XV. Effect of Correct Breathing

Scarcely too much can be said of the advantages attending the practice of the Complete Breath. And yet the student who has carefully read the foregoing pages should scarcely need to have pointed out to him such advantages.

The practice of the Complete Breath will make any man or woman immune to Consumption and other pul­monary troubles, and will do away with all liability to contract "colds," as well as bronchial and similar weak­nesses. Consumption is due principally to lowered vi­tality attributable to an insufficient amount of air being inhaled. The impairment of vitality renders the sys­tem open to attacks from disease germs. Imperfect breathing allows a considerable part of the lungs to re­main inactive, and such portions offer an inviting field for bacilli, which invading the weakened tissue soon produce havoc. Good healthy lung tissue will resist the germs, and the only way to have good, healthy lung tissue is to use the lungs properly.

Consumptives are nearly all narrow-chested. What does this mean ? Simply that these people were addict­ed to improper habits of breathing, and consequently their chests failed to develop and expand. The man who practices the Complete Breath will have a full, broad chest, and the narrow-chested man may develop his chest to normal proportions if he will but adopt this mode of breathing.   Such people must develop their chest cavities if they value their lives. Colds may often be prevented by practicing a little vigorous Com­plete Breathing whenever you feel that you are being unduly exposed. When chilled, breathe vigorously a few minutes, and you will feel a glow ail over your body. Most colds can be cured by Complete Breathing and partial fasting for a day.

The quality of the blood depends largely upon its proper oxygenation in the lungs, and if it is under-oxygenated it becomes poor in quality and laden with all sorts of impurities, and the system suffers from lack of nourishment and often becomes actually poisoned by the waste products remaining uneliminated in the blood. As the entire body, every organ and every part, is dependent upon the blood for nourish­ment, impure blood must have a serious effect upon the entire system. The remedy is plain--practice the Yogi Complete Breath.

The stomach and other organs of nutrition suffer much from improper breathing. Not only are they ill nourished by reason of the lack of oxygen, but as the food must absorb oxygen from the blood and become oxygenated before it can be digested and assimilated, it is readily seen how digestion and assimilation is im­paired by incorrect breathing. And whenever assimilation is not normal, the system receives less and less nourishment, the appetite fails, bodily vigor decreases, and energy diminishes, and the man withers and de­clines.   All from the lack of proper breathing.

Even the nervous system suffers from improper breathing, inasmuch as the brain, the spinal cord, the nerve centers, and the nerves themselves, when improperly nourished by means of the blood, become poor and inefficient instruments for generating, storing and transmitting the nerve currents. And improperly nourished they will become if sufficient oxygen is not absorbed through the lungs. There is another aspect of the case whereby the nerve currents themselves, or rather the force from which the nerve currents spring, becomes lessened from want of proper breathing, but this belongs to another phase of the subject which is treated of in other chapters of this book, and our pur­pose here is to direct your attention to the fact that the mechanism of the nervous system is rendered inef­ficient as an instrument for conveying nerve force, as the indirect result of a lack of proper breathing.

In the practice of the Complete Breath, during in­halation, the diaphragm contracts and exerts a gentle pressure upon the liver, stomach and other organs, which in connection with the rhythm of the lungs acts as a gentle massage of these organs and stimulates their actions, and encourages normal functioning. Each inhalation aids in this internal exercise, and assists in causing a normal circulation to the organs of nutrition and elimination. In High or Mid Breathing the or­gans lose the benefit accruing from this internal mas­sage.

The Western world is paying much attention to Physical Culture just now, which is a good thing. But in their enthusiasm they must not forget that the exer­cise of the external muscles is not everything. The in­ternal organs also need exercise, and Nature's plan for this exercise is proper breathing. The diaphragm is Nature's principal instrument for this internal exercise. Its motion vibrates the important organs of nutrition and elimination, and massages and kneads them at each inhalation and exhalation, forcing blood into them, and then squeezing it out, and imparting a general tone to the organs. Any organ or part of the body which is not exercised gradually atrophies and refuses to func­tion properly, and lack of the internal exercise afford­ed by the diaphragmatic action leads to diseased organs. The Complete Breath gives the proper motion to the diaphragm, as well as exercising the middle and upper chest.   It is indeed "complete" in its action.

From the standpoint of Western physiology alone, without reference to the Oriental philosophies and sci­ence, this Yogi system of Complete Breathing is of vital importance to every man, woman and child who wishes to acquire health and keep it. Its very simplici­ty keeps thousands from seriously considering it, while they spend fortunes in seeking health through compli­cated and expensive "systems." Health knocks at their door and they answer not. Verily the stone which the builders reject is the real cornerstone of the Temple of Health.