The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-04-25
BREATHING HELPS OR LENDERS
 CIRCULATION

N1hOOAA AAON
 The bell rings at the most awk- ward moments. Lest time we chat ted about breathing and circulation and left you holding your breath. Didn't mean to keep you holding it all this while. For the novice, forty or forty-five seconds is a fair ish stretch to hold the breath; not a great deal the matter with you if you can hold 1t that long without preparation. With special knowledge and preparation, however, the initi- ated should be able to hold his breath for nearly if not quite two minutes.
 However, we didn't mean to tell you to hold your breath. The little lesson in physiology simply i'm pressed upon your mind the impor- tance of natural breathing, that is to say Belly Breathing, as an aid to the circulation and, to my way of thinking, as a prophylactic against pneumonia and tuberculosis.
 How come? Well, the diaphragm, chief breathing muscle, is stretched across the great body cavity dividing chest from abdomen, separating lungs and heart in the chest from liver, stomach and intestines in the abdomen. When the diaphragm contracts 1t squeezes down on liver, stomach and intestines and causes the belly to expand, inflate or bulge (belly is front wall of abdomen). This increased pressure in the ab- domen goes with decreased pressure in the chest, but were it not for the diaphragm air wouldn't enter the lungs.
 Then the diphragm relaxes, rests, and the elasticity of belly and chest causes resumption of the status ante quo. That's essentially the physiology of breathing.
 Where does the aid to circulation come in? With the increased pres sure in the abdomen and decreased pressure in the chest due to con- traction of diaphragm inspiration) considerable volume of blood is pressed or forced from the large veins there into the large veins of the chest and on into the right side of the heart. Once 1t has entered the right auricale of he heart it is prevented from backing up by valves. Thus with each NATURAL intake of air, inspiration, inhalation, done with the belly and not with the upper chest, the diaphragm functions as a booster pump to help the return flow of blood.
 With the decreased pressure in the chest due to contraction of the diaphragm (inspiration) this same return flow of blood through the great veins to the heart is favored by suction.
 Psychologists estimate that a pint of blood is ordinarily contained in these large veins in thorax and ab- domen, namely the superior and in- ferior venae cavae, innominate, lilac, hepatic and renal veins. Quite a quantity of blood for the booster pump to push and pull along. The suction effect acts also on the large veins in the neck, the internal and external jugulars, through which blood returns from the brain. But these veins are shut off from the venous cistern in thorax and abdo- men by valves which prevent back flow during expiration diaphragm at resD or forced expiration or blowing effort. Likewise the great veins of arms and legs are shut of by valves from the veins of chest and abdomen, so that backfiow in the intervals between infiations of the belly is prevented. Thus the ef- ficiency of the circulation depends in no small degree on the way you breathe.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Acid Food
 How can one differentiate be- tween an over alkaline and an over- acid condition of ones system? (M. Al
 Kindly tell me whether the fol- lowing foods are acid or alkaline in effect on the system: Lean meat. Lima beans, green peas, peanuts,