All About Asthma: Stop Suffering And Start Living

Of all the body's unconscious functions--those that occur whether we think about them or not--breathing is the one we're most aware of, the one we feel we have the most control over. That's why asthma, which makes breathing increasingly difficult by trapping air in the lungs, is one of the most terrifying diseases. And it's increasingly deadly, claiming more than 5,000 lives a year. Irwin Polk believes that the rise in deaths comes, in part, from an overuse of drugs to manage the disease and an underuse of breathing exercises to help release trapped air. All About Asthma lives up to its title: it explains how air gets trapped in lungs, why it happens (allergies, environmental pollutants, exercise, stress), and all the strategies known to alleviate it, including breathing exercises.