breathing

A project by scientists in the United States and India may soon produce an inexpensive Web-enabled device that will allow asthma monitoring on the Internet. The device that would measure lung function in patients with asthma and other disorders is being developed by the U.S. electronics company Texas Instruments Inc. at its Bangalore, India, facility. The device will allow Read more...

Doctors describe heart failure as an enlarged, swollen or weak heart. Sometimes, it may be referred to as congestive heart failure, where patients have fluid accumulation or "congestion" primarily in the lungs. Heart failure is not a heart attack. A heart attack usually results from blockage in the blood vessels that cut off the supply of blood to the heart muscle. Unlike a Read more...

The link between sleep and heart disease is a two-way street: Poor sleep can add to heart disease, and heart disease can hurt sleep, says a U.S. newsletter. Poor sleep has been linked to high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, heart failure, heart attack and stroke, diabetes and obesity; and the thread that ties these together may be inflammation -- the body's response to injury, infection, Read more...

Until he got treatment, Kevin Pfister was one of the more than 40 million Americans who are chronically ill with various sleep disorders, not counting the other 30 million who have sporadic sleep problems. For years, Pfister went through his days groggy and unexcited about life. "I was tired all the time, no energy, no motor," the 46-year-old Victoria man said. "I was Read more...

By Jane Glenn Haas In case you need a reason to get rid of stress in your life, here's the best one. Cortisol, the adrenal hormone that mediates stress responses, is toxic to neurons in the part of the brain responsible for memory and emotion. Dr. Andrew Weil says so in his book, Healthy Aging (Knopf, 2005). What that means is that too much stress drives you batty. Sort Read more...

Lose weight by breathing? Get outta here, you say, but 55-year-old Rashelle Haines says her LifeLift  method can put that dream of having the best body you've ever had into your mirror. Be a slimmer, healthier, more energetic you, Haines says, simply by breathing aerobically in your car, in the shower, at work, even in bed -- standing, sitting, lying down. Oxygen, not exercise, burns fat, Read more...

If getting to sleep is becoming a major problem, it could be all a matter of breath. British health expert Jane Alexander says that, according to some eastern practices, altering your breathing can improve your health, including helping you to sleep better. Alexander cites one exercise that should help, starting with sitting comfortably in a chair, both feet on the floor, eyes closed and Read more...