What I found next was nothing like the pills, diets or supplements I had tried before.
It was a simple breathing exercise, not the kind you may already know, but something different that I will explain in a moment.
It trains the muscles around your lungs almost like lifting small weights, only for your breathing.
Here is why it works.
When we get older our blood vessels become stiffer and our lungs weaker.
That means the heart has to pump harder and harder to push blood through.
Vessels stiffen because our life slows down.
When we were younger, we walked more, exercised more, and were more active every day.
During activity, your lungs pushed oxygen into your vessels with every deep breath, and that oxygen made them expand and stay flexible.
Think of a garden hose.
If you block one end and then blow into the other end, the hose expands.
Oxygen works the same way on your blood vessels.
This is one of the main reasons blood pressure rises with age.
But by making your lungs stronger, you pull in more oxygen with every breath.
More oxygen relaxes and opens up your blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure naturally.
At the same time, your heart does not have to work as hard.
It can pump blood more efficiently, and that means less strain, better circulation and more energy.
I started with just a few minutes a day.
At first it felt unusual, but very quickly I noticed changes I could not ignore.
My migraine headaches disappeared.
I began falling asleep faster and staying asleep through the night.
For the first time in years I woke up without feeling groggy or tired.
My breathing improved so much that I could walk up the stairs without stopping halfway to catch my breath.
The daily dizziness and feeling of panic slowly faded away.
Even my posture felt better because I was breathing deeper instead of shallow little breaths.
As I mentioned before, this is not a typical breathing exercise.
It is resistance breathing, and once you understand how it works, it makes perfect sense.
What is this device and why it works so well