Dr. Breath

[cheya]

I came across Carl Stough's breathing method after I got mild altitude sickness in Peru a few years ago. I wanted to go back, but I didn't want to be sick like that again, so my ears perked up when I heard that "Dr. Breath" had trained athletes not to need extra oxygen at the 1978 High Altitude Olympics in Mexico City.

Stough started out as a church choir director who felt a life calling to help people develop their singing voices. In the process, he developed novel breathing techniques, using improved voice quality to identify useful exercises.

Eventually the VA asked Stough to work with emphysema patients, to see if he could make their breathing more comfortable. In emphysema, the diaphragm basically degenerates, along with the bronchial sacs, and the disease is considered incurable. By retraining patients' breathing, Stough ended up curing some of them, and improving many more. That's not supposed to be possible. He just kept refining the methods he'd used with his singing students. The major method was extending the exhale for as long as possible while counting out loud or singing. That way the diaphragm had more work to do than silent exhale, sort of a back pressure. Of course complete exhalation counters the instincts in those who are literally suffocating. But breathing out all the way activates a hard-wired reflex of diaphragmatic contraction at the bottom of the exhale. By getting patients to activate this inhale reflex, Stough got their diaphragms working again. He actually had a floroscopic (??) video of one patient's diaphragm before and after breath training.

Stough was asked to work with olympic athletes at the 1968 high altitude games in Mexico City. Breathing this new way shortened recovery time and practically eliminated the need for extra oxygen. Many of the athletes ended up achieving career records under his instruction, even under high altitude conditions. Many also reported entering extremely calm and pleasant states with the breathing, as well as a number of other seemingly unrelated benefits.

Stough wrote a book called "Dr. Breath: The Story of Breathing Coordination: An absorbing account of the most significant advance of the century in knowledge of breathing." It's out of print, but is available used. He's since passed away, but pictures and demo videos are at www.breathingcoordination.com/ He had two videos out, and I think some excerpts are available online. Before and after video of the emphysema patients was pretty amazing, as are the reports of improved athletic performance in athletes theoretically already at the top of their game. The technique also can help asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and various respiratory infections, as well as stomach ulcer, heart problems, and even insomnia.

You can get a usable version of his breathing technique off the web. It's pretty simple. The PT-like hand techniques he used to assist the breathing process may be forever lost, although he does have some direct students teaching now.

 

Edited November 21, 2017 by cheya

[karen]

Very interesting, thanks. I looked at the instructions at http://www.breathingcoordination.com/selfhelp.html, and got the idea of what he's doing, but I really didn't understand how the breathing is coordinated with the counting - can you clarify?

 

-Karen

[Desert Eagle]

The PT-like hand techniques

 

What is PT?

[cheya]

Very interesting, thanks. I looked at the instructions at http://www.breathingcoordination.com/selfhelp.html, and got the idea of what he's doing, but I really didn't understand how the breathing is coordinated with the counting - can you clarify?

 

Hi Karen,

I don't think the breathing is meant to be coordinated with the counting. You count as long as you can stay relaxed, and then allow the inhale reflex. I think the coordination refers to how the breathing muscles work together, and exhaling in a relaxed way until you hit the reflex triggers the natural coordination. In the video, he also did some hand manipulations on the chest and abdomen while the person was breathing, to encourage the muscles to work together, or relax together, I guess. In the book, he says "....there is no absolute 'correct' method of breathing; there is only breathing coordination. The muscles and sets of muscles of the human respiratory mechanism are designed to operate in a perfectly coordinated synergism to give the individual the maximum breathing efficiency of which he is capable and to give it to him with a minimum expenditure of energy.

Regardless of respiratory handicap or damage, the mechanism can be trained to function in a coordinated pattern with the work load of breathing evenly distributed over the operable portions of the mechanism. Each person, according to his physical structure, has his own individualistic pattern of breathing for maximum efficiency with minimum effort. If he suffers any form of respiratory damage, his muscles can be retrained to compenste the disability without overuse of any single muscle or sets of muscles. Breathing coordination can exist under any respiratory conditions..... Contrary to my previous notions, breathing coordination was not the name of something I did. It was a physiological fact, heretofore unknown, which I had discovered in my efforts to help emphysema patients breathe more easily. Breathing coordination is the intended function of the respiratory system just as digestion is the indtended function of the digestive system."(page 108)

 

Hope that helps...

 

Edited May 17, 2016 by cheya

[karen]

Ok, thanks, Adeha. The way the instructions were written, I thought it was saying to count on the inhale, and out loud, so that seemed a bit odd .

 

-Karen

[cheya]

What is PT?

 

I'm sorry. PT is physical therapy!

[Trunk]

I came across Carl Stough's breathing method ...

Impressive results.

Interesting thread.

[growant]

interesting!