4 Types of Breathing Patterns and Their Body Oxygenation
Now we know all details related to the ideal breathing pattern (present in very rare people with super health) normal breathing pattern (present in healthy people), ineffective breathing pattern (present in moderately sick people with chronic diseases), heavy breathing pattern (for the severely and critically sick), it is logical to suggest that the ideal breathing pattern will correspond to very slow breathing with very high CP and low minute ventilation.
Here are all four regular automatic (or unconscious) breathing patterns in one diagram.
Fig. 4 Types of breathing patterns, their minute ventilation, breathing frequency, and DIY index of body oxygenation (Control Pause).
It is easy to observe that more breathing (larger tidal volume and higher respiratory frequency) leads to reduced body oxygenation (CP or control pause - stress-free breath holding time after usual exhalation) due to hypocapnia and other effects (e.g., chest breathing). The detailed mechanism (why overbreathing lowers tissue oxygen content) is discussed in the next section: Carbon Dioxide Effects.
There are, of course, many irregular breathing patterns. Some people sigh every 3-5 minutes. Others cough a lot, or sniff sporadically. Often, breathing through the mouth is a part of the picture. All these irregularities are signs of low oxygenation and low CP due to chronic hypocapnia (CO2 deficiency in the brain cells). Respiratory irregularities can also occur during sleep and they can cause gradual development of sleep apnoea.
Here we see that deep and/or fast breathing leads to reduced oxygenation of body cells and corresponds to worse health. That’s right! The more you breathe, the less oxygen is provided for the cells! If we learn how to have light, shallow, slow and relaxed breathing pattern, oxygenation and the CP will be much longer.
Warning. It is a mistake to practice normal breathing if your CP is less than 30 s. Why? People often start to breathe deeply, while during normal breathing inhalations are tiny. Dr. Buteyko noticed this effect over 40 years ago. In fact, in order to achieve normal breathing one should practise reduced breathing, which is shallow and, for sick people, with less than 20 s current CP, more frequent.
"The breathing [retraining] should be monitored by an instructor who had learned the method himself. Our instruction of 1964 was published in Novosibirsk, 1000 issues. We still were naive and thought that after reading this correct instruction, the patient would be able to reduce breathing and then compare when it is normal. It [the instruction] included the information about normal breathing: 2 s for inhalation, 3 s for exhalation, 3 s for the pause, etc. First, he starts to breathe deeply, secondly, he immediately tries to fulfill that normal breathing. All effects are the opposite, even [for] a [medical] doctor." Dr. Buteyko, "Dr. Buteyko lecture in the Moscow State University on 9 December 1969"
Based on over 40 years of medical research conducted by Russian Medical Doctor Konstantin Buteyko and over 200 his medical colleagues, it was found that over 60 s of oxygen is incompatible with many modern health problems. As a result, Buteyko suggested that 60 s CP should be a standard for excellent health. Some of his students were able to drastically change their breathing: they could have the heavy breathing pattern during their health misery and achieve the ideal breathing pattern.