Christian Goodman

Author at Blue Heron Health News

Hi, I'm Christian Goodman.

I was born in Iceland in 1973 and trained as a therapist. Early in my career I learned something I've never been able to unlearn: most of what shows up in the body starts in the mind, the breath, and the tension we carry without realizing it.

I learned it on myself the hard way.

A few years into my practice, my own blood pressure climbed to 185/129. I was the alternative health expert who couldn't fix his own health. I was eating well. I was exercising. I was taking every supplement on the shelf. And I was terrified — not of dying exactly, but of leaving my wife and children without me. I felt like the carpenter who couldn't build his own house.

What finally pointed me toward an answer wasn't another supplement or another specialist. It was a quiet line of research out of Harvard Medical School — Dr. Herbert Benson's work on how a handful of simple mind/body exercises can reset the brain's blood pressure control center.

The first time I sat down and did them, something in my chest unclenched that I hadn't realized was clenched. I'd been bracing against my own body for years. I refined what I learned over the following months into a daily practice I could teach other people.

Snoring was the other one.

I snored my whole life. As a married man, my wife and I ended up in separate bedrooms — and the resentment that grew in that silence nearly ended our marriage. The breakthrough came one morning over breakfast. My wife — a classical singer turned voice teacher — was listening to me describe my latest dead end when she stopped and said, "That's what I teach my students every day." The very exercises she used to open up her singers' breathing passages were the ones I'd been searching for.

That's how most of my work has been born — in a kitchen, in a marriage, in a quiet moment with someone I love.

Today I've written 13 programs covering everything from blood pressure to vertigo to insomnia to migraines. At the heart of most of them is the same conviction that started me on this path: that the body, given simple tools and a little attention each day, has a remarkable capacity to restore its own balance.

If any of this sounds familiar — the frustration, the shame, the feeling that you've tried everything the normal way and are quietly running out of options — then I wrote these programs for you. I'll take you by the hand and walk you, gently, toward something that feels a little easier.

Warm regards,
Christian


Articles by Christian Goodman
When Snoring Is Life-Threatening (Without Sleep Apnea)

When Snoring Is Life-Threatening (Without Sleep Apnea)

Snoring is usually considered an innocent annoyance. It’s sleep apnea, a disease closely related to snoring, that’s considered more dangerous. But a new study in the journal Sleep reveals how snoring can be life-threatening on its own. Apparently, it causes an array...
This Lifestyle Cuts Dementia In Half

This Lifestyle Cuts Dementia In Half

Because of the advances in modern health sciences, people now reach higher ages than ever before. Unfortunately, our brain health doesn’t seem to keep up with the longer lifespan. And most people live several years, even decades, with a slowing down brain. But what if...
Is Vertigo Caused By Your Bones?

Is Vertigo Caused By Your Bones?

It sounds odd, but there is a real relationship between your bones and the sensation of spinning dizziness known as vertigo. Past research on the subject has been inconsistent however, so a team of researchers looked at previously published studies to try and nail...
The Best Foods to Fight Dementia

The Best Foods to Fight Dementia

Age-related dementia occurs when brain cells are damaged and can no longer perform their necessary functions. Most people experience this to some level as they age. But scientists have just published a study in the journal Neurology that identifies a handful of foods...
Worst Job for High Blood Pressure (Surprising)

Worst Job for High Blood Pressure (Surprising)

The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology recently published a study demonstrating how people with many of the most common jobs were at an increased risk of a heart attack. The results were especially scary for people who already had a pre-existing case of high...