Video Summaries

Breathing Techniques

Over the years, I have treated many patients as an acupuncturist, and I have come to see that self-care is also necessary. Therefore, I learned to integrate various self-care techniques such as posture adjustment, breathing, and organizing one’s mind. Some time after the pandemic began, I started to learn of the hardships of those suffering from long COVID and later “long post-COVID vaccination syndrome”(LPCVS) from Dr. Koichi Hirata. He is a prominent doctor who was the first to start outpatient care that specializes in long COVID and LPCVS in Japan in 2020. Since then, he has examined over 6,000 long COVID and approx. 400 LPCVS patients.  I offered my assistance to him in the hope that my knowledge of self-care would be utilized for long COVID and LPCVS patients, and we developed a respiratory rehabilitation program. We filmed and uploaded the videos of the respiratory rehab demonstration on Youtube. The methods are actually recommended for long COVID and LPCVS patients at Hirahata Clinic. Differing from conventional rehab, ours accommodates different severity levels and can be done lying down.
Even patients who find difficulty in conventional breathing exercises can do our rehab. We examined the efficacy of the online respiratory rehab with a researcher from a prestigious academic institution. Our studies suggested the possibility to improve long COVID symptoms, the results of which were discussed at a recent academic conference. In the rehab demonstration videos below, a Symptom Severity Indicator, called “PS”, will appear.

※PS（performance status) is a “chronic fatigue syndrome” diagnostic criteria. The larger the number, the more severe the symptom.

【Reference】Diagnostic Criteria by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (sourced from AMED HP)

【Reference】An Explanation of PS Included in the Diagnostic Criteria for ME/CFS in Japan by Hirahata Clinic

PS2~3 are recommended for those who suffer from general symptoms (chronic fatigue, stiff shoulder, insomnia, etc…) excluding long COVID and long post-COVID vaccination syndrome.

They are only in Japanese, but we would like to create English subtitled videos in the future. For those who do not speak Japanese, it is still beneficial to watch them to get a feel for what our respiratory rehab is like.

PS0〜1

PS2〜3

PS4〜5

PS6〜7

PS8〜9