Customer Reviews

Breathe Well, Be Well: A Program to Relieve Stress, Anxiety, Asthma, Hypertension, Migraine, and Other Disorders for Better Health

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author of "The Hyperventilation Syndrome" (1987) and "The Psychology and Physiology of Breathing" (1993), writes in "Breathe Well, Be Well" about the complex subject of breathing for everyone who breathes. Those familiar with Robert Fried's earlier writings will recognize how well he has accomplished the difficult task of translating scientific research and theory into explanations and exercises useful to all readers. It may seem at first that "Breathe Well" tries to do too much by going beyond just relieving stress and anxiety, to showing how the way we breathe can be responsible for asthma, hypertension, migraine and other problems. But this is a reliable and authoritative self-help book for anyone who suffers from these conditions. Here is one of the few places where readers can find information about the effects of foods on breathing and on the numerous disorders which are covered. To this reader's surprise and delight, Fried goes further in this book than in any of his earlier works in explaning how breathing relates to thinking, especially the thinking related to anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

"Breathe Well, Be Well" is an important book written with clarity and humor. It deserves a wide audience of people who when they read it will "just have no idea that breathing was the real problem and no one bothered (or knew enough) to tell them."

After learning the author's breathing techniques, I have been able to relax more and get to the heart of my symptoms. Easy to follow and comprehend. No outer-worldly stuff here, just factual information regarding how breathing correctly will eliminate many of the stresses in your life. I highly recommend this book!

Although this book was not what I had expected it to be (i.e. a detailed book
with many pages devoted to breathing exercises e.g. paced breathing techniques etc)
I did not regret the purchase, in fact I was very impressed.

The reason why I rate this work so highly is because it offers a fresh perspective on
dealing with so called psychosomatic/psychophysiological ailments e.g. panic attacks, phobias
including headaches, migranes, hyperventilating, gasping for breath, Raynaud's condtions,
cold hands etc. The idea that irregular breathing patterns are at the heart of most disorders, although not surprising, is explained extremely well in terms of acid-base levels in the blood.

The primary topic dicussed in this book is hyperventilation. And as an Asthma sufferer I did
not think this work would be useful to me (since I usually struggle to get any air let alone overbreathe!), but I was very wrong!! This book was a great buy, because I now understand
the driving factors for my breathing difficulties from a scientific point of view.
i.e. inhale/exhale ratios, CO2 levels, warms/cold hands etc.

I only have 2 criticisms, the last chapter about Music and Breathing seemed a little out
of place and mostly irrelevent. And secondly there isnt much on breathing techniques,
the only thing that is covered is deep diaphragmatic breathing (whist in the sitting position)
- which is great if thats all you want!

5 stars for information/nutrition/theory content
2 stars for practical exercises with deep breathing

There are a lot of books on breathing. This is probably the only one aimed at laymen that has been written by a world class respiratory psychophysiologist who has written numerous professional texts on various aspects of respiration.

This book is good because it emphasizes breathing techniques to attenuate stress-induced conditions (ex. Asthma, Anxiety). But again, as with most stress books, it falls short on recommending proper nutritional supplementation. Most Asthma books don't recommend any holistic/herbal remedies; they only recommend pharmaceutical drugs. A few Asthma books like these do recommend natural remedies, but these remedies are often unproven, and can be dangerous if mixed with other drugs/alcohol. I am really disappointed in all Asthma books in general, because they most often do not recommend the three most important ORTHOMOLECULAR Asthma remedies: Calcium, Magnesium, and Vitamin C. Calcium is simply there to balance magnesium and to chelate with ascorbate (vitamin C) to make calcium ascorbate. Magnesium relaxes lungs and improves air flow. Last and certainly not least, vitamin C has potent antihistamine effects via inhibiton of mast cell degranulation, and also has bronchodilator effects via inhibition of phosphodiesterase. Taking several grams
a day of vitamin C (preferably buffered calcium ascorbate), along with some magnesium may completely inhibit mild asthma, and should significantly help moderate to severe asthma, with no known drug interactions (except perhaps with Theophylline, which inhibits the same phosphodiesterase enzyme that vitamin C does). These three natural supplements also play very important roles in maintaining mental health. This information is referenced in the Allergies/Asthma chapter and Chronic Mental Illnesses Part of my book "The Failures of American Medicine", available here at Amazon...

I buy many books, never before gave up reading a book just within 30 minutes of browsing through various chapters looking for substance. I'm a person who has recovered from major depression which also entailed daily anxiety attacks and hyperventilation. I overcame my affliction by sheer will power through enormous love that I felt for my family and myself. I did that through redirecting my energy to change the things that I didn't like in my life. I also accomplished that through drastic change in my diet and through daily exercise for the last ten years. I was looking for a book to teach me better breathing, because by nature I'm a person who gets to excited in reaction to anything. This is a guy who one day decided to write a book by exploiting the most obvious things. The book is made of many anecdotes and repetition of many facts most people already know. Never before did I wish to return a book and ask for a refund. This time I do. This book will not go into my library, but it will go where my daily junk mail goes, the trash. .