Breathing Has Specific Rhythm

Breathing, like the heartbeat, has a specific rhythm that is a vital part of our living.   Our body takes in raw air and utilizes it as food for our organs, cells, tissue and body function.  This essential act is performed by a vast maze of intricate equipment.

Because raw air is much too dirty, arid and cold for our body to utilize in it’s natural state, it is filtered, heated to the precise temperature needed, humidified and cleansed by taking it in through our nose and sending it down our windpipe or trachea.

The trachea is held open at all times by 15 to 20 stiff rings of cartilage.  If it were to close or become blocked by any foreign body we would suffocate. 

In the chest there are two bronchi, left and right, that enter the lungs, branching over to form the bronchial tree.  The smallest branches are called bronchioles, and these branches actually touch the lungs.  The oxygen enters the blood at this location and carbon dioxide and water vapor leave, travel upwards through the bronchi, trachea, throat then mouth, leaving the body as we exhale.  The bronchi and bronchioles must remain blockage free to perform respiration properly, and exchange the respective gasses involved in breathing normally.

What is Asthma?

Asthmatics, or people suffering from bronchial asthma, are unable to perform the bodily functioning of the bronchi and bronchioles.  When suffering an attack, the bronchioles become swollen, go into spasm, fill with mucous and begin to close.  When this happens, a feeling of strangulation takes over, the asthmatic struggles to take air into the lungs, and then has just as much difficulty pushing out the carbon dioxide through the closing  bronchioles.

Asthma is triggered by many different factors, but among the most common are allergies, smoke, emotional stress, or physical exertion.    The duration of an asthma attack can vary, and be accompanied by wheezing and gasping.

The Medical Approach to Asthma

The medical approach to asthma treatment offers no cure.   Patients are given temporary relief with drugs such as cortisone and steroids.  They are advised to keep emotional stress at low levels, not exert large amounts of physical energy, and refrain from smoking or being around people who do smoke.

The Chiropractic Approach

  Doctors of chiropractic perform spinal adjustments to correct vertebral subluxations or spinal nerve stress, which disturbs the body balance and nerve health.  The purpose of Chiropractic treatment is not to treat respiratory disease, however Chiropractic treatment has well documented success for the treatment of asthma.  Chiropractic care treats the patient, chiropractors care for the patient who has the disease rather than cares for the disease that has the patient.