List of Benefits

To paraphrase Jordan Rubin in his book, The Maker's Diet: Deep breathing exercises fires up the body's fat-burning capacity; floods your brain with oxygen; caresses your innards; and eliminates a lot more gunk from your system. Not convinced yet? Read on! A daily practice of deep breathing exercises does the following:

• Promotes relaxation: it facilitates muscular relaxation, and the relaxation response, thereby relieving feelings of tension, anxiety and nervousness.

• Lowers blood pressure: If you are hypertensive need I say more?

• Slows down your heart rate: The slower your heart works, the longer it can work!

• Improves immune system: I went for years without so much as a cold when I was doing it daily.

• Hastens convalescence: If you do get sick, like when a friend with a bug sneezes on you, and you catch the bug, your won't be sick for very long; and when you're well again remember to stay away from that friend!

• Increases blood circulation: Sluggish circulating blood even sounds creepy.

• Increases oxygen and blood flow to the brain: That improves memory, alertness, problem-solving, and decision-making skills; after awhile you wake-up feeling smarter.

• Improves complexion: You'll look healthier.

• Increases stamina: You'll have more energy.

• Increases metabolic efficiency: That's the increased fat-burning capacity Jordan Rubin talks about in his book.

• Generates inner energy (ch'i) and cultivates the ability to channel it effectively: I'll write about ch'i - what it is and how it benefits you - soon.

• Focuses the breath for meditation: I'll also discuss meditation in a future post - what it is, how it's done, and why to do it.

• Increases the body's ability to eliminate toxins: The more you can get rid of, the healthier you will look, feel and be.

• Minimizes the effects of aging: Some good things come with age - wisdom, patience, senior discounts, Medicare - but a strong vigorous body isn't usually one of them. Practicing deep breathing daily for a few minutes will help you to stay in good shape longer.
  

I've probably forgotten something, but you get the point. Here's all you really need to remember: Deep breathing is good; shallow breathing is bad; and, not breathing is very bad.

Peace, LR

The Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercises

OK, I've written enough about the negative effects of shallow, upper chest breathing. Let's take a look at the benefits of a daily practice of deep breathing exercises.

Jordan S. Rubin, in his book The Maker's Diet, tells us that "...deep-breathing exercises will increase the fat-burning metabolism of your body and 'boost your brain' with rich doses of oxygen."

He points out that "Deep breathing literally 'massages' and moves the soft internal organs inside your rib cage, allowing your lymph system to rid itself of collected toxins and collect even more," - so it can do its job better.

And he concludes by saying: "Only deep breathing allows you to tap the 'bonus power' of your lower lungs."

Now, if this isn't enough to convince you that starting a practice of deep breathing exercises is a no-brainer, maybe the list of benefits I'm going to post tomorrow will.

Until tomorrow, peace. LR

Sweet Poisons

Drinking soda - even occasionally - is definitely not good for you. For one thing the stuff makes you fat. And it doesn't matter whether it's diet or not. According to a new study a daily soft drink will increase your risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes.

Researchers tracked the health of 6,000 middle-aged Americans over the course of four years, and found that the people who drank a soda a day, whether diet or regular, had an increased risk of getting fat and becoming unhealthy.

"We were struck by the fact that it didn't matter whether it was a diet or regular soda that participants consumed," said Boston University professor Ramachandran Vasan. Both groups of soda drinkers had the same increased risk of becoming obese - 31 percent - and a 44 percent higher chance of developing risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

One researcher, Ravi Dhingra, told Agence France-Presses: "It may be that soft drinks condition a person's palate" for sweets. The researcher went on to speculate that it could also be that diet soda doesn't cause eating habits and disease; instead, it may be that people who already have a weakness for sweets tend to gravitate toward soft drinks.

Well, whether it's the cause of weight gain or not, the study results are clear: there is a relationship between the consumption of carbonated soft drinks and weight gain in America. But there are a lot of reasons to stop drinking soda, all sodas - the low calorie stuff that they call "diet" as well as that "liquid candy" known as "regular." There's the fact that frequent consumption may also increase your risk of osteoporosis - drinking soda while trying to strengthen your bones is just counter productive; then there's the tooth decay problem (due to the large amounts of sugars, mostly high-fructose corn syrup) and dental erosion (due to the acids).

I could say more, but I feel a tirade coming on. It really pisses me off that companies continue to market these concoctions, these sweet poisons, as "refreshing" and wholesome "thirst-quenchers" which we keep consuming, becoming fat and fatter, and more and more unhealthy in the process - so don't get me started!

Peace, LR

Picky, Picky, Picky

Here's an amusing item from the August 3, '07 issue of The Week magazine:

"The rock star Sting arrived at a top Miami restaurant with his personal chef, who cooked a one-person meal for him in the restaurant's kitchen. Italian eatery Casa Tua is known for the quality of its food as much as its celebrity clientele. Sting 55, a health enthusiast, was only interested in food prepared to his own specifications. 'No one could believe it,' a witness told the London Sun. 'His people booked ahead and said the staff could cook for his friends but not for him.' "


Bon appetit, LR

Actually, It Works

Echinacea. First they say it does, and then they say it doesn't. Now they say it does again. After years of studies that have alternately hyped and doubted the value of it as a cold remedy the debate about the benefits of echinacea is still going.

A new review of hundreds of recent echinacea studies has found that the herb really does help people fight colds. The analysis concluded that taking echinacea can reduce the risk of catching a cold by 58 percent, and can even significantly shorten the duration of the illness.

"Our analysis doesn't say the stuff works without question," Dr. Craig Coleman, author the study, tells The New York Times. "But the preponderance of the evidence suggests it does."

There are some studies that found that the herb isn't effective, but Dr. Coleman says that might be because it works on some of the 200 strains of cold virus but not others, or that the doses taken were too small. The bottom line: "I'll probably consider taking it if I fill a cold coming on," he says.

But if you incorporate the practices recommended in this blog into a daily routine, you probably won't need it.

Peace, LR

30 Years of Practice

I began a daily practice of deep breathing about 30 years ago. Around the same time I started meditating every day. Both became an integral part of my daily routine. Most days that routine included a lot of physical activity: Aikido, Tai Chi Ch'uan or Karate. In addition, my professional life often required long hours at work. The occasional all-nighter at the office to meet a deadline was a part of the job.

When I wasn't in a dojo or a Tai Chi class, I would often be in a gym lifting weights or running laps. Weekends, and maybe one or two nights during the week, was for dating. Dinner and a movie, of course - sometimes clubbing - but more often than not, if the weather was good, we would go camping, hiking, or biking; or maybe join friends tossing a Frisbee or playing touch-football in a park; or play volley-ball (gals vs. guys) in some one's backyard. Back in the day, I danced a lot, did a lot of running around, jumping up and down, falling on the ground - so I would get lots of scrapes and bruises. But I never got sick. I mean it; no illnesses. Not so much as a cold for years. My daily routine, with deep breathing as its foundation, had a lot to do with that.

I guess my diet had a lot to do with it too. It was partly a legacy of my upbringing - we always got plenty of fruits and vegetables to eat when I was a kid. When I grew up, the healthy aspects of my eating habits were reinforced and influenced by the women in my life. I ate what they ate: streamed brown rice, whole grains, and fresh fruit and veggies. The unhealthy aspects were discouraged: basically eat nothing white: No white bread, white flour, sugar or milk. Some of them did try converting me to vegetarianism, but I drew the line at giving up meat. But I learned to limit my meat eating to lean cuts: grilled or baked. I was doing the "South Beach Diet" long before there was one.

Then I moved to another part of the country, changed jobs and was forced to make drastic lifestyle changes. It became difficult to continue my daily routine. Gradually, probably over a year or more, I stopped altogether: first deep breathing practice and then meditation. The workouts and martial arts practice became sporadic, finally petering out altogether. A few years later, perpetually tired, flabby, and generally miserable, I gradually developed another daily routine, consisting of deep breathing, meditation, and a set of conditioning exercises that I could readily fit into my circumstances.

There would be other times, over the years, when I would stop practicing and working out for long periods. Usually it was when a series of life-altering events would throw me for a loop and knock me off track. Separations, births, deaths are inevitable; live long and hard enough and they happen. Thinking back, it is not surprising that the birth or death of a child would make it difficult - no, impossible - to carry on for a while. What is significant is that the the daily practices that I started more than 30 years ago: deep breathing, meditation, and some form of physical conditioning (currently it's yoga); have continued to be so beneficial - so conducive to good health and well being - that I have felt compelled to return to them time after time.

Peace, LR

9,000 calories a day

Here's another one for the Potpourri file. According to an article in The New York Times cyclists in the Tour de France consume as many as 9,000 calories a day. About four times more than the average man needs. And when pedaling uphill in the mountains, a rider's metabolism increases so much that it is similar to that of a bird in flight. Think these guys know how to breathe properly?

Peace, LR

Jogging when Lightning Strikes

Today I'm editing my next "deep breathing" installment. After that I will be fact-checking a piece I plan to post soon about soy food products. So today, and occasionally in the future, I will be sharing with you a potpourri of interesting (hopefully), and sometimes funny, fitness-related stuff found in print magazines or on the Internet. This one was in the July 27th edition of "The Week," a weekly print magazine. Be well & Peace, LR

Health scare of the week

iPods and lightning don't mix

If you find yourself outside during a thunderstorm, beware: Your iPod may turn your head into a lightning rod. A Vancouver jogger was hit by lightning while wearing his iPod, and the electricity was conducted along the path of his earphones. He was badly burned on his face, his eardrums ruptured, and the muscles of his jaw contracted violently, shattering his jawbone into five pieces. The fact that he was wearing an iPod may not have made him any more susceptible to the lightning strike, but it did focus the jolt on his head, doctors at his hospital tell The Washington Post. Cell phones with earpieces could case the same kind of damage. If you "get caught in a thunderstorm," said radiologist Eric Hefferman, "make sure your iPod is not in contact with your skin, and remove the earphones from your ear."