Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything you need to know about taking control of your asthma. Patrick McKeown

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СКАЧАТЬ and not quite so easy to lose. Changing a habit of a lifetime can initially cause disruption to a daily routine and focus attention on the change that is to be made.

      While in extreme cases the fight to combat a bad habit can consume every waking minute, acquiring a good habit can inspire a new wave of self-confidence. Once the new habit has been acquired, even one that requires enormous self-discipline and a large helping of patience, it quickly becomes very easy to live with and can help boost selfesteem and self-belief. The investment of time, effort and concentration in the short term will ensure a reward of positive long-term results.

      Making the change to a reduced volume of breathing should be treated as simply acquiring a good habit – one that will reap untold health benefits. Ultimately the benefits can include the complete recovery of an individual with asthma.

      Many of Professor Buteyko’s patients who were taught the Buteyko Method remained completely free from symptoms of asthma thirty years later. It was as a result of pressure placed on the Soviet authorities by those who recovered that independent trials into Professor Buteyko’s method were conducted. The results of the trials brought about the full recognition and acceptance of the Buteyko system in the Soviet Union.

      What is overbreathing?

      First, let’s take a quick look at what overbreathing is, and why we do it in the first place. Clinically, overbreathing is known as hyperventilation; put simply, it means breathing more air than the body needs. The standard volume of normal breathing for a healthy adult is three to six litres of air per minute. Scientific research conducted by Professor Buteyko over three decades, along with scientific trials at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in 1995 demonstrated that people with asthma breathe a volume of ten to twenty litres per minute between attacks, and over twenty litres during an attack.

      Overbreathing causes a loss of carbon dioxide from the lungs. This is not a problem if it occurs only for a short time, because breathing will reduce afterwards to restore the carbon dioxide levels. However, breathing more air than we need over a period of time – and time can mean hours, weeks, months or even years – will result in the day-to-day levels of carbon dioxide remaining low constantly. Our respiratory centre becomes accustomed to or fixed at these lower levels of carbon dioxide and determine them to be ‘correct’. Our respiratory centre will therefore instruct us to overbreathe to maintain these low levels of carbon dioxide even though the rest of our bodily organs and tissues are suffering.

      Carbon dioxide is very important for normal bodily functioning (for a more detailed explanation, see Appendix 1), it is logical to assume that the body must have some way to prevent losing it. Narrowing of the airways is caused by inflammation, by constriction of smooth muscle and by increased mucus secretion, and is a natural defence mechanism to help maintain the carbon dioxide level. In a person with asthma, this defence mechanism activates when the carbon dioxide level declines too much. Overbreathing also causes cooling and drying of the airways, two effects that have been recognised to play a role in producing asthma symptoms (for a more detailed explanation, see Appendix 2).

      People with asthma are better off than anyone else who overbreathes because they are equipped with an instant defence mechanism to prevent the loss of carbon dioxide. People who do not have this defence mechanism suffer from many of the diseases of civilisation for which there is no cure.

      It is worth noting that before 1900, people who had asthma often lived longer than the rest of the population and that death from asthma was unknown. ‘Having asthma generally meant having a long life free from many diseases, but nobody could explain why asthma prevented other diseases or why asthmatics lived longer than other people,’ Professor Buteyko noted. At the end of 19th century, Professor of Medicine at Oxford University Sir William Osler, wrote in his Principles and Practice of Medicine textbook: ‘We have no knowledge of the morbid anatomy of true asthma. Death during the attack is unknown.’

      Overbreathing resulting from modern living is the cause of breathing-related diseases. Hyperventilation is not just a result of asthma, hyperventilation is the main contributor of asthma.

      Professor Buteyko believes that genetic predisposition determines which illnesses people develop from overbreathing. As a result, each person who hyperventilates or overbreathes is affected individually, based on hereditary factors.

      Symptoms of hyperventilation

      Some of the symptoms of hyperventilation affect:

      ♦ The respiratory system in the form of wheezing, breathlessness, coughing, chest tightness, frequent yawning, snoring and sleep apnoea.

      ♦ The nervous system in the form of a light-headed feeling, poor concentration, numbness, sweating, dizziness, vertigo, tingling of hands and feet, faintness, trembling and headache.

      ♦ The heart, typically a racing heartbeat, pain in the chest region, and a skipping or irregular heartbeat.

      ♦ The mind, including some degrees of anxiety, tension, depression, apprehension and stress.

      ♦ Other general symptoms include mouth dryness, fatigue, bad dreams, nightmares, dry itchy skin, sweaty palms, increased urination such as bed wetting or regular visits to the bathroom during the night, diarrhoea, constipation, general weakness and chronic exhaustion.

      Why do we overbreathe?

      Earlier on, I explained that when we overbreathe permanently, the respiratory centre in the brain is trained to accept a lower level of carbon dioxide. There are many reasons why we overbreathe, although not all of them may apply to everyone. These factors are more prevalent in countries experiencing increasing modernisation and affluence, and that prevalence helps explain why there are such high incidences of asthma and other diseases of civilisation in the same countries.

      Briefly, these factors include: incorrect eating habits; the belief that it is good to take ‘big breaths’; stress; more home heating; wearing too much clothing; lack of physical exercise, and pollution. Each of these are explored in more detail in Appendix 1.

      Benefits of reduced breathing

      Reduced breathing due to what is called the Bohr effect leads to better oxygenation of all of the body’s cells and tissues which in turn enables all the organs to function more efficiently. Almost everyone who has attended Asthma Care clinics in Ireland has reported not just a significant improvement in their asthma, but also an improvement in their general health and well-being.

      In addition, they reported increased energy levels; less dependence on stimulants such as caffeine; increased calmness; reduced anxiety and normalisation of weight – all within a relatively short period of time. Chronic complaints such as headaches, constipation and spasmodic conditions – caused by incorrect breathing and dietary factors or as result of side effects from asthma related medication – were also gradually eliminated.

      Breaking the overbreathing habit

      As babies we instinctively know how to breathe using the diaphragm, with the tummy moving up and down with each breath. For the most part, the breathing volume matches the exact needs of the metabolism; this is how the human body was intended to function and results in good health.

      Parents strive to protect their children, yet by becoming over-protective they often contribute to problems for their offspring later in СКАЧАТЬ