A certain type of yoga-based meditation may provide short-term relief for people with mild to severe asthma whose symptoms persist despite their use of asthma medication.
The Sahaja yoga technique is an Indian system of meditation that is purported to be "an innately therapeutic process which is beneficial for all chronic diseases, mental or physical, including asthma," according to the report. In practicing the technique, meditators use silent psychological affirmations in order to reach a state of "mental silence," in which they are fully alert but not engaged in thought or any other type of mental activity.
Both groups attended 2-hour sessions once a week for 4 months and were encouraged to practice the learned techniques at home for 10 to 20 minutes twice each day.
After 4 months of the intervention, lung tests showed that people in the yoga group had a greater reduction in airway hyperresponsiveness than those in the comparison group.
Airway hyperresponsiveness, or "twitchiness," is the tendency of the lungs to overreact to harmless substances, such as pollen or dust, by closing up tiny airways -- a hallmark of asthma. Those in the yoga group also reported a greater decrease in tension and fatigue than did their peers in the comparison group.
It is possible that further study of the effect of meditation practices and altered breathing patterns on people with asthma may lead to new strategies to assist patients with moderate and severe asthma.
However, the differences between the groups were no longer evident 2 months later.
The benefit was limited in extent. This research should not lead people to stop their regular anti-asthma therapy. All the participants continued to take their medication during the study.
Thorax February 2002;57:110-115, 127-131
This is an important topic for a number of reasons. First of all the incidence of asthma has increased 250% in the last 20 years.
Asthma can kill people and drugs are useful for keeping people alive.
However, they are fraught with side effects like osteoporosis, and stunted growth for children who use them.
Following the eating plan is one of the most important and foundational ways to improve asthma. Focusing on increasing the amount of omega three oils, like cod liver oil rather than omega six oils will also be useful.
However, there will still be individuals who have asthma despite an outstanding diet. The above article demonstrates that meditation can be useful.
While there are no controlled trials with EFT for asthma yet, it is clearly useful for this problem. Gary Craig has an instructional video series where he demonstrates elimination of asthma in a nurse. I have used it successfully a number of times for asthma.
Anyone who is interested in a primer foundation on EFT for this purpose is encouraged to consider ordering the videos of some recent workshops I did on EFT. The videos come with a full one year refund guarantee.
Related Articles:
IV Magnesium Helps Children with Moderate to Severe Asthma Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis
IV Magnesium Helps Children with Moderate to Severe Asthma
Writing (Journaling) About Stress Helps Asthma, Arthritis