Breathing

[ClarkNight]

BETTER EYESIGHT
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF IMPERFECT SIGHT WITHOUT GLASSES

January, 1923

BREATHING

MANY patients with imperfect sight are benefited by breathing. One of the best methods is to separate the teeth while keeping the lips closed, breathe deeply as though one were yawning. When done properly one can feel the air cold as it passes through the nose and down the throat. This method of breathing secures a great amount of relaxation of the nose, throat, the body generally including the eyes and ears.
A man aged sixty-five, had imperfect sight for distance and was unable to read fine print without the aid of strong glasses. After practicing deep breathing in the manner described he became able at once to, read diamond type quite perfectly, as close as six inches from the eyes. The benefit was temporary but by repetition the improvement became more permanent.
At one time I experimented with a number of patients, first having them hold their breath and test their vision, which was usually lower when they did not breathe. They became able to demonstrate that holding their breath was a strain and caused imperfect sight, double vision, dizziness and fatigue, while the deep breathing at once gave them relief.
There is a wrong way of breathing in which when the air is drawn into the lungs the nostrils contract. This is quite conspicuous among many cases of tuberculosis.
Some teachers of physical culture in their classes while encouraging deep breathing close their nostrils when drawing in a long breath. This is wrong because it produces a strain and imperfect sight. By consciously doing the wrong thing, breathing with a strain one becomes better able to practice the right way and obtain relaxation and better sight.
The habit of practicing frequently deep breathing one obtains a more permanent relaxation of the eyes with more constant good vision.

Abdominal, diaphragmatic breathing, yawning is taught by modern Natural Eyesight Improvement teachers.

STORIES FROM THE CLINIC

The Woman with Asthma

By EMILY C. LIERMAN

When eyestrain is relieved all other strain is relieved, and therefore patients relieved of eyestrain are often relieved of many other symptoms. Asthma belongs to a large class of diseases with symptoms which may result from nervous disturbances instead of from organic changes. They have been called functional neuroses. It was not strange, therefore, that this patient should note an immediate improvement in her breathing after palming, and that this treatment, in combination with hygienic measures, should have permanently relieved the trouble. Many similar cases could be reported, and even when organic disease has been present, the subjective symptoms have been relieved.
One day during the summer of 1919, a woman suffering from asthma came to the clinic. She was only forty years of age, but looked fifty, and it was evident, from the wrinkles in her forehead and her half-shut eyes, that her vision was very poor. She told me that she suffered from continual pain, and I could see that she had great difficulty in breathing; but her spirit was unbroken, and her exuberance was something of a problem to me. She talked continually as long as she could find anyone to listen to her, and in order to preserve any order in the clinic I had to keep her as much as possible by herself. I was sorry to do this, because her good humor was contagious, and made the patients forget their pain and other troubles, but I could not have the work brought to a standstill, even for such a desirable end as this.
The state of her eyesight did not seem to trouble her.
It was her asthma about which she was concerned. When I asked her to read the test card she said:
"Please ma'am, help me to breathe first; never mind my eyes."
"You are in the wrong room for asthma", I replied, "just let me do something for your eyes, and then I will send you to another room where a good doctor will treat you for the asthma."
She smiled, evidently pleased that I had not sent her away, and proceeded to read the card, as I had asked her to do. Her vision was 20/30 in each eye. I told her to palm and on no account to remove her hands from her eyes until I came back. It was fully half an hour before I was able to do this, and when I told her to uncover her eyes, she asked:
"What makes me breathe so easy?"
"The palming has helped you", I replied.
Her vision was now 15/20, and she said the pain in her chest and back had gone. I gave her some advice about her diet, told her to drink plenty of water, and asked her to come to the clinic three days a week.
On the next clinic day, to my great disappointment, I did not see her. I concluded that she did not care to bother about her eyes, and was not willing to give up the foods and drinks I had told her not to take, including meats, pastry, strong tea and other liquids much stronger than tea. Other patients were continually coming in, however, so the poor woman with asthma went completely out of my mind until two months later when she rushed into the clinic like a cyclone. Most of these poor people do not think about waiting for their turn, and are so anxious to tell me about their relief from eyestrain and other troubles that I have to forgive them when they break the rules. This woman not only did not wait her turn but did not think it necessary to wait till I had finished with the patient I was attending to. As soon as she saw me she yelled in a loud excited voice:
"Please, ma'am. I didn't forget you. I didn't forget myself either. I felt so good after you treated me, I just palmed and palmed, and I began to breathe so much better I went out and got a job right away. During the day my madam allowed me to rest my eyes, and I ate very sparingly. Sure, ma'am, it was no joke either, for I just love to eat good and lots of it; but I remembered what you said, and so I behaved myself. I must have starved the asthma all away."
"I am very glad to hear all this" I said. "Now let me see what the palming did for your eyes."
Her vision had improved to 15/10. And it had all happened in two months. She did it and not I. When I told her this and praised her for it, she replied:
"God bless you! You don't know how happy I am. I am working and supporting myself now for the first time in four years. But what surprises me the most is that I have not been drowned by this time with all the water I have been drinking."

BETTER EYESIGHT
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF IMPERFECT SIGHT WITHOUT GLASSES

October, 1924

The Rabbit's Throat

DURING the past ten years a method of breathing has been practiced which has improved the vision of many patients after other methods had failed. It consists of depressing the lower jaw with the lips closed and lowering the tongue and muscles below the chin. At the same time one breathes in through the nose and throat in a manner somewhat similar to snoring and when done properly one can feel a coolness of the air while it passes down into the lungs. This method of breathing is accompanied with the eyelids being more widely open in a natural way without staring. The ear passages, nose, and throat dilate. The tube which goes from the throat to the middle ear becomes more widely open, with improved hearing in chronic deafness which does not respond to any other treatment. If one rests the chin with the thumb below it and the forefinger just below the lower lip, one can feel with the thumb the hardening of the muscles below the jaw accompanied with a decided swelling. By practice, the swelling and hardness increase. This suggested the title of the Rabbit's Throat because of a similar swelling below the rabbit's chin. The tension of the other muscles of the body becomes relaxed. There is a wonderful increase of muscular control.
Music teachers have told me that the singing voice becomes much better because of the relaxation of the muscles of the throat. The involuntary muscles of the digestive tract become relaxed in a striking manner with the relief of many symptoms of discomfort. Redness and inflammation of the mucous membranes of the eye, ear, nose and throat and the rest of the body are relieved in a few minutes with the aid of the Rabbit's Throat.

The Rabbits throat method improves breathing, relaxes the muscles in the neck, head, improves ear function. This helps to improve eye muscle and eye function, clarity vision. The visual system is connected/functions with the ears, balance system. Other breathing methods are found in yoga exercises, abdominal/diaphragm breathing.
Relaxed throat, neck = improved circulation to the head, ears, eyes = clear vision. (Dr. Bates is an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor.)

Imagination Cures