(00:00:12):
Right. Good afternoon, everybody. So can you hear me okay, good. So welcome to Sunday service. So here’s what we’re going to do a lot to do. I like to start the week by kind of catching you up on my activities and telling you new things that I’ve learned or new theories that I have, or new kind of experiences that I’ve had. As of yesterday, I’ve now seen a 106 long haulers in private consultation. So that’s about somewhere between 150 and 200 hours of talking to long haulers one-to-one and really I’m seeing a lot of similarities. I’m seeing a lot of different kind of you know, little groups and little sections of people, which is helping me kind of get a sense of what different people need to do. And it’s, you know, I’m getting feedback from people that some of it is starting to work, which is great.
(00:01:13):
And if you have things that work for you, by all means, please let me know what they are, because any information that I get, any data I can collect is valuable. So a couple of points and these are kind of like what I’m starting to think about as sort of like the 10 Colby commandments, which are like, sort of like basic things that everybody needs to know, I think and not everybody knows and just get the idea and I’ll start off by just saying that everything I’m about to tell you is what I think based upon my own experience before COVID and based on my own experience after COVID I don’t have any proof. So it’s like bill Maher’s skit where it says I don’t have any proof. I just know it’s true. But I don’t say that everything, I, you know, I don’t say everything I say is true and certainly COVID is so variable that there’s nothing I’m going to say.
(00:02:10):
That’s going to be true for everybody. So rather than tell you specific exercises to do and specific techniques to use, I really want to teach principles. And that’s been how I’ve run my show really for the last 30 years. And it seems to work because it’s really the embodiment of, if you give a man a fish, then you feed him for a day. So I’m not looking to feed you for today. Although I’m happy to feed you. It is Sunday and it is a good day for fish. But I want to teach you guys how to, how to fish and also how to, you know, bait your own hooks and fish and whatever it is that I don’t personally like to fish because I love fish, but but it’s really important that you start to, to read the signs. Okay. And those signs can be physical signs.
(00:02:56):
Those signs can be emotional signs. Signs can be intellectual signs. There’s different groups of you here. Okay. And long haulers are very, very varied as are all COVID patients. And even as you know, better than me, even within the same person, even within the same patient, you could feel one way this hour and totally different the next hour and very different the next day. So our, our job here, okay. If we really want to figure this thing out is we want to know, well, what is it about what we’re doing that is creating these changes? If there is something about what we’re doing. I know that a lot of people are very frustrated, okay, this is not a simple solution. And you know, it’s a complex problem and it’s, there’s no simple solution to it and there’s no short, fast solution to it.
(00:03:52):
So principle number one is kind of like, don’t expect this to be done with, and don’t expect to be healed by next week. Okay. We’ve already been this far. And if you’re waiting for that day, when everything is back to normal, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. And I don’t say, say that to you to give you a reality check. Okay. I’m not like a tough lover like that unless I really have to be, but but the reason why I tell you this and the overriding theme, that’s going to go through everything I tell you today is that there’s things that are going to be very inflammatory and excitatory and stimulating, not in a good way aggravating, annoying, irritating you know, and those are the things that we need to identify and they may be different for each person and we need to try to eliminate those things.
(00:04:50):
And we need to try to really to quiet that inflammation and to quiet what essentially is an overactive sympathetic nervous system, and to really enhance and bathe the parasympathetic nervous system in, you know, support and healing. And, you know, for many people it’s kind of like this chaotic electricity that just is sort of like burning out of control. And we can’t put our finger on why that is and, you know, people are stuck or they’re kind of up, down, up, down. And before we start to redecorate the house, we have to make sure the fire’s out. And so, you know, for a lot of you, the fire is raging still. And by that, I mean inflammation by that. I mean irritation by that, I mean, symptoms are very chaotic. There’s no rhyme or reason to them. Okay. and that’s the pattern that we need to figure out.
(00:05:46):
So couple of things number one this is an inflammation based condition. And my impression of this COVID is that COVID comes in and it’s like a flash fire or a forest fire that just scorches the earth and the earth consists of all of our different systems. So, you know, initially we thought it was a respiratory virus, right. And it is to some extent respiratory system scorched. We thought that it, then we found out, Hey, there’s some, you know, there’s some cardiac aspects of this as well. Cardiac system can be affected. There’s the neurologic system and the neurologic system can be affected and the GI system and every other system. Okay. And so my background is, you know, in a way I feel like I’ve been somehow uniquely gifted to understand things because for years, my, my specialty has been, you know, cardiovascular patients and pulmonary patients and complex medical patients.
(00:06:48):
So patients who have not just one but multiple medical conditions, and even that has only prepared us so much for this because COVID is not, you know, with a respiratory patient, you could say, okay, this is what we expect to see. This is the disease process. This is the progression, this is our intervention, or this is our evaluation, then our intervention. And this is what we expect to see over time. This is the outcome we expect cardiovascular also somewhat predictable, neuro, less predictable, but somewhat predictable. And with COVID for many of you, as you know, better than me, it’s a respiratory condition. That’s super imposed. You know? So it’s like this, it’s like you have a respiratory condition and it’s superimposed with a cardiac condition and it’s superimposed with a neurologic condition and it’s superimposed with a GI condition and everything else that you are experiencing.
(00:07:45):
And as I said, many people in, if not everybody are experiencing different things and it’s this little part of overlap right here where everything is, and that’s going to determine how you are doing okay. And another principle right here is that you will only get, you will only improve and get better as fast as your slowest system. Okay. And that is it’s, it’s not such good news, but in another way, it’s good news. Let me explain what I mean. So, number one, it’s very frustrating for many people, because for many of you we don’t have a clear respiratory condition, right? So people are short of breath. But the chest X rays clear the cat scan is clear. The pulmonary function test is normal, right? So you say, well then why am I short of breath? We have people who have chest pain, but their EKG is normal.
(00:08:40):
Their echo is normal. Their, you know, halter monitor is normal. Okay. Why am I having chest pain then? Neurologic system. Okay. I’m having neurologic symptoms. But my brain scan was fine. I didn’t have a stroke. Why is that? Okay. So it’s very frustrating to have everything be told. Everything’s great. Why do you feel it’s like, it’s like, you know, the sun is shining. You know, we have a picnic basket, why in a bad mood. Right. Nobody wants to hear that. Right. And it’s not, it’s not like it’s all in your head. People have this idea that very early, they were, you know, many people are told it’s all in your head or it’s anxiety or it’s depression. It’s not that it’s not in your head and it’s not that it’s not anxiety provoking because who wouldn’t be anxious in this situation and who wouldn’t be somewhat depressed in this situation.
(00:09:32):
If you’re going on three months, four months, five months, six months. Right. But it’s not just in your head, it’s not only in your head. Right. But there’s part of it. And it, you know, to say that, no, it’s not you know, there are anxiety components to it. There are emotional components to it, which leads me to my next point. This is a really important point. So if you take nothing else away from what I say today, if you missed the whole first part, and I sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher, and you were kind of like, [inaudible], that’s fine. But here, if everything I’d I say after this is the same thing want, want, want, want, that’s fine to what you need is what I’m about to tell you right now, there is a budget. Okay. Your, no, I’m not even going to just say, your body has a budget.
(00:10:18):
Your entire being your entire existence has a budget. Okay. And from that budget comes, the physical comes the intellectual and comes the emotional. And depending on who you are, we can also say the spiritual, the financial you know, the, the relationship wise, but everything comes from the same budget. And my point in telling you this is that let’s say for argument’s sake, you have a hundred dollars, but we’re going to make those percentage points. Each day, you wake up, you have a hundred dollars budget. And if you spend 99% of it on the emotional, well, that’s going to disrupt your physical because you need more than 1% for your physical. And if you spend more than 99% of it, or if you spend 99% of it on your physical, well, guess what, that’s where the intellectual may suffer. And that may be where brain fog comes from.
(00:11:14):
Okay. And if you spend it all on the emotional saying, you know, this sucks, this isn’t right. [inaudible] Well, that’s going to take away from your physical and your intellectual. Okay. So what is my point in telling you this? Initially we have to observe, okay. Before we make any type of intervention, before we make any type of change in what we’re doing, we need to observe. And it’s like, you know, if somebody has already painted on this canvas and it’s not the direction we want to go, or if, if, if somehow we haven’t used our GPS and we’ve wound up really off track. Okay. Which is probably how a lot of you, it’s like, wow, we’re deep in the woods. And we have no idea where we’re going then, unless we backtrack, continuing to move forward is not going to help us get out of the woods.
(00:12:03):
Right. It may get you to the other side of the woods and you may get out on, you may technically get out of the woods, but that may not be what you want to get out. Another thing is that, you know, it’s like if you’re off balance or you’re out of control of your car, you’re, you’re losing control of your car. Well, going faster is not going to catch you up. Right? So at a certain point, we need to talk to ourselves and you need to talk to yourself. And at a certain point, when things seem like they’re out of control and chaotic, as they very often do with COVID and post COVID you must talk to yourself and what should you say to yourself? You should say things like, stop, breathe, or stop. I know what to do here. Okay. And eventually, you know, there’s a saying that says, fake it till you make it right.
(00:12:56):
We have to fake it till we make it right now. And we have to say, stop. I know what to do here. You know why? Because when you think like that, that sends positive signals to your brain and to your heart and to your spirit. And those things have an impact just like in the same way that you say I’m never going to get out of this. This sucks. I’m never going to get better. That sends negative signals. Okay. That may sound crazy to you, but I promise you it’s true. Okay. And that’s not Western medicine right there. Okay. So nobody’s going to be like, say this, say this thing to yourself, but you know, it’s like you say those things all have chemical reactions. And so if you’re emotional and you know, you’re, you’re having a negative emotions and you’re repeating yourself over and over again, I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose.
(00:13:42):
Are you going out off, out of the locker room to the field and said, I’m never going to win this game. I’m never going to win this game. I’m never going to win this game. There’s the saying it’s as if you think you can, or you think you can’t either way you’re going to be right. And please don’t mistake what I’m saying for cheerleading. Okay. Please. Don’t mistake what I’m saying for humoring you or cheerleading for you, or, you know, blowing steam up your chimney or, you know, I’m not telling you things just because I think that you need to hear that. I think I believe them. I think they really can help you. And all this negative activity is very stimulating of the sympathetic nervous system. So a lot of people have what’s called dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Right? some people call it dysautonomia.
(00:14:33):
I was told this week that dysautonomia implies a chronic condition. I have like 15 books on dysautonomia pots chronic fatigue syndrome. Amazon probably thinks I just got, you know, opened the hospital wing for dysautonomia. But it doesn’t matter what you call it. Okay. But if the respiratory system, if you’re having respiratory systems, but everything checks out and you’re having cardiac symptoms and everything checks out and you’re having neurologic symptoms. Okay. And, and I kind of view the neurologic system in two ways. So there’s neuro classic, right. And neuro classic is things like multiple sclerosis stroke, seizure, things like that, things that are like the brainy brain brain. And then there’s the autonomic nervous system. Right. And that’s kind of like the two lanes of the nervous system and the autonomic nervous system is the opposite of the brainy brain brain.
(00:15:30):
Okay. The autonomic nervous system is very mysterious. It’s like smoky. It’s like foggy. It’s like, we can’t tell what’s going on is very little rhyme or reason to it. It seems, but there is some rhyme or reason to it. And the way that we discover what that is is by experimentation and trial and error. And we throw a stone and we watched how that ripples the pool. Okay. But I’m going to tell you a big mistake that a lot of people make the big mistake that a lot of people make is they feel a certain way and they do something and that’s something could be anything. It could be like, you know what? I just made breakfast for my family, or it could be, I just walked a mile or it could be, you know what, I just watched the Republican national convention. I will refrain from political jokes at this moment.
(00:16:24):
But but the idea is all these things are stimulating and take from our budget. Right. And the idea is that when something is stimulant stimulating, and when something is excitatory, that is pro inflammation, okay. Fight or flight response was designed for real flight or real fighting. Okay. It means if a bear jumps on you, you need to either haul ass or you need to fight that bear one of the two. And that’s what fight or flight is for fight or flight is not for when you’re driving. And somebody is slow to get up from the light or when you’re in the checkout line and somebody writing a check in front of you or when somebody sent the Del Monte peas, instead of the, I don’t know any other kind of peas, but you get the idea. And so when you have that sympathetic outflow, that fight or flight response, think about it, it’s called the adjunct urgent system, which means it’s, it’s based on adrenaline, right.
(00:17:25):
So, you know, when your adrenaline is kicked up, right, you’re excited. You’re like, Whoa. And if you’re really doing something, you know, really physical like a fight, like a game, like a sport, like a runaway, then that adrenaline is used based upon supply and demand. Except now when you do it, when it’s happening and we have no way that we’re actually using that up, we have a ton of supply, right. So we have more adrenaline than we want. We’re not giving it to demand. And so, as a result, we see things like higher heart rates. We see things like anxiety. We S we may see things like fevers. We don’t know that we don’t know, we may see things like higher blood pressures, or we may see things like lower blood pressures. Right. Because for a lot of people, we have these, this autonomic, you know, just, we have this, you know, autonomic dysfunction.
(00:18:16):
And we have sort of like what’s being referred to as a pots, like, so postural postural, orthostatic, tachycardia, and syndrome. Okay. But the idea is like, then you stand up and your heart rate goes fast and that drops your pressure. So there’s a lot of wild cards with Kobe, right? There’s a lot of wildcards with autonomic dysfunction, but there are things that we can do to bolster each one of these and to figure out how to reduce sympathetic. Okay. So sympathetic is, so let me just back up for one second. So the autonomic nervous system has two channels. So it’s sympathetic, parasympathetic, sympathetic is fight flight or freeze. Okay. So that means adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline. So that sympathetic nervous system is like, I have a cut on my arm and I want it to heal. And it’s like, adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline that cuts never going to heal.
(00:19:17):
Right. And then we have parasympathetic and parasympathetic rest digest, heal. Okay. Soothe. And that’s what we want to enhance. Now for some people you may need a complete reset. Okay. Before we go any further. And so what I mean by that is that we are talking about you know, there are some people let’s go the, the, the gamut of COVID. So there’s some people who obviously didn’t make it. There’s some people who got very, very sick and recovered. There’s some people who never got treated and never got diagnosed and are still suffering. And then there’s people who, you know, didn’t even know they had, it felt like a little cold et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But for the people that are stuck and for most of the people that I assume are here, and I know a lot of, a lot of you also, so I know the reason why a lot of you are here, if you’re going nowhere.
(00:20:14):
Okay. And when I say, if you’re going nowhere, if you have no pattern to your recovery, and one day is great and one day is not good. And then the next hour is terrible. And then you have a great hour, and then you do this and this, if you are kind of caught in this Whirlpool of I’m stuck, and I can’t get out of this world, we must get you out of this Whirlpool. Okay. Because if you’re drowning and that Whirlpool was taking you around and around and around, and you’re doing this and this and this, you are going to drown. Okay. And think of it like kicks quicksand. So the more you struggle, the deeper into the quicksand, you’re going to, you’re going to go, and I’m not telling you this to scare you. I’m telling you this for perspective. Okay. The thing is that if that’s you and think about it, is this me, then we have to have a reset.
(00:21:03):
And what does that mean? Okay. Sometimes people have a symptom, the symptom gets treated, or sometimes somebody has an activity, and then they have a bunch of symptoms related to that, or they feel good related to that. And a lot of people are trying a lot of different things at once, right. We’re grasping at straws because it seems like there’s nothing that can be done here, but there are things that can be done. But if you are making a soup and you know, you tasted the soup and you say, you know what? I don’t know this soup. It’s not quite where I want it to be. And then you throw in 26 ingredients at one time, you have a soup is going to change for better or for worse, but we don’t know what ingredient does, what, okay. And we don’t know, you know, and that’s the same for dosage.
(00:21:48):
So my point in telling you this is that when you are stuck like that, and when it seems like, no matter what you do, it, it doesn’t help you. Or it makes things worse. Then first thing we need to do, we need to pull over on the side of the road and we need to say, okay, where are we? And what do we need to do next? So for a lot of people that I’m seeing, and again, at this moment, it’s 106. And I have a lot of people who are doing bootcamp, okay. For some people, the first three to five days after I meet them, their homework is do nothing right. Rest and do nothing. And you know what I hear from every one of them, I found out that I really suck at doing nothing. Right. Because it’s very hard to do nothing.
(00:22:36):
And so when we talk about what is resting, okay, say, okay, you need to rest. So then I say, okay, well, what did you do? Well, I was on the computer. How long were you on the computer for four hours. Okay. That’s not resting. What’d you do? I watched the Republican just to be fair. I watched the democratic convention. Okay. That’s not resting. What did you do? I went to you know, I was on Facebook. That’s definitely not resting. And I will tell you this, you know, long haulers there’s a tremendous grassroots movement amongst long haulers. And I applaud you because that was so needed. Okay. You guys needed to be heard and people needed to understand that, Hey we are not better yet. Okay. It’s been 14 days for some of you. It’s been 14 weeks, thankfully for nobody, it’s been 14 months.
(00:23:28):
And if we have anything to say about it, nobody’s going to get to 14 months and still be stuck in the position they are. Okay. But the idea is that when a fight has already been won or when, you know, even if the fight hasn’t been one, you need to ask yourself what is the impact of this activity on me? Okay. So in other words, it takes a lot of observation and it means I will wake up in the morning. How do I feel? Let me check my vital signs. Oh, wait. You know what? Then I went on Facebook for four hours and I felt kind of, you know, brain foggy or irritated or stressed or this and that note to self, okay. This made me feel uncomfortable. Okay. And for a lot of people that are starting bootcamp, it means stopping everything that they’re doing to give the system a chance to settle down, let the soda or the seltzer or whatever you drink, settle down before you pour that next bit of fizz, or that’s going to overflow onto your table very much in the same way that if you keep turning and turning and turning and pressing the gas and pressing the gas and pressing against you’re going to flood your engine.
(00:24:36):
Right? So a lot of people, and a lot of people that I see right here have given me this information, they say, well, you know what? I was in bed for a month and I woke up and I felt really good. Oh, awesome. What’d you do? I went for two and a half mile walk. Right. And then he said, I learned that that was a problem. Right. Everybody has that one moment that overdo it, moment, that lesson of, you know, what I overdid it. And most people only need that lesson one time, because if it sets you back five days, well, that really wasn’t worth it. Okay. And what I noticed is similarly to multiple sclerosis, similarly to fibromyalgia, similar similarly to chronic fatigue syndrome, similarly to post polio syndrome, there are certain people, and I will tell you that with COVID, it’s the most extreme of anybody I’ve ever seen.
(00:25:32):
Okay. Some people could do a minute. They could do two minutes. They could do two and a half minutes. They could do three minutes. But if they do three minutes and 15 seconds, there’s something about that where we reach a critical tipping point and then it’s overflow. And once you have that overflow, well, then it’s like a lattice. Okay. And what I mean by that is imagine COVID to be an imagined inflammation, to be like this lattice, where inflammation over here can trigger inflammation in your other system. And we have to think about the sum total of inflammation. So if you have inflammation in your respiratory system, that’s going to contribute to your tipping point. That’s another budget. Okay. If you have inflammation in your cardiovascular system, that’s going to contribute. If you have inflammation in your GI system. And a lot of people I’m finding GERD is a big culprit.
(00:26:24):
Okay. Reflux is a big culprit because reflux can go back into your you know, into your GI system. A rather sorry, it could go back into your respiratory system. It could go into your airways. It could go into your lung parenchyma and it can really it can really increase inflammation in a lot of sense systems. It can even come back up into your nose and your sinuses. So if GERD and I see a lot of people here who I know are getting on GERD programs right now, and trust me, I want to hear from you because GERD is and also we have to be on the lookout for silent reflux, right? Because not everybody gets this chest discomfort or this heartburn or this belching or things like that. But you just know that when you wake up in the morning, for some reason, your throat hurts or your voice is hoarse, or you’re coughing up more mucus or things like that.
(00:27:13):
But my point right now is that inflammation is kind of like a sum total. And somehow I have this cup right here. And it’s like, if you look at each one of these, and this is, let’s say respiratory and cardiovascular neurologic, and each one can get it’s inflammation loaded in, but at the bottom, all the holes there’s, there’s holes in all of them, right? So it’s like the water rises forever for every system equally. So the key is how do we really tamp down inflammation in as many areas as possible. And when I talk about this kind of lattice work, okay, it’s almost like if this is a spiderweb and you have something that’s, you know, shaking the web over here, where you’re going to have some rough effects of that over here and the story. It’s a lot of information. I know I just told you, but it’s to prove one it’s to make one point.
(00:28:09):
And the point is we must conserve so that we can use our money for something positive. So we can use our energy so that we can use our time so that we can use our healing abilities so that we could use our emotional and physical and spiritual and everything else to move us forward in the right direction. Does that sound familiar to people? Show of hands? Yes or no. Okay, good. If it doesn’t raise your hand, Beth, can you get that woman off of this? Get her out of this. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. So anyways, so there’s that, so what does all this mean? Okay. What all this means is that when I see a patient for the first time I go through their history, very, very completely. And the first and foremost thing that I’m looking for is I want to make sure that there are no potential life threats.
(00:29:04):
Okay. And in order, okay. I’m thinking heart rain, respiratory. Okay. And the reason why it’s in that order is because, you know, some things are going to make you very, very, very uncomfortable, like dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system makes you very uncomfortable. That could even make you more, more uncomfortable than you are than when you’re having a heart attack or a stroke, but it’s not going to kill you. Okay. And the thing is, I want to make sure that before we do anything, we know where we are. Check the heart. Okay. I always want people to have their hearts checked. If there’s anything is even a little bit fishy. I want them to see a cardiologist. Okay. So show of hands, how many people have had an EKG?
(00:29:50):
Okay. Just about everybody. So an EKG is a great test. Okay. It’s a great test. It’s an important test. It’s going to tell you your heart rate and your heart rhythm right now. Okay. So how many people who’ve had an EK had an EKG raise your hand again. And if your EKG was normal, put your hand down. Okay. So everyone up Jerry Jones, last, he got a slow hand on the right. So you see that everybody had a normal EKG, right? And it’s like an EKG could be like a beautiful family photo. And then the photographer turns around and like, you know, you punch your sister or your sister punches you. An EKG is a moment in time, really six seconds in time. So for people that have racing heart rates for people that have slow heart rates, or for people that have heart rates that go from racing to slow, and it seems like there’s no rhyme or reason to them.
(00:30:45):
An EKG is not enough because unless your problem is happening at exactly that moment, then the EKG is not going to catch it. Right. It’s like a photograph, but video. Okay. And that’s why I encourage people to ask their doctors, if they could have at least a 24 hour halter monitor. And in many cases you need more than 24 hours to catch what’s going on. Right. Because a lot of people have a pattern to their, to their condition. And for some people it wakes them from sleep. Right. So unless you have something monitoring you, then we’re not going to catch it. Okay. So 24 hour halter is the next thing. Okay. And both of those tests are going to tell us about the electrical system of the heart. So the cardiac system is based on three major parts. So it’s electrical, mechanical and circulatory. Now an EKG can tell us a lot about electrical.
(00:31:37):
It could tell us some about mechanical and indirectly, some about circulatory. Okay. So that with those two tests takes care of the full electrical system. If you have an EKG, but you don’t have a 24 hour monitor, and you’re telling me that your heart rate goes up and down and up and down and up and down, and it wasn’t happened to be happening during that EKG. We still have a big mystery here. Okay. And that’s a mystery that we shouldn’t be moving forward for. You know, it’s like saying like, Hmm, did I put gas in the car? You know, it’s like, you don’t want to find out, you know, 20 miles into, into the trip that you only have 21 miles worth of gas. So that’s the cardiac aspect of it. Neurologic. Okay. How many people have had a MRI of the brain?
(00:32:23):
How many people had a cat scan of the head? Okay. Not some but not everybody. Okay. When it comes to the neurologic system, I told you about just my idea. It’s not gonna not gonna find it in any book like this, but there’s neuro classic and neuro classic is I would love to know for sure that you didn’t have a stroke or that you’re not having a stroke or that you’re not going to have a stroke. Now, if you did have a stroke, okay. That’s not as good as didn’t have a stroke, obviously, but I still want to know it. Okay. Because that is going to affect how we move forward with different things. So there’s that. Okay. We want to know that, you know, are you potentially at risk for a stroke? So in other words, are you clotting you know, to take it further, you could really look at the carotid arteries.
(00:33:09):
There’s other things you could do, but it’s not something that should be just left. I think that at least some cardiac workups should be done. Some neuro workups should be done in some respiratory. Let me just back up for one second. We talked about electrical activity with the heart mechanical activity of the heart mechanical activity of the heart is going to be recognized by echocardiogram. Okay. So when you’ve had electric, when you’ve had EKG 24 hour halter echocardiogram, we know a lot about the heart. The only thing we don’t know for sure is circulatory. And that has to do with coronary insufficiency, heart disease, atherosclerosis, but you can determine that indirectly by these other tests, but I’ll say this I’ve only seen, I haven’t seen any patients, not one patient. Who’s had a heart attack that didn’t have known heart disease prior to COVID.
(00:33:59):
So I do have one patient who did have a heart attack after COVID, but that person had severe heart disease, pre COVID and also had a heart attack pre COVID. Everybody else. I haven’t seen a heart attack cause I have caused by coven not to say it’s not out there. I’m saying my experience, what I’ve seen in the patients I’ve seen. And so the same thing with respiratory. Okay. So, well, well, let’s go to neurologic first. I haven’t seen anybody personally. Who’s had a stroke as a result of Kobe. I haven’t seen anybody. Who’s had a stroke at all. Okay. Of the 106 people. I haven’t seen one person who’s had a stroke pre COVID or post COVID. That’s just my experience doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’ve seen people. Who’ve had a lot of, a lot of clots. Okay. I’ve seen people. Who’ve had pulmonary emboli. I’ve seen people have DVT, deep vein thrombosis in the legs. Nobody has had a stroke. Good news. And then we go to the respiratory system. How many people have had a chest extra, right? Raise your hand. How many people’s chest X rays of the people raising, keep your hands up of the people who have had a chest X Ray, if your chest X Ray was clear put your hand down.
(00:35:12):
Okay. So bill and Mike, so and max the three Amigos in my left middle corner. Okay. So the ammonia, how many people had pneumonia? Okay. Two of three. Michael, can I unmute you for a moment? And what, what is your chest X Ray show? If you don’t mind sharing interstitial lung disease. Okay. Did you have interstitial lung disease before? I’m sorry. I didn’t.
(00:35:40):
And I just thought this was a good place to come today.
(00:35:44):
Okay. No problem. You didn’t have COVID but you have interstitial lung disease. Okay. So that’s an interesting point. Anyway, because for the people that are showing respiratory symptoms, they’re seeing things that are like interstitial lung disease. Okay. So there are people who had pneumonia. There are people who had, you know, different types of, you know, pneumonia than what you’d see in just community garden, variety, pneumonia. And there are people who’ve had, you know, indications of pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis is associated with some types of interstitial lung disease. Max did you have COVID? No. Okay. No problem. What did your chest X Ray show? Just out of curiosity
(00:36:26):
Nodules in the upper left and lower left alone.
(00:36:33):
Okay. So you’re going to follow up and go further with that. Right. I assume you’ve had a cat scan or you’re going to have a cat.
(00:36:39):
Oh, I’ve had several cat scans. But the problem was where the nodule was. It was too close to the, a order that they couldn’t, they couldn’t get a biopsy out.
(00:36:50):
Gotcha. Okay. All right. Got it. Thank you. And bill, bill, you had COVID so I did not know. I know yours. I know your history. How are you doing? I’m okay. But actually I’m not. Okay. I’ve emphysema and I been deteriorating quickly since I was last with you. Okay. Call me, send me an email. Let’s talk sometime soon. Yeah. Cause I’m wondering why, why I’m wondering about you. Let’s let’s talk sometime soon. Alright. So John Martino, where are you? Where are you? John. John, what did your chest X Ray show? Pneumonia. Left lungs. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. So those are the things that we’re seeing, but you see that the majority of people here have normal chest X rays, so say normal chest X Ray. Well, why am I short of breath? Right? you have to go further. Okay. So if you’re, if, and you know, it’s tricky because what’s happening with a lot of people is that they’re having their first tests, like their chest X Ray or their EKG are coming back normal.
(00:37:58):
And then it’s hard to get moving down the line, right? It’s hard to go further with testing and get more advanced testing, but it’s really important that if you’re very short of breath and even mildly short of breath, or even short of breath, it’s disproportionate to the level of activity that you’re doing. You should go further and ask your doctor, you know, what a cat scan be helpful here. Number one, because you want to know, do you have a pulmonary embolism or any other type of, of situation, but also why are you so short of breath? And then you know, that’s essentially the cardiac, the neurologic and the respiratory workup that I like for people to have. And in those three systems, we’ve basically eliminated life threats. Okay. Now there are people who are super uncomfortable. You’re having chest pain, you’re having shortness of breath.
(00:38:49):
You’re having this kind of brain fog, or you’re having these, what we call dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. That is the other neuro, right? It’s like, it’s like the other white meat. It’s the other neuro. Okay. And that neuro can make you very, very uncomfortable, but there are interventions that we can take to retrain the system. So when you have dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, the overarching thing that we’re seeing with people is we’re seeing vital signs, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation that are completely disproportionate to the level of activity. Sometimes it’s even sitting and doing nothing. Heart rate can go up and down, up and down, up and down heart rate can go up. You’re just sitting and doing nothing. Blood pressure goes up and down, up and down, up and down. You know, oxygen saturation can cycle up cycle down, but if you haven’t seen it yet last week, I did a demo on autonomic dysfunction to talk about the relationship between when your heart rate goes up and why your oxygen drops and why that’s based on position and things like that.
(00:39:54):
All right. That’s a lot of information right there. Okay. And I know you came to breathe today. So I want to start off by saying that when it seems like you are out of control and it’s very hard to feel like you’re in control these days, right. And that the loss of control and the loss of, you know, being able to make choices that are normally things you don’t have to think about is very anxiety provoking. And what we have to do at those moments is, again, we kind of have to hit the brace when you feel like things are out of control. When you feel like your mind is racing, when you feel like, you know, your heart is racing, when you feel like you’re getting hot and getting cold or getting chills, this is very often related to the autonomic nervous system. And there are things that we can do not just to be influenced by the autonomic nervous system, but also to influence the autonomic nervous system.
(00:40:52):
And that’s only after we’ve had our safety check, the single greatest thing you can do for yourself. And the single greatest way to affect the autonomic nervous system is through breathing and the breath. Okay. And the thing is it’s breath and self-talk. So if you are short of breath, very anxiety provoking anxiety will trigger the autonomic nervous system and make you more short of breath. If your heart is racing or you’re having chest pain, very anxiety provoking triggers the autonomic nervous system and can make your heart race more and make you, you can make your chest pain, worse, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So the first order of, and these are things that trust me, they’re not going to work the first time you try them. It may not work the first 20 times you try them. But little by little by little, I promise you if you start to, it’s actually not very a health professional light to promise things.
(00:41:50):
Okay. But I will say this. I have a strong feeling that if you start to do some of these things, you’re going to start to a feel better physically. And when you feel better physically, you’re going to feel better emotionally. When you feel better, physically and emotionally your mental thinking, your mental clarity will improve. And these things are all connected. Okay? And again, it’s like an electric fence. If we electrify one side of the fence where there’s this wave of inflammation and deep polarization that affects the whole body. And once that cutoff switches is triggered, then you, you have no choice. You got to just wait it out. Okay. So again, if you are at a point, I’m going to ask you, just think about where you are. Are you steadily improving? How many people are steadily improving?
(00:42:42):
Not too many. Okay. How many people are slowly improving? Okay. Slow and steady. Okay. How many people are really up and down, up and down, up and down. How many people are not improving at all? Okay. Mixed that. Okay. So let’s start with this when you I want everybody to be steadily improving and I would rather use slowly and steadily improve. Then up, down, up, down, up down, because up, down, up, down, up down is hard to track and it’s hard for us to get a handle on what works. It’s hard for us to get a handle on what doesn’t work. And that’s like, you know, we’ve been shipwrecked, right. And we’re totally lost. And, and we’re just at the mercy of the sea. I want to introduce you to a story that I love that’s really appropriate to this, which is that it’s called autobiography in five parts.
(00:43:40):
And what it is is day one, I’m walking down the street and I fall into a giant hole and I’m totally discombobulated. I’m totally lost. I have no idea how I got here and it takes me forever to get out the next day, I’m walking down the same street. I fall into the same hole. I’m shocked again, but I recognize the hole. I’m like, how did I get here again? And I get out more quickly than the day before the third day, I’m walking down the same street and I fall in the same hole. I’m not surprised I know how to get out. And I get out quickly, day four, I’m walking down the same street. And I walk around the hole and day five. I walked down a different street. And what that has to do with is learning. Okay. And it learned it.
(00:44:27):
It’s about being able to pick up on things. And my point in telling you that is not just you learning, but it’s your body learning itself again, it’s your autonomic nervous system being reacquainted with the rest of your body. Okay. And it’s like, if you go to marriage counseling, okay. It’s like, maybe not start off with a three week vacation to Europe. It’s like, maybe go out to dinner and see if you can do that without fighting. You know what I mean? So it’s like, what I hear from a lot of people is that they, you know, feel bad, feel bad, feel bad, feel bad. And then they feel a little bit better and they overdo it. Okay. Trust me. That is the way to continue to have setbacks. And that’s the way to just sort of overdo it. It’s like once the food is burned, the food is burned.
(00:45:16):
So if you keep it at a little bit lower temperature and you just keep checking it, keep checking it, you can take it out. But once it’s burned, it’s burned. And that’s a lot how the autonomic nervous system works. So it’s like, once you’ve gone over that tipping point, it’s, it’s like you, you know, and I hear from people I say, I felt, I felt great. So I decided to you know, so, okay. Yeah. I did five days of boot camp and I was really feeling good. And on the fifth day I decided to do something different. So what’d you do? So I went out for a walk. Okay. How long did you walk for about an hour? Say anywhere on bootcamp to walk for an hour? Yeah. After bootcamp? No, it didn’t. Okay. And the key to this is we must throw a pebble, let the pool ripple.
(00:46:03):
Okay. Wow. The impact of that pebble, but not just when you throw it, because we know that there are times where we can feel it bad or no, we can feel good. Feel good later in the day. But the next day they were shot. And the day after that was shot, the day after that was shot in the day after that was shot, the key is I want to know setback approach where we are taking a baby step forward. If we’re okay with that, the next day we take that same baby step. If we’re not okay with that. Yeah. We reset the system. Right. So imagine it’s like, this is boiling, boiling, boiling, and we don’t want it to overflow. So it’s like, Oh wait, it’s going to let me turn down the heat a little bit. Right. Only when it’s you turn up the heat and we’re still good.
(00:46:46):
Turn up the heat and we’re still good. Turn up the heat and we’re still good. Okay. Maybe we can turn it up a little bit more, but if you start to boil, okay, then we go back down. Okay. We go back down. Okay. Even it might mean we stop completely for a day or two, so, okay. And that’s how we got to do it. So boot camp was designed for people with cardio, vascular and pulmonary disease. Many of whom are older, many of whom have multiple medical conditions. Okay. And what we found, we thought, Hey, this is going to be perfect for, for long haulers are for, for people with Kobe. For many people, it was too much. Okay. Starting at four minutes of walking, which she say, well, how could that be too much? For many people, it was too much. So if four minutes is too much, then we do two minutes and two minutes, if two minutes is too much, then we do a minute and a minute and a minute and a minute.
(00:47:44):
But the key is we must find the point at which you are not irritated at which you are not inflamed. And that’s where we start. And for many people, it means cut back. Let’s go and step forward, little by little, by little by little, you’ve just been dropped in a very dark forest. Okay. And your body doesn’t know what’s going on. So you’re not going to just start running. Okay. You’re going to feel your way along. Make sure you don’t step on anything or trip over anything. And that’s the same way we have to do it with post COVID care. The breath is everything. Okay. And I want to just take a few minutes. I want to go to breathing. I am not going to talk during this. Okay. Because I’m going to, I’m going to go outside and I’m going to do it outside, but I want you to focus on trying to breathe in through your nose and out gently through your mouth.
(00:48:37):
Okay. I’m going to give you choices. You could breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Many people are used to breathing in through their nose and out through your nose. So if you’re doing yoga or things like that, that’s okay too. Obviously, if your nose is super stuff, you’re going to breathe in through your mouth and out through your mouth. Okay. But try different things. Okay. But don’t start with a, with a marathons, start with a walk halfway, you know, a half a block walk and same thing with breathing. I’m going to give you a starting point of breathing in for two. And I’m not going to tell you how long to blow out four. So when I start, you’re going to do it with me, but I’m not going to talk too much during it. So I’m not going to coach you with each breath, but we’re going to start.
(00:49:19):
And the first set is going to be in for two. And then when you blow out, blow out through what we call pursed lips. Okay. So you’re going to breathe in, in, and let it out in, in, let it out. And there might be a little pause in between the inhalation, the exhalation. And there might be a little pause between the exhalation and the inhalation. And the key is that I want you to feel out for yourself. How does it feel to breathe in for two? Does it feel like it’s not enough of a breath? Does it feel like you can’t even breathe in for two? And we’re going to talk about that after, but if breathing in for two is too much for, you can just see what you can try to breathe in for one and let it out, breathe in for one, let it out.
(00:50:10):
If it feels like you want to breathe in for three humor, me and just do two. We’re going to do three sets. We’re going to do two, three, and four, and we’re going to do about a minute of each and then we’re going to talk about it. Okay. Actually we’re not gonna talk about right afterwards. Okay. If anything feels uncomfortable, back it off. So in other words, if two is good and you go to three and three is uncomfortable, go back to two, or you could go in for, to let it out in for three, let it out and for, to let it out in for three. And what we’re trying to do now is we’re trying to find digestible bite size portions of breadth for your body. And we’re trying to reunite and improve the communication between the autonomic nervous system and the rest of the body.
(00:50:58):
After that, I’m going to start some movement with my hands. Okay. And it’s just going to be very gentle movement. Just feel it, just do what I do. If it’s too much, don’t do it. Okay. It’s perfectly fine to even watch the whole thing and not do anything at first, but just see what feels good to you. See what feels good. And I’m just going to show you a few different things. The movements are going to be very subtle and they’re going to also the very gentle and they’re going to be associated and coordinated with your breathing. Okay. Does anyone have any questions before we start?
(00:51:37):
Perfect. All right. Give me just one second and okay. So let’s begin right now. Okay. And the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to start put, just put your hands at your side and breathe and just take some nice breaths in through your nose or don’t even try anything yet for now. Just get the sense of what this is. So breathe your normal breath. Okay. Breathe. However you were breathing. It just sorta takes, thought. So take stuff. How does my head be? Does my head feel clear or does my head feel foggy? Does my head feel heavy or does it feel light? Does it feel like I want to drop it down or am I good and alert?
(00:52:39):
How does your neck feel? Does your neck feel tight? Oh, I can feel my neck cracking. You probably heard it when you look left and right. You feel any restrictions? Do you feel like it doesn’t want to go where you want it to go? You look up and down. How does it feel? How do your shoulders feel? Do they feel tight? How does your chest feel hunched over? How do your back muscles feel? How’s your breathing? Is it fast and shallow or is it slow and deep or is it somewhere in between? And now I want you to just close your eyes nice and
(00:53:26):
Easy. And let’s start by breathing in for a count of two. So, and then out gently, we begin for two and you keep going. And if you start to feel like you’re sort of zoning out or getting sleepy or going into a trance, don’t fight that. Let it go and go with it. Because that means that we’re starting to quiet the sympathetic nervous system and enhanced parasympathetics. So breathing in for two, he may feel your eyelids getting heavy. In which case, let them go, let them close. If any thoughts pop into your head, stressful anxiety, provoking negative, don’t focus on them, just sort of acknowledge them and let them go.
(00:55:17):
And if the positive thought or a pleasant thought or all warming dealing thought pops into your head, that you can, you can stay with. Because remember that the physical and the intellectual and the emotional are very closely connected and they all come from the same budget. So if we take from one, you take from all, and if we replenish one, we replenish all. And only if, and when, and only when you feel ready, you can start to breathe in for three. Again, we’re not going to time me out. Just make sure that it’s just nice and easy. So breathing in two, three, and if two was good, and you’re finding that three as top, or go back to two until you catch your breath again, and then you can always come back to three slightly and just be nice and relaxed, just periodically checking of your head and your neck and your shoulders. And basically everything should just be doing as much activity so that you don’t fall over.
(00:57:43):
If standing is making you uncomfortable in any way, higher dizzy, short of breath, have a seat. You continue. And as my yoga instructor, Stephanie Pope always says, as long as you’re giving 100% of your effort, you still get 100% of the benefit and we’re going to go to threes now. So you’re going to breathe in two, three, and let it out and in two, three, and let it out, Jen, and I know some of you are probably thinking that we just did threes and you’d be correct. And so if you’re ready for it, only if you’re ready for it, we can try to breathe in for four. So we’ll breathe in two, three, or, and, and if two and three were good and four is tough, just go ride back lower that temperature, lower that. So laying in she three, four in two for breathing in two, three, four, if and only if, and when you are ready, return to the room with peace and calm and open your eyes and return to the room. And then I would love to hear people’s experiences. If you had any, or if you just send out Beth or people locked up from unmute, can you,
(01:00:24):
They’re all able to unmute themselves and they can say hello.
(01:00:29):
Hey Deborah,
(01:00:30):
Hi, it’s morning here on the, on the West coast. So that was just lovely to start my morning to just centering breathing like that. Thank you very much. Very welcome. Yeah, no worries.
(01:00:50):
Yeah, don’t go ahead.
(01:00:53):
My breathing today is quite challenging though, and I’ve been doing breathing all morning, trying to expand it, my chest super tight, a lot of burning here and my throat and my chest. I did on the steroid inhaler that did that.
(01:01:16):
Hang on Dawn. I don’t mean to cut you off. I want to hear your experience with, so you’re having a tough day. So you’re having a tough day. And how did that impact you? Just there?
(01:01:27):
So the breathing is still it’s better. And I felt an expansion of my, my ribs and my chest was less tight, but it was still challenging. And as you said before, because I noticed when I’m short of breath, I do get anxious and I do the positive self-talk. So while we were doing that, it’s a little anxious, a little bit. Yeah.
(01:01:55):
Not abnormal, not abnormal. Okay. So the advice I would give to you is the advice that John Wood and basketball coach once gave to me, don’t let the things that you cannot do interfere with the things that you can do. And so if going to three or four or five makes you uncomfortable, and then you start thinking, Oh my God, I can’t go to three. I can’t go to the rec, you know what, stay into it and
(01:02:20):
Just go with it. And you know what, maybe instead of, you know, maybe you’re going to focus, not on the breathing part, but on the space in between. Right? So you’re going to, you’re going to do it, or you’re going to do a Dave Matthews once told me, which is the, state’s the space between, so you’re going to breathe in for two.
(01:02:44):
And then in that, in that time, in between focused on just letting go and when you’re ready, take that other two. I don’t want you getting out of your comfort zone. Okay. Keep that in mind. Okay. So if you’re only comfortable in three feet of water, you don’t go to three and a half feet until you’re comfortable because when you push, this is not the disease to push. Okay. We’re not going to overpower. COVID okay. We have to finesse Colgate. We have to finesse. Okay. And so Dawn, I get it. And you are you know, you’re, you’re like a lot of people. Okay. You’re like a lot of people, but I, if it feels like it’s getting to be a lot back off. Okay. And focus on. So in doing this breathing, so we’re going to hear different experiences, right? So we heard from Michelle, it was, you know, she felt great after it sorry, Deborah.
(01:03:41):
She felt great after it. She felt relaxed. Okay. Dawn, I know you do have times when you do feel better and you do feel more relaxed, right? So again, as long as you are giving a hundred percent of your effort, you only you will still get a hundred percent of the benefits. So you back off. And if today, your breathing only allows you to too, because let me tell you the harder you work to breathe, the harder it becomes to breathe. Right? And the more anxious you get, the more you’re going to do things that actually it’s like trying to resist the quicksand, right? So you need to say, okay, hold on, reset. Let me first stop sinking for a minute. And then I’ll figure out my next move. Right. But I have to first turn that flame down. And the reason why I stopped you, because I want everybody to focus on being present. Right. We could go off, we could go into a tangent about 26 other things. And it’s not that they’re not important. They are important, but stay grounded in this space. Anyone else? Yes.
(01:04:50):
I’ve been using and a book every morning and every evening. And I’ve been doing the breathing exercises that you’re talking about now, as I, as I finish one side of the Rebecca, so I told her on my right side, on my left side, then my right side, that’s setting up. It looks like you want me to do it up?
(01:05:18):
It doesn’t say on my side. Yes. And we’re not talking about a Robocop and I don’t mean to cut you off. Okay. we can talk about that later, but ladies and gentlemen, please understand. I want to hear your experience of that. Breathing exercise only stay focused in the space, Eva, Eva. We can hear you. Okay. Okay. So let me go to the chat. I try to do this at home on my own, but it’s easy to get distracted. Great point. Okay. Please understand that when we’re doing these things, I want, I want to talk about things that are applicable to everybody, right? Because we have to stay focused because once we get off, there is like, don’t kill my vibe. Don’t kill anyone. Else’s vibe. Okay. Just be cool for this. Now, listen, if you get distracted, that is not unusual. Right? She was like, Oh, I never meditated up.
(01:06:27):
Meditating makes me anxious, meditating, irritated. I used to be me. I try to meditate. I’d be like, damn meditation. Right. But you get better at it. It’s a skill. And so what I encourage you to do is if something’s not working for you at that moment, twist it 10 degrees twisted a little bit, go to two and then focus on breathing in and let’s say something comes up. Oh shit. Did I pay that water bill that has nothing to do with what we’re doing right now. Right? That’s not only going to increase your sympathetic activity. That’s going to prevent you from becoming parasympathetic. Right. So we’re trying to get into the zone. We’re trying to let go. Okay. And so if something drops, pops into your head, that’s normal. Okay. I learned to meditate underwater and it happened by accident. Okay. It happened because I would scuba dive and I would say, you know what?
(01:07:22):
Scuba diving is. The only thing I do, the old literal only thing I do where nothing else pops into my head while I’m doing it. And what I found was that there were certain times where I feel my eyes close or I’d feel my eyes getting heavy and I’d feel my body slowing down. And I decided to stop fighting it. And I said, go with it. And I would let myself just go and go. And sometimes I would just hit the ocean floor. And sometimes even someone would come over and shake me to see if I’m okay. And then any, eventually you will become able to elicit this, okay. Your body gets good at doing what you ask it to do. And if you’ve never asked yourself to meditate before, then this is a tough time to start, but you can do it. And that is why I say focus on the healing power of the breath. So somebody said it seemed to aggravate the COVID strangle. Okay. So here’s what I would say to that. Okay. Barriers. So you can unmute for a second. So if by you know, if it, again, if I’m breathing and I start off with a breathing exercise, very how was in for two, did that aggravate the Covitz triangle
(01:08:43):
When it started? It just sort of got aggravated as, as I went on. I maybe two’s okay.
(01:08:50):
So here’s what you have to do. Okay. So for anyone who says, this is aggravating, my strangle, or this is causing Bronco spasm or Bronco constriction, or making me tired, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, go to the point of least resistance. Okay. Which means if two is good. So be it, you have smooth muscle inside the airways. Okay. And that smooth muscle is designed to constrict. If you come in contact with something toxic so that it doesn’t get into your lungs and it’s designed to dilate when you need more air. Right. But if you’re struggling with the mechanics of breathing, that can cause that to constrict. And so if it constricts, well, guess what? Now you’re going to more trouble and you’re going to breathe harder and more and more and more and more and more so in the same way that if I was stretching my biceps, right.
(01:09:43):
And my biceps were, you know, I held my arm on one. Cause I’d have to start here and start here and start here and start here and little by little, work it up. So I don’t, except that you and it’s not, please understand what I’m saying, not minimizing. I will never minimize your symptoms. Okay. But, but Barry, if we accept that breathing increases the COVID strangle, then we have nowhere to go. Right. And I don’t mean fight the COVID strangle. I mean, you have to breathe. So, I mean, I don’t care if it’s just two seconds. Right. And you’re breathing in for two. Now there’s something else. Imagine if you said to me, you know what, even two seconds was too much for me. Right. Even two seconds breathing in, in, let it out in, in, let it out in, in, let it out in, in, let it up. Maybe that’s too much. Right. And maybe even that is enough to trigger your airway irritability and you know what you could do. You could breathe in, in blow, let it out. And then just rest
(01:11:02):
At a certain point. You’re gonna want to take the breath again. Your body’s going to ask you for that next breath. Right. So instead of us kind of sweeping it along and going, come on, take that next time. Come on, come on. Alright. Alright. Let’s go. No, that’s uncomfortable. Right? So if that’s uncomfortable for you, then you don’t even start the next breath until you feel like you want the breath. So you feel thirsty. You take the sip. Okay. And little by little. Okay. What you’re going to find is that you are going to relax your airways, your airways are going to relax. Okay. And once that happens, you’re going to probably find that you say, Hey, you know what? I actually feel like two is not enough. And I can go to three. So there’s a lot of different ways we can tinker with these things.
(01:11:46):
And so that’s why I say to you, the most important thing is observation. Observe what you’re doing, observe how it’s making you feel. And if it’s too much, we say, how can we turn the flame down a little bit so that we can think of that kind of as a pot boiling water and think of how can we get this, these bubbles to stop boiling so much and try that very, and then please, we’re going to, you’re gonna have an opportunity in a few minutes when we do something else, we’re gonna do one more thing after this. And then you just focus on the two and don’t start that next breath until you feel like you want to, your body’s going to tell you, it’s not going to let you just not breathe for six minutes. Okay. So just don’t even be on course. But when you do breathe, you’re going to breathe in for two and let it out.
(01:12:32):
Gently. doctors prescribed supplemental oxygen. Since my discharge, anyone in the same boat, I had a bad case of pneumonia and going, okay, I’m going to ask. That’s a great question, but we’re not going to talk about it. Right this second exercise relaxed me and started to get sleepy. Awesome. That’s what we want. I breathe like this naturally. Now I learned it in yoga with dr. Brown. When I was in bootcamp, it means I can now cope with dysautonomia. Thanks and tell them it is so important. You just did breathing exercises. Sometimes make me lightheaded. It did today to Susan. So again, if that’s making you lightheaded, okay. Then back it off. Okay. If three, where Susan raise your hand or mute. I’m on mute. Okay, Susan. So when did you start to get lightheaded? Do you know?
(01:13:29):
It’s, it’s usually at the end of an exhale. Okay.
(01:13:33):
At the end of every exhale. Okay.
(01:13:35):
Yeah. That’s usually when I start picking it up and then it just gets worse.
(01:13:39):
So in other words, if, if you were fine right now and I came to you and I said, take a breath in, and then I told you to exhale on the first exhale, you would get lightheaded
(01:13:53):
Right before I’m ready for the next inhale. It’s like that pause in between is when I get lightheaded.
(01:13:59):
Okay. So here’s what I’m going to say to you. Don’t blow out so much. Okay. what that’s telling me about you is that you want to blow out and you’re going blow, blow, blow,
(01:14:12):
Blow, blow, blow, blow,
(01:14:13):
Stop. Here’s the point where the next inhale, I’m starting to get lighted stop right here. So it’s like, you don’t have to drink the whole glass before you refill. Right? So don’t drink, don’t empty the glass completely before you start to refill. So let’s say you’re going to breathe in, let’s say you were breathing in for two and it took you five to blow out. So it would be like in, in,
(01:14:42):
So instead you’re going to breathe in, in and blow two, three, and just relax, breathe in, in, and my point in telling you all this ladies and gentlemen is not to give you 26 different instructions and not to give you a recipe and not to give you a rote list of things that you have to memorize. It’s to tell you that every single thing that’s going on can be tinkered with, if you understand the system. And I don’t expect you to understand the system, but we, we understand the system pre COVID. We’re starting to starting to understand the system post COVID. So if you are not sure, but you can experiment with different things on your own, but also if you’re not sure how to address it or how to, how to tinker with it, you know, we are available to meet with you. So, you know, send me an email, we’ll set up a consultation and we’ll figure things out, okay?
(01:15:42):
But there’s, this is the way, because what we’re doing, remember autonomic nervous system, this is everything else, right? So we could have a problem with what our autonomic nervous system is sending out. We could have a problem with what the rest of the body is receiving. We can have a problem with what the rest of the body is sending out. We can have a problem with what the autonomic nervous system is receiving. And what we have to do is we have to take little steps, right? We have to rebuild the trust between our autonomic nervous system and the rest of our body. Okay. And the way that you rebuild that trust is by taking one step and seeing that you’re okay. And taking another step and seeing that it’s okay. And it’s like training, it’s training, retraining, the autonomic nervous system. But it’s when people start to experience these little kind of glitches, as you say, then it’s like all is lost and they either get excited or they get anxious or they get stressed or they get upset.
(01:16:43):
And that is very disruptive to the system. So it’s, you know, again, you know, if, if you were to tell me, Hey you know, I get lightheaded. I would say, you know what, don’t worry. Talk to yourself, say, Hey, Susan, I know what to do here. I’m getting lightheaded. When I get to the end of exhalation or what can I do differently? I can, don’t go that far. Okay. Don’t go that far. If I get within six foot of the campfire, I burned my nose, go five and a half feet. Okay. Same thing with every one of these things, there are absolutely things we can do differently, but don’t overdo. Don’t push. When your body’s telling you that you need to change. We need a reset. I found the breathing very soothing and kind of a watch and listen to the hands of my ticking clock.
(01:17:32):
Awesome. As a dance teacher who was used to balancing with closed eyes, I was reminded that breathing with closed eyes supports internal check-in absolutely. I was feeling nauseous this morning, but the breathing quieted that I focused on a row of your trees and thought of nothing, and the breathing became easy. I noticed there was easier to breathe in and out through my mouth. Fine. No problem. I didn’t mean the trees were better looking than you. It’s okay. I don’t make my money. Cause I’m good-looking I find gentle chigong exercises. Make me breathe slow and deeper. Okay. So overall majority are good. Okay. Majority are good. And a few things which were good that they came up because at least we can tinker with them a little bit. Okay. It’s giving you some ideas. Now here’s one thing I want to point out to you that breathing, you didn’t need any equipment.
(01:18:17):
Didn’t cost you any money. It’s yours. You own it. And you, and you have a tool now that can help you feel better and you can use it whenever, whenever you want. Okay. So you don’t have to, you know, and think about it. Okay. Remember that you have that tool. And remember that that is something that is in your control. And again, don’t let the things that you cannot do interfere with the things that you can do. And I’ll give you another one. It doesn’t matter how slowly you’re going. You’re still lapping everybody on the couch. Okay. And I’ll give you one more. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. So don’t get the idea. You know, we’re now in August about to be in September incidentally. My birthday is the 15th. You have enough time to shop right now.
(01:19:09):
I’ll give you some hands, Louis Vuitton, coach Prada and other things. Other things are that, you know what? I know that I know this has not been easy for you. I know there’s been a lot of chaos associated with this. There’s been a lot of stress. There’s been a lot of anxiety and it’s compounded by a million because of it’s a global situation and it’s a heated situation. It’s a, it’s a situation that’s ripe with chaos and fire and heat and anxiety. And, and, and, you know it’s just not a comfortable situation. And it can be very easy for you to feel like no, one’s paying attention to you or that you’re out here on your own or that you’re lost or that you’re never going to get it back. I could tell you this, my gut feeling, and again, I have no proof of this.
(01:20:02):
Most of the things I speak about, I have no proof. I just have an instinct. But if you look at, you know, I, I’m not, I’m not a researcher, so I’m not going to become a researcher for this. We’re about, you know, we’re in the process of partnering with Mount Sinai. So someone can research, you know, with us. But you know, I, I’m generally lucky and things generally work. It’s very rare that I I’m totally off. How often should we strive to do this breathing every day? No. I see, so that’s a great question, John. And that that’s like John wants to schedule. John wants to, John wants a setup. He wants to know John, every 15 minutes. I want you to do two minutes of breathing. I want you to do 15 seconds at two breaths, and then I want you to do 30 seconds.
(01:20:49):
No, that is not, it. That’s the opposite of what we want. Ladies and gentlemen, that is sympathetic nervous system saying, Hey, it’s like good. Goofy is on angel, goofy and devil goofy. Okay. When you get to that point, good bootcamp does devil goofy. And his angel devil goofy his sympathetic nervous system. That’s the one that’s gonna be like, Hey honey, hurry up. Do it again. Do it again. No angel goofy is going to be a, Hey it’s okay. Listen to your body. Listen to yourself, listen to your mind, listen to your emotions, listen to your intellect. And don’t think so much, okay. Less to the intellect, more or listen to your heart and your mind and your, and your body and strive for once a day, strive for once a day, get up and do it in the morning. See how you feel. If you know it’s lunchtime and say, Hey, you know what?
(01:21:38):
I’m feeling a little anxious. Do it again. I’m not going to give you anything. That’s set in stone. Anything set in stone is going to be the opposite of what we want. And it’s going to be the opposite of relaxing, the sympathetic nervous system and increasing parasympathetic activity. All right, we’re going to stop tonight. 7:00 PM. It starts with, yes. So the 7:00 PM Sunday night it starts with yes. Group is myself. Dr. Lori dial, who’s a PhD psychotherapist and Erica Mastro bono, who is a master’s social worker. She has her a licensed social worker and this is going to be more support group. Okay. So it’s going to be more relaxation, support talk, think, feel coping with the physical and emotional manifestations of COVID. And keep in mind that at the beginning, we have to pay a lot of attention is going to get easier and it’s going to get better.
(01:22:37):
And my real gut feeling. And you know, when I have a gut feeling, I’m almost, I mean, you see how healthy those trees are, right? So my gut feeling, when I have a feeling about something that’s usually right, I don’t have any proof, but my gut feeling is that as inflammation starts to cool, if we can get out of our own ways, if we can cool the inflammation, if we can decrease that devil goofy, who’s popping adrenaline into our system and going, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, get rid of him and Hanse angel goofy and, you know, calm the system, bathe the system and oxygen Bay, the system and acetylcholine, which is the parasympathetic, you know, neurotransmitter. And I think we’re going to get better. Okay. I really do. And again, it’s not going to be next week and it’s not how many the week after.
(01:23:32):
Okay. It’s already been a long time, but we want to make sure that the long haulers don’t become the long, long haulers. Right. And the key to that is to quiet the system, all the things that we do that wind us up. Like, you know, like when you say, Oh, we had such a great evening until I said that. Right. And then that was a killer, right? It’s like, we want to teach you how to just, just stop before, you know, it’s like they say, as a comedian, it’s like, you should leave when the crowd is hot. Right. It’s like you leave. Don’t tell that one joke. That’s going to end it on a bad note. So same thing. Okay. Be kind to yourself. You have this opportunity. You have a tool now. And and that’s that. And I would be doing a disservice to the foundation. If I didn’t tell you that everything we do is free. Thanks to donations to the foundation. None of us get paid. It’s all volunteer. So if you feel that this is beneficial to you, please think of the pulmonary wellness foundation so that we can continue these types of programs for you. And I hope to see you tonight at 7:00 PM. Have a great Sunday. Everybody
(01:25:35):
Love you.