Asthma

The West Australian:

"“We believe Western lifestyles are contributing — what we’re eating and the air we breathe inside our homes which have a lot of man-made chemicals in their building materials,” she said."

This is a massive study of 500,000 children in 56 countries. Jamie Oliver on his school dinners programme discovered children became healthier and breathed more easily if they ate proper, nutritious food. The parents reported that as an obvious difference. My own experience is visitors to SA always complain how hard it is to breathe here and how they suddenly get allergies. SA is notorious for hayfever. I also find I breathe far more easily when I am away than I do when I am here. I am not usually surrounded by gum trees and where I go, I am not eating supermarket food and the water is much, much better. You don't have the daily stresses and strains either. I think other places are less TV and radio reliant. The news is passed around by talking so there is a human buffer zone. I am certain that contributes to how well you breathe. SA is quite good at avoiding fright fests but we are a state of silent worriers. Takes a while but when you talk to people they have all sorts of things to worry about which don't affect others in other places. So yes, I can see that basic lack of personal safety as being one thing that creates breathing difficulties. Panicking is not conducive to relaxed breathing.