Case Study – Breathing Dynamics 1

Case Study, Breathing Dynamics – Dry lips and bad taste in the mouth.

Male, 65 y.o.

Presented with dry lips in the middle with moisture at the edges or corners (bottom lip especially can go dry); a bad taste in the mouth, especially in the tongue – symptoms appeared 6 months ago. Never previously before then.

Also presented with a chest cough that has come and gone for almost 12 months.

He had seen a GP, ENT specialist, dentist and dietician. Reports were:

He also has a hiatus hernia (that he is medicated for), but no feedback from this is getting to the throat.         CT scans and X-Ray for his chest were fine – he has some asbestos exposure when younger, but was not considered serious on the scan. The dentist confirmed the taste in his mouth did not seem to be coming from his dentures.      Also, a dietician looked at his diet and could not attribute any of his symptoms to this.

I observed him throughout the initial consultation and noticed his mouth was open (other than when talking) at times when concentrating – meaning that he is a mouth breather and potentially over-breathes.

He snores a bit (self and wife reported), has fairly frequent night time toilet trips and wakes with a dry mouth. So I felt that his mouth could be open at night also.  The night time toilet trips can also be symptomating of an ageing prostate, but the other symptoms were also consistent with night time mouth breathing.

The mouth breathing is likely to dry his lips and dry out his saliva, possibly attributing to the taste in the mouth/tongue.  In addition, mouth breathing means that the roles of the  nose and sinuses in respiration are bypassed resulting in the air that hits the lungs not  being filtered, disinfected, air conditioned or humidified, allowing for increased likelihood of chest and respiratory tract infections.

I assessed his breathing dynamics and mechanics using live biofeedback technology, and found that he breathes closer to double the rate he should (according to medical diagnostic norms) and has low end-tidal carbon dioxide levels (compared again to diagnostic norms for functional breathing) – and therefore inferior oxygen delivery to cells.

It was postulated (by me) that perhaps his breathing did contribute to his symptoms given he has tried almost everything else including medical diagnoses.

Over three sessions (over a 10 period) we re-trained his breathing dynamics and mechanics to return it to diagnostic norms and ensured that his mouth was kept closed at night. During the training he was able to learn and try the breathing techniques and rhythms whilst observing himself on the live biofeedback technology.

He learned very quickly and was able to return his breathing to standards similar to diagnostic norms within the three sessions. This also required practice at home between sessions.

After 10 days the taste in his mouth had gone and his lips were no longer dry in the middle. There was still some residual coughing, but it was significantly better.

He is now far more aware of his breathing and keeps his mouth closed most of the time during the day.

By investigating a function essential to living, yet taken very much for granted, and applying Breathing Dynamics to rectify imbalance with this function, we were able to achieve in 10 days and $300 what many conventional medicos and a few thousand could not. A happy ending.

Breathing Dynamics is also fantastic and inexpensive contributor to treatment of asthma and breathing difficulties, snoring and sleep apnoea, anxiety and depression, allergies, headaches and migraines, fatigue, high blood pressure and dental issues. It also offers fantastic benefits for those wanting greater performance in sporting, business, academic and artistic pursuits. As well as stress reduction.