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Sharine Borslien's avatar

Thanks for sharing this important information, Gary.

I would like to add that another excellent way to increase awareness of the diaphragm is to practice proper singing technique. I practice and teach the Seth Riggs method, which is a speech-based singing practice.

I studied with six different Seth Riggs associates in the 1990s, and learned unique aspects of the practice from each of them.

The key takeaway is that the lungs are inert tissue: The diaphragm — along with the connecting muscle around the mid-section — is the power structure that pulls and pushes air into out of the lungs for breathing and singing.

Then it becomes important to refrain from using the shoulder and neck muscles to try forcing the vocal folds together to make sound: The rapidly moving air itself is what properly vibrates the vocal folds.

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

Brilliant. I will look into Seth Riggs. Singing has a myriad of benefits, including vagus nerve stimulation!

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Rob (c137)'s avatar

I've had great success with releasing fascia following the twisting exercises here.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wzef2nA9anw

There's other routines and it helps to adapt it to how you feel.

The left side of the clavicle area also houses the lymph channel that handles more than half of the upper lymph flow.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lT_wW5pNHa4

Qi gong also helps a lot and gives some exercise to help flow of these fluids which they called qi. There's good tapping exercises that also help move the fluid, but my favorite is the twisting and tapping exercises.

https://youtube.com/@holdenqigong

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Ed Harrold's avatar

Good article, solid info Gary. If I could offer that mouth breathing freezes the diaphragm muscle, it can't pump vertically up and down. Nasal breathing moves the diaphragm optimally which balances the body-mind connection thru our various nervous systems.

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

Yes! Changing from default mouth breathing for as far back as I can remember, to nasal breathing, was also a big impactor on symptoms for me https://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/articles/red-nose

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Michael Kirsch, MD's avatar

Hi Heidi,

I've spent the last 30 years as a gastroenterologist based in Cleveland, and for the past 16 years I've written a blog sharing insights into the medical profession. I just started a Substack to share my thoughts and advice. My latest post is about chronic abdominal pain. I'm hoping it may prove relevant to you, and that you'll considering following along.

https://mkirsch.substack.com/p/whats-the-cause-of-chronic-abdominal

Thanks!

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Heather Hausenblas, PhD's avatar

This is really interesting. Thank you for sharing.

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Heather Doney, MPP's avatar

I had thoracic endometriosis on the pleura of my right lung and diaphragm and it caused cyclical phrenic nerve pain that I started describing as being like a right-sided heart attack. Discovering the involvement of the phrenic nerve and the diaphragm was a very painful mystery to me for many years, but noticing it was cyclical ended up being what helped me figure it out. Having it be taken seriously was another layer. I had a VATs surgery to remove it a little over a year ago and then PT after and the pain is thankfully gone. I suspect in women with endometriosis that this presentation of disease is way underdiagnosed.

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

Sorry to hear of your issues, but thanks for this additional conecting of some of the dots...

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jennifer dibley's avatar

I’m wondering about a fib

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jennifer dibley's avatar

Well the nerves thatb you mention might be reason for atrial fibrillation

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

Oh, I see. Lots of connections. I wonder how much a frozen diaphragm relates to this too... if you look at the animation, the diaphragm massages the heart and the other organs as it moves up and down... I wonder if this helps regulate the heart too?

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

what does this refer to?

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jennifer dibley's avatar

This is fantastic

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Gary Sharpe's avatar

Thamkyou!

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