Rehabilitation -- Back to Normal

Abstract:
The goal of rehabilitation for patients is to return them to their "normal" state. Many patients breathe abnormally every day due to various reasons. Shortness of breath is a very common symptom for many people. Why do they breathe that way? How can we correct them? What is the normal way of breathing? How can I treat the symptom of shortness of breath without any extra treatment? I am a Falun Dafa practitioner, and that's how I know the "secret." I want everyone to keep the mouth open as wide as possible for one minute, and then think about some patients who do that for months or years. Is it comfortable or normal to you?

According to of Stedman's 26^th edition Medical Dictionary, rehabilitation is "restoration, following disease, illness, or injury, of the ability to function in a normal or near normal manner." Breathing is: "Inhalation and exhalation of air or gaseous mixtures."

I work as a physical therapist assistant in a hospital in Houston. I have studied Falun Dafa for more than six years, since 1995. During the past four years, I have helped many patients to get back to normal ways of breathing.

Late in November of 1998, I saw a female patient who just had a total hip replacement and had other medical problems including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), heart problems, and others. She came as an inpatient for rehabilitation. At that time she had a 4 liter pack of oxygen going through her nose, and her mouth was wide open so that she could manage to try to get air in. I looked at the picture and thought that something was missing. I knew she had had breathing treatments and all the other medicines that she needed, but she still could not breathe normally. Actually, I had seen this type of situation before, but I was never able to think what I could do to help. At that moment, my memory went back to 1980 when I had had seen other patients in a similar condition. At that time I was a medical student in China undergoing an internal medicine rotation in a hospital there. Those patients were begging me to help them with their breathing problem. They even volunteered to be experimental subjects in order to help others later on, if that was the case. There was nothing I could do as a medical student, because the expert physicians were not able to solve these problems. I was still a student trying to get through courses.
Late in 1998, I was working as a physical therapist assistant in the U.S. while I went to school for my PTA degree. I kept encountering these types of patients again and again, but there was nothing I could do. These patients had been treated with modern western medicine and high technology for years. In 1995, I was introduced to the study of Falun Dafa and I have been practicing since then. My health always improved. I read Master Li's book, Zhuan Falun, and practiced the five sets of exercises. I know many people whose health conditions have improved after genuinely practicing Falun Dafa.I remembered how Master Li instructed us to do the exercises including closing the mouth and breathing evenly in and out through the nose, "Relax the entire body but not too loose. Stand naturally with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend the knees slightly. Keep the knees and hips relaxed. Pull your chin in slightly. The tip of the tongue touches the upper palate. Leave a little space between the teeth. Close the lips and gently shut the eyes. Maintain a serene expression on the face. During the practice you will have the feeling that you are very big and tall." That is the way to breathe normally, and finally I realized it.
Immediately, I told the patient to close her mouth and breathe evenly. My patient told me that with her severe shortness of breath, she was unable to close her mouth. She said that she couldn't have enough air even with her mouth wide open. I looked at her and told her, 'Yes, you can'. I instructed her to start by closing her mouth from 1 second to 2 seconds and to hold the mouth closed. She started it, and finally after one hour she was even able to lie flat. Her body temperature warmed up. She did not take extra pills during the time. I learned something from that patient's case. I realized that we can breathe normally by applying the Falun Dafa exercise. Without Master Li's Falun Dafa, I would not have been able to find and know what it is the normal way of breathing, even though I breathe normally every day.
From that time on, I tell every patient who cannot breathe normally to correct the abnormal breathing pattern. These patients include COPD, asthma, and heart problem patients, even those with other complications. In the beginning, they all told me that I was crazy by telling them to close their mouth. They had been not able to close their mouth for years and years. At the end, they were able to breathe normally themselves and even helped other friends or relatives. Most of them were able to cut the oxygen off or use smaller amounts of oxygen. These patients were not Falun Dafa practitioners.
Breathe normally!
I have been using the same instruction to help patients who had stroke and helped them to be able to eat and to speak. Usually after a stroke, some patients are unable to eat or speak. They have difficulty in keeping the mouth closed, especially when they swallow food or drink water. I advised these patients to close their mouths and I encouraged them to practice the normal way of breathing. Slowly but surely, the patients were finally making progress. One must keep in mind that the mouth is part of the head and closer to the brain. The mouth is easier than any other part of the body to control with one's normal brain. If someone wants to eat, drink, and speak, no one else can eat, drink and speak for them. This kind of jobs one has to do it. Just like Master Li said in Zhuan Falun, "When it is difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it is impossible to do, you can do it." I keep telling my patients about how it will help them to close their mouth. They would be able to breathe normally and be able to eat, speak, and drink water.
I remember a female patient who told me that she had had COPD and heart problems for 12 years. She had changed physicians eight times trying to find a way to improve her shortness of breath, but nothing worked. She said no one taught her how to breathe normally. I explained to her that I had studied and knew what she said was true from western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. She asked me, 'Why don't you do something about it, so many of us can get better?'
Breathing normally is a normal function of the body for everyone. Lots of patients have lost their ability to breathe normally, and are not able to get it back because people do not know how to correct it. I went to medical school, but I did not learn and did not know how to breathe normally or how to tell people. I was not able to teach patients how to correct the problem, as so many others did not and still do not. What the school still teaches is to inahle through the nose, and exhale through mouth. This method helps patients to control the shortness of breath a little bit, but it does not solve the problem from the root. So SOB (shortness of breath) keeps recurring. The poor little heart is still loaded because the air comes out from the mouth so much quicker than from the nose without much going down to the lungs. We all know that the lung is for oxygen exchange. Just like when someone turns on the air-conditioner on a summer day, but keeps the doors open, and then tries to make the room cooler. Then it is impossible for the room to get cooler. Is this making sense? I usually tell patients by an example "Someone wants to go to Washington, D.C., but he drives to Mexico from Houston. He can get to D.C., but it will take a long time." Hard lesson, we all learned somehow. Once patients resume to a normal breathing pattern, the heart beat goes down and no more SOB and dry mouth. Then patients come to me and say: 'It is working and both of us feel much better.' What a relief! I can see the happy face again. They all remember what they said in the beginning " I cannot do it", and "now I can do it." Back to normal! Everyone can breathe normally when you know how to do it and want to do it. Normal is everywhere no matter who says it is "right" or "wrong".
What is the goal of rehabilitation? The goal of rehabilitation is to get back to normal. How to get back to normal is always a challenge. Since I study Falun Dafa, I know more about it. Without Falun Dafa, I would still be the same as many others, telling patients to breathe in through the nose and breathe out through the mouth. Getting back to normal is not easy, but one can do it by studying Falun Dafa. You can look at www.falundafa.org to find the right way. Here I just gave the example of the benefits of learning Falun Dafa. Dafa can help people in many ways. "Return to one's original, true self."