Curiosities about Asthma

ASTHMA Is A Defense - Your Body Works Perfectly!

To use asthma as a simple example, let's think like a plumber in talk in terms of pipes.

Let's say that your breathing is too great. As you are breathing out air that is rich in carbon dioxide, and breathing in air that has almost no carbon dioxide, the more you breathe - the less you trap in. If the level of carbon dioxide in your lungs gets too low - you really will have a serious problem. As you continue to release more carbon dioxide than you produce, your level gets lower and lower. Now your body does not want you to die, so if it is [genetically] able it will act to restrict the airflow to trap in some carbon dioxide.

It will do this by either reducing the size of the opening in your air pipes, or by increasing the production of mucus in the pipes, clogging them up. The first defense will make you feel tight or wheezy; the second will give you a cough. Both will cause more carbon dioxide to be trapped in - as you physically cannot get as much out of your body through a smaller or blocked air pipe. The harder you try to breathe deeply during an asthma attack, the more your air pipe will constrict.

If you can learn to reduce your breathing depth more than your asthma is making you, the attack will subside. That is what Buteyko method gently and carefully teaches you to do.

Even more than that, Buteyko method shows you how to gently condition the section of your brain that is sensitive to carbon dioxide to get used to higher levels of carbon dioxide in your lungs! This means that as you have started with a normal higher level in your lungs, you will have a "safety" or "buffer" zone between you and any asthma at all. You will then have fewer and less severe attacks.

This is how the extraordinary results of Buteyko and asthma are achieved. For people who have personal classes with me, I have maintained a full guarantee of significant improvement in one week.

The average decrease in symptoms and relief medication use following the program I created is 100%. I do not take anything less than that as my goal. All you need do is follow the plan religiously and you will se that I am not kidding you.

You have now been given a very basic part of the theory of what causes asthma, and how Buteyko training stops it.

The next step is the application of the theory. You can figure it out for yourself, or you can learn it the most efficient way, which is preferably with a good instructor, or second best with a good instruction kit.

Effects of overbreathing & the Subsequent Loss of Carbon Dioxide Can Influence Our Health

Oxygenation: Carbon dioxide plays a large role in oxygen transport from the blood to the cells of the brain and body.

A reduction in carbon dioxide levels brings with it reduced oxygenation of tissue and vital organs (Verigo-Bohr Effect).

This can lead to many health problems.

Acid/Alkaline Balance and the Immune System: Carbon dioxide, through its conversion to carbonic acid, is a primary regulator of the acid/alkaline balance of the body. A reduction in carbon dioxide shifts the body's pH toward alkalinity, which alters the rate of activity of other biochemical processes.  An alkaline system weakens the immune system, thus making the body more susceptible to viruses and allergies.

Vessels: Carbon dioxide helps to dilate smooth muscle tissue. Insufficient carbon dioxide can cause spasms throughout the body, including the brain, the bronchi, and other smooth muscle tissues. Good examples are the spasms that take place during asthma attacks and migraines.

The Nervous System: Carbon dioxide is one of the regulators of the nervous system. A reduction of carbon dioxide in the nerve cells heightens their excitability, alerting all the branches of the nervous system and making it more sensitive to outside stimuli. This can lead to sleeping problems, irritability, excessive stress/anxiety, and allergic reactions. Simultaneously, this reduction stimulates the breathing center of the brain and brings about an increase in the rate of breathing. As a result, even more carbon dioxide is lost.

The Cardiovascular System: Carbon dioxide helps regulate the cardiovascular system. Too little carbon dioxide can result in many problems, including angina, high blood pressure, chest pain, myocardial infarcts, strokes, and so on.

The Digestive System: A direct relationship exists between the level of carbon dioxide in the body and the functioning of the digestive glands-especially between the level of carbon dioxide and the intensity of gastric secretion. Too little carbon dioxide can eventually lead to poor digestion and eventually to ulcers.

Important Points about breathing:

Even when you are breathing three or four times more air than you need, it feels like you are breathing normally.

In fact, because of your body's defense of reducing the airflow, it usually feels like you are not getting enough air!

If you measure your resting "minute volume", it will be far above the normal of around 5 liters.

You are so used to breathing far too much, it feels normal to you.

What about oxygen? For most of the time our blood is almost completely saturated with oxygen.

You can only force in a small amount more no matter how much or how deeply you breathe [and this will lose extra CO2, which can cause a further restriction of your airways - causing a further lowering of your blood oxygen!

Asthma and weather

Did U know? The weather sensitive people respond to pressure drop only?
It is never reported to be sensitive when the atmospheric pressure is on the rise?

The explanation of this phenomenon is that lower barometric pressure offers a further depletion of the bicarbonate buffer of the blood.
The bicarbonate buffer is vital for our state of health. In people suffering with arthritis, the low bicarbonate buffer will prevent the body to manufacture steroids needed to protect the bone joints. As a result, the joint will become sensitive.
In people with seasonal allergies or asthma, the same phenomenon is responsible for mucus production that is the body's attempt to prevent further CO2 loss in the respiratory system, because respiration (or
hyperventilation) is the major factor in bicarbonate buffer depletion.