Progress of chronic diseases is reflected
in stress-free breath holding time
and body oxygenation
Hypoxia is the key factor in chronic diseases. It appears due to ineffective
breathing pattern
clinically found in tens of medical research studies in 100% of the sick
patients. Poor tissue oxygenation is the typical feature for people with asthma, heart
disease, chronic fatigue, diabetes, bronchitis, cancer, HIV, acne, infertility,
and many other disorders.
“All chronic pain, suffering and diseases are caused
from a
lack of oxygen at the cell level."
Prof. Arthur C. Guyton, MD, The Textbook of Medical
Physiology*
* World’s most widely used medical textbook of any kind
* World's best-selling physiology book
Hence, abnormal oxygen transport is the typical and indispensable feature for chronic conditions.
How to measure body oxygen content?
While measurements of tissue oxygenation require special equipment, you can do a simple test that is very sensitive to tissue oxygenation. Measure your breath holding time. How it is done? The prominent Russian physiologist who worked for the first Soviet spaceship missions Dr. K.P. Buteyko, MD, PhD was the head of the respiratory laboratory in the 1960s. He stated about 40 years ago, “Oxygen content in the organism can be found using a simple method: after exhalation, observe, how long the person can pause their breath without stress.”
After your usual exhale, pinch your nose 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. This is the most common mistake. 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 usual breathing.
This test became the main measuring tool for about 200 medical professionals who taught the Buteyko self-oxygenation therapy to hundreds thousands of Russian patients with asthma, heart disease, bronchitis, and other conditions. The Buteyko method has over 40 year history of clinical use in the USSR and Russia.
Typical results for the oxygenation test
It has a table with dozens of
western medical references devoted to stress-free breath holding time. Russian
oxygenation doctors accumulated even more clinical information. Doctor Buteyko
and his medical colleagues found that the following relationships generally hold
true:book-big-Ch1.php
1-10 s of oxygen - 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 of oxygen - ideal health, when many modern diseases are virtually
impossible.
The breath holding time test mainly depends on one's breathing pattern: breathing more than the medical norm, REDUCES body oxygenation (due to hyperventilation), while maximum body oxygenation corresponds to breathing less than the norm (ideal breathing pattern) or only 3 breaths/min at rest or during sleep.
For the first time in the history of medicine, a group of about 200 doctors, after studying and curing thousands of patients, suggested the standard for ideal health (60 s of oxygen) that provide guarantee from such chronic conditions as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, arthritis, and many others. These doctors refined the Buteyko oxygenation therapy and revealed numerous factors that improve our health (physical exercise with strictly nasal breathing; good posture; raw diets; cold shower; sleeping on hard surfaces; bare foot walking; prevention of mouth breathing, overeating, and sleeping on one's back, etc.)
More information about translated original Russian and Western research on breathing, health, how to improve one's oxygenation, and the Buteyko method can be found on this website.