The Buteyko Breathing Method is a powerful
counterintuitive approach for reversing many
health problems associated with improper
breathing, such as asthma, hypertension,
anxiety, and sleep apnea
Hyperventilation or overbreathing is defined
as “breathing in excess of metabolic
requirements of the body at that time”
The repercussions of chronic overbreathing
include cardiovascular, neurological,
respiratory, muscular, gastrointestinal, and
psychological effects
By Dr. Mercola
Two years ago, I interviewed Patrick McKeown about the
benefits of the Buteyko Breathing Method — a powerful approach
for reversing many health problems associated with improper
breathing.
Two of the most common problems are overbreathing
(hyperventilating) and
mouth breathing, both of which have adverse health
ramifications, and can have particularly harmful consequences if
done during exercise.
Because I believe so much in this work, I wrote the foreword
to Patrick's book, and he allowed me to show you his DVD that he
normally sells as part of his instructional DVD package.
Yes, There's a 'Right' and a 'Wrong' Way to Breathe...
While it may seem you certainly know how to breathe,
considering you'd be dead if you stopped for more than a few
minutes, most of us actually breathe in such a way as to put our
health in jeopardy.1,2,3
In fact, the whole field of breathing and breath-work has
enormous potential for improvement, as most prevailing ideas
about breathing promoted in yoga, Pilates, and meditative
methods tend to focus on taking big, deep breaths —
which is actually the opposite of what you should do.
The featured video is part of Patrick's online training
course for Buteyko practitioners, which examines dysfunctional
breathing patterns associated with asthma, rhinitis, and sleep
disorders such as sleep apnea, and details the scientific
rationale for improving your breathing habits.
His
DVD set goes into other areas of health that may be affected
by improper breathing, and from my point of view, learning to
breathe properly is a really core facet of health, so this
course may pay dividends in any number of ways.
For example, in this lecture you will learn that excessive
breathing decreases hydrogen ion concentration in your blood,
and in the last few years, a number of studies have emerged
showing the value and importance of hydrogen ions in biological
health.
This is really some of the most amazing new health
information I have encountered in some time, and it offers
robust scientific support for what Patrick is teaching. I will
review these very exciting studies on hydrogen in future
articles that relate to many of its exciting health
implications.
Chronic Hyperventilation Syndrome
Chronic hyperventilation syndrome was initially documented
during the American Civil War, at which time it was termed
"irritable heart." The term "hyperventilation syndrome" was
coined in 1937 by Dr. Kerr and colleagues.
The following year, another group of researchers discovered
you could reproduce the symptoms of this syndrome simply by
taking 20 or 30 big breaths through your mouth within a span of
one or two minutes.
As noted by Patrick, once the habit of overbreathing is set
in place, it tends to become and remain chronic, and to recover
you typically need to use some sort of relearning technique,
such as the one devised by Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko
(described at the end of the article).
In 1957, Dr. Buteyko came up with the term "disease of deep
breathing," having researched the health effects of excessive
breathing for over a decade.
While still in medical training, one of his assignments
included monitoring patients' breathing volume. And he noticed
something of interest. The sicker the patient got, the heavier
they breathed.
Later, he also discovered he could lower his blood pressure
simply by bringing his breathing toward normal, and in this way
successfully "cured" his own hypertension.
Traits and Effects of Hyperventilation Syndrome
So what exactly is hyperventilation, or "overbreathing?"
According to Patrick, hyperventilation is defined as "breathing
in excess of metabolic requirements of the body at that time."
Traits of dysfunctional breathing include:
Mouth breathing
Upper chest breathing, with lots of visible movement
with each breath
Frequent sighing
Noticeable or audible breathing during rest
Taking large breaths prior to talking
Erratic breathing
Regular sniffing
Yawning with big breaths
Chronic rhinitis (nasal congestion and runny nose)
The repercussions of chronic overbreathing include
cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, muscular,
gastrointestinal, and psychological effects, such as:
Heart palpitations
Missed heart beats
Tachycardia
Sharp or atypical chest pain
Angina
Cold hands and feet
Raynaud's
Headache
Capillary vasoconstriction
Dizziness
Feeling faint
Paresthesias (numbness, tingling, and pins and needles)
Shortness of breath, or chest tightness
Irritable cough
Muscle cramps, pain, and stiffness
Anxiety, panic, and phobias
Allergies
Difficulty swallowing; globus (lump in the throat)
What Is Normal Breathing, and What Causes Dysfunctional
Breathing?
Normal breathing volume is approximately four to six liters
of air per minute during rest, equating to 10 to 12 breaths per
minute. But rather than focusing on the number of breaths,
Patrick teaches to breathe softly and calmly and has the saying
"breathe light to breathe right."
Meanwhile, breathing volume for people with asthma tends to
be around 13 to 15 liters per minute, and those with sleep apnea
breathe on average 10 to 15 liters per minute.
In short, asthmatics and those with sleep apnea breathe far
too much — upwards of three times more than normal — and this
dysfunctional breathing pattern is part of their disease
profile.
So what causes this dysfunctional breathing in the first place?
According to Patrick, most dysfunctional breathing patterns are
rooted in the modern lifestyle. Factors include:
Of these,
stress plays an enormous role, if only for the fact that
most of us experience a great deal of it these days.
Unfortunately, conventional advice to "breathe deep" to release
tension only worsens the situation. According to Patrick, one of
the most effective ways to address stress is to slow down
your breathing.
Stress makes you breathe faster and promotes sighing, so to
counteract or release stress, you need to do the opposite —
breathe slower, softer, and make your breathing more regular.
Ideally, your breathing should be so light, soft, and gentle
"that the fine hairs within the nostrils remain motionless."
Importantly, make sure to breathe through your nose, not your
mouth. According to the late Dr. Maurice Cottle, who founded the
American Rhinologic Society in 1954, your nose performs at least
30 functions, all of which are important supplements to the
roles played by the lungs, heart, and other organs.8
Part of the benefits of nose breathing is related to the fact
that there is nitric oxide in your nose, and when you breathe
gently and slowly through your nose, you carry a small amount of
this beneficial gas into your lungs.
Nitric oxide not only helps maintain homeostasis, or balance,
within your body, it's also helps to open your airways
(bronchodilation), open your blood vessels (vasodilation), and
has antibacterial properties that helps neutralize germs and
bacteria.
Nose breathing also helps normalize your breathing volume. This
is important because when you chronically overbreathe, the
heavier breathing volume that's coming into your lungs can cause
a disturbance of blood gasses, including the loss of carbon
dioxide (CO2).
How Your Body Regulates Breathing
As noted in the featured lecture, your breath is primarily
regulated by brain receptors that monitor the concentration of
carbon dioxide and pH level (and to a lesser extent the level of
oxygen) in your blood.
Typically, we believe the reason we feel the need to breathe
is because our body needs oxygen, but the stimulus to breathe is
actually to get rid of excess carbon dioxide. However, carbon
dioxide is not just a waste gas. It performs a number of
important functions in your body. Your body does need a certain
amount of carbon dioxide at all times, and one of the side
effects of overbreathing is removing too much carbon dioxide.
As carbon dioxide levels lower, so too does hydrogen ion
leading to an excess of bicarbonate ions and a deficiency in
hydrogen ions, which shifts the pH of your blood toward
alkaline.
Now, if your breathing exceeds what your body requires over a
period of time, even as short as 24 hours, your body becomes
conditioned to increase its breathing volume. This is one of the
ways stress ends up having a chronic impact on your biology.
Moreover, if you're chronically overbreathing, it doesn't
take much to push your body over the proverbial edge — even a
minor emotional stressor can now provoke symptoms, be it a panic
attack or heart-related problem, as overbreathing produces
constriction of your arteries, thereby reducing blood flow to
both brain and heart (as well as the rest of your body).
But the issue that triggered the attack was not the stressor
itself, the main issue was the fact that you're chronically
breathing too much. One traditional remedy for a panic attack
was to breathe four or five breaths into a paper bag to increase
carbon dioxide levels, allowing better blood flow to your brain.
A more permanent solution is to address the way you breathe
every day.
Hyperventilating Reduces Oxygen Delivery
Overbreathing not only reduces carbon dioxide, it also
reduces the delivery of oxygen to the tissues and organs in your
body — essentially the opposite of what people normally think
happens when you breathe heavily. This is part and parcel why
hyperventilating through your mouth during exercise is ill
advised. In a nutshell, hyperventilation can cause severe
constriction of your carotid arteries, and can reduce the amount
of available oxygen to your brain by half.
This is why you may feel light headed when breathing too
hard, and this may be one of the mechanisms that can lead to the
sudden death of even very fit marathon runners — typically from
cardiac arrest. So, during your workout, be sure to breathe
through your nose the entire time.
If you start sucking air through your mouth, back off on the
intensity so that you can go back to breathing through your
nose. In time, you'll be able to exercise at greater intensity
and still breathe through your nose, which is a sign that your
fitness is improving. Breathing through your nose at all times
is also a primary step that will help restore a more normal
breathing volume.
The Buteyko Breathing Method
Dr. Buteyko discovered that the level of carbon dioxide in
your lungs correlates to your ability to hold your breath after
normal exhalation. The Buteyko Method includes a simple
self-test for estimating your carbon dioxide levels. You can use
a stopwatch or simply count the number of seconds to yourself.
Here is the process:
Sit straight without crossing your legs and breathe
comfortably and steadily.
Take a small, silent breath in and out through your
nose. After exhaling, pinch your nose to keep air from
entering.
Start your stopwatch and hold your breath until you feel
the first definite desire to breathe.
When you feel the first urge to breathe, resume
breathing and note the time. The urge to breathe may come in
the form of involuntary movements of your breathing muscles,
or your tummy may jerk or your throat may contract. This is
not a breath holding competition — what you're measuring is
how long you can comfortably and naturally hold
your breath.
Your inhalation should be calm and controlled, through
your nose. If you feel like you must take a big breath, then
you held your breath too long.
The time you just measured is called the "control pause" or
CP, and it reflects the tolerance of your body to carbon
dioxide. Short control pause times correlate with low tolerance
to CO2 and chronically depleted CO2 levels. Here are the
criteria for evaluating your control pause (CP):
CP 40 to 60 seconds: Indicates a
normal, healthy breathing pattern, and excellent physical
endurance
CP 20 to 40 seconds: Indicates mild
breathing impairment, moderate tolerance to physical
exercise, and potential for health problems in the future
(most folks fall into this category)
CP 10 to 20 seconds: Indicates
significant breathing impairment and poor tolerance to
physical exercise; nasal breath training and lifestyle
modifications are recommended (potential areas are poor
diet, overweight, excess stress, excess alcohol, etc.)
CP under 10 seconds: Serious breathing
impairment, very poor exercise tolerance, and chronic health
problems; Dr. Buteyko recommends consulting a Buteyko
practitioner for assistance
In summary, the shorter your CP, the more easily you'll get
breathless during physical exercise. If your CP is less than 20
seconds, NEVER have your mouth open during exercise, as your
breathing is too unstable. This is particularly important if you
have asthma. The good news is that you will feel better and
improve your exercise endurance with each five-second increase
in your CP, which you can accomplish by incorporating the
following Buteyko breathing exercise.
How to Improve Your Control Pause (CP)
The first step to increase your CP is to learn how to unblock
your nose with the following breath hold exercise. While this
exercise is a perfectly safe exercise for the vast majority of
people, if you have any cardiac problems, high blood pressure,
are pregnant, have type 1
diabetes, panic attacks, or any serious health concern, then
please do not hold your breath beyond the first urges to
breathe. Repeat the following exercise several times in
succession, waiting about 30 to 60 seconds in between rounds.
And do the exercise on a regular basis.
Sit up straight.
Take a small breath in through your nose, and a small
breath out.
Pinch your nose with your fingers and hold your breath.
Keep your mouth closed.
Gently nod your head or sway your body until you feel
that you cannot hold your breath any longer. (Hold your nose
until you feel a strong desire to breathe.)
When you need to breathe in, let go of your nose, and
breathe gently through it, in and out, with your mouth
closed.
Calm your breathing as soon as possible.
Breathing Correctly Is a Simple and Free Way to Boost Your
Health and Fitness
The Buteyko Breathing Method is a powerful and inexpensive
tool that can help improve your health, longevity, quality of
life, and athletic performance. I strongly recommend integrating
it into your lifestyle, and when you're ready, into your
exercise. Just remember to progress slowly with exercise and
gradually decrease the time that you need to rely on mouth
breathing.
To learn more, I highly recommend Patrick's excellent book,
The Oxygen Advantage, as well as his
DVD set. The book contains both detailed and simplified
descriptions of each Buteyko breathing exercise, along with
quick reference guides, case studies, and scientific details to
help you understand and apply the Oxygen Advantage program to
improve your health and fitness. You can also find more
information on his website,
OxygenAdvantage.com.