James Nestor

Otherwise it causes vasoconstriction and it causes a bunch of other issues.

But so many of these people are in this cycle of over-breathing, and the thought of holding their breath reminds them that they're having a panic attack.

So they're just, I know this is a bit technical, they're constantly over-breathing.

When you train asthmatics to breathe more slowly...

through the nose when they feel an asthma attack coming on instead of trying to slow themselves down to hold their breath for a few seconds.

It can be absolutely transformative.

There are about 20 different studies looking into this that have found these people within a number of weeks are able to decrease the amount of bronchodilator use by around 50 percent, decrease oral steroids, and so many of them, they write me all the time,

don't have any symptoms at all after a few months.

To be completely clear, I would never say people should stop using their medication, okay?

Continue using your medication, but also it might be beneficial to seek out a qualified, certified respiratory therapist that can assist you in these different techniques to breathe more slowly.

I have never heard anyone

of any asthmatic or people with anxiety or panic who have not had real benefits from learning how to breathe better.

Now, that spectrum's wide.

Some people say, I do feel better.

I'm using a little less medication.

That's on one end.

The other end is, I have no more symptoms, and I'm so pissed off someone didn't tell me this 20 years ago.

Okay, the first warning I'm going to give everyone is what I'm going to tell you is extremely boring.

It's going to seem extremely mundane.

A lot of people come up to me and they say, you've studied this stuff for a while.