I am speech pathologist doing myofuntional therapy in a private practice. I began doing it on myself to try to help with my own oral rest posture. I realized that my tongue posture was low and forward possibly due to crowding/narrow palate. In 2018, my anxiety and panic attacks had increased so much that I was afraid to cross bridges, I was waking up nightly in a panic, and my blood pressure was very high. I saw a Dr. specializing in hormones and she said my cortisol was chronically high and I need hormone therapy (shots) to balance those out. I did more research and decided to try to lower my cortisol naturally through breathing/meditation. I read books by Patrick McKeown and Lea Lagos and put into practice their recommendations for slow breathing and meditation for health. I started seeing a difference within about 6 months. My anxiety is greatly reduced, not waking up with panic, sleeping better, and most importantly my blood pressure is back to a normal level. I still snore lightly and believe I have upper airway resistance issues based on other symptoms related to mouth breathing at night. Because of time and lack of an airway centric ENT in my area, I have not gotten treatment for any possible physical/nasal component that may be contributing to my airway resistance at night. I hope to do so in the future.
