Normal Breathing: the Key to Vital Health
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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.

Control Pause (oxygenation indes or stress-free breath hoolding time) in sick people - 9 medical studies

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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