The Heimlich Maneuver

I had the honor of talking to Dr. Heimlich himself when he was on a local radio talk show. Everyone knows that the famous, and easily done, maneuver is the way to dislodge food from a person that is choking. But, did you know that the same procedure works for reducing an asthma attack? The maneuver opens up the airways. So, it dislodges food or pushes out the mucous that blocks the airways into the lungs during an asthma attack. And, as he told me when I asked about the use during an asthma attack -- if the mucous is blocking the air from getting into the lung, it is also blocking the medication from the asthma inhalers. He was saying that there is currently research going on to find out if an asthma sufferer performs the maneuver as prevention daily, it could reduce the frequency of asthma attacks. How cool is that? All the info is available at the following website: http://www.heimlichinstitute.org/howtodo.html.
Best of all, the Heimlich can be easily done by any one of any size. Interestingly enough, you can also do the maneuver on yourself or by using the back of a chair if need be.