Hair white? Poor lungs

Patches of White Hair or Skin?

Improve Your Lung Function

by Gloria Merle Huffman

5/17/2009

(1,306 words)

White or gray hair, if caused by poor nutrition, can be restored to its natural color: improve your nutrition, exercise, and take a common, inexpensive Chinese herbal supplement called Fo-Ti (also known as Ho-Shou-Wu, "Mr. Wu's Black Hair").

People with a white forelock (a lock of white-colored hair above the forehead) may have a genetic predisposition to that trait. Such a genetic component has been known to come through a Spanish bloodline originating in the Castillian area around Madrid, Spain.

White patches on the skin (which could be vitiligo or leukoderma) need a doctor's differential diagnosis and recommendation for treatment.

However, the improvement of these conditions can be enhanced by attention to one's lung volume and coughing power, to ensure that circulating blood is optimally oxygenated.

Skin conditions are often related to breathing capacity. Skin that does not receive sufficient oxygen and nutrients via bloodflow, and doesn't have toxins adequately flushed out (due to weak heart beat and weak breathing muscles) loses immunity and vitality.

Damage to breathing muscles can come from injury, disuse, or any of the genetic forms of muscular dystrophy/atrophy; also multiple sclerosis or even post-polio syndrome -- including late reactions to having taken the live OPV oral polio vaccine (polio is famous for attacking the breathing muscles). Live polio vaccine was purposefully given to people in the mid-20th century so that they would contract a "mild" case of polio and hopefully immunize unvaccinated people who came near them.

The most important breathing muscle is the diaphragm, which is ennervated by the phrenic nerve, a spinal nerve (not a cranial nerve from the brain) which begins in the neck at the C3, C4, & C5 vertebrae (mainly C4). Neck injury such as whiplash can produce breathing problems. Breaking your neck can sever the phrenic nerve, halting the breath and killing you if you aren't put on life support fast enough.

Muscular problems often don't manifest themselves in unmistakable form until one's age is in the 40s to 60s. Doctors will frequently dismiss complaints until the patient is desperately in need of being placed on a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) for nighttime breathing, to avoid sleep apnea (episodes of not breathing, lowering the body's oxygen, which damages the brain, heart, and other vital organs).

How to improve breathing (2 parts: lung volume and muscles)

(1) The only way to increase the vital capacity of the lungs -- the amount of bad air you're strong enough to blow out, and thus the amount of fresh air you can then get into your lungs -- is by (a) externally-assisted inhalation beyond one's self-powered breathing ability (i.e., air stacking) or (b) frog breathing (glossopharyngeal breathing). Frog breathing is best learned by being trained in person, and is not described here.

(2) The only way to strengthen breathing muscles (the diaphragm and the accessory muscles) is to exercise them, preferably by coughing, breathing hard during whole-body exercise (not just singing- or wind-instrument-type exercises while you're standing or sitting still), or breathing in or out against resistance. Coughing can be incorporated into one's air-stacking routine.

To air stack (in order to increase your lung volume), you breathe in as deeply as you can and hold your breath (close the glottis), then deliver an additional measured puff of air from a manual resuscitator such as the Ambu-Bag and hold that as well (stacking one breath on top of another), and repeat the addition of another puff or two of air if you can accommodate it. Immediately exhale as much as you can, as quickly and forcefully as you can, then repeat the air stacking. A doctor's prescription is required in order to purchase an Ambu-Bag from a medical supplier. But a strong plastic vegetable-saver bag can do the job (capture air in the bag and close it with your fingers, put the opening of the bag to your mouth with one hand and use your other hand to gently squeeze air into your lungs). You can also simply sip air in successive "stacked" breaths: breathe in deeply, hold your breath, suck in more air through pursed lips, like sipping through a straw, and hold it ("stacking" that breath on top of the first one which you are already holding in your lungs), and continue to sip and hold additional breaths of air on top of that until you sense that you've reached your comfort limit. Then breathe out as forcefully as you can, to give your breathing-out muscles a workout.

You're supposed to use volume-delivered puffs of air for air stacking, as opposed to pressure-delivered air like the CPAP. However, a CPAP hose can be used to quickly "top off" a deep breath if the hose is attached to a nasal pillows interface that blows air through two holes right into the nostrils (not into a full nose mask or face mask). Doing only about 15 of these air-stacked breaths 2 or 3 times a day is recommended, and really does help. Air-stacking before and/or after sleep is the easiest way to find time to do it.

The following book describes the use of air-stacking for people with severe difficulty in breathing due to a genetic muscle weakness, but the same technique can improve breathing for people with whiplash and/or related injuries, or whose sedentary lifestyle is allowing their lungs to shrink and their breathing muscles to get out of shape:

"Management of Patients with Neuromuscular Disease," John R. Bach, MD (2004 Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus, An Affiliate of Elsevier). Paperback (US$43.00 in 2008).

Dr. Bach works at a clinic in the Dept. of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at University Hospital in Newark, NJ. There is a wealth of information on his website:

http://www.doctorbach.com/

The strength of one's cough is important for coughing up lung secretions, and coughing strength varies by body position (standing, sitting, or lying down). One's strongest cough is achieved while standing. Coughing strength is weaker while sitting, followed by lying on one's back, lying on one's left side (the ideal sleeping position), lying on one's right side, and lastly while lying on one's stomach (the worst position of all).

In addition, a minimum lung volume of 3 liters is necessary for a person to be able to cough up normal secretions from the lungs. When lung volume shrinks below that level, the lungs are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia, which is a common cause of death for old people in hospitals and nursing homes (where they are habitually kept in bed on their backs, a poor position for coughing strength). Lung volume shrinks 30 milliliters per year, on average, if nothing is done to counteract the processes of decline.

It is especially helpful to use a peak flow meter, available for about $50-$80 in your local pharmacy, to measure your coughing power/speed (measured in liters of air exhaled per minute), and your lung volume (measured in liters of air exhaled per second). You can track your expiratory muscle strength (Peak Expiratory Flow rate: PEF) and lung volume (Forced Expiratory Volume in one second: FEV1) by recording your peak flow meter readings over time.

Clear results might not be apparent for months, since progress usually zig-zags up and down like the stock market, but it's quite exciting to see the overall trend definitely improving over the course of a year. If you are capable of sticking with a regular plan of air stacking even when progress is not readily visible, you will be rewarded with visible progress over the long term, and that's where it counts the most.

If you are also exercising regularly and taking Fo-Ti while eating a nutriutionally-balanced diet that includes the B vitamin complex, folic acid, zinc, oil, and other hair- and skin-friendly nutrients, you will see a welcome change for the better in your hair color and skin health.

© 2009 Gloria Merle Huffman

#