Azaran on 9/3/2021 at 20:51
(
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-long-covid/618076/) Science finally catches up to the benefits of rhythmic breathing.
Quote:
The Stasis program is deceptively simple and strikingly low-tech: It involves inhaling and exhaling through your nose in prescribed counts in the morning and at night. The protocol was developed by Josh Duntz, a Navy Special Operations veteran, and his co-founder, Dan Valdo. During a decade in the Navy—he left in December 2019—Duntz had become obsessed with physical and mental performance under stress. “It was quite literally the difference between life and death,” he told me. Trying breathwork himself after a workout partner introduced him to it, Duntz noticed immediate improvement in his endurance runs: He could run for longer with a lower heart rate, and without getting tired. He dug into the emerging science of breathing and became a convert.
By luck, Duntz knew Putrino; the two had been working together on a project prior to the pandemic. In the spring, he heard about the persistent breathing problems of COVID long-haulers. One night in April, he woke up with an idea and scribbled “breathwork” in his bedside notebook. “So I reached out to David to say, ‘I think this could work and here's why.' ” A piece had clicked into place for Duntz: Similar symptoms (fatigue, shortness of breath, racing heart) occur in people who have low carbon-dioxide levels in their blood—a condition known as hypocapnia, which can be triggered by hyperventilation, or shallow, rapid breathing through the mouth. Duntz wondered if perhaps these long-COVID patients, so many of whom suffered from dizziness and tachycardia, were also breathing shallowly, because of either lung inflammation even in mild cases or viral damage to the vagus nerve. The theory seemed plausible to Putrino: Oxygen is key to our health, but carbon dioxide plays an equally crucial role, by balancing the blood's pH level. Mount Sinai was able to launch a breathwork pilot program swiftly because of “how desperate people were—the hospital was so overwhelmed,” Duntz said. The program also didn't have to pass FDA clearance.
After a week, everyone in the pilot program reported improvement in symptoms like shortness of breath and fatigue. (No double-blind randomized controlled trial has yet been conducted, so it is not possible to know what percentage of the improvement was due to the placebo effect.) The patients' responses were “game-changing,” Putrino told me.
faetal on 12/3/2021 at 12:26
Which country?
Starker on 12/3/2021 at 15:27
Estonia.
Btw, here's the brief history of me ranting about it:
Quote Posted by Starker
Unfortunately, in Europe, we botched the response badly. We knew about the first cases in January (which means the virus was here already weeks before, and retesting old samples from December has confirmed this), but many governments continued downplaying the severity of the threat and allowing mass gatherings. It wasn't until mid March, when we were already the hotspot for the virus, that lockdowns were put in place.
Quote Posted by Starker
Yeah, it's scary how careless people are being right now. I don't go out much, a couple times per week, tops, but I haven't seen many masks even now that the rate of infections is picking up the pace.
Quote Posted by Starker
I guess I'm holding up pretty well, all things considered (introversion FTW!), but it's quite disheartening when I go out in the public and I'm the only person wearing a mask, even though cases are on the rise.
Quote Posted by Starker
I've been seeing more people wear masks. Instead of very rarely seeing a person with one, now I see maybe 2-3 people wearing them in crowded spaces. Meanwhile, there's a record amount of new cases: (
https://koroonakaart.ee/en)
Quote Posted by Starker
Went out today and where I'd usually see 1-2 people in a group of 20 with a mask, today it was more like 80%, maybe even higher. Perhaps the huge increase in cases scared people straight or maybe it was the fact that masks will become mandatory in public indoor spaces next week.
Quote Posted by Starker
I'm angry at my government more than anything. Already in March they made mistakes and failed to take preventative measures, even though there was plenty of forewarning based on what was happening in Italy. Now there is no excuse, though. And it's not much better across the EU either. It's as if March never happened:
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/7CTFpNG.png
Anarchic Fox on 13/3/2021 at 05:04
That's terrible, Starker. Is Estonia at least making a big vaccination commitment?
zombe on 13/3/2021 at 06:29
Stats page: (
https://koroonakaart.ee/en)
Currently at 9.187% vaccinated, where 41.52% of thous have completed. At this rate it will take years.
Political will do to anything about the flareup, that geared up roughly a month ago, seems to be completely gone. Every move is coming as late as possible and fairly ineffectual - even the currently predicted transmission rate stays well above 1. We still do the "do something half-assed that, while helpful, wont work - wait till it cannot be denied that it did not work - THEN repeat" routine.
Current record peak of daily cases, when adjusted to US pop for comparison, is ~500K. A shit-ton more than US ever had. Deaths have not yet catched up. Our case fatality rate is, somewhy, still low compared to our neighbors - which is interesting. But we are getting there. It seems to be rising - i guess it is getting too out of hand for people in risk to stay out of it.
zombe on 13/3/2021 at 06:57
I will add an anecdote - of sorts:
So, i have people at my brothers side who work in hospital (not in "hard hit" areas, whatever that means at this point). While making time tables for the coming weeks - a funny thing happened. After posting availability and getting thous filled by predicted need - they realized that the resulting timetable is not humanly possible. Oops. Cannot do timetables based on need.
Starker on 13/3/2021 at 12:42
Well, to be fair, the current ruling party did at one point promise to take us to the top 5 of Europe.
Anarchic Fox on 13/3/2021 at 13:10
It feels uncanny for the US to be better than a European nation at anything involving public welfare. Good luck.
Starker on 13/3/2021 at 14:06
Oh, the US is still much worse off, but that's cold comfort. We are doing bad on an European level. Which is still worse than Asia.
USA has something like 20% of the total amount of deaths while having 5% of the world's population.
That said, though, the Czech (and a couple of other places) don't seem to do so great either. From what I heard, they have an antivax movement so big and influential, the Czech devs of Euro Truck Simulator had to put out a statement that they are neither for nor against vaccines when they put vaccine shipments in their game.