How to Stop or Prevent Heart Attack, Stroke, Acute Asthma,
Seizures, and Other Life-Threatening Situations
using Buteyko Emergency Procedure
(4-A. Shallow Breathing or Shallow Breath or Reduced breathing exercise)
Instead of frequent and deep breathing, you need a slower and
shallower breathing pattern. It is called "shallow breathing" or
"shallow breath" or "reduced breathing". This is the main Buteyko
breathing method exercise. Very heavy breathing and low body
oxygenation are possible when: 1) you take large inhalations; 2) they
forcefully exhale air out of the lungs, instead of simple relaxation of
all breathing muscles to produce quiet natural exhale; 3) you are
likely to breathe using your chest, not the diaphragm.
Learn more here, if you missed this important idea: 4 regular breathing patterns and corresponding body oxygen levels.
Hence, one should take smaller inhalations using their tummy and then relax all breathing muscles for exhalations as shown here:

- 1. Relax all your muscles in any comfortable position
with a straight spine, which is favorable for complete relaxation.
Such relaxation normally produces quiet spontaneous exhalation.
- 2. At the end of this exhalation, pinch your nose with two fingers and hold your breath for about 1-2 seconds.
- 3. Since the feeling of air hunger at the end of this breath holding is not strong, take in (or inhale) less air than you did before (“breathe less”) but using the tummy mainly or only
- 4. For exhalation, you need just to relax, while keeping all breathing muscles, including chest-shoulders and diaphragm muscles, completely relaxed.
- 5. Again, take in (or inhale) small amount of air (“breathe less”).
- 6. And just relax all the body.
- 7. Continue to breathe in such a shallow relaxed manner,
with constant air hunger for about 1 minute.
Repeat again and again this 1 minute cycle from steps 2 to 6:
short breath hold (1-2 s) – smaller inhalation – relaxation of all
muscles for exhalations. In other words, every minute you do short
breath holds (1-2 s) and RB (reduced breathing) between them, as shown
here:
Breath hold (1-2 s) - Reduced breathing (1 min) -
- Breath hold (1-2 s) - RB (1 min) -
- Breath hold (1-2 s) - RB (1 min) -
- Breath hold (1-2 s) - RB (1 min) -…
About your medication
medication, continue the Emergency Procedure. Monitoring the severity of the symptoms. If it is still not possible to stop an attack (e.g., angina pectoris), again take 1/3 of your usual dose. Do the Emergency Procedure once more. Russian medical doctors and practitioners found that most patients could eliminate their symptoms in 1-5 minutes (Buteyko, 1977).
Optional: Additional practical recommendations in order to have better relaxation
When you are not sure about chest-shoulders-neck-jaws muscles,
tense them maximally or almost maximally for 1-2 s and, then, relax.
That can be done with the whole area of muscles or, if difficult, with
separate muscular groups, one by one.
Using such tensing-relaxing, clearly and vividly visualize your body or body parts, first, during tensing, as a steel spring, which is hard and strong, and seconds later, during relaxation, as a large soft piece of dough, or jelly fish or CO2 molecule floating above the ocean. Other images, of course, can be used, e.g., during tensing, as an over-inflated water-filled balloon, resilient and firm, which suddenly loses pressure and becomes soft and shapeless and filled with air during relaxation.
Since muscular tension during the breathing exercises should
be experienced only in the area of the diaphragm, one can imagine and
visualize how all tension, stress and pressure descend or slide down
from the head, neck, shoulders, and chest to the area around the
diaphragm.
You can massage this area (chest-shoulders-neck-jaws muscles) with your hands or, if you have a relative or friend around, ask him/her to do that.
During the Emergency Procedure, the relaxation of the diaphragm and skeletal muscles is possible, only if the amount of air in the lungs is near the physiological volume (such a lung state is achieved, when people suddenly lose their consciousness or are properly relaxed). Having more air in the lungs is undesirable, due to the appearance of tightness in respiratory muscles. Keep in mind that Buteyko breathing method exercises allow maximum time spent in a state of relaxation for all muscles of the body. This is also true for "reduced breathing" ("shallow breathing" or "shallow breath").
Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and
Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing
norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal
breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6
myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of
hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the
Sick. Table
1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV
(chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions
(34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in
Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of
Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia
How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of
all vital organs
Body oxygen test
How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy
Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical
studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5.
CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko
Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning
hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most
likely to die during early morning hours
References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion
(or blood
supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect
How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by
alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on
breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr
effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2
content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes
place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence,
antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by
breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression
of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal
breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or
sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells
is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture
and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of
airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due
to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant
and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the
tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood
pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon
dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine
in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth
"CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control
How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?
Back to: Learning the Buteyko method by modules
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