Richard Friedel and breathing exercises for asthma, part 1.

Okay, so. First of all: I’m irritated from some minor but vexing personal issues going on in RL at the moment, and therefore my Inner Bitch is out in force. Expect snark. You have been warned.

Second: I freely admit that I hold a very dim view of so-called complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM wonks didn’t do anything for my grandmother except lighten her wallet as her blood pressure and diabetes spiralled out of control ten years ago, eventually landing her in the hospital. CAM does nothing for Mom’s osteoarthritis (though its practitioners are only too eager to subtract zeroes from her bank account). CAM antivaxers made a childhood friend of mine’s parents forgo his vaccines, and he caught pertussis, nearly died, and suffers permanent lung damage to this day. I have many reasons to dislike CAM and none to like it. To say I hold an unfavorable opinion of it would be like saying that the sun is a light source. Strictly speaking, it’s true, but not necessarily accurate in the scope of the issue. I despise CAM. I’ve seen it do absolutely no good for anyone, but a great deal of harm to people I care about greatly. And I’m not alone in this.

So, with that in mind:

There’s this guy going around on lung forums and blogs calling himself Richard Friedel. He claims that asthma is caused by improper breathing, and that by learning the breathing style of the “Asiatic martial arts” and taking homeopathy, asthma can be treated effectively. He’s even posted on mine on two different posts but he appears to have given up on me once he realized that I wasn’t buying his woo du jour.

At first, I figured he was harmless but rather misguided and attempted to set him right by providing various links to reputable sources about asthma. When he came out with a few tactics that I recognize from creationists on Youtube and alt-med types on some of the medical and skeptic blogs I read (including Respectful Insolence, which is right up my interesting-science-mixed-with-ascerbic-sarcasm-alley. *plug plug* For the record: I have no affiliation with Science Blogs or with Orac, the author of Respectful Insolence. I’m just a huge fan and their science and skeptic content is top-notch), I realized that I was dealing with an alt-meder. I did a quick google search, and found that he posts essentially the same comment, cut-and-paste, in many other places (you can find them if you’re curious by Google searching “Richard Friedel asthma” – I refuse to link to them and increase their Google standing).

So, for the record, I’ll address and debunk his comments and rebuttals (with additions I didn’t have time to look up then) to the best of my ability (keep in mind, peeps, that I’m not a medical professional and you should double-check any of this with a doctor).¹

His stuff is in red italics. My comments in black, normal text.

A relevant but strangely ignored or not generally known fact

Ahh, the ol’ Pharma Conspiracy gambit. If people don’t know about this it’s because they’re covering it up. If there’s no coverup, it’s because they’re too close-minded. And if they’re not close-minded, it’s because it’s too cutting-edge for plebes like the experts in the field.

about asthma is that the change between weak (asthmatic) and strong (healthy) breathing is dependent on abdominal muscle tension.

What? No. Asthma is caused by airway constriction. Your abs have nothing to do with it!

Slackening the muscles here causes abysmally weak and asthmatic breathing.

Asthmatic breathing in true asthma is caused by a combination of three things: airway inflammation (swelling), spasm of the muscles surrounding the airways (bronchospasm) and excess phlegm production. Not, I repeat, the abs.

Training the muscles, for example by “abdominal hollowing” (see Web articles) produces an antiasthmatic effect.

Despite my request, “see Web articles” was the closest he got to citing a source for this statement. In fact, numerous studies have been done on breathing excercises, and no solid evidence has been shown either way, and the studies that have been done on methods such as the Buteyko Breathing Technique have flaws that need to be addressed (specifically, the fact that none of the previous studies have used any sort of objective measure for measuring improvement, such as breathing tests) before a firm decision can be made on the idea. Further compounding the matter is that most of the breathing techniques are not standardized in their application.

Abdominal muscle tension plays a prominent part in Asiatic martial arts.

Yes, but I fail to see how this is relevent.

I tend to breathe asthmatically after an evening meal. Breathing powerfully into my lower abdomen with tensed muscles provides an effective cure for me.

This is called a “testimonial.” It’s by far the least reliable form of evidence for anything, because a number of factors can put it into error: recall bias, confirmation bias, placebo effect, and just plain making stuff up.

But then I’ve always been sceptical about medical wisdom on asthma.

Translation: I believe in my alt-med ideas and no evidence to the contrary will sway me!

And, finally, I’d just like to warn everyone that this guy’s going around, and if you see him, please, please, please be sure to debunk his stuff as well as you know how, or at least refer people on the site in question to actually reliable sites – stuff like this can really hurt people, by causing noncompliance with medication and associated poor asthma control (heck my cousin nearly fell victim to this type of thing – tried homeopathy and chiropractic only to control her asthma and allergies for a while and ended up hospitalized for two weeks for her troubles thanks to status asthmaticus… Here’s the scary thing: she’s a mild persistent asthmatic. If it can happen to her, it can happen to any asthmatic, and I don’t want it to happen to even one person because of this guy or anyone like him).

¹See my disclaimer. I am not, and have never been a medical professional. Discuss any concerns about your treatment regimen with a qualified medical professional, not some freak on the ‘net.