Seasons Greetings … and breathing (not) in LA

The end of 2011 already, confirming my privately held belief that time goes faster following the running of the Melbourne Cup. (I don’t profess
to know how this works…it just does.) Flew back from LA last week into a frenzied few days in clinic. This crazy weather is the cause
of lots of nasty colds (California winter was sunny and warm!).

So what was I doing in LA?

I was in LA learning how to become a Buteyko Breathing practitioner. The course was led by a charismatic Irishman, Patrick McKeown… “I want
ye to close ta mouth…” Patrick is a lovely man, very gentle and magnificently generous with his knowledge.

Konstantin Buteyko was a Russian doctor (mid-twentieth century)
who believed that the cause of many maladies lay in what he termed ‘overbreathing’ — hyperventilation. Conditions as diverse as asthma,
anxiety, high blood pressure, insomnia and hayfever respond to a REDUCTION in breathing. Totally against today’s standard thinking of taking
big deep breaths. During the course in the Buteyko Breathing Method we were taught how to reduce breathing…and spent hours taping up
our mouths and holding our noses. Sometimes at the same time.

The reduced breathing results in increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the body, which in turn relaxes blood vessels and breathing passages, actually
improving oxygen delivery to the tissues. Kind of counterintuitive, but it makes a whole lot of sense. It was a great bunch of students, including
some really welcoming LA locals, who showed me around their ‘hood’, including the ubiquitous celebrity spotting.