Almost invariably, flabby muscles become resilient, pale sallow cheeks become pink with the sweet flush of healthy youth.
Incidentally, I have discovered a variety of virtues in controlled breathing. Thus, in the case of that most annoying among minor ailments, a cold, I have found that I could invariably be rid of it within twenty-four hours by means of strenuous breathing exercises for twenty minutes at a time repeated often during the day.
For a more formal indorsement of this system, I may refer to the Societe Internationale de la Tuberculose. An investigation by the society was reported favorably at The Hague and London.
In this connection, it should be remembered that the world at large has not yet begun to realize the supreme value of correct, quiet, slow breathing for general health. Its practice regularly would unquestionably prove a preventative of tubercular disease. Its judicious employment by those already affected would prove a powerful remedial agent. Consumptives who seek the pure air of mountains or plains often fail to receive benefit, for the simple reason that they have never learned the proper manner of breathing. To such, the best of air is useless as the most nourishing food to the one who has no teeth with which to chew.
When one inhales, the lungs seem to grow. As the cells are filled with air, the chest proportionately enlarges. At the same time, the ribs and the diaphragm assume a new position. The result is that the chest, the between-rib muscles, and the diaphragm are all very strenuously exercised. By proper breathing, the various muscles involved are constantly trained; they are developed and made elastic to such an extent that the lungs are not required to stand alone in their resistance against adverse conditions, both without and within.
The lungs expand during inhalation; they contract during exhalation. A full breath dilates the lungs to their maximum capacity; they relax to the minimum size when the breath is completely expelled. By practice one can readily learn to influence the various movements, and gradually to control them. The practice of the first exercises in the series given includes sudden exhalation, slow exhalation, and rhythmic exhalation. These tend to reduce the quantity of air that is left in the lungs when the breath is expelled. Such residual air is poisonous, and an excess of it, due to improper breathing, is very injurious. Its retention in the lung cells not only lessens the space available to be filled with fresh air, but it also acts as a direct agent for ill in the bodily processes.
How Consciously Controlled Breathing Makes You Resist Disease
It should be added, and with emphasis, that the habit of deep breathing makes one immune to the germs of various diseases. The practice of breath-control gives a toughened fiber to the whole breathing apparatus. This and the constant purifying of the blood develop the body’s vital forces to the highest degree possible, against which disease is rendered powerless. Thus one may enter into possession of the health and strength that are his by right; and thus, and thus only, shall he know the joy of life.