What is health?
Can we enjoy better health without spending a fortune on health products and fitness systems and can we really improve our own health? The answer is a resounding YES!
I have spent over thirty-five years in the ‘Health Business’ gathering information on the subject of health from every writer and therapist, and I have come to a simple conclusion: there are hundreds of factors that can influence our health that include, body structure, exercise, work, eating habits, family and community, the environment we live in, our genes, toxins in our diets, etc., but of all these factors there are only two that we can have any significant control over.
The good news is that these two factors are probably the most important and other bit of good news is that these two factors are closely linked, so any improvement in one will result in an improvement in the other!
So the route to optimal health is reduced to learning how to improve just these two factors in our lives. Improving what we eat and how to breathe!
What We Eat
Based on the largest epidemiological study ever conducted in the field of nutrition (800 million individuals), over fifty years of research and clinical experience of over twelve thousand doctors, the evidence points to the fact that ninety percent of all major diseases are diet related. That means the risk of developing them could be reduced to almost nil and that many of these diseases could be reversed with diet. The list of diseases includes heart disease, diabetes, strokes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s Disease, MS, most cancers, lung disease, hypertension, gut diseases and many more.(1)
How We Breathe
Few of us breathe normally, over seventy-five percent of us in the West suffer from some degree of over-breathing, or chronic hidden hyperventilation. This is linked to over a hundred health problems that affect the vast majority of the population. These health problems include asthma, angina, hypertension, hay fever, ME, sleep apnoea, snoring, orthodontic problems, panic attacks, anxiety, heart problems and many others.(2)
Research
Over the past year I have been checking every patient’s diet quality and breathing quality with two well-proven measures; I have used the 4LeafSurvey Score, based on the work of The China Study, that gives a good estimate of the percentage of calories a person derives from Whole Plant Foods. For their breathing quality I have used the Control Pause, or Maximum Comfortable Breath Hold, after exhaling & at rest, developed by Professor Konstantin Buteyko. The early results show a strong link between these two functions as summarized in the table below. More data will be added in time but at the moment this relationship seems valid.
There are good physiological reasons why our diet affects our breathing, but why our breathing affects what and how we eat reflects psychological factors more.
(1). These relationships are best understood with reference to the book “How Not To Die” by Dr. Michael Greger. Video explanations by leading doctors of specific conditions can be seen on my website: thefoodconnection.org.uk
(2). Further explanation of the Control Pause and the Buteyko Method may be seen on my website: thebreathconnection.com
Check Your Own Diet & Breathing
To get your 4LeafSurvey Score you can complete the 4LeafSurvey Questionnaire on my website thefoodconnection.org.uk/4leaf-pdf-survey-103015.pdf or go to 4leafsurvey.com on your mobile or computer.
Check your maximum comfortable breath hold in seconds after breathing in and out normally while sitting at rest. Breathe only through your nose and keep your mouth closed. It helps to lightly hold your nose while checking your breath hold. This is your CP score.
You may now find advice on improving your diet here
and advice on improving your breathing here
or you may choose to enroll on The Skype Lifestyle Course
Michael Lingard BSc. DO. WPNCert. Orthopath Buteyko Educator Plantrician
