Gasp!: Airway Health - The Hidden Path To Wellness
The Airway Centric® Model prevents Airway-Centered Disorders, Sleep-Disordered Breathing to maintain mental and physical health. Learn how to recognize and correct Airway-Centered Disorders, Sleep-Disordered Breathing. Gasp is about our airway, breathing and sleep. Problems can start at birth. Many premature babies are mouth breathers. A poorly structured and functioning airway leads to mouth breathing, snoring and sleep apnea; it can interfere with restorative sleep and ultimately damage the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive function skills, attentiveness, anxiety and depression. Learn how to restore an ideal airway with early intervention, and where to go for help. Learn how once the airway is established with breastfeeding, allergy treatment, and other methods, neurocognitive and neurobehavioral problems are greatly improved—often without any medication. Anxiety and depression are alleviated, and the behavior and performance of children are remarkably transformed. Today there is a health movement toward “Wellness.” Wellness is about diet and nutrition, exercise, and mental attitude. The new paradigm is called “Functional Medicine.” It addresses the causes of chronic disease with an individualized approach and emphasizes early intervention. It restores the balance amongst functional systems and the networks that connect them. The missing link is airway, breathing, and sleep. If we don’t breathe well when we sleep, 1/3 of our life is affected. Gasp describes the impact of a narrowed airway from cradle to grave. Every day, we encounter fatigued patients with chronic headaches and neck pain. They have difficulty concentrating; they suffer with GI problems from acid reflux to irritable bowel syndrome. They range from thin women to men who have put on a few pounds. And you do not have to be obese to have an airway problem. Many of our younger patients with ADHD and airway issues have little body fat. Time after time we see that once the airway is opened during the day and maintained during sleep, the transformation is quick and dramatic. Breathing is life.