Podcast #4 Hyperventilation 21st-century Epidemic
It is estimated that 90% of the population in the West are in the habit of over-breathing, they suffer from chronic hidden hyperventilation. Because chronic hidden hyperventilation is not easily recognized, it is rarely diagnosed, and when it is patients are given little advice and support to deal with a habit. The Buteyko Method of breath training appears to be the most effective system to correct the problem. Why is it termed hidden?
Normal breathing at rest involves breathing about five to six litres of air per minute with a respiratory rate of between eight and twelve breaths per minute. If a person breathes slightly faster say between twelve and sixteen breaths per minute, this will not be easy to noticed by any observer, but that will increase their minute volume by two to three litres. If they breathe slightly larger breaths, perhaps 25% larger, this will increase their minute volume by other two to three litres but again this increase will not be easily observed. If they habitually sigh or yawn this can add another two to three litres per minute, the total effect will be to increase the volume of of air breathed per minute to ten to fifteen litres, two to three times normal.
Chronic hidden hyperventilation is frequently associated with habitual mouth breathing as it is far easier to breathe through the mouth than the narrow passages of the nose. The effects of chronic hidden hyperventilation is to lower carbon dioxide levels in the body, to increase the risk of airborne infection as the filtering protection of the immune system in the nose is bypassed, to irritation and inflammation of the airways as dry or cold air is breathed through the mouth and because loss of nitric acid, normally produced naturally in the nasal cavities. The lower carbon dioxide disturbs the entire physiology of the body; the blood does not release its oxygen to the tissue freely due to the Bohr Effect. Smooth muscle wrapped around all hollow organs of the body, airways, arterial blood vessels, bladder and gut is caused to spasm restricting circulation, breathing or digestive problems. The body’s pH shifts to becoming more alkaline and this affects every biochemical activity in the body.
So do you hyperventilate?
Check your own breathing now, if you have a CP or control pause (the Buteyko Measure of your breathing) of less than twenty seconds here is the simple way to improve your health and fitness in just a few weeks. The health consequences oof chronic hyperventilation can be serious. Conditions invariably associated with this problem include asthma, sinusitis, breathlessness, angina, diabetes, hay-fever, low-energy,gut problems, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome, panic attacks, snoring, IBS and much more. Improved breathing generally helps all these conditions and improves wellbeing.
Perhaps the most common cause of sudden death is a heart attack or myocardial infarction. The vast majority of these sad events can be avoided with two simple lifestyle changes; improved breathing and the right diet. Myocardial infarction, otherwise known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow bringing oxygen to the heart is severely reduced or totally blocked. It results in oxygen starvation and damages part of the heart. These attacks often occur during or following physical exercise or emotional stress, both activities increase breathing volume but when breathing volume is greater than the body’s needs: carbon dioxide is lost resulting in reduced blood flow and reduced oxidation of the heart. In a paper entitled Hyperventilation Myocardial Infarction by Jovanovski in 1988,wrote in addition to causing peripheral cerebral vasoconstriction hyperventilation has also been shown to cause diminished coronary blood flow, oxygen delivered to the heart is reduced because of the above mentioned effects. Cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, the principal cause of a cardiac arrest is electrical signals that control timing and organization of the heartbeat becoming completely chaotic and when signals degenerate into total chaos the heart suddenly stops beating, cutting off normal circulation to the body. While the cause of cardiac arrest and numerous, by far the most was common in adults is ischemic cardiovascular disease. Breathing in excess of normal metabolic requirements causes a loss of carbon dioxide from the blood leading to hypocapnia with reduced oxygenation of the heart and disturbed cardiac rhythm. Breathing exercises aimed at normalizing breathing volume provide therapeutic benefits, it takes less than a minute to measure your breathing quality. The measure I recommend is called Control Pause, the key monitoring tool of the Buteyko Method developed by Professor Konstantin Buteyko. It is a measure in seconds of your maximum comfortable breath hold after exhaling while at rest. It is a useful guide to the degree of hyperventilation and the level of carbon dioxide levels in the lungs.
Now Check Your Breathing
Take a breath in through your nose, keep mouth closed, breathe out through your nose, gently hold your nose and your breath until you feel the need to take a breath in, then release your nose then take a normal breath in through your nose. With a timer note how many seconds you held your breath, this is your Control Pause. If your control pause is less than 20 seconds you would be well advised to improve your breathing, if you are breathing normally you should have a control pause of between 45 and 6o seconds. Most patients I check have a control pause less than 30 seconds, many who have health problems will have a control in the teens. Don't forget you can learn to improve your breathing in just two or three weeks anywhere with our Skype Course, visit our website www.totalhealthmatters.co.uk to learn more about this course.
