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MY BREATHING SYSTEM

PART I

CHAPTKR I

WHAT DEEP-BREATHING EXERCISES ARE

Eykrybouy knows that without air we cannot exist morę than a fcw minutcs, but wc can cxist for at least a wcek without water, while people havc fasted from food for from forty to seventy days and even longer. Air is a nutriment, therefore, of even morę importance than liquid and solid foods; yet it is remarkable that the majority of people devote so much consideration to wliat they eat and drink and so little to what or how they breatlie.

The element contained in the air we breathe which -is of primo necessity to our existence is oxvgen. Protoplasm, which is the physical basis of lifc, the substancc of which all the cclls which form the body are composed, is continually undergoing Chemical changc, which changc of matter is known as metabolism—compiex substances are built up from simple ones, which are in turn broken up; the Chemical energy of the food brought to the cclls is transformed into the energy of motion, heat, etc. Without Oxvgen. protoplasm cannot exist; and an iusufficient supply hinders metabolism. Once this is understood, the rcason why metabolic diseases (gont, rheumatism, obesity, antemia, chlorosis, jaundice, diabetes) are common is evident.

How then can we inllate and empty the lungs to their utmost limits ? Only by exercise, and by leaming, during such cxercise, to breathe in a correct manner. Of course everybody does breathe after a fasliion. otherwise they

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