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In the 1950s a
Russian doctor, Konstantin Buteyko discovered that over breathing causes
carbon dioxide levels to fall, and that low carbon dioxide levels cause
chronic illness.
He also found that if carbon dioxide
levels were restored to normal, the damage was reversed and good health
regained.
Professor Buteyko developed a method for
retraining people's breathing patterns so that normal breathing and
normal carbon dioxide levels could be restored. Good health then
followed and this was effective for a wide range of chronic ailments
such as asthma, arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, migraine,
depression, insomnia and skin and respiratory problems.
The Buteyko method is relevant to most of
us because we all tend to over breathe. Gradually over the last century
the breathing pattern of the population has deteriorated (see Artour
Rakhimov). The reason for this is not surprising if you look at what
Buteyko claims causes and sustains over breathing.
Over breathing triggers are
- stress
- over eating rich food
- inactivity
- copying
- toxic stress
- over heating
Stress, inactivity and over eating
triggers are rife in our culture. Mothers have been encouraged to over
breathe during child birth which has a damaging effect on the new baby
so down the generations breathing patterns have deteriorated.
Over breathing stimulates a physiological
negative feedback so that once the habit starts the body is unable to
rectify it without specific intervention and it tends to get
worse.
We have a deeply ingrained and totally
wrong idea that deep breathing is good for us.
All of which culminates in there being
very few individuals who actually breathe at the optimal level. We are
used to seeing the heaving chests and hearing the noisy breathing of
presenters on TV and assume that this level of over breathing is normal.
It may now be the norm but it is not natural and it is not healthy
according to the Buteyko Institute for Breathing and Health.
The deterioration of our breathing
manifests as increases in ailments such as asthma in our population.
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