It can be a surprising discovery to realize that you do not know how to breathe correctly. The reason that this comes as a shock to most people is because breathing is an automatic function. It is not something that we have to consciously think about throughout the day in order to survive. We may therefore tend to assume that we are doing it correctly, but the reality is that most people tend to automatically breathe in a way that is not healthy. This may be due to the fact that we have not considered the way that we breathe. As a result, many people “over-breathe,” which means that they take in too much air, which can have deleterious effects on health.
What does it mean to breathe normally? According to some experts, normal breathing occurs when we inhale just enough for our body’s needs at that time. The process of inhaling and exhaling allows us to maintain a balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in our system that allows our bodies to function properly. Carbon dioxide is the product of metabolism. The cells in our tissues need oxygen, of course, but they also need the right amount of carbon dioxide to regulate the process of respiration. If we are too sedentary, or mouth-breathe, and too much carbon dioxide leaves our body because we are over-breathing (or, in other words, hyperventilating) the mixture becomes imbalanced, making it difficult for our tissues and organs to receive adequate oxygen through the blood. Human cells still require 6.5 % of carbon dioxide and only 2 % of oxygen. According to the discoveries of Dr. K.P. Buteyko, when our air was enriched by carbon dioxide, a person would consume a great deal of CO2 with every inhalation and exhale the amount not needed by the body. Now, every inhalation gives us plenty of oxygen and only 0.03 % percent of carbon dioxide. This in turn, facilitates deeper breathing. Unfortunately, this makes the problem worse by taking away from our already scarce resource of carbon dioxide. The trick is to discover an appropriate breathing technique to reduce our breathing and create the right combination of oxygen and carbon dioxide to facilitate the process of energizing bodily tissues.
A breathing technique for normalizing our intake of air, will usually also take into consideration other factors that are components of normal breathing, such as blood pressure, internal temperature, the level of sugar or glucose in our bodies, and blood pressure. The symptoms of over-breathing usually result in a person thinking that they are not getting enough oxygen, when in fact they are getting far more than they need – it’s just not being effectively delivered to their body’s tissues for processing. So while the impulse is to breathe even more oxygen, or to breathe more deeply, that is not the solution. The solution is to learn a breathing technique that will train the automatic functions of your body to reduce your breathing. This is what is meant by normalizing breathing, and is a technique called Buteyko Breathing Normalization, developed by Dr. K.P. Buteyko.
When you improve your breathing technique, you improve your total health. The Breathing Center offers a free breathing test online and a free Buteyko Health Evaluation report with our recommendations. The test will help you determine whether you hyperventilate or not, and if so, to what degree, and how that may be affecting the quality of your sleep, as well as recommendations for improvement. We offer a specific breathing technique for people who may benefit from reducing their breathing, and have seen many people experience dramatic improvements in their symptoms. Visit http://www.breathingcenter.com or call 800-520-3450 for a free consultation.
