By Tim Altman 22/11/2023 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Naturopathy, Performance, Sleep Enhancement anxiety, Asthma prevention, Biofeedback, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, breathing coach online, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Capnometry, Chronic Fatigue Synbdome, Fatigue, Natural Treatment of Asthma, sinusitis, snoring

What Capnometry Biofeedback Technology Looks Like and Measures

In a follow up to my last video discussing the potency of Capnometry biofeedback technology for assessing and retraining client’s breathing, I discuss what this technology measures and what you will see on the screen as you are being measured.

Firstly, Capnometry is measuring the volume of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air that you are exhaling. In hospitals it is used to monitor a patient’s breathing, especially if they are unconscious or have undergone an anaesthetic or are in a coma. The graph starts to curve upwards at the beginning of exhalation (with a slight delay) as CO2 increases, and it curves downwards as exhalation ceases (again, with a slight delay).

The technology provides 2 measurements which give us great information on breathing efficiency for assessment and training:

1. Breathing rate per minute – ideally 8-10 bpm in adults at rest.

2. End-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) – ideally 40mmHg. This is a measurement of the volume of CO2 in the lungs at the end of exhalation. This ETCO2 is essential for respiratory efficiency as it acts as a reservoir of CO2 that permeates back into the blood stream to maintain ideal levels of arterial CO2, which plays a major role in allowing the passage of oxygen from the air we inhale in the lungs, to the cells of the body for energy production. This process is based on the principles of the Bohr Effect and discussed in my last video/post. However, in short, without sufficient arterial CO2 levels. this process is impaired and we produce insufficient amounts of energy, which can lead to fatigue and many other symptoms of illness, including asthma, breathing difficulties, anxiety, sinusitis, snoring & sleep apnoea, headaches & migraines, memory problems, cognitive disturbance etc.

The beauty of this technique is that not only is it fantastic as an assessment of breathing efficiency (non-diagnostic), for breathing retraining it provides in the moment feedback about the efficacy of techniques and rhythms we implement to improve a client’s breathing to ideal, or optimal levels.

As such, we are able to find the best techniques and rhythms specific to each client, and therefore provide them with a specific, individualised breathing retraining program to remove symptoms of illness, improve quality of life and sleep, give them greater energy levels and relaxation, and improve performance.

Breathing as a function, and modality of health is as important and nutrition and exercise. In fact, it is more central than both of these, so it certainly should not be ignored, neglected, or taken for granted (as most of us do).

If you’d like your breathing assessed and to work out an ideal retraining program for your breathing, contact me via me website, www.timaltman.com.au, or email tim@timaltman.com.au.

By Tim Altman 08/11/2023 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing For Relaxation, meditation, Mindfulness, Naturopath Torquay, Online consultation

Try This Breathing Rhythm Before Your Next Meditation

Whether you’ve been meditating for a while or are just getting into it, if there’s one piece of advice I can give to you it’s this…

Incorporate Breathing Rhythms into your practice.

Doing breathwork at the beginning of your meditation practice will help settle your nervous system into relaxation mode much more quickly, and it can allow you to enter a meditative state much more easily, not to mention you can take your meditation practice to a deeper level.

You are more likely to have a quiet mind, or experience mindfulness, when you are in a relaxed, parasympathetic state.

And, of all of the automatic functions in our body regulated by our autonomic nervous system, which also regulates our stress response (therefore determines whether you are relaxed or aroused/stressed), the one we can consciously control, with training is our breathing.

By practising diaphragmatic breathing rhythms you can regulate and relax your autonomic nervous system – your whole body in fact.

Breathing is a particularly great way to ease you into meditating if you are not familiar with it.

And a brilliant way to learn how to meditate if you have felt that meditation is not for you.

The more you practise the easier it gets.

Do you incorporate breathing into your meditation practice? Let me know!

By Tim Altman 05/08/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Fasting, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance, Sleep Enhancement adrenal fatigue, Breathing Dynamics, CFS recovery, Chronic Fatigue Synbdome, Fasting, fibromyalgia, Healthy Nutrition, IBS, meditation, Mickel Theapy, Mindfulness, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, Online consultation, sauna therapy, stress management

CFS and Fibromyalgia Recovery Requires a Paradigm Shift

A Personal Evolution from Chronic Illness to Optimal Living

Having suffered from post viral syndrome, adrenal fatigue, or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), ME – or whatever name one ascribes to this chronic condition) I understand how debilitating it is and how helpless and misunderstood sufferers feel.

It is extremely frustrating, and there’s rarely anything doctors, or most other practitioners can do to help.

And those suffering from chronic ailments or ‘syndromes’ such as fibromyalgia, anxiety, IBS, POTS and many more share the same or similar experiences, or feelings.

As such, I have the last 30 years of mt life exploring solutions, and the last 20 years as a natural medicine practitioner working with clients on making solutions.

Given I experienced a complete recovery 25 years ago, and my general health and resilience has improved so significantly over the last 10 years as a result of this exploration, I know intimately that there are solutions that create complete recoveries, so I have searched extensively for techniques that yield more than just partial or temporary results.

I’ve experienced complete recovery myself which allowed me to believe that it is possible, and have witnessed it with clients many times, so it has set a benchmark to aim for.

It often, or almost always, requires more than one technique. As such, it involves a combination of techniques.

And it involves a bit of a paradigm shift in one’s perspective of health and disease.

Rather than a predominantly medicinal approach, be they pharmaceutical or natural, I have found that the most profound or complete resolutions have come from behavioural of lifestyle changes.

It’s a far less appealing model for the general public, as it requires more work and responsibility for the individual. Plus, we have been so indoctrinated by the medical and pharmaceutical model that many believe that in order to change processes of illness in the body, we must take something.

However, if one takes a step back, we can see how short sighted this approach is – especially with chronic illness.

Agreed, it is absolutely necessary if one catches an infectious disease, and modern medicine & the pharmaceutical approach evolved at a time when 90% or deaths came as a result of infectious diseases and trauma. As such, this model, aided heavily by modern engineering and sanitisation, was highly successful.

However, the world has changed dramatically, and 90% of deaths now result from chronic, lifestyle preventable illnesses.

Therefore, a different approach is required. Hence , the need for a paradigm shift to yield more complete results. Or, dare I say it, complete resolutions.

This shift comes from looking at the fields of evolutionary medicine, genetics/epigenetics, and anthropology.

Research has found that it takes 40,000 to 100,000 for a change in our environment to be assimilated by our bodies, at DNA level. As such, the bodies we now inhabit, are those of our ‘hunter gatherer’ ancestors some 40,000 years ago.

Our bodies adapted to live, and flourish the way we did then.

But that’s a long way from how we live now. Pretty much most of what we do is different.

We sit more, eat differently, exercise less, stress more constantly, breathe far less efficiently, think too much, work too much etc. etc.

Life is much higher paced, and far more complicated. We’ve created a huge mismatch between the bodies we inherited from our hunter gatheerer ancestors, and the world we have now created.

Our highly evolved thinking or rational brains have allowed us to become ‘so-called’ top of the animal kingdom, yet we have forgotten how to live as we evolved to, or we are built to.

To quote one of my favourite evolutionary medicine specialists, Daniel Lieberman, in hos book ‘The Story of the Human Body. Evolution, Health and Disease’.

“We didn’t evolve to be healthy, but instead we were selected to have as many offspring as possible under diverse, challenging conditions. As a consequence, we never evolved to make rational choices about what to eat or how to exercise in conditions of abundance or comfort. What’s more, interactions between the bodies we inherited, the environment we create, and the decisions we sometimes make have set in motion an insidious feedback loop. We get sick from chronic diseases by doing what we evolved to do but under conditions for which our bodies are poorly adapted, and we then pass on those same conditions to our children, who also then get sick. If we wish to halt this vicious circle then we need to figure out how to respectfully and sensibly nudge, push and sometimes oblige ourselves to eat foods that promote health and to be more physically active. That too, is what we evolved to do.”

The way to create complete and long term resolutions to chronic ailments is to address this mismatch.

It was when I began to explore techniques based on this approach, that I started to witness far more potent results in clients.

Here are a list of some of the techniques I use both with clients, and personally in my exploration of optimal living. More information on each can be found in many articles I have written on this site. I shall provide a link to one of these for many:

Mickel Therapy – the core approach or rudder that guides the rest. Eliminating (via action) the ‘sub-conscious behavioural and lifestyle habits that suppress energy and send us into constant ‘hypervigilance’, ‘fight or flight mode’ or internal overdrive. https://timaltman.com.au/video-tim-altman-mickel-therapist/ https://timaltman.com.au/mickel-therapy-case-study-fibomyalgia/
Breathing Dynamics – diaphragmatic breathing rhythms to retrain ideal breathing. https://timaltman.com.au/breathing-life-death/
Optimal nutrition – including regulating blood sugar levels, increasing vegetable and fruit intake. https://timaltman.com.au/the-ideal-nutrition-plan-for-the-modern-world/
Meditation. https://timaltman.com.au/meditation-is-medicine-2/
Therapeutic fasting. https://timaltman.com.au/fasting-solution-optimal-health/ https://timaltman.com.au/fasting-history-purposes/ https://timaltman.com.au/fast-benefits-fasting/
Optimising our response to stress: https://timaltman.com.au/deal-stress-number-one-contributor-mortality/
Creating work-life balance – meeting your own deep seated needs as well as those of others or work.
Optimal sleep practices.
Herbal medicine.
Sauna therapy. https://timaltman.com.au/benefits-sauna-therapy/
Creating more joy or play.

It won’t require all of these modalities or techniques to get better. For many, it only requires a few. Whilst it does require some work and responsibility from you, it is not as difficult or time consuming as you would think.

Once you start seeing results, it spurs you to start exploring more, and seeing further results.

I can assure you, the process of going from helplessness and despair to freedom and joy is certainly worth it.

What have you got to lose.

And the good news is that most of these modalities work as effectively when taught online via Zoom etc. as the do in person, so you don’t have to live locally to see the benefits.

If you’d like to explore further, email me at tim@timaltman.com.au or call 0425 739 918.

By Tim Altman 11/03/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Events, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, Healthy Nutrition, immune system, mental health, Nose breathing, nutrition, Online consultation, Performance, sleep enhancement, sleep hygiene, Tim Altman, Well-being

The Anti-Snooze Webinar: March 30th at 12 Noon

I’m really looking forward to hosting Anti- Snooze Lunch Webinar: March 30, 12 pm
It will explore a variety of ways to beat the 3.30 slump. Understanding and managing fatigue. Preventing Burnout :
The MLT WELLBEING Team invite you to a FREE anti snooze Zoom lunch with Tim Altman, Kay Clancy and Jen Bishop.

We use a multifactorial approach to preventing and treating fatigue, burn-out and overwhelm in the work place and creating a balance between work and family life.

Our approach is based on the understanding and research that has stemmed from the field of evolutionary medicine, which draws from genetics, epigenetics and anthropology.

In short, we discuss the mismatch theory of human evolution with research suggesting that the assimilation of change in our environment takes tens of thousands of years for our body to assimilate.

As such, we’ve created a huge mismatch between the body we have inherited from our hunter gatherer ancestors some 40,000 years ago or more, and the high paced, intense world we have created via rapid technological advancement over a comparatively much, much shorter period of time.

To quote world leading evolutionary medicine expert from Harvard University, Dr Daniel Lieberman:

“Interactions between the bodies we inherited, the environment we create, and the decisions we sometimes make have set in motion an insidious feedback loop. We get sick from chronic diseases by doing what we evolved to do but under conditions for which our bodies are poorly adapted, and we then pass on those same conditions to our children, who also then get sick. If we wish to halt this vicious circle then we need to figure out how to respectfully and sensibly nudge, push and sometimes oblige ourselves to eat foods that promote health and to be more physically active. That too, is what we evolved to do.” Daniel Lieberman, ‘The Story of the Human Body. Evolution, Health & Disease.’

In this webinar we explore a number of aspects of how we live or interface with the world that dramatically influence our well-being, energy levels, immune system, and our mental health. In each of these aspects, we compare how we typically perform these functions in the modern world with how the body we inherited would ideally perform these functions – in an environment in which we thrived.

I will cover tips and strategies on how to manage all aspects that affect fatigue and energy levels including specifics on:

1. Breathing techniques to regulate your autonomic nervous system.
2. Daily nutrition strategies for peak mental/brain performance.
3. Sleep hygiene, managing airways and new dental approaches for fatigue prevention.
4. Movement, exercise and stabilising for energy.
5. Techniques and workplace tools for managing stress in the new pivot economy.

MLT colleague and super coach Kay Clancy, will discuss the PERMA model of well-being and how to apply this to your workplace and lifestyle.

Finally, MLT Wellbeing founder Jen Bishop will discuss the gut/brain connection latest research from the Florey Institute and the impacts on fatigue, sleep and function.

Come join us March 30 packed with deep info and insight on harnessing and your greatest resource – your energy. Bring loads of questions and lots of water !

Click on this link to register:

By Tim Altman 12/02/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Performance breath holds, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, mental health, mental illness, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Performance, yoga

Take A Breath Podcast Interview with World Renowned Yoga Teacher, Simon Borg-Olivier

In the linked (at the bottom of this article) episode of the Take A Breath Health and Lifestyle Show, which I co-host with Matt Radford, we interview world renowned yoga teacher and physiotherapist, Simon Borg-Olivier.

Simon’s accomplishments in his field include teaching yoga for over 30 years, founding Yoga Synergy in Sydney, authoring the book ‘Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga’, and he now trains yoga teachers all over the world.

In this episode we discuss:

Simon’s introduction to free diving as a 6 year old, and pranayama breathing techniques not long afterwards.
How Simon’s training as both a scientist & physiotherapist, and yoga practitioner allowed him to merge the scientific paradigm with yoga.
The clash between the ‘core training’ approach to posture and stability held by the physiotherapy and fitness professions for many years with the understanding of the importance of free movement of the diaphragm for correct breathing.
Simon’s belief that the first thing that should be taught to students for their long term well-being is the restoration of natural breathing as most people’s breathing is so inefficient that, if they are given specific breathing techniques, they will tend to over-breathe and over-tense.
And that natural breathing is most effectively learned by combining it with moving the body, especially the trunk in certain ways that improves breathing in many ways.
What is over-breathing.
How Simon teaches breathing to students – including restoration of natural breathing, as well as other specific pranayama techniques.
Simon’s 5 features of natural breathing:

Inhalation is felt very low.
Exhalation is passive.
Breathing is minimal – no more than you need.
It can run on automatic.
Through the nose.

Simon’s views on the Wim Hof method, including the strengths and limitations.
An incredible experience Simon shared where he was recorded in a laboratory doing hyperventilation breathing techniques (similar to the Wim Hof techniques, but more complex) followed by a 6 minute breath hold, then a spontaneous 8 minute breath hold immediately afterwards.
Techniques for learning to increase breath hold time – including connecting with the 12 areas of the body that allow dual control between the conscious and sub-conscious – the ‘12 bridges’.
Why Simon believes that most modern yoga is no longer yoga – it involves over stretching, over-tensing, over-breathing, and over-thinking, and therefore blocks the natural movement of energy and information through the body. It is more like a work-out.

More information on Simon, and his yoga teaching can be found at www.yogasynergy.com, and the Yoga Synergy Youtube channel. Plus www.simonborgolivier.com

If you’d like to learn how to breathe correctly to improve your well-being, treat illness or improve performance, either sign up for my comprehensive ‘Breathing Dynamics’ online course on the home page of this website, https://timaltman.com.au/, or contact me at tim@timaltman.com.au or +61425 739 918.

https://www.takeabreath.com.au/post/interview-with-simon-borg-oliver

By Tim Altman 05/02/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Performance Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, meditation, mental health, mental illness, Mindfulness, Natuopath, Naturopath Torquay, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Performance, psychoneuroimmunology, Tim Altman

‘Take A Breath’ Podcast Interview with Dr Craig Hassed

Linked below is a great interview on the ‘Take A Breath Health and Lifestyle Show’ podcast that I co-host, with Dr Craig Hassed, world renowned researcher and lecturer on mindulness, meditation and psychoneuroimmunology, Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), also referred to as psychoendoneuroimmunology (PENI) or psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI), is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.

Dr Hassed has written many books on mindfulness, meditation and mind-body medicine, including ‘The Freedom Trap – Reclaiming Liberty and Well-being’, and ‘Mindfulness For Life’ among many more.

His fantastic book, ‘New Frontiers In Medicine: The Body As a Shadow of the Soul’ was a huge inspiration to me many years ago during my studies into natural medicine and in my process to optimal health & living following my successful and complete recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Both myself, and Take A Breath co-host Matt Radford (https://www.takeabreath.com.au/) were super nervous prior, and a bit star struck during our interview as Dr Hassed has been such an inspiration to us. However, we was super friendly and relaxed, so we really enjoyed it, and his discussion on the podcast is brilliant. I highly recommend you take the time to listen.

https://www.takeabreath.com.au/post/interview-with-dr-craig-hassed

By Tim Altman 04/02/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing Dynamics, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing retraining, Capnometry, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, mental health, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Performance, snoring

Podcast Interview: The Power of Correct Breathing with Tim Altman via Lionheart Workshops

Linked here is a podcast interview I did recently with Jenni Madison of Lionheart Workshops which offers Online courses for your health, natural and spiritual wellbeing.

The ‘Breathing Dynamics’ online course for correct breathing to improve your health & wellbeing, vitality and performance is now available on this website, https://timaltman.com.au/ , and the Lionheart Workshops website.

In addition, I am part of the Mindful Life Training team, who will be offering in person and virtual wellbeing/leadership courses to organisations and workplaces that are customised for your team. These will include courses on ‘Breathing for Anxiety/Stress’ and ‘Breathing for Peak Performance’. Enquiries or bookings can be made now on the website.

Breathing is something that we do automatically it is the foundation for life. Learning to understand the dynamics of breathing within the body and to breath correctly can stimulate a depth from within you and transform your entire well-being. Yogi’s know this!

Due to the mismatch that has been formed withing our evolutionary biology (between the environment our body evolved to thrive in, as hunter gatherers, and the fast-paced, high tech world we have created) with regards to the bodies evolution, natural and unnatural stress responses and the way we actually see or perceive ourselves as human beings today.

This mismatch of evolution has led to an unnatural response to life through feelings of anxiety triggered incorrectly by stress responses. Hence the ‘mismatch’, and resultant common experience of compromised health, anxiety, fatigue, burn out, lack of performance, joy and fulfillment.

If you are feeling stressed, anxious or unwell, a powerful solution could be as simple as the way you take in your air.

Whilst we have evolved in so many ways, and it may not be right for us to return to hunter gatherer days, we must also understand what our body is naturally built for and that the flight or fight response is not a permanent state of being.

Breathing correctly and understanding the dynamics of correct breathing once again can help to mitigate the unnecessary, self created concept of ‘threats’ to our survival, that is the flight or fight response.

The approach to health, well-being and performance is more hands on, and takes some practice, but yields super potent and long term results.

Breathing Dynamics can help with:

√ deepening your meditation practice

√ improved quality of sleep

√ better digestion and immune system function (and therefore increased resistance to illness – including viruses).

√ less anxiety or the release of anxiety

√ improved mental clarity

√ better work and sports performance

We really do often over look such a natural autonomic physiological response to life in many ways. And we have far more potential than we realise that can be accessed via correct or optimal breathing function.

By Tim Altman 20/01/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Testimonials adrenal fatigue, Breathing, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, immune system, mickel therapy, Online consultation

Testimonial: Adrenal Fatigue Recovery

‘Learning about Mickel Therapy and Respiratory Therapy has been so insightful and valuable to my health. After years of adrenal fatigue I finally have more energy back, thanks Tim!’ Olivia, Geelong

Above is a testimonial from a client who came to me with adrenal fatigue.

In her treatment we combined Breathing Dynamics diaphragmatic breathing exercises and focusing on taking her body out of ‘internal overdrive’ using the neuroscience understanding from Mickel Therapy.

After only 3 session is 6 weeks she had experienced a recovery from her fatigue and was feeling great again for the first time in years.

It’s not always this swift in recovery, but it;s wonderful to see when it occurs. Credit also to Olivia who complied with all of her ‘home work’ and applied the principles of keeping it simple, practicing and persisting.

My job is to teach the techniques and guide clients to recovery. Their job is to apply the principles in consistent practice. Olivia did that extremely well, so she thoroughly deserved her new found energy levels.

By Tim Altman 08/01/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Fasting, Latest News, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Testimonials Breathing retraining, cfs, CFS recovery, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Fasting, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, juice fast, mental health, mickel therapy, Naturopath Torquay, nutrition, Online consultation, Tim Altman

Testimonial: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Recovery

“Hi Tim, just wanted to say thanks for all the guidance over the last 12 months. My physical health is at it’s best since getting crook, and my mental health, and my ability to handle stress has improved greatly. This has been from all the little things that I have implemented through your guidance. Looking forward to taking that next step in my health this year.” Brandon, Colac

Above is a lovely new year’s message from a client who came to me just over 12 months ago with chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS.

His main, or most prominent symptoms were chronic fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, anxiety and shortness of breath.

His program included a combination of

Behavioural and lifestyle modifications based on the neuroscience principles of Mickel Therapy aimed at detecting the triggers that lead to or increase symptoms and lessening the impact of these, or changing the behaviours or subconscious habits that lead to symptoms. This aspect is grossly underrated, but essential in the recovery from any chronic illness.
Breath retraining using diaphragmatic breathing rhythms taught in a 4-5 stage process over time to increase energy production, regulate the autonomic nervous system and increase blood and lymph flow throughout the body.
Nutritional changes and optimisation, culminating in a comprehensive 7-10 day juice fast followed by 3-4 week re-introduction to food process.
The use of a small range of specifically targeted herbs and nutritional medicines that are all pure extracts (derived directly from plants rather than being synthetically manufactured) for increased bio-availability.

If you or someone you know has chronic fatigue syndrome, CFS, post-viral syndrome, adrenal fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, anxiety or any other chronic complaint, contact me via tim@timaltman.com.au or 0425 739 918.

My work is equally effective online as it is in person – in fact the client who is the subject of this post was an online client.

By Tim Altman 07/01/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, meditation, mental health, Mindfulness, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Performance

Use The Breath to Control The Mind

“Breath and mind arise from the same place and when one of them is controlled, the other one is controlled.
Watching the breath is one form of pranayama (meditation/mindfulness).
Merely watching the breath is easy and involves no risk”

Ramana Maharshi

My comprehensive online course for correct breathing is available on the home page of this website – https://timaltman.com.au/

Also, at Mindful Life Training we offer evidence based diaphragmatic breathing and mindfulness courses to organisations both in person and online to help you optimise your wellbeing, performance and state of being. Details linked here – https://www.mindfullife.com.au/breathing-for-anxietystress

By Tim Altman 07/01/2021 Breathing Dynamics, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, mental health, Nose breathing, Performance, snoring, Tim Altman

Take The Mind Out of Mindfulness – It’s Also a Physical Thing!

In my last post I described Meditation as Medicine courtesy the huge amount of research pointing to the physiological and psychological benefits, and the breathing is the centre or anchor of all meditation, and mindfulness is the objective.

If it is so good for us, why has it not caught on more?

Perhaps, because we are so engaged in our heads, or our minds are so busy all of the time, sitting to meditate and quieten the mind is just not that easy.

Many people struggle to quieten or focus their thoughts, or experience ‘mindfulness’, for more than a few minutes at a time. Some struggle to do this at all.

For so many sitting down to meditate or even practice mindfulness whilst going about their day can feel like mental effort, or be frustrating, or futile – people often say that ‘meditation is not for me’.

I dispute that. It’s just that they haven’t learn how to do it properly or consistently yet. It doesn’t have to be only a mental thing, or a mental effort.

The base of all meditation, mindfulness, yoga, martial arts etc. is the breath.

By relaxing and focusing on the breath, you firstly settle the nervous system.

By focusing on the breath, the mind focuses.

By settling the breath, the mind settles and quietens.

One experiences mindfulness.

We know from research on mindfulness and meditation, that when your nervous system becomes parasympathetic dominant, you experience the ‘relaxation response’ and you are more likely to experience mindfulness at a greater depth.

We also know that the nervous system that regulates whether we are relaxed or stressed, also regulates all of our automatic functions, and, of all of these automatic functions, the breath is the one you can consciously control or modify with ease – with training.

Therefore, by learning to use the breath correctly, using the nose, diaphragm and in certain rhythms, one can settle the nervous system, relax and increase the likelihood that you will experience mindfulness, or meditation, and as a result, you get the most potent medicine available to us – and all of the physiological and psychological benefits that go along with it.

What makes this even better is that meditation, or mindfulness is not a mental effort, or solely a mental process. It’s also a physical process. And this part is easy to learn.

If you find meditation difficult to do, or difficult to maintain for periods of time, then make it a physical thing more than a mental effort. Learn how to breathe ideally to create the physical state that will make you more likely to be mindful more often, and to either begin your meditation practice, or take your current practice to a much deeper level.

At Mindful Life Training, www.mindfullife.com.au, we offer both online and in person courses on both functional breathing for meditation/mindfulness, and mindfulness courses t businesses and organisations.

You will also find my comprehensive online breathing course on the home page of this website – https://timaltman.com.au/

By Tim Altman 28/09/2020 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance, Sleep Enhancement blood sugar, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, Melbourne, mental health, mickel therapy, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, nutrition, Online consultation, Performance, Tim Altman

3 Top Health Tips For Surviving CoVid and Thriving Beyond

After having specialised for many years in treating people with chronic illnesses such as CFS, fibromyalgia, anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive complaints, as well as working at the other end of the well-being spectrum with corporates and athletes to improve performance, here are my top three well-being tips for surviving/thriving during CoVid and lessons we can learn so we thrive, going beyond.

These draw from research in nutritional medicine, neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology, epigenetics, evolutionary medicine, physiology and biochemistry.

1. Practice diaphragmatic breathing rhythms 3 times daily for 10 minutes ea.

Most people breathe nowhere near their full potential – twice as often as we should (according to diagnostic norms) using our chest and shoulders instead of our diaphragm, and with our mouth in addition to, or instead of our nose. This impairs energy production by the cells, upsets our nervous system putting us in constant low to mid-level fight or flight mode, and can significantly reduce our performance and contribute to many health conditions, including:

asthma and breathing difficulties
sleep issues – including snoring and sleep apnoea
fatigue and chronic pain
anxiety and depression
headaches and migraines
allergies and sinusitis
IBS and other digestive complaints

Breathing is also the central, or base practice in meditation, most martial arts, yoga, tai-chi etc. The volume of research on breath practice, and particularly meditation is now huge.

Enough to say that breath-work and meditation are medicine – both physically and mentally.

If you already have a meditation practice, incorporate the breathing rhythms into your practice, especially at the start, as it will settle your nervous system into relaxation mode more quickly, and take the practice to a deeper level.

If you don’t, start with the regular breathing rhythms.

To start, see my online breathing course via https://timaltman.com.au/

2. Eat more fruit and vegetables.

The most common denominator from the last 100 years or so of nutritional research is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the better your quality of life, and immune system, and the more you prevent the chronic illnesses that account for 90% of medical expenses and deaths in the western world.

Aim for a minimum of 6 full handfuls (your handful) of vegetables and 3 handfuls of seasonal fruit to your climate daily.

That = 9 handfuls of fruit and vegetables daily. If you struggle to achieve it, reduce your intake of processed foods, grains, dairy etc. as they provide nowhere the bang for buck nutritionally that fruit and vegetables do, but fill you up so there’s less room for the quality stuff.

If you eat meat (read meat, fish, poultry etc), have no more than a palm size portion in each meal, and buy organic wherever possible as the quality of the meat and the fats is much, much better.

3. Get more variety and reward in your day.

Research in genetics, anthropology and evolutionary medicine tells us that it takes 40,000 to 100,000 years for change in our environment to be assimilated by our bodies at DNA level, meaning that our body evolved to thrive as we lived 40,000 years ago at least, as hunter-gatherers. The way we spend our days has changed dramatically since then, but we can learn plenty about what our bodies are built for, or what environments cause them to thrive or fail.

The average hunter-gatherer population spent 15-25 hours per week hunting and gathering. So they got far more variety, balance and down time in their day than we did. We are simply not built to work as much as we do, and it takes its toll on our physical and mental health in more ways than we may realise.

Whilst, for a number of reasons it may not be easy or realistic to reduce your working hours so much straight away, or at all, we can learn so much from what our body is built for and apply the following principles into each day. Some tips include:

Combine work with reward; i.e. 45 minutes on, 15 minutes reward, or 2 hours on, half and hour reward, 3 hours on, 1 hour reward etc.
In your reward time, gut up from your desk and do something different – that you enjoy.
On that note, spend more time each day on activities you enjoy for no reason – your brain and nervous system will love you for it. If the list of things you enjoy has grown small over the years of grinding at work, think back to what you used to enjoy or what you’d like to do more of, and start applying them.
Get more variety in the tasks you do each working day. For example, if you spend long hours at your computer, then schedule in work calls regularly, and get up from your desk if you can and move around or go somewhere else whilst taking the call.
Sit less. Find ways of working in different postures – a standing desk, ergonomic chairs etc. I often lie on the floor and work on my computer when working from home.
Spend more time outside every day.
Take time after work to transition from work to home/social life. The breathing techniques above are great for this.
These adjustments require a significant shift in attitude, but most people who take the leap and start to implement these changes find they get far more done in each day, in less time than they did previously. Plus they don’t experience the burn-out and lack of joy that so many of us do.

I work one on one in clinic and with corporate or sporting groups as a natural medicine practitioner, breath coach, wellbeing coach, and also coaching paddlers ranging from beginners to international level. See https://timaltman.com.au/ and https://www.worldpaddle.com/

I also work with wellbeing and performance online and in person in the corporate sector (see https://www.mindfullife.com.au/?loaded), and now have an online breathing course available via https://timaltman.com.au/ or https://www.lionheartworkshops.com/breathing-dynamics-tim-altman

By Tim Altman 23/09/2020 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance #corona virus, Breathing, Breathing retraining, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, CoVid-19, Detox, Diaphragm Breathing, Fasting, Fatigue, immune system, intermittent fasting, mental health, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, Online consultation, Performance, Tim Altman

CoVid-19. We Are Far From The Innocent Victims of a Freak Accident.

We Were Overdue A Visit From a Pandemic!

“Whether currently-circulating avian, swine and other zoonotic (transferred from animal to human) influenza viruses will result in a future pandemic is unknown. However, the diversity of zoonotic influenza viruses that have caused human infections is alarming and necessitates strengthened surveillance in both animal and human populations” World Health Organisation on influenza

The above quote, cited by Vybarr Cregan-Reid in his book, “Primate Change. How the World We Made is Remaking Us” (Octopus Publishing Group 2018) is an alarming warning or foretelling of the present circumstances we find ourselves on a global scale with CoVid-19, given the book was published in 2018, so this quote predates that time.

It sends us sobering message that we are not the innocent victims of some random virus. The virus is a bi-product of the world we have created.

Is nature biting us back?

Below is some further text from this book that really sends this message so strongly:

“Animals are now reared with such intensity that mathematically it is only a matter of time before one of the many mutated flu viruses becomes an epidemic that passes freely to, and between, humans.

Farming animals no doubt provided us with opportunities for survival and growth, but with the intensification of farming practices today which encourage food-borne illnesses and antimicrobial resistance, the scene is set for viruses to mutate, trading genes to become the next super-flu transmissible between humans. There are major flu outbreaks approximately every three decades. We are currently overdue a visit from one.

That is our inheritance. This is what we have done with agriculture; but it is not yet done with us.”

Vybarr Cregan-Reid; “Primate Change. How The World We Made is Remaking Us” Octopus Publishing Group 2018

This would suggest that, not only have we created our current situation, if we do not change our ways, even if we eliminate the current threat from CoVid-19, it is highly likely that similar circumstances will occur again. Perhaps it is time to shift our focus from trying to eliminate the threat of CoVid-19 so we can get back to ‘normal’, to addressing the root cause of this problem.

What has led us to this? Where have we gone wrong?

As a species, we’ve become the so-called ‘top of the animal kingdom’ as a result of having a highly sophisticated intelligence, or thinking brain, and our culture and education system over the last few hundred, or arguably thousand years, has encouraged us to think rationally all the time, and that emotions are unreliable and weak.

However, the down side of this skewed logic is that we are so ‘in our heads’, we have forgotten that we are an animal – we have completely detached from our instinctive, intuitive emotional brain that is as much a part of us, and how we process information as our thinking, or rational brain.

To ignore this intelligence leads us to disconnect from our bodies, our feelings, instincts, and the planet ecosystem that nurtures us. It creates huge imbalance internally, both for our nervous system, and our body in general, leaving us in permanent low to mid-level ‘fight or flight’ mode (some more than low to mid-level), and creates discord in the external environment with which we interact.

Or basic needs as an animal are for happiness, safety and comfort. These are real biological, evolutionary needs, and cannot be ignored.

Our primary motivation as hunter gatherers may have been to create a more comfortable and secure existence, but the advent of the concept of economics (it might seem shocking to some that our economic system is not necessarily real – it is a concept), has seen us go way beyond having enough to be happy, safe and comfortable, and we have become increasingly disconnected from who we are as a species, and from the planet and ecosystem that sustains us.

Our religious adherence to this concept, or economic model has blinded us to what it is that sustains us, and allows us to thrive in the first place. A predominance in importance is placed on profitability, productivity and success over sustainability, yet these ‘concepts’ lead us invariably to sacrifice our basic needs for happiness, safety and comfort. And that is where the imbalance, both internally and environmentally begin.

I hear so many people complain that the lock downs we have faced, or are still facing, are destroying our economy, which are valid concerns for our present and future happiness, safety and comfort, but it is time we see that our ‘slavery’ to profitability, and ‘success’ has been the ‘root cause’ of the current problem, and what is also currently threatening our economic viability.

In other words, we are being given possibly the strongest reminder in history, that our economic model of existence is clearly not sustainable – both physically and economically. We will continue to pay for our short sightedness if we don’t start looking beyond our current concepts and way of living.

Is it possible that this time in history marks the moment that the mess we have created has tipped us, and the planet over the edge and either goes one way or another – we continue to face similar environmental and lifestyle challenges that ultimately bring down our economic system on its’ own, or we wake up and learn the lessons from our past, and we listen to the messages our planet is sending?

Whilst the agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions were an outstanding success from an economic perspective, and one might say an inevitable outcome of evolution (of intelligence as well physical evolution), it was an absolute disaster for our bodies, and the environments in which we live.

Research in the fields of genetics and anthropology has found that it takes 40,000 to 100,000 years for change in our environment to be fully assimilated by our bodies – at DNA level.

What that means, is that the bodies we now inhabit, still think we are wandering the land as hunter gatherers some 40,000 years ago, and the environment we lived in, and lifestyle we lived as hunter gatherers is that which makes us thrive.

Yet we now live completely differently from how we evolved to live – or how we evolved to thrive.

The changes impact us across all levels, from how we eat and drink, move and stabilise, sleep, breathe, the hours we work and type of work we perform, our exposure to radiation and new to nature chemicals, and how we process information and stress (the combination of how we think and emote).

The present circumstances have seen a huge increase in hostility, and confusion as to what is truth, and what is imaginary. There are so many conspiracy theories, and so many polarised opinions, and hostility throughout the community – perpetuated increasingly by mainstream and social media. It is growing extremely difficult nowadays to know who to trust anymore.

No matter what you believe; be it the information we are being given by mainstream media, or the myriad of conspiracy theories out there, the solution is unquestionably the same for us as individuals. That is, to raise your own frequency or increase your resilience by improving your health, simplifying your life, increasing connection to yourself, your family and friends, and to the immediate environment in which you live. That is all you can do. No point getting angry. Just nurture what nurtures you deep inside.

Whilst we cannot go back to living as hunter gatherers, as our planet would not sustain so many people living this way, plus there were also downsides to this lifestyle that threatened our basic safety on a day to day basis that we have overcome for the better, but we could do very well to understand how we lived then, and the environment in which our current bodies adapted to thrive in, and compare it to nowadays.

Nor am I suggesting we all become vegans as, whilst there are both arguments for this approach both physically and especially ethically, there are considerable questions as to the efficacy of this approach for long tem well-being.

Going to the opposite extreme will create its’ own problems given the world we’ve already set up.

It is an opportunity to shift the balance far more significantly from profitability to sustainability.

I do not have the whole solution, as I believe it is something we are going to need explore as a collective as it unfolds, however it is very clear to me that the current circumstances we are facing is are very strong warning from the planet that it is time we shifted our perspective and approach to living, or we will pay more and more dearly down the track.

Not just gradual change. It is a significant shift in our attitude that is required. Our priority must be to raise our frequency and connect more intimately with or bodies and ourselves, as well as the humans, animals and the environment around us.

Here are a few suggestions:

A massive focus on sustainability over profitability.
Reducing our working hours by at least 20% – research has suggested our hunter gatherer ancestors worked 15-25 hours per week hunting and gathering. The rest was spent with a combination of leisure, ritual, sleep, doing nothing (a lost art in our culture), social etc.
Following from the above point, creating more time in our days for family and social time, and also activities that allow us to experience joy. We are not built to smash ourselves with just working, eating and sleeping. It comes at a cost to our physical and mental health. We need more variety, and joy.
Spend more time outdoors – especially if you live in cities or towns.
Get more down time – time to self and those close to you.
Breathe gently in and out through your nose, using your diaphragm – most fail at this far more often than they realise, and it significantly impacts their well-being and performance.
Meditate – meditation is medicine; both physically and mentally.
Try to be present more often – check in regularly and be present with, and aware of what you’re doing at the time, nothing else.
Be open to feeling your feelings, and to communicating them – it’s ok to be vulnerable. It can be scary initially, but it’s ok.
Eat fresh food over packaged, and processed food – grow your own as much as you can.
Buy organic food (especially meat).
Eat more fruit and vegetables – lots more.
Fast occasionally to give your body a rest.
Sit less, walk more.
Reduce radiation exposure via wi-fi, phones, screens, artificial lighting etc.
Exercise daily, and enjoy your exercise. Don’t smash yourself all of the time (or at all) – vary it around.

www.timaltman.com.au – for in person, online consultation, group courses, or my online ‘Breathing Dynamics’ course. www.mindfullife.com.au – for corporate training both in person or online.

By Tim Altman 21/05/2019 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Diaphragm Breathing, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, Melbourne, mental health, mouth breathing, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Performance, snoring, Tim Altman, torquay

5 Ways Mouth Breathing Can Cause Fatigue

The Mouth is For Eating, Drinking, Talking, Singing, Kissing, but Only For Breathing in Emergencies – Not All of the Time!!

Based on how the anatomy and physiology of our respiratory system is set up, and the biochemical principles that describe how oxygen in the air we inhale in our lungs, most efficiently arrives at the individual cells in our body (via the bloodstream) for energy production (described in intimate detail by ‘The Bohr Effect’, for which Danish biochemist Christian Bohr won a Nobel Prize in 1903), it is beyond question that the nose is specifically designed for breathing. Not the mouth.

Yet, most of us do not realise or understand how important this is. We take our breathing for granted thinking it is fine, yet the vast majority of us over-breathe using our mouth as well as our nose, breathing twice as often as we should (based on medical diagnostic norms) and with far too much volume.

The mouth is for eating, drinking, talking, drinking, kissing, but is only useful for breathing in emergencies. But not breathing.

Your breathing is as, or more important than nutrition for your health and performance, so there are consequences to mouth breathing:

Too much volume of air leads to too little energy – mouth breathing allows up to six times the volume of air to enter our lungs and respiratory system, which seriously upsets the delicate biochemical balance that governs how efficiently we get oxygen to our cells for energy production (mentioned above). If you breathe with your mouth open or with parted lips, you will produce energy far less efficiently and therefore get tired more quickly.
It kicks you into fight or flight mode – when you breathe with your mouth it puts you straight into emergency mode. For example, when someone gives you a fright, you take a big gasp which involves a big mouth breath using the chest and shoulders. This puts you straight into ‘fight or flight’ mode, but is only useful in short bursts. As such, mouth breathing a lot will wear you out. A lot.
You by-pass an incredible air-conditioning process – for respiration to work efficiently, the air reaching the lungs needs to be filtered, disinfected, humidified and heated or cooled. Breathing through the nose does exactly this. The nasal hairs filter the air, the mucus in the nose and sinuses disinfect, humidify and heat or cool the inhaled air. If we by-pass this incredible air conditioning system by mouth breathing we make the lungs work harder, expose ourselves to higher risk of respiratory tract infection, minimise oxygen uptake in our lungs, and reduce energy production.
Much less nitric oxide – nose breathing leads to 50% higher production of nitric oxide than mouth breathing. Nitric oxide acts as a neurotransmitter, immunoregulator and vasodilator, particularly in the gut and lungs. Some of its’ actions include: regulating blood pressure, boosting the immune system, fighting bacteria and viruses, fighting cancer, increasing blood flow to cells, in muscular control and balance, and protecting against cardiovascular disease, impotence, diabetic retinopathy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Over breathing – nose breathing contributes to over-breathing, or breathing too often as well as with too much volume. The body’s reaction to counter this is either apnoea episodes or constriction and spasm of the smooth muscle surrounding our breathing tubes (this reaction is typical of symptoms seen in asthma and breathing difficulties). Unfortunately this can create a flow on affect and affect other systems in our body serviced by tubes contributing directly to, or predisposing us to a number of ailments: fatigue, asthma and breathing difficulties, snoring and apnoea, headaches and migraines, anxiety, IBS, reflux and other digestive complaints, chronic pain and many more.

Put simply, mouth breathing is far less efficient, and it will make you more tired – and sick. Don’t do it unless it’s an emergency.

Contact me via email tim@timaltman.com.au or phone 0425 739 918 to have your breathing efficiency assessed or to learn how to breath more efficiently to eliminate illness, enhance performance or increase relaxation and wellness.

By Tim Altman 08/11/2018 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Naturopathy, Testimonials Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Diaphragm Breathing, IBS, immune system, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, Nose breathing, Online consultation, Psoriasis, Tim Altman, torquay

Case Study: Anxiety, IBS, Psoriasis and Breathing Dynamics

Can Breathing Retraining Help To Resolve Ailments Such As Anxiety, IBS, Sinusitis and Psoriasis?

Woman – 65 y.o.
Suffering from:
Anxiety – prone to anxiety regularly. Her osteopath (who referred her to me) says that she has an extremely tense body to touch – especially shoulders.
Also IBS < stress. Takes a probiotic daily. Stiffness and pain in neck and shoulders – unable to turn head around without pain. Polymyalgia rheumatica -> discomfort. Arthritis in hands.
Member of weight watchers.
Recently has had lots of sinusitis, and congestion in upper chest/throat.
Gets tired very easily.
Also psoriasis – very itchy.
Read my book on breathing and thinks she over-breathes.
As a 14 y.o. had severe asthma – in children’s hospital for a year. Did postural drainage (was called nervous asthma) and lots of deep bx. No longer has asthma.
Sleep – thinks she bx’s rapidly – almost panic. Thinks it affects sleep. Sometimes has trouble with sleep. Wakes with a dry mouth. Definitely snores. Sleeps on side. Dry mouth in am and during the night. Night time toilet trips – at least 2 per night (for the last 20 years since menopause). No water at night.
Supplements – Magnesium and a probiotic. I suggested also a fish oil (for anti-inflammatory properties, and glucosamine for the arthritis).
Medication – Voltaren cream for arthritis when needed. Previously on steroids for her arthritis, but she discontinued as she gained too much weight.

My thoughts

Looking at her symptom presentation and history, she has a history of issues that can be related to dysfunctional breathing – asthma, sinusitis, anxiety, IBS, poor sleep quality. As such, it is possible that breathing is a major contributor to her current health picture.
Her nutrition is quite good (compared), with very little indication of hypoglycaemia, or fluctuating blood sugar levels, and no clear or significant excesses or deficiencies.
Therefore, correcting her breathing function could go a long way to resolving many of these issues. Her breathing patterns at night; snoring, dry mouth, frequent night time toilet trips, tired in the morning; all indicate mouth breathing whilst she’s sleeping, which is dysfunctional breathing. Linked is an article discussing the importance of breathing for health:

https://timaltman.com.au/breathing-life-death/

As such, I felt the first priority to assess her breathing efficiency using the capnometer – a biofeedback driven technology used in hospitals to monitor whether a patient is breathing, that measures breathing rate and exhaled carbon dioxide (measured as the volume of CO2 in the lungs at the end of exhalation – end tidal carbon dioxide – ETCO2). My blog, linked below, will discuss the importance of ETCO2 as a parameter in measuring breathing efficiency; however, in short, CO2 in our blood stream governs how efficiently we get oxygen (O2) from the air in our lungs, to the cells of our body for energy production (the purpose of respiration). Whilst oxygen is essential for energy production, without CO2 being present in our arterial blood stream, the oxygen would not be able to get to our cells in sufficient quantity. And given there is only 0.03% CO2 in our atmosphere, we must store it to have access to it. Therefore, it could be argued that CO2 is the limiting factor in respiration.
CO2 is a by-product of energy production, so we make it, and whilst some CO2 is available to us in our venous blood supply (as it makes its way to the lungs to be exhaled), there is not enough here for efficient energy production, so we ideally have a store of 6.5% CO2 in our lungs at the end of exhalation (ETCO2), which translates to 40mmHg partial pressure of CO2 as a minimum ideal for efficient respiration, and energy production. This ETCO2 permeates back into our blood stream to allow the O2 to get to our cells.
So, ideal levels on the capnometer for functional breathing, based on medical diagnostic norms, are 8-10 breathes per minute and an ETCO2 of 40mmHg.

https://timaltman.com.au/category/breathing-dynamics/page/3/

This client’s initial base reading was between 13-16 breaths per minute, which is at least roughly 50% higher than the ideal average of 8-10 bpm.
And her ETCO2 was 30.8-32.0mmHg, so around 25% lower than the minimum ideal of 40mmHg.
This suggests that she breathes at 25-50% below what is considered as functional – which is not at all uncommon. But is sufficient that it will definitely result in reduced energy production, and is likely that it will start to result in symptoms in the body.

On further investigation, I also determined that we needed to address both breathing rate and volume in this client.

Treatment

Based on these thoughts and the breathing analysis, her only treatment after this initial session involved retraining her breathing so that she could breathe closer to functional levels at all times, including whilst sleeping.
The objectives of treatment were:
1. Breathe through the nose at all times (unless exercising at high levels).
2. Use the diaphragm at all times.
3. Increase tolerance to elevated CO2 (hypercapnia).
4. Reduce rate and volume of breathing to optimise O2 delivery to cells for energy production and allow dilation of airways, blood vessels, GIT etc.
5. Regulate the autonomic nervous system (via the diaphragm) to increase the parasympathetic (PSNS – relax, rest and digest): sympathetic (SNS – fight or flight) ratio.

This included:
1. Diaphragmatic breathing rhythms that aimed at having her breathe only through her nose, using her diaphragm only (not chest and shoulders) at rhythms designed to retrain her day to day breathing rhythm. 2-3 x 10 minutes each per day.
2. Preventing mouth breathing at night by keeping the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and/or taping the mouth closed at night using 1 inch porous paper tape; i.e. Micropore tape.
3. Practising breath holds to increase the brain’s tolerance to higher CO2 levels which will result in the body accepting lower breathing rate and volume (and therefore more efficient breathing) more permanently. 3-5 per day at least.
I didn’t make any nutritional changes or add any herbs and supplements at this stage as I wanted her to focus on the breathing retraining. Plus I didn’t want to overwhelm her.

Outcome 1 – 3 Weeks Later

She said she is snoring much less, although she didn’t tape her mouth at night as the adhesive on the tape made her itch. She did concentrate on keeping her tongue on the roof of her mouth as she went to bed prior to sleeping. In addition, she did plenty of breathing rhythms and breath holds – at least the specified amount.
Her overall report was:
• Hasn’t had a night time toilet trip since.
• No dry mouth in the morning.
• She feels much better – more energetic. Much less fatigue at 3pm also.
• She also feels much calmer – less anxiety.
• No hyperventilating or feeling panic when going to bed.
• No clenching of her jaw.
• IBS symptoms much better – no cramps, pain, diarrhoea or constipation.
• Her psoriasis hasn’t been itchy at all, and the scabs on her head have mostly cleared up.
• Her arthritis was bad for 3 days last week – she thinks she overdid it with the gardening. It felt better after a warm shower and Voltaren cream.
Overall, I am not surprised to see results given her history of dysfunctional breathing, but these scope of the results were a very pleasant surprise.
I expected to see results with her sleep related symptoms and quality, anxiety, and possibly with energy levels and her IBS symptoms. Linked is an article and video on IBS and breathing.

https://timaltman.com.au/video-theres-far-more-to-healing-the-gut-than-correcting-the-microbiome/

However, I was surprised to see such significant results with her psoriasis. It makes sense that functional breathing can help with psoriasis symptoms, as it will create more vasodilation, and therefore more blood and lymph flow to the scalp; plus the diaphragmatic rhythms will help decrease sympathetic (or fight and flight) nervous system activation and dominance, and therefore improve immune function.
A bonus. But we need to see what happens over time. Will these improvements persist?
Capnometry results were also significantly improved – much closer to functional breathing.
Treatment as is.

Outcome 2 – 7 weeks from the start

A persistence in all improvements from last session.
For example:
• Still no night time toilet trips or dry mouth in the morning.
• Sleep quality is still good, and no snoring.
• Psoriasis nearly all cleared up – she’d had this for 20 years!!
• No jaw clenching.
• Also, significantly reduced tightness and pain in her neck and shoulders – her osteopath (who referred her to me) is amazed.
• IBS stable – no issues.
• No hyperventilation or panic when she goes to bed.
• Definitely calmer, more relaxed and better energy still. She feels quote distant from her worries now – she was in a family situation that would previously have wound her up, and she didn’t care.
She used to have pain in her ribs that musculoskeletal practitioners had said was cartilage damage, but it has cleared up, so it may have been an issue with tightness in her previously underused diaphragm.
She did have a cold for 3 days that blocked her up and she couldn’t nose breathe, which h she did not enjoy. But she was fine once it cleared up.
Her arthritis is still not great on a cold day however.
I advised her to continue with treatment as is, and take a fish oil, glucosamine, and turmeric for her arthritis.

Outcome 3 – 12 Weeks from the start.

Continuation of all improvements experienced thus far, so she’s very happy.
• Still no night time toilet trips – no urgency even on waking. Her husband is shocked.
• Also, still no jaw clenching at night or dry mouth in the am.
• She thinks he psoriasis is gone – only one tiny spot left.
• Still able to turn her neck around, and no pain in shoulders.
• No IBS symptoms – however if she overeats, gut is not happy with her.
The only thing that has not shifted is her arthritis – although this is manageable using Voltaren cream, or the occasional Panadol osteo if it flares up. Unfortunately she didn’t take the glucosamine, and fish oil I recommended.
She has maintained her breathing exercises now for 3 months, and the improvements in symptoms have now continued, so I am confident that her practice will continue and that she has established a pattern of breathing that will continue to yield these results.

It does not take long to see improvements in clients when implementing functional breathing practices, however it takes 3-4 months of continuous practice to make long term change in the way a client breathes. Once this is achieved, improvements in breathing and associated symptoms (with dysfunctional breathing), are likely to stick. In this client’s case, I believe she has reached this point, so she no longer needs to see me.
Whilst we do not see such significant and widespread changes in all clients when retraining their breathing, I do commonly see similar results, so I was very confident of seeing good results with this client, given her history of symptoms and conditions associated with breathing dysfunction.
I am not legally allowed to make claims that breathing retraining will resolve certain ailments, however I can report on how the client presented at each visit and the treatment strategies I implemented. – as I have done in this case. I’ll let you make your own conclusions on whether the treatment strategy was responsible for the change in symptoms.

And, I am very comfortable in saying again I regularly see similar outcomes or improvements by addressing dysfunctional breathing. Not surprising given that most people breathe dysfunctionally, or over-breathe – twice as often as we should, with far too much volume, using mouth and nose (instead of nose only), and using shoulders and chest instead of the diaphragm.

By Tim Altman 27/08/2018 Evolutionary Medicine, Fasting, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance, Sleep Enhancement, Testimonials Barwon Heads Naturopath, Bowel health, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Clean, Detox, Fasting, fibromyalgia, IBS, immune system, intermittent fasting, juice fast, Melbourne, mental health, Natuopath, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, nutrition, Online consultation, Performance, sauna therapy, Tim Altman

5 Day Juice Fast: A Super Thorough Case Study

Article: “My Guided 5 Days of Fasting / Juice Cleanse (What Really Happened)”, by Cam Nicholls of www.bikechaser.com.au

Linked below is an article written by a client who embarked on a 5 day fast with me supervising him, as an experiment to improve his immune system and performance in criterium cycling races.

I won’t say too much here as the article, videos and podcasts say it all. He has certainly been thorough in his application, and documentation of the process. It was a pleasure working with him, and despite his difficulty in giving up coffee and his impatience to recommence, we are both glad he didn’t as it gave him an opportunity to experience some of the benefits of fasting, and therefore experience the level of health, energy and clarity that is inherent in us all – if we give our bodies a chance to show it 🙂

The benefits included:

Improved and sustained energy levels.
Great sleep.
His sinuses are the clearest they’ve ever been.
Dramatically improved concentration and mental aptitude.

Whilst it’s super thorough, if you’re interested in fasting or considering doing a fast/cleanse, I highly recommend you have a read, listen, watch as he covers just about everything you’ll need to know. Obviously, if this motivates you to act, then i can help you. I offer supervised fasts in my clinic addresses in Torquay, Sth Melbourne and Barwon Heads, or online.

My Guided 5 Days of Fasting / Juice Cleanse (What Really Happened)

By Tim Altman 01/08/2018 Evolutionary Medicine, Fasting, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance, Sleep Enhancement Barwon Heads Naturopath, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, Detox, Fasting, intermittent fasting, juice fast, Melbourne, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, Online consultation, Performance

Video: Why Do a 5-Day Juice Fast

A client of mine, Cam Nicholls of Bike Chaser, www.bikechaser.com.au, is documenting his journey on a 5 day fast in order to strengthen his immune system in order to win an A grade criterium event in Melbourne this upcoming season.

In addition to strengthening his immune system, fasting is also likely to optimise his body by improving his energy levels, sleep cycles, recovery from training, mental clarity, focus, gut function and helping to reduce aches an pains.

It will be fun to join him on his journey and see how his body responds. Stay tuned for more videos, articles etc.

Below are his words on his mission….with a little bit from me also 🙂 . And the video.

“In this video, I share with you a consultation I had with a fasting expert here in Melbourne, Tim Altman (https://timaltman.com.au/). My original plan was to do a water fast for 5 days. However, following my consultation with Tim, I will be starting a 5-day juice fast in a few days time. The purpose of this cleanse is to strengthen my immune system before a large block of training. As my subscribers will know, I am targeting a big cycling goal later this year. In this video, Tim describes how he got into fasting himself – through a chronic fatigue rehabilitation process. Then he outlines the process and benefits I should see from a 5-day juice fast/cleanse, and how he will be supporting and providing a thorough 5-day program, including the reintroduction to food.”

By Tim Altman 31/07/2018 Breathing Dynamics, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Performance Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing for Performance, Breathing for Recovery, Breathing For Relaxation, Breathing For Sport, Breathing for Surfing, Diaphragm Breathing

Video: Breath Training To Improve Sporting & Surfing Peformance

Breathing has been described by one of the World’s top sports doctors as the last unchartered frontier of exploration for sporting performance, and has certainly started to attract more attention of late, with increasing amounts of research stating to support the evidence for breath training. In fact, the Trek cycling team has just employed a breath coach to work with their professional cyclists.

One of the reasons we started to pay attention to breathing as a modality for improving performance was from the fact that we know that the average person breathes way below diagnostic norms for breathing – the average person breathes twice as often as we should; using the mouth instead of or in addition to only the nose; using chest and shoulders instead of the diaphragm; and we breathe fa too much volume of air. In other words, we over breathe.

By correcting this dysfunction in clinic and the lab has seen a consistent flow of research and clinical evidence as to the efficacy of breath work in treating ailments such as asthma and breathing difficulties, snoring and apnoea, anxiety and depression, fatigue, headaches and migraines, IBS, reflux and other digestive issues, chronic pain etc.

Similarly, correcting this dysfunction, and enhancing the function beyond norms can offer significant improvements in sporting performance for a number of reasons. By learning breathing in and out through the nose only, using the diaphragm to drive breathing you will slow down the rate and volume of breathing at any level of exercise, and will offer the following benefits or advantages:

1. Greater surface area of the lung used for gas exchange – therefore increase oxygen uptake.

2. Increased oxygen delivery to cells, and therefore, energy production – based on the principles of the Bohr effect (as reduced rate and volume of breathing increases blood CO2 and therefore delivery of O2 to cells – see previous videos of mine at my ‘Tim Altman’ Youtube channel or blogs on www.timaltman.com.au. Or my book, ‘Breathing Dynamics’). We have found that you can learn to breathe with nose only during exercise up to about anaerobic threshold (or roughly 90% of max heart rate). But it takes time for the brain to accept higher levels of CO2 – so be patient.

3. As a result of increased O2 delivery to cells, lactic acid onset is delayed.

4. Potential buffering of lactic acid by increased CO2 – as it can be converted to bicarbonate as well as carbonic acid.

5. Increased brain tolerance to CO2 allowing for longer breath holds (for surfers etc), reduced breathing rate & volume, leading to greater breathing efficiency.

6. Increased core stability via the role the diaphragm plays in core stability.

7. Reduced heart rate during exertion resulting in further efficiency benefits – because, of all of the automatic functions in our body (controlled by the autonomic nervous system – ANS), breathing via the diaphragm is the one function we can consciously control with ease. As such, diaphragm breathing at a reduced rate, will influence the ANS and lead to reduced heart rate (via increased parasympathetic enervation).

8. Quicker recovery between intervals – due to increased breathing efficiency, and increased parasympathetic enervation.

9. Greater access to zone states or alpha brain wave activity whilst exercising – because of increased parasympathetic activity.

I’ve used these methods when paddling and finished top 10 twice in the Molokai World Surfski Championships, despite being in my late 40’s. I nose and diaphragm breathed throughout and my experience was that, once I settled into a comfortable reduced breathing pattern, I felt fantastic, and relaxed, so was able to accelerate in the last half to two thirds of the race – something that was not typical for me previously.

If you would like to learn how to breathe more efficiently during exercise to hold your breath for longer, improve performance and recovery, increase relaxation and enjoyment of sport, and improve overall health and well-being, contact me at tim@timaltman.com.au or phone 0425 739 918 to discuss or make an appointment. I work one on one, with groups or online.

By Tim Altman 24/07/2018 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Fasting, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Performance Barwon Heads Naturopath, Bowel health, Breathing, Breathing retraining, cfs, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, Detox, Diaphragm Breathing, Digestive health, Fasting, Fatigue, fibromyalgia, Gut Microbiome, IBS, immune system, intermittent fasting, juice fast, Melbourne, mental health, mental illness, Natuopath, naturopath melbourne, Naturopath Torquay, nutrition, Online consultation, Tim Altman

Video: There’s Far More to Healing The Gut Than Correcting The Microbiome.

There’s Far More To Treating IBS, Reflux & Other Digestive Issues Than Correcting The Gut Microbiome

The gut has been topical of late – with terms such as ‘gut microbiome’, the ‘third brain’ etc. becoming very popular. It has certainly become evident that gut function plays a huge role in both our physical and mental health, and we have seen an increase in digestive issues such as reflux, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s Disease, Coeliac’s Disease etc. etc.

In treating such conditions, and indeed in exploring optimal health and well-being, we need to focus on correcting and optimising the internal environment of our digestive system. Treatments have included stool analyses, detox diets, eliminative diets such as FODMAP, paleo and gluten free programs, antibiotic treatments, prebiotic and probiotic treatments, digestive enzyme therapy etc. have become extremely useful strategies. However, very often these treatments struggle to yield significant or complete resolutions.

Given this, it is worth considering that there are other influences on digestive or gut function, other than what goes on inside the digestive system, and that ignoring these can lead to less than complete resolutions. 2 other influences that have a significant impact on gut function, and must be attended to in order to treat the gut more completely, include:

1. Our breathing via the smooth muscle that surrounds the digestive tract – the average person over-breathes, meaning they breathe twice as often as they should, and with far too much volume (because they use mouth and nose rather than nose only). This upsets the delicate biochemical balance in our respiratory system that governs how we get oxygen from the air we inhale into our cells for energy production (the mechanism of which is known as ‘The Bohr Effect’). One of the compensations that result from the upset in the respiratory system by over-breathing is for the body to constrict the smooth muscle around our breathing tubes – and we experience symptoms of breathing difficulties and asthma as a result. Yet, the rest of the tubes that service our body are also surrounded by smooth muscle and over-breathing can lead to constriction and spasm in our digestive system, which is in itself a large tube, forcing it into lock down and preventing the peristaltic action of the digestive system to work effectively, leading to digestive symptoms. This is particularly highlighted by the fact that a vast majority of digestive symptoms and ailments are exacerbated by stress, are often see associated anxiety along with them (especially IBS or reflux). When we are stressed or anxious we over-breathe or hyperventilate even more, which can really exacerbate this constriction and spasm in the digestive system.

2. How we process stress – which is regulated via our hypothalamus. Our hypothalamus, in the brain stem, regulates the automatic bodily functions (including the gut, breathing, circulation etc.), endocrine function (glands and hormones), immune function, sleep cycle, neurotransmitters, some cognitive function etc. It’s job is homeostasis, and it really is the general in regulating our body and keeping it ‘purring’ along. But a hypothalamus that is ‘angry’ or ‘overdrive’ because it is working too hard as we live in constant low level fight or flight in this modern world, can then dys-regulate the function of many o all of our automatic functions – including digestion and the gut. How we process stress in the brain is governed by the healthy working relationship between our two intelligence systems: our thinking, or rational brain, whose job it is to allow us to interface with the world we live in by analysing and interpreting information, data processing, solving problems (the world of thoughts and rational – including our story of our past, and future); and the pre-thinking, instinctive emotional brain whose role is to keep us safe, happy and comfortable by constantly scanning the environment around us (in the now) and warning us of any threat, or stress, via emotions, which serve as a call to action to deal with the threat. If these two work together we attend to emotions as they arise, our thinking brain interpreting the call to action and activating action, then we process stress effectively and we go back to being happy, safe and comfortable. However, we have created a big mismatch between the bodies we have inherited (from our hunter gatherer ancestors) and the high tech, high paced world we have created, and we are taught to ignore emotions and discomfort (therefore the call to action to deal with stress) – be tough, don’t be so sensitive/emotional/irrational, don’t be a girl/sissy, push though, tough it out, don’t show weakness etc. As such we have become top of the animal kingdom, but have forgotten how to be an animal, so we internalise stress rather that dealing with it effectively. This sends us into permanent low-level ‘fight or flight’ activation, leading to symptoms.

We must attend to more than just the inside of the gut to treat it effectively!!

By Tim Altman 18/07/2018 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Sleep Enhancement anxiety, Asthma, Breathing, Breathing coach melbourne, Breathing coach Torquay, Breathing difficultes, Breathing Dynamics for Optimal Health and Performance, Chronic Fatigue Synbdome, Fatigue, IBS, Online consultation, sleep apnoea, snoring

Video: We Breathe Twice As Often As We Should and It Affects Our Health in Many Ways

We breath twice as often as we should (according to medical diagnostic norms).

If our blood pressure were twice as high as it should be, or we ate twice as much as we should, we all know that would lead to health and well-being problems.

Yet we take our breathing for granted, not realising that over-breathing upsets the delicate biochemical balance in our respiratory system that dictates how we get oxygen from the air we inhale in our lungs into the cells of our body for energy production (all known as, and explained in detail by ‘The Bohr Effect’).

he implications of this are:

1. We produce less energy – contributing to fatigue related illnesses, and poor mental functioning.

2. We are more predisposed to apnoea episodes – resulting in poor sleep, low energy, poor cognitive function, fatigue, and a potential flow on to increased likelihood of suffering inflammatory conditions.

3. Smooth muscle constriction around our breathing tubes predisposing to asthma and breathing difficulties, and also conditions relating to constriction or reduced function of all of the other tubes servicing our body (circulation, digestion, lymphatic, urinary etc) – these include IBS, reflux & other digestive complaints; high blood pressure & hypertension: sinusitis, hay fever & respiratory system illnesses; headaches and migraines; anxiety & depression.

The good news is that learning how to breath functionally again is not that hard, and does not take that long. And you will feel better for it…

Email Tim at tim@timaltman.com.au or call 0425 739 918. Tim is available in clinic at: Barwon Heads – 13th Beach Health Services Torquay/Jan Juc Melbourne – Sth Melbourne or Ivanhoe Or via Online Consultation