Breathing techniques and respiration devices become more and more popular among asthmatics and people with other respiratory problems. Among the known breathing techniques is the Buteyko breathing method, which had six randomised controlled trials in western countries.
The results were remarkable: twice less steroids, 3-10 times less reliever medication, better quality of life and less asthma symptoms, but unchanged bronchial responsiveness or lung function results after several months of breathing exercises. Meanwhile, all these studies had a major methodological flaw, which I am going to consider here.
Dr. K. Buteyko made the following clinical statements:
– Sick people, asthmatics including, breathe more air at rest than the minuscule medical norm (chronic hyperventilation). Overbreathing reduces tissue oxygenation and strengthens the desire to breathe even more.
– If they normalize their breathing pattern, then they will not require medication and will not experience their symptoms.
– The Buteyko Table of Health Zones relates breathing parameters of sick people, regardless of the name of the disease, with their current health state. This table describes parameters that reflect normal breathing (8 breaths/min for breathing frequency at rest, 6.5 percent for alveolar CO2 content, 60 seconds for stress-free breath holding time after usual exhalation, etc.). These parameters correspond to normal health and absence of asthma and many other chronic diseases since normal breathing improves body oxygenation.
– Someone has mastered the Buteyko breathing method, if his breathing parameters are normal.