In the U.S., nearly 25 million children and adults have been diagnosed with asthma.
In the U.S., nearly 25 million children and adults have been diagnosed with asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Besides relying on prescription inhalers, what are these individuals supposed to do to relieve their symptoms? Some experts say that yoga breathing techniques may help.
Asthmatic individuals have reported being able to breathe easier after doing gentle yoga poses designed to open up the airway. Recently, California yoga instructor Audrey Tan described how yoga breathing exercises can improve symptoms for teens with the chronic breathing condition.
She told KFSN-TV Fresno that mindfulness meditation and basic yoga poses can help adolescents relax, which may in turn prevent wheezing and tightness in the chest.
"Kids these days, especially teens, are under a lot of stress," she said, quoted by the news station. "When we are under stress, we tend to hold our breath or breathe more shallowly, and in yoga we teach you how to breathe more deeply."
A study appearing in the British Medical Journal found that participants who regularly practiced yoga had fewer asthma attacks. These episodes also tended to be less severe, compared to those suffered by individuals who did not utilize the holistic health regimen.
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Tags: yoga breathing, yoga breathing exercises, yoga breathing techniques
I have seen this in action. Both my husband and daughter have asthma and before they reach for the inhalers they usually can help the symptoms with some breathing exercises. In a lot of cases, unless they are having a bad attack, they can actually control their breathing enough to not even need the medicine.