“Asthama can be controlled by Pranayam”

“Asthama can be controlled by Pranayam”

By Vikas Vaidya

Asthma is a disease of the airways in the lungs. Its symptoms are caused by inflammation, which makes the airways red, swollen, narrower and extra-sensitive to irritants. This leads to recurrent attacks of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing.
Dr Sushant H Meshram (Maitreya) MD, FCCP (USA), Fellow Sleep Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical University, USA said that the prevalence of asthma in children is 4.9% and 2.38% in adults. The national burden of asthma 17.23. Adult women living in households using biomass and solid fuels have a significantly higher risk of asthma than those living in households using cleaner fuels. Female sex, advancing age, usual residence in urban area, lower socio-economic status, history of asthma in a first degree relative, and all forms of tobacco smoking were associated with significantly higher odds of having asthma.
Dr Meshram who is Asthma and Respiratory Senior Consultant said, “Asthma can start at any age, although about half of all people with asthma have had their first symptoms by the age of 10, and many children with asthma have had their first asthma attack before the age of 6 years. Unfortunately, deaths still occur in acute, severe asthma. But this is unusual and can be prevented.”
Most asthma deaths occur in people who have not received enough treatment, perhaps because they did not realize or did not want to admit how serious their asthma was, or because they had not received adequate guidance from their doctors.
Dr Meshram pointed out, “Breathing exercises or Pranayam is to be done very cautiously. In fact it is not a treatment for asthma but yes it can be use as an adjuvant to conventional treatment. Normally we take 15 breaths in a minute that is approximately 21,600 breaths in 24 hrs. Inspiration is followed by expiration which is twice that of inspiration and there is no pause between inspiration and expiration. Respiratory system as a machine has to overcome the resistance load of 50 millions airways tubing and elastic load of 300 millions air balloons in one respiratory cycle. While performing this work respiratory system use only  5% of total oxygen consumption for energy generation in healthy individuals.”