Hello fellow sufferers!
I've been dealing with my PATM for about 4 years now, and up to now I haven't really found any relief, apart from following an extremely harsh diet, only based on steamed vegatables.
So, I've been away on a roadtrip the last two weeks, and I was listening to a ton of podcasts. One of those was "The Art of Manliness" (yes, a cheesy name, but a really good podcast), and in one episode, the host was interviewing a breathing expert called Belisa Vranich. She told that 9 out of 10 people breathes the wrong way, and not breathing right could cause numerous problems including wrong stomach pH, anxiety and make it hard/impossible to cure different stomach problems.
Summarized, she argues that we're supposed to breathe only with the lower part of our stomach, and to breathe "horizontally". Instead, most of us are breathing with our chests, and our chests often goes up and down - which she refers to as "vertical breathing". Also, she suggests that the part of the breathing when our bodies do the work should be when we exhale and relaxed when we slowly fills the belly with air. What most of us are doing is the opposite - having the body to work when we inhale and relax during the exhale.
Having nothing better to do, I started following her advise while driving and it felt weird, almost awkward, as it's a completely unfamilar routine, and those abdominal breathing muscles aren't in super shape either.
I did this for a few hours in the cars, constantly having to remind myself to change the breathing pattern. The next morning, I woke up with almost clear sinuses which normally are completely blocked during the mornings, and the usual PATM reactions were much lowered, hard to put a number on it but only perhaps 10-20% of what it normally is.
So I'm going to continue try to do change my breathing, I've just bought her book "Breathe" on Amazon where she offers a step-by-step guide to change it. I can't give a review of it yet, but at least I feel better, both physically and mentally as lesser reactions for me equal much less stress.
If you feel this is worth a try, google The Art of Manliness and Breathe and you'll find the episode where she explains how it works. Belisa Vranich, the breathing expert, is a clinical psychologist and I thought the explanation she offered was reasonable and well anchored in applied medical science.
I'll give an update later on how it goes, and if the book offers some good tricks.
Good luck to all of you!