Episode 156: Breath

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Be my physician.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
He said, you're definitely ill than to the nurse. I've
seen worse than the doctor.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Just gave me a pill.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Take one of those three times today. You don't never
stop on till you're really dinner. All better keep out
of the region children.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
The thing is that some.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Side effects you mean, probably will well.

Speaker 5 (00:22):
Limits of fact, you can't come.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'll give you another film.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
On top of that, on top of that, on top
of that, on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that, and many showed me his bill.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I've popped another pill.

Speaker 6 (00:36):
Welcome to When Your Health Matters. Your host is doctor
Richard Huntoon of Advanced Alternative Medicine Center located right here
in Pool of Georgia. Doctor Hantoon has been practicing alternative health,
utilizing chiropractic and many other health techniques for the past
twenty seven years to support you when your health matters.
It's his intention to offer practical advice every week for

(00:57):
you to consider and to apply in your own life
to make your life and the lives of your family
and friends healthier and happier. When you have questions, you'll
get your answers from doctor Rick himself or another expert
on the show, Being empowered to make positive health choices
before problem arises is the best way to approach health,
and doctor Rick promises to have information for you every

(01:17):
week that will allow you to become proactive and empowered
to take control of your health and your life.

Speaker 7 (01:23):
You are listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Welcome to this week's show, When Your Health Matters. The
show designed to empower you to better health through knowledge
and education. And I'm your host, doctor Richard Untun from
Advanced Alternative Medicine Center. And here's my partner for the show,
your health Advocate, Mark Safe.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
We're almost into October now, Doc Rick, and October is
the month for lungs and traditional Chinese medicine. Why is that?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, as we move through the natural energies of expansion
and contraction falls the beginning of the contraction phase after
the height of summer. This corresponds to the metal element
and cans of the lungs, the large intestine and the skin.
And for October we focus the understanding on the first
of those organs, which is the lungs.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
So what happens to the natural energies as we move
into the season of.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Fall, they begin to constrict and things in nature begin
to move through the dying season, and the leaves and
the plants begin to close down for the winter months
in December, so the natural energies start to constrict and
the flow of things begins to shut down. And then
once is fully shut down, then you go through the

(02:34):
dying phase.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Now, what does the significance of the elements as they
shift from the Earth element into the metal element.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, the significance is from extracting the sweetness of life
during the Earth element and begin to shut down in
preparation for winter through the metal element. So you know,
you go through the sweetness of life which is the
spleen panc and as you move from that season into

(03:05):
the earth of the Earth element into the metal element,
the energy again begins to shut down as we move
towards winter.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
And what is the meaning of the metal in terms
of your health?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Metal associates with clarity. It's associates with organization, with discipline
and the ability to let go of what no longer
serves you.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
And of course today I wanted to speak to you
about breathing, and really, in terms of your health, isn't
breathing really the most important thing that you do well.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
It initiates all of life. The intake of oxygen starts
and sustains the process of life. What's the first thing
that happens when a child is born. Doctors are looking
to make sure that the child is breathing. In One
of the ways that they know that the child is
breathing is because it's crying, and you know, crying stated

(04:00):
with the lungs. It's making sure that those lungs are
fully activated.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
M H. Now would you say breath is where the
first sign of health or your sickness shows up as well?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Uh, it can start there and it can start at
someplace else, but uh, the breath is important for the
starting of the process of life. Like I said, when
a baby first begins to cry, So it's it's it's
all about health end or sickness and and and and
it's showing up through your breath and through your lungs.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I mean, last week we were talking a bit about
grief and how grief relates the lungs, which is where
you kind of express that. But how does the how
does the breath relate to the element of the metal.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Breathing supports letting go as we let go every time
we breathe out, releasing carbon dioxide from cellular metabolism. So
it's right in line with the large intestine which does
the same for solids, and the skin that allows the
release of liquid sweat, and so the the metal element
is all about letting go and releasing.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Now, in the breath process, you are actually bringing the
outside environment into the inside environment. With every breath that.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
You take, you are and the intake of oxygen and
the influx of energy through you along. One point in
acupuncture is how it all originates energetically.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
And I know that we talked about breathing last time,
and one of the things is that most people are
not using the full amount of breath they're capable of
taking into their lungs. Why do people use such a
small portion of their.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Lungs, Well, there's two reasons for that. The first is
most people are shallow breathers and do not expand their
diaphragms enough. Your diaphragm is your emotional processor, and if
people breathe backwards into their chest instead of into their belly,
they do not expand their lungs enough to let.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
The air in.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
The second reason is a thing called tidal volume. The
lungs sitting in its natural state is somewhat inflated with
the structure of the lungs, allowing for air to exist
in the lungs themselves. This air never actually leaves the lungs,
even if we belly breathe. The only time this air
leaves is if we have a collapsed lung. Then they

(06:21):
have to reinflate it to get it to go back
to normal.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, I've heard about the collapse on This can be
a very very difficult thing. Yeah. Now, what happens when
you don't use the full capacity.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Of your lungs You end up holding on to emotion,
and then that emotion over time becomes repressed, and then
that's going to lead to energetic imbalances, which can manifest
physically as a lung pathology or some kind of respiratory
issue like COPD or asthma or something.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Now, if you're exercising and breathing hard, are you getting
enough breath into your body that way? Or can people
still be shallow breathers even though they're exercising.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
They can still be shallow breathers. And just because you're
breathing hard doesn't necessarily mean that you're getting enough oxygen,
but you could hyperventilate and possibly pass out or get
lightheaded in that process.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Is that because you have too much oxygen or too
little oxygen that you get light headed.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
You'll get light headed if you don't get enough oxygen
and the Yeah, you're not releasing enough carbon dioxide. Therefore
you're not getting enough oxygen in the system.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
So that's what the shallow breathing does. It actually isn't
even the oxygen coming in, it's not getting the carbon
dioxide out, yes, which is the releasing process we were
talking about at the beginning. Now, I know that a
lot of spiritual traditions will emphasize breathing, and you'll hear
people that have breath work and things like of that nature.
What is the relationship between those two things in those traditions.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, the energy or the prana starts in the lungs
and is the beginning. It helps a person get centered
and grounded internally instead of externally focused on the outside world,
and so coming back to yourself and making sure that
you're grounded, etc. All of that starts with your breath
and anchoring that breath within the body.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, and I suppose other than swimmers people who you
get used to holding their breath, that singers and speakers
and actors probably have that most important relationship with their
breath in the most positive way.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yes, they need to control their breathing to excel at
their craft.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Now, in terms of how the air comes in and
out of the lungs, is that the only organ that
actually brings things in and out.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
Of the body tactically, No, the skin and the digestive
system do that as well.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Now we've talked about the filmilters of the body, so
they're internal filters, they're external filters. The internal filters don't
have direct contact with the environment. So are there functions
totally different than the external filters.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Oh, they are. Their functions are to filter whatever gets
into the circulatory system that doesn't belong. And it's a
backup to the three external filters of the lungs, large intestine,
skin that actually bring things from outside of the body
into the body. But once it crosses that blood barrier
and allows to get into the blood, well, now that

(09:36):
it's in the blood, we're going to have to filter
out what should be or shouldn't be and keep it
in proper ratios. So that's where your liver, your kidneys,
and your spleen come in.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Are they all filtering the blood? Is that I mean
as each of those is that the blood? I know,
the liver is dealing with things that come through the blood.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
But the liver deals with the solids that in through
the blood. The kidneys deal with the liquids that come
in through the blood, and the spleen is a recycling
plant for the blood, so it actually filters the blood
from the old cells and the new cells.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Now, when the lungs take in the air, are they
bringing the oxygen to the heart? What is that? How
does that transfer actually take place?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Well, technically, yes, the oxygen that has exchanged in lungs
is then brought directly to the heart.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
And so you have.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Arteries that go from the heart to the lungs, and
you have arteries that go from the heart to the body.
Then you have veins that bring carbon dioxide from the
body to the heart, and you also have veins that
bring oxygen from the lung lungs to the heart.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, it's a very pretty complicated set of circumstances.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Well, it's not really all that complex. So blood comes
from the body back to the right side of the heart,
the upper chamber known as the right atrium. The right
atrium then pumps the blood from the right atrium to
the lower right ventricle. The lower right ventricle then sends
blood out to the lungs because this is carbon dioxide

(11:29):
filled blood coming back to the heart. Then it goes
to the lungs to drop off all that carbon dioxide
as you exhale, and then when you inhale you bring
oxygen in, which then the blood cell goes around the corner,
so to speak, like a taxi in New York City
drops off the passenger on one side of the hotel,

(11:50):
then goes to the other side of the hotel to
pick up new passengers. Which is the oxygen which then
gets pumped back to the heart. The left atrium then
goes down to the left ventricle before it gets pumped
out through the aorta and goes to the rest of
the body.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I mean, it almost sounds like a logistical function that
the heart is really playing and that the nutrients are
coming from the lungs, well take it out through the lungs.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
The oxygen and the carbon dioxide are being processed through
the lungs. The blood. The heart itself is a glorified pump.
It also happens to be where spirit lives. But ideally
the heart is just simply a glorified pump. It just pumps,
so that's all it does. It pumps, and it pumps

(12:43):
blood out to the body. It pumps blood to the lungs.
It receives blood from the body and it receives blood
from the lungs, and it's just to go between to
make sure that all the carbon dioxide is released from
the body and all the oxygen is delivered to the body.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I mean, it's just interesting the way the body functions
and that each each part does its part and there's
this great symphony that's taking place in our body all
day long.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Absolutely so, if the if the.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Heart carries the oxygen out of the body in that
in that bringing the carbon dioxydene back into the lungs.
Is that coming through the heart to get to the lungs.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, it comes from the body through the vein system
into the superior vena cava, which is the main vein
that delivers blood to the heart, and again it dumps
into the right atria, which then goes through a valve
to the right ventricle before it gets shuttled off to

(13:48):
the lungs themselves.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
The receiving part takes it in, and then the giving
part pushes it back out to the.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Lungs, pushes it out to the lungs, and then once
it's in the lungs, there's that exchange of carbon dioxide
for oxygen, and then it gets pumped back to the heart,
passes through the heart before it gets pumped out to
the body.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
So is most of the air that you're breathing in oxygen?

Speaker 3 (14:15):
No, Actually, most of the air we breathe is roughly
seventy eight percent nitrogen, twenty one percent oxygen, and then
one percent are gone, plus some very minimalistic other types elements.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
So does the lungs have to discern and take in
They're not taking transferring the nitrogen into your body, are they.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
No, it's it's about the exchange of oxygen that goes on.
You just have to filter through the nitrogen in order
to access the oxygen.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Isn't nitrogen one of the things that causes people the
bends when they're diving. Isn't that one of those problems
that arises from people that are in the depths of
the ocean and rise up too quickly. Is they get
nitrogen toxicity.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
They get nitrogen build up because it's one of the
products that the body. That's why there's so much nitrogen
in the air that we breathe, because it's one of
the waste products that the body produces. And so when
you accumulate too much of that in your muscles as
you go from a deeper depth to a shallo or
a depth, if you do it too quickly without a

(15:26):
safety stop, then you can potentially develop nitrogen gas bubbles
in the blood and then that will create some pretty
severe outcomes.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Wow, So how much filtering do the lungs actually have
to do?

Speaker 3 (15:41):
How much? Yeah, all of the air that we breathe
is filtered, and the surface area of the lungs is
about the size of a tennis court. So there's lots
of surface area and lots of filtering that goes on.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
And now, I think we talked about this before, but
the lungs actually aren't doing the work of the breath.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
No, the lungs are simply giant sponges that that's where
the air is taken in and release and support muscles
of the lungs, the ribs, the spine do the actual
work of the breathing itself, including the diaphragm, and.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's the most important diaformatic breathing. What is diaphormatic breathing.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Well, it's breathing that involves expanding and attracting your diaphragm
to allow maximum function of the lungs.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
And the diaphragm is a special kind of muscle. It's
not like other muscles in the body. It's a different Why.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yes, says the diaphragm is a special type of muscle,
and that it's primarily a skeletal muscle that operates both
voluntarily and involuntarily, meaning it functions when you don't think
about it, like when sleeping, and you can control it actively,
like when holding your breath.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
And are there other muscles that are associated with the
process of breathing.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
The support muscles of the lungs and the ribs and
the spine do the actual work of the breathing. So
you're looking at your intercostoles, you're looking at your chest muscles,
you're looking at your seratus anterior, You're looking at some
small muscles that attach to the vertebrae and some other
muscles that extend the whole part of the spine that

(17:17):
help with the expanding and contracting of the lungess.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay, well, this has been very informative, so thank you
for going through all that with me. We do need
to take a short commercial break to hear from our
general sponsor of the Alternative Healthcare Network dot com. But
when we get back, I want to talk to you
some more about some of the ways that you approach
lung health for people and for your patients and what
can be done to improve what breathing is doing for

(17:44):
your health.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
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Speaker 7 (17:51):
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Speaker 3 (17:55):
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(18:19):
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Speaker 7 (18:21):
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Speaker 1 (18:26):
A lot of people are taking medication to deal with
their breathing issues, but you are able to assist patients
that even they have chrodic conditions with their breathing without
using it in medications. How do you go about doing that?

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, Marcus, it's an interesting pathway that we have to take,
and each person is unique and individual, and so we
have to figure out what their pathway is. But ultimately
we have to do the same thing for everybody. We
have to find the source of concern, and then once
we find the source of concern, we need to address
it at the source. It's really quite simple, and most

(19:02):
people have a challenge understanding the simplicity. They think it
has to be more complex than that, and we as
human beings, think that's exactly how we think things have
to be more complex. Hence why the illusion of needing
medication by prescription is what's propagated to people. They think
that they need to take an outside chemical source to

(19:26):
help enhance the natural functioning of what their bodies should
be doing all on its own.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
And I mean, there's so much to know if you're
in that field. The vast amount of pharmaceutical solutions that
they have to offer. So for somebody's a doctor or
an inspectitioner, they're so bound by the things that they
have to know, there's little room to know some of
the other opportunities that there might be.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, so you need to meet with somebody such as
myself or maybe somebody that's arrest inspiratory specialist. And my
thought is is to talk with a respiratory specialist and
find out what they're going to offer you, and if
you don't necessarily agree with it, then come have a
conversation with me. My job is to get to the
source of your issue, not simply masket with toxic chemicals

(20:16):
known to have harmful side effects, and truly help your
lungs recover and your health recover and you recover so
that you don't have the problems anymore.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
So are there nutritional solutions for improving lung health and breathing? Oh?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Absolutely. The thing that's going to help you breathe better
is to actually engage your breath the way that you're
supposed to in terms of belly breathing as supposed to
chest breathing, but in an effort to support that and
make that more efficient. Giving your lungs nutrition specific to
the lungs is important, and we've had a specific lung

(20:54):
nutritional supplement that we've used and has been around since
the nineteen thirties, I believe, but I've been using it
my whole professional career. One of my first patients came
into me that had issues with their lungs and we
were able to get them to no longer have any
issues with their lungs, and their respiratory specialist was perplexed

(21:17):
as to how we were able to get them to
no longer need medication.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Interesting, I mean, because so many people, especially you see
nowadays the number of cases of people that have asthma,
because you know, there's a lot of air pollution and
things like that, so you're subject to a lot of
negative influences on your breathing that you don't even have
a choice about.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, I tell people to do the breath work, to
exercise aerobically, and exercise anaerobically and go out into nature
and breathe deeply and go hug a tree.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
So how do you monitor the progress of your treatments
for somebody that has breathing challenges.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
You do a breath test like a rest biometer and
measure the progress and get to see the progress.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
And how do you adjust, say, the expectations for a
patient who has a chronic respiratory condition.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Well, if I support them properly, they'll see the difference
pretty quickly. And that's the fun of it, is the
fact that people who had closed the door on them
ever getting better actually start to get better, and their
mind is blown by the fact that they're doing something
that nobody ever told them they would ever be able
to do again, and nobody even offered them the opportunity

(22:34):
to do it.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, I mean, are you able to work with somebody
that's in that field, like a pulmonologist whose specialty is
working with people with breathing problems?

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Oh, I have, and I'm always open to it. And
most want to control the job themselves, so they will
have a tendency to want to keep them under their
wing of control instead of being open to gaining more
understanding of what's outside of their toolbox that may be
beneficial for their patient. I just find an interesting that

(23:11):
a healthcare provider's first commitment is to helping the patient
get better, And if what you're doing isn't handling the job,
then it's your job to make a referral to somebody
that can do more, do better, or expand it. So
it's interesting that within the medical profession they have no

(23:35):
problems referring to a specialist, but if the specialist can't
do the job, then they're just like, well, there's nothing
else can be done, instead of finding a different type
of specialist. I happen to be one of those different
type of specialists that doesn't offer medication and doesn't try
to push it down the hallway towards surgery.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
No. I mean when you when somebody comes into you
with a breathing issue, of where do those issues typically happen?
Are they typically a lung issue or are there something else
going on?

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Well, it could be anywhere within the respiratory system. Could
be the mouth, could be the nose, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles,
or the alveoli and the muscles that support all of
those structures. So the problem could be in any of
those areas.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
So is there a difference between say a lung issue
and sinus problems and bronchial problems.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
Yes, each's specific location of the lungs, the sinuses of
the bronchi leading to the lungs where the problem exists,
and so each one of those would require a different
level of support and a different, subtle, different type of treatment.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
So what's the difference between say something like pneumonia and bronchitis.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Well, pneumonia is a lung it's caused by a bacterium.
Bronchitis is located in the bronchi and its inflammation and
can be due to other things, things not necessarily just bacteria.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Well, does bunkitis typically lead to pneumonia? Is that one
of the ways the infection gets into the body.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
I suppose that's possible. Like I said, if you get pneumonia,
it's caused by a bacteria, the pneumonia bacteria, and so
inflammation of the bronchi I suppose over time can trap
things that get in that can help facilitate bacteria getting trapped,

(25:41):
which can you know, then propagate and develop into an infection.
So I guess I could see how that would happen.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, because I mean, it just seems like pneumonia is
the issue that people worry about. If somebody's had a
long term cough, but the cough may not be anything
related to having that particular bacteria right now. Asthma is
another problem you must see frequently with people that have
lung issues. What is asthma? What's going on with that disease? Well?

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Asthma is a respiratory condition marked by spasms in the
bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing. It usually
results from an allergic reaction or other form of hypersensitivity
that directly impacts lung functioning.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Another thing called cystic fibrosis is that a childhood health problem.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Cystic Fibrosis is a chronic, inherited genetic disorder. It causes
the body produced abnormally thick, sticky mucus that blocks airways
in the lungs and the digestive tract. It is a
childhood health issue and currently has no cure.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
What is COPD?

Speaker 3 (26:47):
COPD stands for Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. C is the
chronic always obstructive p IS pulmonary and d IS disease.
It's a progressive lung disease and it makes it hard
to breathe.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Is it getting the air out of your lungs? It's
the problem.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
It is Mark. It's you know, you feel like you're
drowning because you can't expel the air.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
So that chronic, that chronic congestion that you have is
actually keeping you from being able to exhale. So you're
sitting there with the same air in your lungs for
the length of time, which means that the carbon dioxide
is building up in your body.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Right and the oxygen is already gone. You feel like
you're suffocating.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
That's interesting because you would think that if you would
feel like you're suffocating because you can't get a breath in,
but it's actually this other thing the way you can't
get the breath out. Right. How do your lungs relate
to your emotions.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Well, they are the storehouse for all grief and those
related emotions. So when you're at a funeral, you see
a person who's survived, when they are crying, they have
trouble getting the breath out, and that is the grief
and it's being trapped in the lungs, hence the exhaling
issues when grieving, and so what's important is to release

(28:13):
that breath to engage the diaphragm in an effort to
help push the air out, and with the pushing of
it out and the contracting of the diaphragm, you actually
are helping to release the emotion that is the grief.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
And in some cultures you have keening and you have wailing,
and you have people that really express all those emotions.
We here in the West seem to all want it
to be nice and neat and proper, and oftentimes what
happens is you end up suppressing the very emotions that
you need to.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Express well you do, and then that creates lung health issues.
And it's because we will never trained how to properly
grieve and how to properly show the emotions and express
those emotions. We've you know, we've taught people people to
not cry in public. We've taught men that it's not
good for them to show their emotions of grief and sadness,

(29:10):
and so we've attached the stigma to it, if you will,
that makes it we're not properly educated on how to
grieve and how to release all that. And you know,
I've always said that somebody who can truly grieve in
a public way is certainly healthier and even stronger. If

(29:32):
you will, versus being stoic and holding it all in.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
But we are trained, especially as males in this culture,
to suppress all that and to not express those kind
of emotions. Now, I noticed that the other emotion that
might be associated with that is the one that causes
you to laugh, and that is the exhalation of those
abundantly good emotions.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah, and laughter is is a wonderful emotion to express.
Expressing the emotional energy that shows up as laughter can
even sometimes lead to tears. My wife will quote laugh
and cry at the same time. When I say something

(30:22):
that strikes her as being funny, she'll laugh to the
point where now she's doing what her friend calls You're
doing it again. You're doing that laugh cry thing that
you do.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Now. One of the things that is often said is
that laughter is the best medicine. It is.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
It comes from a place of balance and happiness and
releasing that happiness. And by coming from the energy of
happiness and embodying that happiness, that's going to restore balance
to whatever is out of balance or dysfunctional in the body.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
And not only that, laughter is a good exercise.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yeah, when you have a really good belly laugh, the
muscles ache afterwards. And you know, we should all try
to do that at least once a day. I don't
know how often I do it. I know I could
probably do better by it.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Well, we certainly have a lot of you know, comedy
clubs and late night television programs that are built around
making people laugh. And yeah, I noticed that some people
have a very easy laugh and other people that's not
so easy to laugh. So now, if you're not allowing
your emotions to get out, what then could happen to

(31:41):
you as a result of not expressing your emotions.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
Well, ultimately health issues will develop over time based upon
those repressed emotions. And so I would encourage everybody to
express your emotions, to be brave and to be you know,
selfish in a way by expressing seeing how you feel
and nobody's responsible for how you feel, but you are

(32:04):
responsible for what you do with your feelings. And so
you can find an outlet that allows you to express
those feelings under your own control, that would be great.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, And what's so interesting about the breath is the
breath is one of those those things that you do
that you don't have to think about, but you can
think about. You can hold your breath willfully if you
want to. So there's a crossover there that people can do.
And it does it seem that a lot of people
are holding their breath a great deal of the time.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Oh, they do, and they are completely unaware of it.
It's a constant, repressed emotional state and they don't allow
their diaphragm to be fully engaged, and so they end
up holding their breath in their lungs. And you know,
I watch people breathe all the time just to see
who breathes properly versus who breathes backwards. And so I
watch people not breathe while they're sitting in my presence.

(33:00):
I will ask them to breathe and they're like, I'm breathing.
I'm like, no, I'm watching you, and you're not breathing.
You're holding your breath right now. So release whatever it
is that you're holding and take a new breath.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
So, if you're holding your breath, are you also at
the same time holding onto emotion?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Most likely?

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Most likely, yeah, I would think so. Now that leads
me to this other thought that if you're doing a
breathing practice where you're actually exercising your ability to breathe,
you may experience waves of emotion. What is going on
is that because as your breath starts to move more fluidly,

(33:35):
the emotions start to come to the surface.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Well, you're giving yourself permission to now begin to release
those emotions. So, yes, they will come to the surface.
And my suggestion is for you to ride the waves
and make sure that you ride them out fully so
that you get back to shore and there's no more waves.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
So should you expect that kind of emotional response of
your doings and then a breathing practice.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Until you've cleared them out. My answer would be yes.
And that's the whole purpose for doing that kind of
practice is for you to bring those up and out
and release them so that you're no longer carrying that
trapped energy.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Well, this is once again another great conversation we're having,
Doc Gric. We do need to take a short commercial
break to hear from our general sponsor, the Alternative Healthcare
Network dot Com. But when we get back, I want
to finish out our conversation on breathing as we are
just about to get into October and the fall is
fully upon us.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Absolutely, But please listen's commercial from our generous sponsor. You're
listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network dot com.

Speaker 7 (34:35):
You are listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
If you're currently suffering from any health concern and you're
not getting the results you're looking for, please feel free
to call me directly at area code eight four five
five six one two two two five again eight four
five five six one two two two five, or you
can email me directly at docric at spineboy dot com.
That's doos see Riick at spineboy dot com, and I

(35:03):
look forward to serving your health care needs naturally.

Speaker 7 (35:07):
We're listening to the Alternative Healthcare Network.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Well, today we're talking about the breath and what you
can do with your breath, what you need to do
with your breath, and what can make you cultivate your
health through breath And I know that there are a
number of practices that involve what is called breath work.
How do these relate to.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Health, Well, it's both physical and emotional. The emotional response
comes before the physical balancing returns. And that's because the
trapped emotion that you're bringing up in doing the breath
work allows you to clear that emotion and once the
emotion is removed, from the physical structure, then the physical

(35:52):
structure can go back to regaining its normal, healthy, balanced state.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Is that at more of a chicken and a thing?
Is it more physical than emotional? Is it more emotional
than physical? Does one precede the other or are they
just kind of cycling through.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Each person is going to be a little bit different.
It depends upon the person's self awareness and their ability
to release their emotions. And if you become fully self
aware and you're got some kind of breath practice that
allows you to release those emotions, then nothing will ever
manifest physically. If you were born with a physical imbalance.

(36:35):
My thought is is if you do breath work, then
that can help the physical imbalance go back to being
more normal.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
So a very important practice if you choose to take
one up. Now, if somebody has a breathing issue, how
do you go about working with that person?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
I work to help them release their repressed emotions in
a kind, compassionate and supportive way that makes them feel
safe and supported while they go through that process. Because
to release those emotions, you're going to have to get vulnerable,
and so you need to create a safe environment where
the person feels comfortable enough to go to that place

(37:13):
of vulnerability, and sometimes it doesn't happen immediately. Sometimes it
takes a little bit to get the person comfortable enough
out of their unconscious mind trying to be protected by
their ego to actually allow them to release No.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
I mean, you use a lot of different alternative methods
in treating people, So how do you address maybe a
breath difficulty that somebody is having with those alternative methods.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Well, I do use a lot of different methods, and
it's a person by person solution. It's not a one
size fits all. Each one of us is having our
own unique human experience and so how that person processes
or represses their experience is the difference and is going
to specifically call up which technique that I'm going to

(38:09):
use to help them. But my commitment, my promise, and
my purpose is to make sure that I help them.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
And now, do you ever collaborate with conventional medicine and
caregivers to help somebody that has a breathing challenge?

Speaker 3 (38:27):
I do, And what I do is I support the
person until I've handled what we've endeavored to handle together,
and then I send them back to their primary practitioner
having resolved their issue.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Is there a good example that you can share about
when somebody came to you that needed to have help
improving their breathing.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Oh, I have many stories, and one specific was a
person with lung cancer who had has right lung removed
and then developed the growth and his left lung and
his doctor didn't explain things. When I shared with him
what was being withheld, he got very, very angry, and
then I asked him one question that changed his whole life,

(39:09):
and that question was do you want to live? And
he cried sobbed and bald for twenty to twenty five
minutes before regaining his composure enough to ask me why
I would ask that question.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
And why did you ask that question for.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
The exact response that he demonstrated prior to being able
to compose himself, and ask me the question why I
wanted to provoke him to relieve all the grief that
was in his lungs, specifically about the fact that a
IS practitioner wasn't transparent and open and honest with him.

(39:47):
He was more cryptic than honest, and the fact that
he'd already had a lung removed indicated that he'd been
dealing with grief for a very, very long time and
not in a healthy way. So for me to provoke
him to the point of tears and just to allow
him to go through that process and continue to hold

(40:08):
space for him while he goes through that process was
tremendously healing for him. And the outcome of the story
was they had told him before he came to see
me that he needed to get his affairs in order
because he was probably going to be dead in about
six months. But after I shared with him what the

(40:28):
doctor wasn't transparent about, his anger kept him alive for
two and a half years.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Wow. So that's a pretty important story for somebody with
a severe respiratory issue. Yeah, So are there general ways
to deal with breathing or as you say, everybody is different.
So is it different with everybody that you deal with.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Well, everyone is an individual and has a different story
and it's going to need individual care for their particular circumstance,
and so some of the tools may be the same,
some of the remedies may be the same, but the
process for the individual is going to be unique to them.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Now, are there situations where someone might use traditional medicine
for their breathing challenges that.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
You see certainly, and again it's an individual and not
a one size fits all. And sometimes people come to
me and they're on some kind of medication, whether it's
pregnozone for the inflammation in their lungs, maybe it's an
inhaler because they have asthma or what have you. And

(41:32):
so when I help to restore balance within that person,
they find that they don't need their medication anymore. And
that's a wonderful thing for them. But I've seen some
doctors who just keep prescribing them the same presnozones, etc.
And I always tell people they need to be mindful
of taking prednizone because it, over time can create other

(41:56):
health imbalances, and if they don't catch those other imbalances
before it's too late, then you have a presnozone induced
to other health issue.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I mean, is there any kind of medication that's not
going to have some other a'll tear your consequence?

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Well, we have to appreciate the television teaches us this
that all medication comes with side effects, and you have
to weigh the pros and the cons before you go
on the medication. But you need to be fully informed
before you say yes to particular medication. Doctors are very
quick to want to offer up a solution, but you
need to understand is the solution going to be worse

(42:37):
case scenario better than the not doing the medication, or
is it going to trump that in some way that
makes it? Yeah, if I know I've had lots of patients.
Tell me, if I would know then what I now
know now, I probably would have made a different decision.
And doctors don't necessarily give you other decisions because they

(42:58):
want to make sure that you are hooked into what's
going to help create the greatest amount of profit for them.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
So, how do you assess a person's respiratory needs and
what their challenges are?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Ask see test results and then challenge the lungs to
see what kind of function they have, and then give
them some exercises to improve that.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
So in those exercises and things, are there emotional and
psychological strategies involved with how do you approach the breathing issues?

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Well, I just simply clear the emotions that impact the lungs,
and then those psychological and emotional issues are no longer
part of the equation.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
And one of the things that you told me about
is that you actually educate people about the ways to
breathe properly? How do you how do you actually instruct
somebody to breathe properly.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
We actually go through a whole exercise of I have
a person put a hand on their chest, and I
have them put a hand on their belly while they're
sitting in a chairs, sitting up straight, and then I
will ask them, with their eyes closed, to take a big,
deep breath in, and I will just simply watch which

(44:06):
hand moves. If they're upper hand moves, they're a chess breather.
If they're lower hand moves, then they're a belly breather.
And nine, probably ninety five out of one hundred people
are chest breathers. And then I will point out to
them with their eyes open, what they're doing and how
they're chest breathing instead of belly breathing. And then I
will show them what belly breathing looks like, and I

(44:28):
will exaggerate the process of belly breathing so that they
can see it. And then we will take them through
the steps of what it takes to get them to
learn how to belly breathe, and then we'll have them
practice it for about five or ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Now, another thing about your practice is that you offer
chiropractic care. So how does chiro care help with breathing.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Well, if you adjust the thoracic spine, which is the
area from the base of your neck to the end
of your rib cage, those vertebrae protect the nerves specifically
innervate and go to your lungs, and so making adjustments
to your thoracic spine is going to free up any
kind of nerve interference that could be impacting how your

(45:11):
lungs function.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Now, when we talk about healthy living, you know that's
something a subject much deeper than just being disease free.
So in the way that you deal with patients, some
may come into you, they may have some kind of
chronic health condition, they may have something that's a temporary
health condition, and you help them in the process of

(45:36):
getting over that. But you go beyond that, don't you.
I mean, you look at people not only from the
process of contending with some kind of health issue, but
going on to maintaining their health.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Well, what's important is that healthy living is about supporting
being healthy and living a healthy life, and disease isn't
even part of the equation.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
So, how do you work with somebody that's going to
be that's going to have a disease when they come to.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
You, Oh, if they come to me with a disease,
we don't focus on the disease. We focus on getting
them well. We focus on we put them immediately in
a path and change their mindset instead of feeding their
disease process to getting them to think about what it
would feel like if they were healthy and if things
worked better, and we keep them motivated to do that

(46:23):
until they actually achieved that goal.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
So again we're back to something that is akin to
the emotions about around being ill or having some kind
of health condition, where you have to sort of shift
the attitude of the person that you're dealing with so
they're no longer focused on what's wrong, but focused on
the goal to be healthy. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I'm reminded of a story of a gentleman who was
the father of my younger brother's best friend in high school.
He developed testicular cancer. And when Jim went through his
testicular cancer, I was still going through school, so I
wasn't even fully in practice yet, And so at some

(47:14):
point down the road, because of what they did to
him with the chemo and the radiation, etc. They destroyed
one of his kidneys and they impacted him with the
effects of the radiation. And so he finally did come
to me as a patient, and I asked him, I said,
tell me about your diagnosis. What was that like, because

(47:37):
I was trying to learn what it's like to go
through a devastating diagnosis of what he did. And he said, well,
my doctor was great. I said, well, tell me about it.
He said, well, when he called my wife and I
into his office after he got test results, and we
knew we were there to go over the test results,
and we knew it was either going to be a
good thing or a bad thing, and so we went

(47:57):
in and we sat down and he says, Jim, you
have testicular cancer and it's spread to other areas of
your body, and you're going to be fine. And it
was the second part of that sentence that he paused

(48:18):
deliberately in an effort to make sure that he had
processed the first part of the sentence so that he
could actually hear the second part of the sense. And
Jim jumped in with both feet, hook line and sinker
to the end. You're going to be fine. Part. He
didn't get wrapped up in the process of getting rid

(48:40):
of the problem. He focused on the outcome that he
wanted to experience. And that's what every patient has to
do when they go to their doctor. They need to
have a goal in mind. They need to talk about
the likelihood of that goal being achieved, and they need
to find a practitioner that's going to support them in
that goal to that end instead of getting wrapped up

(49:01):
in the management and the treatment of something that you
didn't want to have to begin with.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Well, I know that you know last week we were
talking about the grieving process and if your health is
in decline or you've had a diagnosis where you were
talking about the man with the had one lung removed
and had an alesion. He's not getting a diagnosis that says,
you know, everything's going to be fine. He got a
diagnosis where you know you're going to have six months

(49:30):
to live. And you took a different a different approach
to him so that you actually explained what was going on.
And then the question that you asked him, do you
want to live? And clearly he did so. Once he
had that objective, his life lasted another he said two
and a half years. Right, Yeah, so there does seem

(49:51):
to be a big part of what goes on with
your health and the outcome that you might expect from
the attitude that you come in with. Oh.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Absolutely, everything is about attitude, and it's about your mindset
and if your mindset is stuck in disease. I had
a patient I was texting with this morning who's making
excuses for why she can't do this, that and the
other thing, and she can't hold a job and she's
holding on to she had a car accident about a
year and a half ago, and they told her that

(50:20):
she had a concussion as a result of the accident,
and so everywhere she goes she talks about her concussion,
to the point where she was hired to do a
job and she kept mentioning that she has a concussion
and therefore she can't do the job as fast as
they want her to do it, and they had to
let her go. So she texted me this morning and

(50:41):
basically said, I won't be able to keep my appointment
Saturday because I lost my job because of my concussion, this,
that and the other thing. And my response to her
was like you have two choices. You can continue to
focus on what you don't want to have, or you
can focus on what you do want to have and
where you're going and what it's going to be like
when you get there. And we'll see if she responds
to the text that I sent her. But I mean,

(51:03):
at the end of the day, I had to be
brutally honest with her. You can continue to focus on
having a problem, or you can focus on getting better
from the problem that some doctor convinced you that you had.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
So, if there's somebody out there listening to our show
in the last minute that we have here, what are
the best ways to ask the questions that you would
ask of the patient like.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
That, Well, if they want to ask me those questions,
or if they want to come learn about how to
ask those questions, I'm happy to give them those questions.
You can actually go to my website and there's two pages.
There's a page specifically if you're being asked to take
a medication, there's a series of fifteen questions you want
to ask, And if you're asked to do a surgery,
there's a series of fifteen questions you want to ask.

(51:48):
But the point is is having the understanding and being
interested in your well being and not being more interested
in investing in your health problem. We're not meant to
be sick. We're meant to be healthy, and so it's
important for us to reach for that. And so if
you're having any difficulties, I would love to speak with you. You

(52:08):
can call me directly on my cell phone area code
eight four five five six one two two two five
again eight four five five six one two two two five.
And you have nothing to lose by having a conversation,
and you might actually be enlightened. Then your whole life
could change. If you don't call me, you can text
the phone, but I'll probably get back to you later

(52:30):
rather than sooner. The quickest way other than calling me
would be to email me directly. I answer all my
emails every day. I make a habit of making sure
that I do that, and so my email is doc
Rick DC Riick at spineboy dot com. Doc Rick atspineboy
dot com. And it would be my pleasure to help you,

(52:50):
And it starts with you choosing to ask the question,
and I'm happy to answer it. So I want to
thank you for your time. Mark. I want to thank
you a listening audience for their time. I appreciate you
tuning in. I'd ask you to tune back in next week,
same health time, same health station. This is doctor Richard
on tune from Advanced Alternative Medicine Center, saying, I'll look

(53:12):
forward to supporting you when you're health.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
Minute my physician, he said, you're definitely ill.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Then to the nurse, I've seen worse. And the doctor
just gave me a pill. Take one of those to
be gone today. You don't ever stop on till you're
nearly dead or all the better keep out of the
reach of children.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
The things that might be some side effects being but
probably will well limits of fact.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Can come back.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
The film on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that, on top of that, on top
of that, on top of that.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
And then he showed me his bill. I pupped another pill.
What's out of the headache.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Has become a pain in the butt.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
What was just an itchy finger.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
And now is the swollen putting Doctor ripe an out
of breath. And I've never walked up a hill. Avoid
all diet from exercise. I'd rather give you a bill.
The thing is that might be some side effects brings
the probably will WeLive.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
It's a fact.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
Just come back and I'll give you an hour.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
The hill on top of that, on top of that,
on top of that, on top of that, on top.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Of that, on top of that.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
Then he showed me a bill. I popped another pill.
I looked on the internet, checked out the medical sight.
He said, you may not be depressive, but then again
you might. You know, worry than you are, and take
this simple test. Obviously you need a pill, you know

(54:43):
how one is bet The thing is that might be
some side effects.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Or I had that before. I've been rushing back to
the doctor.