Roger Price – Do You Really Have Asthma?

We spoke to Roger Price, a functional medicine and integrative health educator, about the importance of breathing and asthma. He explained that it is not what we eat and drink that determines the pH of our body. It is the way we breathe. When the brain detects a shift in pH that may cause bodily harm it shifts our breathing pattern.

We breathe for survival. If you don’t take your next breath, it’s all over. The survival instinct to breathe is so strong that the body will do whatever it takes should something get in the way of the next breath. This is why you may find yourself holding your breath, sighing or not breathing at all. It is a mechanism to reset the chemical balance in the body, particularly the pH.

When carbon dioxide levels in the blood drop, the pH level moves into the alkaline range. Your body will do whatever it takes to prevent a further drop. When you can’t produce enough carbon dioxide, you become breathless, you may struggle to catch your breath, or your chest might feel tight; your bronchioles constrict in an effort to retain as much carbon dioxide as possible.

Bronchoconstriction is the body’s defence mechanism against overbreathing. It is often mistaken for asthma because the symptoms are very similar. It is estimated that at least 30% of asthma cases are misdiagnosed.

Practical advice from Roger Price

• The survival instinct to breathe is so strong that the body will do whatever it takes should something get in the way of the next breath. This is why you may find yourself holding your breath, sighing or not breathing at all. It is a mechanism to reset the chemical balance in the body, particularly the pH.
• It is not what we eat and drink that determines the pH of our body. It is the way we breathe. When the brain detects a shift in pH that may cause bodily harm it shifts our breathing pattern.
• The definition of asthma in Australia is: A common lung disorder in which inflammation causes the bronchi to swell and narrow the airways, creating breathing difficulties that may range from mild to life-threatening.
• “The lungs become inflamed because people breathe through their mouths and they bypass the six stages of filtration that are designed to come into effect using the nose before the air gets into the delicate linings of the lungs.”

The six stages of filtration in the nasal passages:

1. The hairs in the nose trap particles floating in the air.
2. The mucus in the nose contains an enzyme called lysozyme that kills viruses and bacteria that get trapped in it.
3. The turbinates are shell-shaped structures that bring the air to body temperature and add some moisture to it when it swirls over them.
4. The sinus cavities produce one and a half litres of fluid per day. The inhaled air is humidified when it passes through the sinuses. The release of nitric oxide, a powerful antimicrobial and vasodilator, is triggered when the air flows over the sinuses. It dilates blood vessels in the body, including in the bronchioles and alveoli to enhance the exchange of gases.
5. The triple-filtered, warmed, humidified air that has picked up some nitric oxide then passes over the adenoids, the second finest filters in the body.
6. Finally the air passes over the tonsils which a microfine filters.

In Roger’s experience 90% of people who have been diagnosed with asthma have been misdiagnosed. Asthma is real and it can be fatal, but Roger says that the very diagnosis of asthma is what’s causing the misdiagnosis. The tests used to determine whether or not someone has asthma cause the bronchioles to constrict.

You can learn more from Roger Price’s website.