Breathe: First Breath to Last Breath, Make Each Breath Count

By Roger White, MD

Right now, are you breathing to the best of your ability?

This may sound like an odd question, but breathing actually involves a lot more than just taking a breath in and letting it out.

Each breath we take from birth until death sustains our fragile lives, yet most of the time we think very little about our breathing unless we have a problem. But breathing is always with us in everything we do.

Through fascinating stories, Dr. White, a cardiologist, writes about real people and their challenges with breathing. This inspiration book provides much insight on something we each do several times a minute for a lifetime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504973281

Roger White, MD

Dr. Roger White is a retired clinical cardiologist. He has been involved with emergency care, heart surgery, cardiac imaging, research, and teaching. He trained at the University of Chicago and has been on the staffs of Northwestern University Medical School and the University of Hawaii. He has published numerous scientific articles. He is a founding editor of the Asian Annals of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. He is also an editor for the Journal of Preventive Cardiology. He has been a frequent lecturer in North America, Asia, and Europe. His main interest is in preventive medical care. He resides in Honolulu, Hawaii. Additional books by Dr. White available through Author House and Amazon.com include SOAR: Achieving Your Best Possible Health through Awareness, Author House 2010 SOAR The Workbook, Author House 2010 Slimming With Daniel, More than a Diet, Author House 2014

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© 2016 Roger White. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  03/07/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7326-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7327-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7328-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016903208

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotes from Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV, Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.

All illustrations and photos done by Dr. Roger White

The self-help improvement program advocated in this book is not meant to be a substitute for recommendations by the reader’s physicians or health care providers.

Events and names of characters in the book have been changed to protect their privacy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Breathless Bicycling In Bavaria

1: Aloha—Sharing The Breath Of God

2: Resuscitation

3: Choosing To Breathe

4: Lungs Under Attack—Just Breathe

5: Second Chances

6: Choosing One’s Last Breath

7: The Future Of Breathing

Know that wisdom is sweet to your soul:

If you find it, there is a future of hope for you.

—Proverbs 24:14

In 1970, I was a medical student at the University of Chicago. I was just beginning to learn clinical medicine. One of my most inspirational teachers was Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. She began a memorable lecture with the words, Let’s talk about death.

I was still youthful and had little experience with the putrid smell of death. As an idealistic medical student, all I wanted was to cure diseases. Wasn’t the death of a patient a failure for a doctor?

She spoke with courage and insight about how care of dying patients was an important part of medical care. Her message was engaging. Her insights and interviews from dying patients became the subject of her famous book On Death and Dying.¹ Her teachings have helped innumerable people to better cope with death or the death of loved ones.

Her teachings have stayed with me for a lifetime. I am thankful to her for her bravery in tackling this difficult topic. She was a skilled, empathetic teacher.

Although now dead, her legacy grows stronger with time. Her ultimate message of dying with compassion brings wisdom and hope to many people.

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Morning dew on a wheat field in Germany. May 2015

INTRODUCTION: BREATHLESS BICYCLING IN BAVARIA

Right now, try to hold your breath for a minute. For most people, the first thirty seconds are usually not too difficult. By forty-five seconds, you usually begin to feel uncomfortable, and by a minute, most people are anxiously ready to breathe in a deep breath. Our automatic reflexes kick in. We take in a big gasp of air and feel the wonderful rush of oxygen getting into our bloodstream via our lungs. Every cell in our body says, Thank you for breathing again. Our love affair with oxygen is restored.

What if you were to hold your breath for five minutes? It would be impossible for most of us. You would pass out or die. Yet five minutes is such a short period of time compared to a lifetime. Just think of the thousands of times that you have waited just five minutes for someone or something. This reaffirms for me how precious and important breathing is to life and also how fragile it is. Breathing is also often greatly underappreciated. Mostly we are unaware of it unless we have a problem.

Thank God most of our life breathing is automatic and does not involve conscious thought; otherwise, we would probably not survive a single day. But we do actually have profound choices as to how we breathe. Everything we choose to do involves a specific type of breathing—exercising, working, studying, meditating, sleeping, expressing ourselves, and even loving each other. Each type of breathing contributes to good health and helps us achieve our purpose in life. We also choose the physical and social environments within which we take our breaths. We choose with whom we breathe. We also choose what the legacy of our breathing will be. We do this either with or without awareness.

So I questioned myself:

Am I breathing right to achieve my greatest potential in life?

This odd question came to me while I was breathless bicycling up a long mountain in the Bavarian Alps this past year. I was bicycling alone across Germany. The hill in front of me was a real challenge to traverse. It was springtime when the air is clear and full of scents from blooming trees and flowers. I love this time of renewal after the stark winter. The air feels full of hope and optimism. Taking deep breaths of the fresh, clean air heightened my appreciation for life. I wanted my life to go on forever.

I have been blessed with reasonably good health most of my sixty-seven years on this earth. I took my first breath on November 3, 1948, and with God’s help, I will not take my last breath for many years to come. I am realistic enough to know that death will come eventually and that I must make the most of each day now.

While I was cycling up the Bavarian Alps, I curiously thought about how many breaths I have taken over my lifetime. I calculated my average breaths per minute and multiplied that by the number of minutes that I have lived. I came up with a number over five million breaths and still counting! You would think that after all those breaths I would have perfected my breathing.

In fact, like that of most people, my physical breathing was already perfected at birth. It has adapted quite well with my age and experience. My breathing has seen me through good times and difficult times. Breathing is the first thing and the last thing that I do with anything that I experience in life. My physical breathing has always been perfect, and when stressed by overexertion or illness, it quickly corrects to sustain my physical life. I thought reflectively and refined my previous question:

How can I actually improve my breathing?

This may sound a bit vague, arrogant, or ridiculous. Like most people, I have not really looked at breathing this way or attempted to consciously improve it. It is quite easy to improve the physical aspects of breathing with a regular exercise program; however, how does one go deeper to improve the more overlooked spiritual aspects of breathing?

This word spiritual is often overused, particularly when we really do not know what we are taking about but want it to sound profound. But now after sixty-seven years while bicycling up this long mountain, I was focused on this somewhat unusual thought. I thought getting the answer to this question was like the goal of getting to the top of the mountain in front of me. But:

How does one improve spiritual breathing?

As a cardiologist, I have spent my career trying to improve people’s physical breathing. I have extensively studied the cardiorespiratory system. I have evaluated thousands of patients with all types of breathing problems over my career. I have given innumerable medications to help people breathe better. I have used mechanical ventilators to control people’s breathing during surgery and during critical illness. I have performed hundreds of cardiopulmonary resuscitations to try to restore life. I have even been involved in a few memorable heart and lung transplants. All these experiences have taught me more about breathing than I ever learned in medical school. Now in retirement cycling up the Alps, I pondered on what these patients and experiences have taught me. Perhaps some of these experiences have given me more than just medical experience. Perhaps they have also taught me something about the deeper aspects of soulful breathing. Perhaps,

I just need to reflect and see what is directly in front of my eyes to find the answers to my questions.

In my breathlessness riding up the hill, I thought about how I currently breathe. I physically breathe differently in different situations. I love the heavy breathing associated with aerobic exercising. It strengthens my lung capacity, helps my circulation, and—most importantly—clears my head. When I exercise, I truly feel alive. The heavy breathing with exercise calms my mind. The deep breathing with sleep is so restorative and peaceful. When I am really tired, I occasionally hear myself snore. I also breathe nervously and shallowly when I am anxious, which unfortunately is too often. I have to tell myself in these situations to take in deep breaths to override my anxiety. If I am suddenly frightened, I take in a sudden short breath and hold it for a second. Maybe this is telling me to stop and focus? When I am very happy, my breathing is totally relaxed and in harmony with my whole body. When I am in love, I am in synchrony with my partner’s breathing. That is wonderful.

In addition to breathing crisp mountain air, I have also breathed deep below the ocean with the aid of a scuba tank. I love the science of regulating the volume of air in my lungs and how it influences my buoyancy and movement in the water. The interaction between air, pressure, and different gases in my bloodstream while diving is fascinating.

I am also blessed to live in Hawaii, where we have both beautiful mountains and a clear, wonderful ocean; however, Hawaii does not have a monopoly on natural beauty. Physical beauty really is everywhere. I can see the perfection in small plants anytime or anywhere.

While bicycling, I often stop to take pictures of little plants and weeds by the roadside and capture how they reflect light. I coordinate this with taking in deep, relaxed breaths. I particularly enjoy taking pictures of the morning dew on fields of wheat before the sun makes it disappear. I also feel awed whenever I look up at the stars. Yet how many days and breaths go by when I let myself be too busy to look at either of these things? I know it is too