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asthma treated with chi kung (qigong) and posture training |
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Kenneth’s story-
HOW I CURED MY ASTHMA WITH CHI KUNG & POSTURE TRAINING I am 49 years old. I am a senior sculptor and set designer for Hollywood studios. I developed asthma more than 20 years ago. For the last 15 years my condition got REALLY bad—it progressed to the point where I had to use an inhaler (Esprayter) several times a day. My asthma was so bad that often I would almost black out when I didn’t have the inhaler with me and couldn’t use it in time. It got worse after I moved to L.A., especially with any kind of exertion like playing basketball. However, things began to improve after I began to study internal martial arts about 3 years ago. Before that I had tried acupuncture and traditional medicine and got some temporary relief. But what really helped was “posture training” Things started to get better when my teacher pointed out my posture bad habits, particularly what he called characteristic “slumping” of my upper body which, according to the teacher accentuated stress around the area of the upper back near the acupuncture points called “lung shu points”
Arrows indicate location of the “lung shu points”
I began to emphasize specific posture corrections to relieve pressure on the area of the “lung shu points” of my upper back. I was very serious about making correction to the way I held and worked with my upper back. It actually seemed to help! Posture correction continued to be emphasized in my training and the teacher added exercises to help me more thoroughly stretch the area. Things began to get much better. In about seven or eight months there was dramatic improvement. I was no longer in fear of always having an inhaler around I began to carry it with me less and sometimes forgot it completely. It was around that time that I noticed that it was only after extreme exertion that I wouldn’t use it at all. Just now when writing this note I realized that, except for one setback last week, that I haven’t used it for 2 or 3 months and it’s winter time—usually the worst for me. For me it made all the difference and I encourage other asthma sufferers to find out if these techniques might work for them. As I understand it, “suspension training” developed from Taoist yoga as ways of training the body to actively lift and take stress off the spine, which in turn affects the way “energy” is able to move through the area. In my case, they made all the difference. Anyone who has not been asthmatic and had to deal with the fear of not being able to breathe will not fully appreciate this story or understand the burden of constantly carrying the darn inhalers around. It was only a short while ago that my life depended on having one at home, carrying one in the car, and having one at work. Now I don’t have one at all. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, the asthma problems that once plagued me are minimal, and I really appreciate the power of correct posture. . On another note, unrelated to the asthma, the teacher’s emphasis on posture training and correct spine mechanics has also helped me manage back pain. I have had to deal with two ruptured disks that were damaged years ago, and at the time of this writing I haven’t noticed any problems from them in a couple of years.
Kenneth G.
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