Does the Frolov/DIY Device Encourage Mouth Breathing?

- Updated on October 3, 2019

By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Alternative Health Educator and Author

– Safety and efficiency of the Frolov device (FDA’s approval)

Q: Dr. Buteyko stresses using only the nose for both inhalation and exhalation and yet the Frolov device (or Amazing DIY device) involves breathing in and out through the mouth, why?

A: Dr. Buteyko, as a physiologist, even provided an indirect but absolutely logical answer to this question.

“And finally one should not confuse the following concepts: we are speaking about breathing, which goes on day and night, about our basal breathing, the foundation of life. Meanwhile, the system of the yogi has separate breathing exercises. Therefore, it is practically unimportant for us how and what you do: feet upwards or downwards, through the right or left nostril, or by the right or left side. We are interested in where you will arrive as a result of these exercises. If carbon dioxide increases, and breathing decreases, with each day, then this will ensure the transition of man into a super-endurance state.” Dr. Buteyko Lecture in the Moscow State University (1969)

Now my questions are following. What is going on with carbon dioxide in the lungs during Frolov breathing device exercises? Are you going to breathe less or more after the breathing session?

We again can find out the answer in these Dr. Buteyko quotes:

Next is about physical activity, labor, and sports. Here again the fact that in our press and everywhere else, there are people who are illiterate in physiology. They have imposed upon us a thought, and again contrary to the truth, that physical activity, sport, and labor deepen our breathing. This is quite the opposite! It is wrong to consider any function bureaucratically, as a fact detached from life. After all, breathing is done to ensure metabolism.

Therefore, breathing must be considered in parallel with metabolism. It turns out that physical labor, sports, and workouts increase metabolism, i.e., they increase production of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide increases, during exercise, in the blood, while oxygen is reduced. This is what physical exercise does.

Because carbon dioxide [production] increases. Additional CO2 stimulates the respiratory center and intensifies breathing. How much? Well, only to the extent that would not further increase carbon dioxide. Thus, the more intense, the more carbon dioxide in the blood, and the greater the irritation of the respiratory center and deeper breathing. But it is deeper only formally! And if we take into account our initial assumptions from the beginning, then carbon dioxide in the blood increases, oxygen decreases, and breathing becomes shallow, not deep. It decreased in relation to the metabolism. Here’s the reason why exertion and sport are useful: they increase carbon dioxide, the foundation of life, in the body. This is why sport, exertion, and physical labor are useful.

During prolonged intensive exercise, the receptors which control breathing, adapt to increased CO2. If the person regularly works and toils, then he practically follows our method: he is decreasing his breathing using the exercise. Dr. Buteyko Lecture in the Moscow State University (1969)

I can ask more questions so that it is easier to see the truth. During intensive exercise, you breathe heavily, typically up to 10-15 times more air per minute than at rest. Do you similarly breathe heavily after physical activity or does physical activity helps you to breathe easier later, especially during the next night sleep? Are we mechanical or biochemical machines in terms of regulation of breathing or respiration control? If you decrease your breathing using the Frolov or DIY device, do you practically follow the Buteyko method or your breathing becomes heavier?

Now, we can approach the main question “Does the Frolov Device Encourage Mouth Breathing?” from the body oxygen level viewpoint. The CP after breathing exercises with the Frolov device gets higher, while there is the following link between the body-oxygen content and chances of mouth breathing.

Relationships between body oxygen level and chances of open mouth

Finally, it is a common situation that, if a student, who has a completely blocked nose, uses the Frolov device, he will have good nose breathing immediately after the session. If several clinical trials have found that the Frolov device method or DIY device therapy improves the health of asthmatics and mouth breathing, as it is well known, worsens the airways inflammation and the symptoms of asthma, how could the Frolov device encourage mouth breathing?

Related links and web pages (Frolov breathing device and endogenous breathing):
– Frolov breathing device and endogenous breathing – Overview
– Frolov device history
– Frolov device: How does it work
– Frolov device effects
– Acute asthma exacerbations clinical trial
– COPD breathing exercises
– Buy Frolov breathing device with 30 min online support from Dr. Artour
– How to Use Frolov Device (Instructions)
– Breathslim and Samozdrav – Prototypes of the Frolov breathing device.

References
1998 USA Frolov Device Patent – USA Patent No. 5,755,640 from May 26, 1998
Summary of Safety and Effectiveness – Frolov Respiration Training Device, Case #K992256, Office for Device Evaluation, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA, January 11, 2000.

The main Frolov-device page provides interesting facts about the Frolov device and its popularity in Russia.