Homepage: Norms, rates, CP and body oxygenation
CP (oxygenation index) in sick people
On the graph below, the numbers of patients are provided in brackets. For example, "Hypertension (95)" means that 95 hypertension patients were studied.
| Condition | Number of subjects |
Control Pause, s |
Reference |
| Hypertension | 95 | 12 s | Ayman et al, 1939 |
| Neurocirculatory asthenia | 54 | 16 s | Friedman, 1945 |
| Anxiety states | 62 | 20 s | Mirsky et al, 1946 |
| Class 1 heart patients | 16 | 16 s | Kohn & Cutcher, 1970 |
| Class 2-3 heart patients | 53 | 13 s | Kohn & Cutcher, 1970 |
| Pulmonary emphysema | 3 | 8 s | Kohn & Cutcher, 1970 |
| Functional heart disease | 13 | 5 s | Kohn & Cutcher, 1970 |
| Asymptomatic asthmatics | 7 | 20 s | Davidson et al, 1974 |
| Asthmatics with symptoms | 13 | 11 s | Perez-Padilla et al, 1989 |
| Panic attack | 14 | 11 s | Zandbergen et al, 1992 |
| Anxiety disorders | 14 | 16 s | Zandbergen et al, 1992 |
| Outpatients | 25 | 17 s | Gay et al, 1994 |
| Inpatients | 25 | 10 s | Gay et al, 1994 |
| COPD and congenital heart failure | 7 | 8 s | Gay et al, 1994 |
| 12 heavy smokers | 12 | 8 s | Gay et al, 1994 |
| Panic disorder | 23 | 16 s | Asmudson & Stein, 1994 |
| Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome | 30 | 20 s | Taskar et al, 1995 |
| Successful lung transplantation | 9 | 23 s | Flume et al, 1996 |
| Successful heart transplantation | 8 | 28 s | Flume et al, 1996 |
| Outpatients with COPD | 87 | 8 s | Marks et al, 1997 |
| Asthma | 55 | 14 s | Nannini et al, 2007 |
Again as before, breath holding can be done in different conditions (e.g., after normal inhalation, or exhalation, or taking a very deep inhalation, or a complete exhalation, until first stress or as long as possible). If you are interested in these details, visit The Complete CP Table for subjects with various health conditions and see how these different tests were standardized.
Doctor Buteyko and his medical colleagues tested hundreds of 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.
My own practical experience with hundreds of people completely agrees with these findings.
Conclusion: The sicker we are, the shorter our breath holding time (the oxygenation index)
References for Table 5 (in the same order)
Ayman et al, 1939
Ayman D, Goldshine AD, The breath-holding test. A simple standard stimulus of blood pressure, Archives of Intern Medicine 1939, 63; p. 899-906.
Friedman, 1945
Friedman M, Studies concerning the aetiology and pathogenesis of neurocirculatory asthenia III. The cardiovascular manifestations of neurocirculatory asthenia, Am Heart J 1945; 30, 378-391.
Mirsky et al, 1946
Mirsky I A, Lipman E, Grinker R R, Breath-holding time in anxiety state, Federation proceedings 1946; 5: p. 74.
Kohn & Cutcher, 1970
Kohn RM & Cutcher B, Breath-holding time in the screening for rehabilitation potential of cardiac patients, Scand J Rehabil Med 1970; 2(2): p. 105-107.
Davidson et al, 1974
Davidson JT, Whipp BJ, Wasserman K, Koyal SN, Lugliani R, Role of the carotid bodies in breath-holding, New England Journal of Medicine 1974 April 11; 290(15): p. 819-822.
Perez-Padilla et al, 1989
Perez-Padilla R, Cervantes D, Chapela R, Selman M, Rating of breathlessness at rest during acute asthma: correlation with spirometry and usefulness of breath-holding time, Rev Invest Clin 1989 Jul-Sep; 41(3): p. 209-213.
Zandbergen et al, 1992
Zandbergen J, Strahm M, Pols H, Griez EJ, Breath-holding in panic disorder, Compar Psychiatry 1992 Jan-Feb; 33(1): p. 47-51.
Gay et al, 1994
Gay SB, Sistrom C1L, Holder CA, Suratt PM, Breath-holding capability of adults. Implications for spiral computed tomography, fast-acquisition magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography, Invest Radiol 1994 Sep; 29(9): p. 848-851.
Asmudson & Stein, 1994
Asmundson GJ & Stein MB, Triggering the false suffocation alarm in panic disorder patients by using a voluntary breath-holding procedure, Am J Psychiatry 1994 Feb; 151(2): p. 264-266.
Taskar et al, 1995
Taskar V, Clayton N, Atkins M, Shaheen Z, Stone P, Woodcock A, Breath-holding time in normal subjects, snorers, and sleep apnea patients, Chest 1995 Apr; 107(4): p. 959-962.
Flume et al, 1996
Flume PA, Eldridge FL, Edwards LJ, Mattison LE, Relief of the 'air hunger' of breathholding. A role for pulmonary stretch receptors, Respir Physiol 1996 Mar; 103(3): p. 221-232.
Marks et al, 1997
Marks B, Mitchell DG, Simelaro JP, Breath-holding in healthy and pulmonary-compromised populations: effects of hyperventilation and oxygen inspiration, J Magn Reson Imaging 1997 May-Jun; 7(3): p. 595-597.
Nannini et al, 2007
Nannini LJ, Zaietta GA, Guerrera AJ, Varela JA, Fernandez AM, Flores DM, Breath-holding test in subjects with near-fatal asthma. A new index for dyspnea perception, Respiratory Medicine 2007, 101; p.246–253.
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