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Children with asthma are encouraged to participate in physical activities. In fact, physical activity will help prevent asthmatics from becoming isolated, withdrawn and physically unconditioned. In particular, movement education, such as yoga, is beneficial for students with asthma because it provides an anaerobic activity with warm up and cool down periods.

Yoga exercises, including asanas, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques, put you in control of your mind and emotions, making you more relaxed and allowing you to breathe easier. This will also help your lungs work better and enhance airflow during asthma episodes.

Yogic practices result in more anxiety reduction than drugs do. Yoga gives patients access to their own internal experience and helps them pin-point the cause of their ailment, i.e., find their own triggers. This comes through increased self-awareness. Simple yogic practices help regulate breathing patterns, as well as enhance lung functioning. This results in many patients being able to better manage their condition by allaying their fears and anxieties.

Yoga also has a stabilizing effect on the body’s immune system. It is now proven that the regular and consistent practice of yoga raises the body’s tolerance to infection as well as its local resistance to infections in the respiratory tract. Yogic rest and relaxation reduce the nervous system’s overall activity, leading to remarkable recovery.

Breathing is an integral part of yoga and tremendous importance is placed on proper and effective breathing techniques. These yogic techniques help to strengthen the lungs and ensure that we breathe fully and properly. Yoga techniques can ensure that we utilize almost one hundred per cent of our lung capacity and help to preclude the possibility of respiratory ailments, including asthma.

Yoga also helps to calm the mind and bring it in sync with the body. It promotes relaxation and helps to alleviate stress and tension. It can help one to understand the emotional and physical triggers that induce an asthma attack and thereby avoid them. Truly, yoga can be a tremendous aid to asthmatics.

Please continue to take any prescribed medication and be sure that your school has a personal Asthma Action Plan in place. The Canadian Lung Association and this web site  are terrific places to look for more information and resources in helping students with asthma. Also Asthma Mom has lots of real life stories, comments, and concerns addressed on her blog. Check it out.

Next week I’ll be posting a series of poses and a few breathing exercises especially for asthmatics. Watch for it!

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