We understand that breathing is vital to life; more important than food or water. Yet how much care, thought, attention or understanding do we have about this essential, repeated, life giving action that we all do? The answer is; not enough!

Unfortunately modern day lifestyles commonly involve low level, constant stressors that tend to de-condition ourselves from our natural way breathing. It goes unnoticed as we are unaware of what dysfunctional breathing patterns are. They will often attribute to things such as tiredness, poor quality sleep, stress and anxiety. Breathing re-education can help with dysfunctional breathing patterns and commonly associated conditions such as:

Helpful for:

• Asthma

• Anxiety

• Sleep disorders (snoring, apnea’s)

• COPD

• Hyperventilation

• Mental health issues

• Improving sport and daily performance

Symptoms of dysfunctional breathing can include but are not limited to frequent sighing and yawning, mouth breathing, snoring, upper chest breathing, and rapid and noisy breathing. These are things that many people will have experienced at some point.

As is the Osteopathic way, we understand the web of connections to these symptoms, whether they are biochemical, bio-mechanical or otherwise. The combination of hands on Osteopathic treatment and breathing re-education exercises work well to change longstanding issues that often involve physical changes in the body.

How Does It Work?

Through reinstating the proper mode, rate and depth of breathing we stimulate the body to spend more time in a rest, digest, restorative (parasympathetic) state. This allows for better artery dilation and gas exchange in the lungs, better oxygen delivery to cells and tissues of the body, better chemical signalling in the brain directing us to breathe, and better use of the correct breathing muscles which diverts stress away from the often overworked muscles of the head, neck and shoulders.

Breathing should be effortless, light, quiet and unnoticeable. If this isn’t what your breathing is like, contact us so we can help. Correct breathing has profound effect on all areas of life.

Who is it for?

It is for everyone. The better we breathe and control our breath, the better we can be at all other tasks in life. It is suitable for children and adults with or without any of the symptoms mentioned above. It has proved particularly effective for asthmatics. But if there are no symptoms, breathing can be optimised to improve performance.