HOUSTON – Laura Winslow is actively trying to heal a mystery health condition.
“These breathing episodes will happen at random times for no apparent reason and it feels like someone is pushing on my diaphragm and I can’t breathe,” Winslow explained.
She said since childhood she often feels out of breath and she’s never found a real diagnosis. Recently, her ENT doctor recommended trying Breathefit.
The fitness center teaches people to breathe. It may sound unusual since everyone breathes, but cofounder Mel Arenas said many people are doing it wrong or need help strengthening their lungs with breathing exercises.
“We have to go back to the basics but that’s hard because we do things for decades incorrectly, so a lot of times what we do is we kind of re-teach the habit,” Arenas said.
He said patients have come to Breathefit with asthma, COPD, congestive heart failure, diabetes, cancer and now COVID, asking to improve their lung function.
“The neat thing was, with all those comorbidities, we were able to help,” Arenas said.
The facility combines breathing techniques with running and weightlifting to exercise the lungs back to health. For Winslow, who has struggled with shortness of breath for many years, she said her training at Breathefit is helping.
“I wish I had this when I was younger! It would’ve been nice,” Winslow said.
Even though she said she still has times where she’s short of breath, she’s learned to navigate through them in order to maintain an active lifestyle.
The cost for sessions can range but Arenas said it’s about $80 per visit. Typically, he said, it doesn’t take many sessions to gain the strength needed to improve lung function.