Breathing Techniques and Proper Breathing Techniques for Body O2

One can spend months or years practicing some breathing techniques, but if his or her automatic (unconscious) breathing pattern (e.g., during sleep) remains the same, there are no improvements in health, symptoms, and quality of life. Hence, the goal of correct breathing techniques is to achieve very slow and easy breathing (to breathe less 24/7).

There are also some other less known or less common breathing techniques. They include breathing techniques for labor or childbirth (Lamaze breathing techniques), breathing techniques for running, singing, speaking, swimming, meditation, stress, and many others. There is even a breathing technique to help horses. In addition, there are web pages devoted to reviews of respiratory trainers (such as Powerbreathe, Expand-A-Lung, PowerLung and Ultrabreathe). These breathing techniques are used to train inspiratory muscles, but the effects of these devices depend on methods and instructions for their application.

Proper breathing techniques

Note that the "Russian dominance" in this Table reflects the current situation related to popularity of some proper breathing techniques in Russia. For example, over 2,000,000 Frolov breathing devices were sold there during the first decade of the 21st century in pharmacies. Furthermore, Russia is probably the only country in the world where the general population believes and knows that the slower and less you breathe, the better your health is. This is due to the public activities and clinical work of leading Soviet physiologist Konstantin Buteyko, MD, PhD and about 600 Russian medical doctors who teach breathing techniques. Russia has more doctors that teach breathing techniques than the number of such doctors in the rest of the world.

Lifestyle factor:	Body oxygen < 30 s	Body oxygen > 50 s
Energy level	Medium, low, or very low	High
Desire to exercise	Not strong, but possible	Craving and joy of exercise
Intensive exercise with nose breathing	Hard or impossible	Easy and effortless
Typical mind states	Confusion, anxiety, depression	Focus, concentration, clarity
Craving for coffee, sugar and junk foods	Present	Absent
Addictions to smoking, alcohol, and drugs	Possible	Absent
Desire to eat raw foods	Weak and rare	Very common and natural
Correct posture	Rare and requires efforts	Natural and automatic
Sleep	Often of poor quality; > 7 hours	Excellent quality; < 5 hours naturally

How to choose proper breathing techniques?

Proper breathing techniques should satisfy certain criteria in order to be useful for health of the breathing retraining student. One of the things to consider is that the general approach of any breathing technique should take our automatic or unconscious breathing pattern 24/7 into consideration, and not only suggest doing some breathing exercises.

In other words, what is the point of doing breathing exercises, if one sleeps with his mouth open and on his back every night? He can practice best breathing exercises for several hours every day, but he can still die from advance of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis, or other chronic disease due to the Sleep Heavy Breathing Effect, which is the main triggering factor leading to acute episodes (exacerbations) and deaths in the severely sick.

This Table explains why sick people have low body-oxygen levels.

Minute ventilation rates (chronic diseases)

Condition	Minute ventilation	Number of people	All references or click below for abstracts
Normal breathing	6 L/min	-	Medical textbooks
Healthy Subjects	6-7 L/min	>400	Results of 14 studies
Heart disease	15 (±4) L/min	22	Dimopoulou et al, 2001
Heart disease	16 (±2) L/min	11	Johnson et al, 2000
Heart disease	12 (±3) L/min	132	Fanfulla et al, 1998
Heart disease	15 (±4) L/min	55	Clark et al, 1997
Heart disease	13 (±4) L/min	15	Banning et al, 1995
Heart disease	15 (±4) L/min	88	Clark et al, 1995
Heart disease	14 (±2) L/min	30	Buller et al, 1990
Heart disease	16 (±6) L/min	20	Elborn et al, 1990
Pulm hypertension	12 (±2) L/min	11	D'Alonzo et al, 1987
Cancer	12 (±2) L/min	40	Travers et al, 2008
Diabetes	12-17 L/min	26	Bottini et al, 2003
Diabetes	15 (±2) L/min	45	Tantucci et al, 2001
Diabetes	12 (±2) L/min	8	Mancini et al, 1999
Diabetes	10-20 L/min	28	Tantucci et al, 1997
Diabetes	13 (±2) L/min	20	Tantucci et al, 1996
Asthma	13 (±2) L/min	16	Chalupa et al, 2004
Asthma	15 L/min	8	Johnson et al, 1995
Asthma	14 (±6) L/min	39	Bowler et al, 1998
Asthma	13 (±4) L/min	17	Kassabian et al, 1982
Asthma	12 L/min	101	McFadden & Lyons, 1968
COPD	14 (±2) L/min	12	Palange et al, 2001
COPD	12 (±2) L/min	10	Sinderby et al, 2001
COPD	14 L/min	3	Stulbarg et al, 2001
Sleep apnea	15 (±3) L/min	20	Radwan et al, 2001
Liver cirrhosis	11-18 L/min	24	Epstein et al, 1998
Hyperthyroidism	15 (±1) L/min	42	Kahaly, 1998
Cystic fibrosis	15 L/min	15	Fauroux et al, 2006
Cystic fibrosis	10 L/min	11	Browning et al, 1990
Cystic fibrosis*	10 L/min	10	Ward et al, 1999
CF and diabetes*	10 L/min	7	Ward et al, 1999
Cystic fibrosis	16 L/min	7	Dodd et al, 2006
Cystic fibrosis	18 L/min	9	McKone et al, 2005
Cystic fibrosis*	13 (±2) L/min	10	Bell et al, 1996
Cystic fibrosis	11-14 L/min	6	Tepper et al, 1983
Epilepsy	13 L/min	12	Esquivel et al, 1991
CHV	13 (±2) L/min	134	Han et al, 1997
Panic disorder	12 (±5) L/min	12	Pain et al, 1991
Bipolar disorder	11 (±2) L/min	16	MacKinnon et al, 2007
Dystrophia myotonica	16 (±4) L/min	12	Clague et al, 1994

Therefore, proper breathing techniques should also have answers to the following questions:
- What is ideal breathing (or the ideal unconscious breathing pattern) for maximum body-oxygen content? Note that it is not enough to only think about the maximum oxygen content in the lungs or arterial blood. Oxygen is required in all body cells.
- Which breathing techniques improve or increase oxygen content in cells?
- What are the common breathing patterns and what are their effects on body-oxygen content?
- What is the exact direction of the breathing techniques?
- What are the effects of lifestyle factors?

Some features of proper breathing techniques

* Out of several hundred Russian Frolov MDs, only a small group of these medical professionals consider the effects of lifestyle on breathing retraining.

The understanding of breathing techniques comes from the knowledge of breathing parameters in both sick and healthy people as well as the effects of breathing patterns on cells' oxygen levels (see links to medical studies below).

Breathing techniques can improve one's health only if they make one's breathing pattern after the breathing session lighter and slower in terms of minute ventilation. In this case, the student also increases their body oxygen content, which is measured with the simple body-oxygen test. Hence, the personal goal is to achieve a slow and shallow (but diaphragmatic) unconscious breathing pattern manifested in better results for the body O2 test. In the long run, better morning results (for this test) reflect the efficiency of a proper breathing retraining technique.

Video: Breathing techniques and the morning body-O2 test

In relation to healthy lifestyle factors, the Buteyko breathing technique is the most advanced breathing technique, and only Hatha Yoga comes close. In relation to breathing exercises, the Buteyko method produces good results.

However, most students achieve a faster CP progress when using breathing devices, e.g., the Frolov breathing device or the DIY breathing device. While there are now hundreds of MDs in Russia who promote or endorse the Frolov device, very few of them understand and explain to their patients the importance of having correct life style factors.

The optimum breathing retraining program for a typical student with a chronic disease (hence, with less than 20 s for the body-oxygen test) includes breathwork with a breathing device (that traps a part of exhaled air) and an adherence to Buteyko lifestyle factors.

Yoga Benefits: How to get best benefits from this amazing ancient practice? Traditional yoga has been teaching us to breathe less, while modern yoga leaders confuse the public about correct breathing, ideal breathing, and the effects of CO2.	Pursed lip breathing web page provides an overview of this breathing technique, the health conditions it addressed (mostly COPD, but many others too), detailed instructions on how to use it, its physiology, and effects.
Breathslim is a breathing device that is featured on the Breathslim website. The Breathslim device is an exact copy of the Frolov breathing device developed by Vladimir Frolov. Can it help with weight loss?	The Samozdrav breathing device is another patented Russian invention based on Dr. Buteyko's discoveries and CO2 effects. Its creators also worked for Soviet Cosmos (Outer Space Research), and they suggested 4 levels of learning...
Resperate is a FDA-approved portable device for slow-paced breathing sessions. It had 10 clinical trials on patients with hypertension and could lead to moderate reduction in blood pressure ...	Inspiratory Muscle Training (also known as IMT) can be done using various respiratory trainers or breathing devices, such as Powerbreathe, Expand-A-Lung, PowerLung and Ultrabreathe. They are all presented below.
Powerbreathe is a breathing device used, as the authors and creators claim, to train inspiratory muscles only. It is mostly used for sport performance, but there are medical applications as well.	Expand-A-Lung breathing resistance exerciser is a more recent breathing trainer used to strengthen respiratory muscles due to resistance, which can be regulated. w
PowerLung is a device that creates resistance during both inhalations and exhalations. PowerLung has some popularity, especially among athletes....	Ultrabreathe: Review of Ultrabreathe Breathing Device suggests that, as with other Western devices, there is one missing factor in training and analysis of effects.
Training Mask is currently the most effective device for physical exercise. This is the only breathing device that can be used during physical activity. It increases CO2 levels in the lungs, increases body O2, VO2 max, endurance, ...	Is etCO2 (end-tidal CO2) or capnography useful for breathing retraining? Can capnometers improve the effectiveness of breathing exercises or could it worsen the outcomes? Capnography and etCO2 web page....

*** Under construction ***

Warning. Breathing exercises can cause powerful cleansing reactions and can be dangerous for pregnant women, people with organ transplants, GI problems, and panic attacks, as well as those who take medication for diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, and other conditions. Consult your health care provider and follow special guidelines, which can be found in the Module Restrictions, limits, and temporary contraindications.

Reference pages: Breathing norms and medical facts:
- Breathing norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
- 6 breathing myths: Myths and superstitions about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
- Hyperventilation: Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
- Hyperventilation syndrome: Western scientific evidence about prevalence of chronic hyperventilation in patients with chronic conditions (37 medical studies)
- Normal minute ventilation: Small and slow breathing at rest is enjoyed by healthy subjects (14 studies)
- Hyperventilation prevalence: Present in over 90% of normal people (24 medical studies)
- HV and hypoxia: How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
- Body-oxygen test (CP test) : How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
- Body oxygen in healthy: Results for the body-oxygen test for healthy people (27 medical studies)
- Body oxygen in sick : Results for the body-oxygen test for sick people (14 medical studies)
- Buteyko Table of Health Zones: Clinical description and ranges for breathing zones: from the critically ill (severely sick) up to super healthy people with maximum possible body oxygenation
- Morning hyperventilation: Why people feel worse and critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: pages about CO2 effect:
- 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: How alveolar CO2 influences oxygen transport
- Oxygen transport: O2 transport is controlled by vasoconstriction-vasodilation and the Bohr effects, both of which rely on CO2
- Free radical generation: Reactive oxygen species are produced within cells due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia
- Inflammatory response: Chronic inflammation in fueled by the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces and eliminates inflammation
- Nerve stabilization: People remain calm due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
- Muscle relaxation: Relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
- Bronchodilation: Dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) is caused by carbon dioxide, and their constriction by hypocapnia (low CO2)
- Blood pH: Regulation of blood pH due to breathing and regulation of other bodily fluids
- CO2: lung damage: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents lung injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
- CO2: Topical carbon dioxide can heal skin and tissues
- Synthesis of glutamine in the brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
- Deep breathing myth: Ignorant and naive people promote the idea that deep breathing and breathing more air at rest is beneficial for health
- Breathing control: How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven, irregular and erratic.

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