Buteyko Breath Therapy

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By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Buteyko breathing teacher and educator

Doctors suggest a simple DIY test
for ideal health (the Control Pause)
 Dr. Artour Rakhimov (www.normalbreathing.com)
For the first time in the history of medicine, a group of doctors, after studying thousands of patients, suggested the standard for ideal health that provide guarantee from such chronic conditions as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, arthritis, and many others. Low tissue oxygenation is the normal feature for people with these and many other degenerative disorders. Dozens of Western studies that proved that patients with numerous, if not all, chronic conditions have impaired breath holding abilities.

This table summarizes available western data regarding breath holding times (the standard test is described below) for people with various health states. Note that the first study was conducted almost a century ago.

Types of people investigated

Number of subjects

Breath holding time, seconds

Reference (click here for the list)

Fit instructors

22

46 s

Flack, 1919

Home defence pilots

24

49 s

British candidates

23

47 s

US candidates

7

45 s

Delivery and test pilots

27

39 s

Pilots training for scouts

15

42 s

Pilots taken off flying through stress

 

34 s

Normal subjects

30

23 s

Friedman, 1945

Neurocirculatory asthenia

54

16 s

Normal subjects

22

33 s

Mirsky et al, 1946

Anxiety states

62

20 s

Normals and class 1 heart patients

16

16 s

Kohn & Cutcher, 1970 

Class 2 and 3 heart patients

53

13 s

Pulmonary emphysema

3

8 s

Functional heart disease

13

5 s

Normal subjects

6

28 s

Davidson et al, 1974

Asymptomatic asthmatics

7

20 s

Asthmatics with symptoms

13

11 s

Perez-Padilla et al, 1989

Normal subjects

14

25 s

Zandbergen et al, 1992

Panic attack

14

11 s

Anxiety disorders

14

16 s

Outpatients

25

17 s

Gay et al, 1994

Inpatients

25

10 s

COPD or CHF (congenital heart failure)

7

8 s

12 heavy smokers

12

8 s

Normal subjects

26

21 s

Asmudson & Stein, 1994

Panic disorder

23

16 s

Normal subjects

30

36 s

Taskar et al, 1995 

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome

30

20 s

Normal subjects

76

25 s

McNally & Eke, 1996

Normal subjects

10

38 s

Flume et al, 1996

Successful lung transplantation

9

23 s

Successful heart transplantation

8

28 s

Normal subjects

31

29 s

Marks et al, 1997

Outpatients with COPD

87

8 s
Table. Breath holding time according to various medical references
(from the book "Normal breathing: the key to vital health" by Dr. Artour Rakhimov)
There are many versions of breath holding time test used by medical doctors. For most accurate results, as Russian and Western researchers found, we should compare stress-free versions of the breath-holding time test. The most thorough analysis of breath holding abilities was done by Doctor Buteyko, who invented the Buteyko breathing method. For his system, the stress-free version of the breath holding time test is the main measuring tool that reflects personal health. He and his colleagues even suggested the special name “the CP” (Control Pause).
 
How the CP test is done

Sit down and rest for 5-7 minutes. Completely relax all your muscles, including the breathing muscles. This relaxation produces natural spontaneous exhalation (breathing out). Pinch your nose closed at the end of this exhalation and count your BHT (breath holding time) in seconds. Keep nose pinched until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, “Enough!”) If you release the nose and start breathing at this time, you can resume your usual breathing pattern (in the same way as you were breathing prior to the test).
Do not extend breath holding too long. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth when you release your nose. The test should be easy and not cause you any stress. The BHT test does not interfere with your breathing.

[Warning. Some, not all, people with heart disease, migraine headaches, and panic attacks may experience negative symptoms minutes later after this light version of the test. If this happens, they should avoid this test.]
         
Some western doctors call such a BHT test “a period of no respiratory sensations” because when the time is voluntarily extended there is a stress that increases with each further second of breath holding.

 
Look at the diagram above: after the test you can comfortably breathe as before the test. If you stop the test and resume breathing at your first desire to breathe, you will be able to breathe as before: no stress, an easy comfortable procedure.

If you hold the breath for too long, the first inhalations will be deeper, as shown here:

 

This video clip explains in detail how to do the test: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=P2OdshyS95M

What about usual CP numbers, CP norms
and CP of sick and healthy people?

“If a person breath-holds after a normal exhalation,
it takes about 40 seconds before breathing commences”
From the textbook “Essentials of exercise physiology”
McArdle W.D., Katch F.I., Katch V.L. (2-nd edition);
Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, London 2000, p.252.

Doctor Buteyko and his medical colleagues tested hundred thousands patients and found that the following relationships generally hold true:
1-10 s - severely sick, critically and terminally ill patients, usually hospitalized.
10-20 s - sick patients with numerous complaints and, often, on daily medication.
20-40 s - people with poor health, but often without serious organic problems.
40-60 s - good health.
Over 60 s - ideal health, when many modern diseases are virtually impossible.

For the first time in the history of medicine, a group of doctors, after studying and curing thousands of patients, suggested the standard for ideal health that provide guarantee from such chronic conditions as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, arthritis, and many others.

Poor knowledge of English is still the main obstacle to faster information exchange and better understanding of this natural self-oxygenation therapy. However, some websites of Russian MDs have web pages in English:
http://www.buteyko-clinic.ru/english/ (Buteyko Clinic in Moscow)

More information about translated original Russian and Western research on breathing, health, and the Buteyko method can be found on my website www.normalbreathing.com