotes better lymph flow, says Charlene. “While this may initially feel tiring, over time, it will become easier and feel more natural. For best results, practice for five to ten minutes, three to four times a day.”

How to do it:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your head resting on a pillow.
2. Place another pillow under your knees for added support.
3. Put one hand on your chest and the other just below your rib cage to feel the diaphragm movement.
4. Inhale slowly through your nose, letting your stomach press into your hand.
5. Keep your upper hand as still as possible.
6. Exhale gently through pursed lips, tightening your stomach muscles while keeping your upper hand still.
7. To increase the challenge, place a book on your abdomen to deepen the exercise. 

Charlène suggests; “Once you master belly breathing while lying down, you can try it sitting in a chair and eventually practice it during daily activities.”

Written By Charlene Gisèle, Burnout Advisor and Clinical Hypnotherapist

If you’re looking for more guidance, Charlène’s coaching services and podcast can help you maintain your wellbeing.

For more information, visit charlenegisele.com, where you can sign up for her weekly wellbeing newsletter and tune into her latest podcast episodes.

Photo by Angelina Sarycheva on Unsplash

The post Conscious breathing: why it has a positive effect on your immune system appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

The post Elevating the Mind: Meditation as the Ultimate Fitness for the Soul appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

Modern medicine has focused on extending our life span, supported by the general public. This has been achieved but at a severe cost. If we look at America as a vision of where the UK follows a few years on, we should be making vital changes to the way the health care system works. 

Longevity has been achieved with ever increasing medical support, so that now the American people are the sickest people among the industrialised nations despite, or perhaps because of, their highest national expenditure on medicine.

The key question is “are we brighter than an amoeba? Every living creature from amoeba to human has the ability to respond to its environment. Shine a strong light on an amoeba and it will move away for its survival. 

We humans also have the ability to respond to anything that is a threat to life, or in other words we all have response-ability for our lives. Sadly most of us are not living responsibly, we no longer feel responsible for our own health and longevity. Many of us have handed over this responsibility to others such as a doctor, the food industry, or the government in charge of health and safety!

We all have a choice between a long active healthy life or a long increasingly unhealthy life progressively more and more inactive or disabled.

What can you do to achieve the long healthy, active lifespan?

You can start with four key factors for health promotion (in order of priority):

1. Your breathing
2. Your eating
3. Your body care
4. Your mind

Why this ordering? 

We can live our entire lives with many mental problems, we can live for years with little exercise and structural problems, we can only live for a few weeks without food and water but we can only live for a few minutes without breathing!

The other reason for this order is to make this life changing shift easier for you! You can improve your breathing in a matter of days or weeks, you can change your eating habits with a little effort in weeks or months but work on your body might take months or more and changing old established mental problems can take years of effort and good support.

Now you know how to proceed, you need some measuring tools to check your progress on this journey, both to give you encouragement and to help you direct your efforts in the most useful ways.

Based on my forty years of experience in the healthcare profession I would suggest some of the simplest yet well proven tests:

1. For your breathing I suggest the Buteyko Method “Control Pause “ – This test takes about one minute and will give you a good indication of the quality of your breathing and your tissue oxygenation.
2. For your nutritional status I would suggest the simplest test, “The 4LeafSurvey” – This is based on twelve questions and gives a good measure of the percentage of calories you get from whole plant based foods in your diet.

You now have perhaps the two most important vital signs that most doctors have neglected for half a century. The vast majority of diseases are closely related to how we breathe, our tissue oxygenation, and what we eat.

• The testing of your body can be much more complex, but as a good start to assess your weight related to your age and height, the “BMI” can be useful.
• The last but not least is the measure of your mental state. This without doubt is the most complex area but we still need some measure for this. I suggest a very simplified version of “The Luscher Colour Test”. This test was developed by Professor Max Luscher, and is based on the fact that our response to colour reflects our emotional state or mind-state.

Check your breathing, diet, BMI and mental state by clicking on the links below:

1. Breathing
2. Diet
3. BMI
4. Mind

Words: Michael Lingard BSc. DO

The post 4 Key Factors for a Long Healthy Active Lifespan appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

This serious problem is only now being recognised and some efforts are being made to re-establish a better balance between health education and disease treatment.

Two Vitally Important Signs

A good start could be made by focusing on two vital signs of health: our diet and our breathing.

When was the last time your GP checked the quality of your breathing? Unless you presented with asthma or bronchitis I would guess never, unless you are lucky enough to have a very forward-thinking doctor!

When was the last time your GP checked your diet in detail and gave you specific dietary advice? Once again, I would guess never, unless you have that special doctor who is ahead of the profession being interested in improving your health with lifestyle changes you need to make.

We must all agree “That we are what we eat, how could it be otherwise, we can’t make eyeballs from chocolate bars?” And as we know we can live for weeks without eating, for days without drinking, though only two or three minutes without breathing. 

“Surely, based on this alone we should give the quality of our breathing high priority?” 

The Vital Importance of Good Breathing

If we need any more assurance of the vital importance of good breathing, did you know that all mammals, including you and me, have the same number of breaths in a lifetime? We and all our cousin mammals from mice to elephants all take roughly half a billion breaths in a lifetime. The fast-living shrew that breathes at about 800 breaths per minute lives only a year compared to some whales breathing 3 – 4 breaths per minute, potentially living over a hundred years. 

So, the less we breathe the longer we may live, the faster we breathe the shorter our lifespan! Have a look at the chart below:

“The perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing”

Lao Tzu (4th Century BC) Lao Tzu is claimed to have lived to 160 years old. Perhaps he only breathed about five breaths per minute

“The more you breathe the closer you are to death. The less you breathe the longer you will live.”

Konstantin Buteyko 1923-2003

With humans, one of the major factors that cause chronic hidden hyperventilation is stress. Stress triggers the primitive fight/flight response repeatedly, eventually causing the CO2 receptors to accept a lower level of CO2 and thereby establishing an over-breathing pattern.

Improve Your Diet to Improve Your Breathing

For the past fifteen years I have been helping patients to improve either their breathing or their diet and have discovered that as a person’s diet improves so does their breathing or as their breathing improves so do their eating habits.

My measure of diet quality has been how close the person is to a Whole Plant-Based Diet and my measure of their quality of breathing has been the well-established “Control Pause” of the Buteyko Method.

You can learn more about the relationship between diet and breathing by clicking this link HERE.

The good news for us all is that it appears there is a win-win relationship. If we improve one of these two vital signs, the other will improve as well! 

There are good physiological reasons for some of these associations. If we consume a predominately acid diet of meat and processed foods our bodies need to reduce the acidity by breathing more and expelling more carbon dioxide.

If we are stressed, the fight/flight response kicks in to cause us to breathe faster to prepare us for running away or fighting. When we are breathing normally, we are more relaxed and more inclined to sit down to eat and savour our food, and when we are rushed and under pressure, we are more likely to grab any quick sugary snack on the run. 

More research needs to be done to verify this relationship, but my findings are based on over two hundred patients over a period of a decade.

So, until you are checked and advised by your GP on these two vital signs, (though looking at the way medicine is going I suggest you don’t hold your breath!), it is up to each one of us to be aware of these two vital factors in our health and longevity.

I have spent forty years as a natural health therapist trying to find ways of providing this support and help to my patients. The result is all on my website www.totalhealthmatters.co.uk. Here, you will be able to check the quality of your breathing and your diet  in a matter of a few minutes.

You will then be able to help yourself improve both with free training material such as a Buteyko breath training podcast “Better Breathing Means Better Health”  or with the Whole Plant-Based Diet training podcast “The World’s Finest Diet” 

In addition you will have access to two free e-Books, The Breath Connection and The Food Connection that will explain the fundamentals of respiration and nutrition.

If you want help getting started, why not get in contact and book an appointment with me in Hawkhurst for a one-hour consultation to decide the best way forward to improve your general health? 

This will be a “Mini Health Audit” and include the above tests and additional checks on other basic health promoting factors. The fee for this is £60.

Words: Michael Lingard BSc. DO

The post Are There Two Vital Signs That Doctors Have Neglected for Half a Century?  appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

If we look at America as a preview of where the UK follows a few years on, longevity has been achieved with ever increasing medical support, so that now the American people are the sickest people among the industrialised nations despite, or perhaps because of, their highest national expenditure on medicine.

We should be making major, urgent changes to the way that our healthcare system works to avoid going the same way, and to take pressure off our NHS.

Most of us have a choice between a long, active, and healthy life or a long increasingly unhealthy life, progressively becoming more and more inactive and disabled through chronic illnesses.

Our life response-ability

The key question is “are we brighter than an amoeba?” Every living creature, from a single cell amoeba to an elephant, has the ability to respond to its environment. Shine a strong light on an amoeba and it will move away for its survival. As food or water supply become scarce the elephant will move on to find a better environment in which to survive. We humans also have the ability to respond to anything that is a threat to life, or in other words we all have response-ability for our lives.

Unfortunately, most of us are no longer living responsibly. We no longer feel responsible for our own health and longevity. Many of us have handed over this responsibility to others, such as a doctor who will “fix” us with “a pill for every ill”, the food industry that seeks to maximise profits with highly processed food that is designed to tempt us to buy rather than provide the best nutrition, or the government in charge of our health and safety, rather like an all-wise nanny, so we are relieved of our own response-ability for decision making!

Big pharma, big food & big media

So, we see in the USA, long healthy, active lives have been degraded into long chronically sick, highly medicated, and poorly nourished lives. This has been driven by “big pharma”, “big food “and “big media” industries all trying to maximise their income and profits at the expense of the nation’s health.

If we, in the UK, are to avoid going the same way, we must get back into the primitive survival habit of taking more responsibility for our own lives and the lives of our children. What does this mean? Using our common sense and the best independent advice and information not driven by profit but by the best science.

Optimal Health

At the simplest level this means:

• Eating for optimal nutrition as well as for enjoyment.
• Avoiding over-processed denatured attractively promoted foods that are filled with additives, preservatives, sweeteners etc.
• Getting more simple exercise; we are designed for walking rather than driving!
• Taking time out to relax mentally and minimise stress. This includes learning to breathe normally as over seventy five percent of us over-breathe due to stress, diet or just a bad habit.
• Drinking adequate water, roughly the same number of fluid ounces as your weight in kilos. That’s about five to ten glasses a day for average weight person; few people drink this amount.
• Being cautious with medications, do you really need all those over-the-counter pills and potions? Check with your doctor if there is anyway you could reduce the need for your prescribed medication. With lifestyle changes, they will generally be delighted to hear you want to take more responsibility for your health!

Please see image below, which demonstrates either a rapid decline with chronic conditions as we age due to an unhealthy lifestyle, or a slower decline as a result of a healthier lifestyle. Both lifestyles may achieve 80 – 100 years of age, though not necessarily with the same quality of life or vitality!

Michael Lingard BSc. DO. Cert.Nut.

The post Long HealthSpan or Long LifeSpan? appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

When did your doctor last check your body structure in alignment?

Any structural problem will adversely affect your body functioning to some degree! This is part of the Real Health Assessment.

When did your doctor last check your diet and eating habits?

Our diet is a major factor in health or disease – most chronic diseases are diet related! This is part of the Real Health Assessment.

When did your doctor last check your breathing efficiency?

Very few of us breathe normally for optimal health. Poor quality breathing is a prime factor in over a hundred health problems! This is part of the Real Health Assessment.

When did your doctor last check your stress levels?

Stress is known to be a major factor that impairs good health, weakens our immune system and affects all body functions! This is part of the Real Health Assessment.

Your health is connected to everything – from your diet, your breathing, your body condition, your mind, and even the cosmos!

The Real Health Assessment

We can check all this in the “Real Health Assessment” so you will get the key factors you have control over checked and be given my book “Connection – towards a broader understanding of health in medicine” to guide you on some of the other factors you have less control over.

The consultation will take about ninety minutes and you will usually receive your report the following day.

SEE BELOW FOR A SAMPLE REPORT

The Real Health Assessment – TotalHealthMatters! Hawkhurst Kent TN18 5DA

Name: XXXX

Date: 28/10/2022

The Body Connection

Very briefly, your body general mechanics and structure show a significant torsion on the pelvis of half an inch, associated right side-bending in the lumber and cervical areas with consequent neck pain and restrictions. Recommendation: See an osteopath to correct these problems to establish a level pelvis and maintain this level pelvis with the “Pisa Pelvic Exercise” as described in my podcast: https://yourhealthinyourhands.simplecast.com/episodes/the-pisa-pelvic-exercise

Your Weight: 123.8 lb. is well within the normal BMI (21.3) For your Height:163cm.

Your Body Fat 30.8% is well within the normal range 24-36% Your Visceral Fat 6 likewise is within the normal range of 1-9.

The Food Connection

Your 4LeafSurvey score of +14 indicates You are in the Two Leaf Group and between 40 to 60% of your calories are derived from whole plant food. Associated health risks from your diet are average. You are among the top 6% with this quality diet. Listen to my podcast “The World’s Finest Diet” here: https://the-worlds-finest-diet.simplecast.com/episodes/

Your Diet ID quality diet was 8. General dietary changes would include: increase vegetables content of your diet, reduce dairy foods and eggs to lower cholesterol intake, add more pulses and whole grains. The Diet ID site will offer you more information as to how you can improve your diet.

The Breath Connection

Your Nijmegen Score was 8, indicating no significant hyperventilation.
Your Buteyko Control Pause was 45 indicating excellent breathing quality.

Haemoglobin oxygen saturation was 99% and Pulse rate 69, both healthy measures.

You may like to read the literature I gave you on Better Breathing to keep this monitored.

The Mind Connection

Your Initial LCT score was 2 indicating minimal stress and your second LCT score was 0 indicating the possible lowering of your stress in the future.

We discussed some of the other indications that your choice of colours might mean. As this is a very simplified LCT do not place great reliance on these findings.

General Comments

From your medical history you have had high blood pressure and panic attacks in the past. Both these conditions can be controlled to a large extent with diet and improved breathing. The shift towards a Whole Plant Diet is the most well researched dietary impact on heart and circulatory problems, and any significant hyperventilation is a common cause of panic attacks or anxiety states due to hypoxia.

You already have taken the most important improvement in your diet by eliminating meat. Check out https://nutritionfacts.org/ for the latest research on diet and osteoarthritis. As I mentioned hydration is often a problem with many people, check out my podcast: “Water- The Foundation of Health & Life” here: https://yourhealthinyourhands.simplecast.com/episodes/water-the-foundation-of-health-life

Michael Lingard BSc. DO. Cert.Nut. Tel: 01580 752 852

Book your Real Health Assessment

The fee for this Real Health Assessment is £95.

To book your Real Health Assessment please send an email to lingard [@] totalhealthmatters.co.uk or phone 01580 752 852

Words: Michael Lingard BSc. DO. Cert.Nut.

The post Let your 2023 health check be a “Real Health Assessment!” appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

When did your GP last check your breathing routinely? Unless you were suffering from a respiratory problem such as asthma, bronchitis or emphysema, probably never!
From my forty years’ experience and twenty years checking my patients’ breathing quality I’ve discovered that over 75% breathe badly and fewer than 10% breathe normally!

The important question is “does it really matter?” The answer is a resounding YES!

The Health Impacts of Poor Breathing

Poor breathing can lay the foundations for over a hundred diseases including: Asthma, CFS, Hypertension, Gastric reflux, Panic attacks, Sleep apnoea, Hay fever, Rhinitis, Gut problems, Migraines, Angina, IBS, Depression, Orthodontic problems, Muscle spasms, Snoring, Poor sports performance, and ME to name but a few.

There is no valid reason why our breathing quality should not be routinely checked as one of our vital signs, as it takes less than one minute to test anyone! The only equipment needed is a watch with a second hand! Or check your breathing right now in just one minute HERE

Did you know that carbon dioxide (CO2), far from being a poisonous gas that will kill us if inhaled in high quantities, is vital for life, and if we do not have sufficient we cannot survive very long? Everyone knows that we need oxygen to survive, but few people know that carbon dioxide is just as vital for our health and survival!

What’s so Good About CO2?

Fortunately we generate all the carbon dioxide we need for good health automatically day and night. That’s lucky, because there is very little in the air we breathe, less than 0.04%! In fact we usually produce far more carbon dioxide than we need, but we have an automatic system that keeps our CO2 at just the right level.

When we breathe in we inhale a mix of nitrogen and oxygen, and when we breathe out we exhale nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. The heavier we breathe the more CO2 is washed out; the less we breathe the less CO2 is lost.

Our breathing rate and volume is constantly adjusted by receptors that measure the CO2 in our lungs, and generally not by the oxygen demand of our body. Only in extreme situations does the lack of oxygen stimulate us to breathe more. We live in a sea of oxygen; 20% of the air we breathe in is oxygen and even the air we exhale contains over 15% oxygen. There is never a shortage of oxygen, but there can be a shortage of carbon dioxide. Remember mouth to mouth resuscitation would not work if our exhaled air didn’t have plenty of oxygen in it to oxygenate the patient!

How Does Poor Breathing Impact our Health?

Now that we know all this, why do so many people have health problems associated with their poor breathing? Like all control systems, they can go wrong and this is what happens to so many of us in these modern times. When our carbon dioxide receptors are set too low we habitually automatically breathe too much. We then suffer from what is termed Chronic Hidden Hyperventilation or CHHV. CHHV keeps our carbon dioxide levels too low for normal healthy living. The body optimally needs between 4.5 and 6% CO2 but with over-breathing this may fall to less than 2% in extreme cases.

The Physiology

So why does a lowered CO2 level matter and what effect does it have on our health and functioning?

There are three key effects:

First lowered CO2 impairs the blood’s ability to release oxygen to the body’s cells that need it. This is called the Bohr Effect and is described in every physiology text book. This leads to hypoxia that can have many adverse effects depending on the severity and which organs are most affected. In extreme cases fainting will result and also stop the CHHV. We have all heard of the simple treatment for over-breathing, breathing in and out of a paper bag. This quickly raises the CO2 level as we are breathing in the CO2 we have just exhaled.

The second adverse effect of CHHV and lowered CO2 is that it causes spasm of all smooth muscle throughout the body. This might be the smooth muscle surrounding arterial blood vessels which would reduce blood flow and put more stress on the heart as it attempts to pump harder or faster, or it could mainly affect smooth muscle coating the gut leading to any many gut symptoms.

The third effect is a change in the body’s acidity/alkalinity that affects the entire physiology including the nervous system.

Fixing The Problem

The good news is that this epidemic is far easier to deal with ourselves! No need for another lockdown, no need for more jabs, no need for keeping apart from each other, no need for medical care, and no need for health passports! 

Just more good news: It appears that how we breathe affects how we eat, so as you improve your breathing you will probably also start to improve your eating. Based on my research over the last ten years HERE

Enjoy a Healthier Life!

You can fix it yourself in just a few weeks and begin to enjoy a healthier life. The secret is to learn to breathe normally. To help you get started here are some aids:

• Check Your Breathing in One Minute HERE
• The Breath Connection Free eBook HERE
• Better Breathing Means Better Health Free Podcast HERE (For use with the accompanying  book below) 
• The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Health  by Michael Lingard HERE
• The Basics of Better Breathing HERE

Michael Lingard BSc. DO. Cert. Nut.

The post The Other Hidden Epidemic (the health impacts of poor breathing) appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

Learn how you can improve the oxygenation of every cell of your body through simple relaxation and breathing exercises. Over forty years in practise I have discovered that 75% of my patients do not breathe well, in fact they over-breathe or suffer from some degree of chronic hidden hyperventilation. Check your own breathing HERE It takes just one minute. This has an immediate effect on the body’s ability to supply adequate oxygen to every cell in the body. Most people can change this in two or three weeks as it is usually just a bad habit that needs breaking. You can learn to make this change yourself with the aid of a Free Podcast “Better Breathing Means Better Health” or have support and training via Zoom.

2. Avoid Dehydration

Most people assume that they drink sufficient since they will drink when they’re thirsty. However it seems that this simple indicator of need for water, thirst, is not reliable and the majority of the public do not drink an adequate amount of water for their health. We are 75% water and we don’t have copper wires, but nerve signals are carried in watery nerves. The kidneys need an adequate supply of water to function. Our blood coagulation may be increased with dehydration. When we are dehydrated our brain won’t function normally and headaches will be more prevalent. Listen and learn HERE 

3. Keep Your Pelvis Level

The fundamental concept that underpins all structural treatment such as osteopathy and chiropractic is that “structure governs function”. The vast majority of patients I have seen for osteopathic treatment over the past decades all arrive with a tilt on their pelvis that has led to aches and pains elsewhere in the body, from elbow problems and neck stiffness to low back pain or leg pains and into the buttocks. This simple thirty second exercise will keep your pelvis level: The Pisa Pelvic Exercise.

4. Discover the Foundations of Health

Medicine for the past century has been primarily concerned with disease and pathology, to the neglect of all matters relating to promotion of health. Now you can learn what health is connected to and what the foundations of good health and well-being are, and you may be surprised that health is not just about an absence of disease. Read: “FREE HEALTH – Your Own NHS” by Michael Lingard HERE or “CONNECTION – Towards a Broader Understanding of Health in Medicine” by Michael Lingard HERE

5. Learn How Your Structural Mechanics Affects Your Health

Discover more about how your body’s mechanical structure has a profound effect on every aspect of your health in this free eBook that you may download HERE

6. Learn How Your Breathing Affects Your Health

We can live for three weeks without food, for three days without water though only three minutes without air. This surely suggests that how we breathe is perhaps the most important factor in our lives. Did you know that poor breathing is a factor in over 150 diseases? Discover more in this free eBook which you may download HERE

7. Learn How You Can Take Control of Your Health With the Food You Eat

We are what we eat, and research over the past 50 years has demonstrated that most chronic disease may be avoided and sometimes reversed by choosing the right food in our diets. Check Your diet in just a few minutes with our radical new system developed by Dr David Katz – Diet ID HERE. We are the first to offer this in the UK, Learn more with this Free eBook HERE

Michael Lingard BSc. DO. WPNut.Cert.

The post 7 Steps to Better Health with Air, Water and Fire! appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

“What We Eat” and “How We Breathe”.

We are “what we eat”; how else could it be?

From the first breath we take as a new-born child to our last when we expire we take about half a trillion breaths, so it should make a difference just how well we breathe. 

In fact my research, based on two hundred patients suggests:

“What we eat affects how we breathe, and how we breathe affects what we eat!” 

If you want to know more, see the data sheet “Diet & Breathing” HERE

Now you can check both these vital signs in a matter of a few minutes.

Your Breathing Quality

The well-established measure of breathing quality has been around for over fifty years. It was developed by a Russian Doctor, Professor Konstantin Buteyko, as part of his Breath Training Programme, that has come to be called “The Buteyko Method”. It measures a patient’s maximum comfortable breath hold when at rest, which is called “The Control Pause”.

You can check your Control Pause with the YouTube video below. It takes just a couple of minutes – click HERE or on the video below.

Visit The Breath Connection to learn more about how your breathing is connected to a multitude of health problems, and check out the many ways you can learn to improve your own breathing.

Your Diet Assessment

Until now, anyone wanting to know how well they were eating would need to spend some time with a nutritionist relating in detail all their eating habits and foods consumed over a period of time. This would then be analysed and a report produced with recommendations for improvements. An expensive and time-consuming process that has meant this vital sign has not been incorporated into general medical practice. With the advent of a new radical dietary assessment system, the DietID, all this has changed. Developed by Dr. David Katz and his team in the USA, it is now being launched in the UK at TotalHealthMatters!

You will get a brief introduction as to how DietID works by watching the video – click HERE or on the video below to watch.

When you are ready you can proceed to assess your own diet in just a minute or so.

Click HERE to do this.

Now you have a measure of these two vital signs, with information as to how you can improve both of them from many available resources online or with additional support and help from others.

To learn more about follow-up support and training please contact me:

By Freephone 0800 781 2534 or email to lingard @totalhealthmatters.co.uk

For general information on Health Matters & Health Promotion go to TotalHealthMatters!

Michael Lingard BSc DO WFNut.Cert.

The post Diet & Breathing – The Two Vital Signs That Doctors Usually Miss! appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

It’s well-known that conscious breathing – slowing and controlling breathing – can help to calm people down if they are feeling anxious and this invention helps people with a range of conditions from stress and depression to post traumatic stress disorder. It also helps them to drift into a deep sleep.

Michael has invented the Luma³ – short for Lumacube – a handy-sized cube which uses soft waves and pulses of gentle, soothing light and colour to guide people’s breathing and for every 10 sold he’ll donate one to a school, college, or university.

And if big businesses buy 10 to help their staff with their mental health they can choose which school will receive the free one.

It has just been launched on Kickstarter and Michael and his team need to raise £40,000 to start manufacturing to make an initial 800 Luma³s. To help, all people need to do is pledge to buy Luma³ – they are not having to put any money down at this stage and they will only pay when the campaign ends in June.

It already has 150 backers and almost £10,000 has been raised. There are up to 28% discounts to buy the Luma³ on Kickstarter so they start at just £48 although people can pledge smaller amounts if they simply want to support the concept.

Michael, 39, of Brighouse, West Yorkshire, taught at schools in Huddersfield and Halifax and as a pastoral leader he shared his experience of conscious breathing in his schools, having used the technique for 20 years to help his own anxiety.

Luma³ can be used at work – a pre-set timer gently nudges people to take a 5-minute conscious breathing break every hour – and is also ideal at night to help people drift into a deep sleep. The gentle cascade of colours also help relaxation – like you’re in your own spa – and it’s powered by a rechargeable battery so can be taken everywhere with you.

When Michael left teaching this year he set up his own company, Mind Body Goals Ltd (https://www.luma3.uk/), to concentrate on working on Luma³ full-time.

Sleep health specialist Dr Kat Lederle said: “Luma³ offers a gentle nudge to pay attention to what we all do – breathe. Sleeping is a natural function and so is breathing. They can both impact one another. Luma³ provides a simple way to support both.”

Luma³ has also been used by counselling psychologist Dr Gregory Warwick, who said: “Luma³ guides people to regulate their breathing which can help them with their stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, chronic back pain or autism. I’m excited to have Luma³ in my toolkit. It will be a great addition for anyone who needs simple assistance with mastering conscious breathing.”

The Luma³ is needed like never before with one in eight children in the UK having a diagnosable mental health condition and one in six adults experiencing mental health problems. It’s a major issue in both schools and workplaces – but they can be eased by using Luma³ as it’s so simple to use.

The Luma³ is especially ideal for people who work from home and university students to encourage them to take proper relaxation breaks hourly.

Michael – who was a design engineer before he became a teacher – is keen to give back to schools having seen the impact mental health can have on pupils. His 10:1 Initiative means that for every Luma³ sold, one will be donated to a school, college or university.

“Mental health is an emerging crisis in our schools and our young people desperately need to learn to self soothe and regulate their emotions. Luma³ helps them learn to do this.”

Michael is working with renowned product design specialist Richard Hall – whose portfolio includes life-saving medical equipment – and well-respected business funding specialist Colin Glass, OBE, to launch the product by crowdfunding.

How Luma³ works

Luma³ has four conscious breathing cycles which are scientifically proven to have a profoundly relaxing effect on our body’s nervous system. It places the heart, lungs and circulation into a state of coherence where the body is working most efficiently at its natural rhythm and provides a simple yet effective workout for the diaphragm, making it a quick and easy way to destress and refocus.

Simply follow these simple steps:

• As the light rises up take a long deep breath, filling your lungs.
• At the top of your breath Luma³ will indicate how many seconds to hold your breath using gentle pulses of light.
• The light within Luma³ will slowly fade back down, guiding you as you slowly breathe out.
• If the cycle also includes a breath hold at the bottom of your breath, then this will be counted out for you with pulses of light.
• This will then repeat for 5 minutes, allowing you to focus on nothing but the light and your breath.
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The post Amazing Luma³ is a handy-sized ‘spa for the mind’ that helps people with stress or sleep problems … here’s how it works appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.