- Updated on November 1, 2020
By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Alternative Health Educator and Author
Define hyperventilation
Hyperventilation is breathing more air per minute than the medical norm. Normal minute ventilation at rest for a 70-kg person is 6 L/min.
Hyperventilation causes alveolar hypocapnia (a lack of CO2). This reduces O2 transport to all vital organs and promotes chronic diseases.
Overbreathing is common in people with chronic diseases, as this Table shows.
For more details about hyperventilation, you can visit this highly-intelligent article from Wikipedia that assumes that overbreathing appears due to panic or some other situations, like those on the Moon: click here.
Hyperventilation Prevalence Table (Historical changes)
at rest for normal subjects
| Condition | Minute ventilation | Age | N. of subjects | References |
| Healthy Subjects | 6-7 L/min | – | >400 | Results of 14 studies |
| Normal breathing | 6 | – | – | Medical textbooks |
| Normal subjects | 4.9 | – | 5 | Griffith et al, 1929 |
| Normal males | 5.3+-0.1Â Â | 27-43 | 46 | Shock et al, 1939 |
| Normal females | 4.6+-0.1Â Â | 27-43 | 40 | Shock et al, 1939 |
| Normal subjects | 6.9+-0.9 | – | 100 | Matheson et al, 1950 |
| Normal subjects | 9.1+-4.5 | 31+-7 | 11 | Kassabian et al, 1982 |
| Normal subjects | 8.1+-2.1 | 42+-14 | 11 | D’Alonzo et al, 1987 |
| Normal subjects | 6.3+-2.2 | – | 12 | Pain et al, 1988 |
| Normal males | 13+-3 | 40 (av.) | 12 | Clague et al, 1994 |
| Normal subjects | 9.2+-2.5 | 34+-7 | 13 | Radwan et al, 1995 |
| Normal subjects | 15+-4 | 28-34 | 12 | Dahan et al, 1995 |
| Normal subjects | 12+-4 | 55+-10 | 43 | Clark et al, 1995 |
| Normal subjects | 12+-2 | 41+-2 | 10 | Tantucci et al, 1996 |
| Normal subjects* | 11+-3 | 53+-11 | 24 | Clark et al, 1997 |
| Normal subjects | 8.1+-0.4 | 34+-2 | 63 | Meessen et al, 1997 |
| Normal females | 9.9 | 20-28 | 23 | Han et al, 1997 |
| Normal males | 15 | 20-28 | 47 | Han et al, 1997 |
| Normal females | 10 | 29-60 | 42 | Han et al, 1997 |
| Normal males | 11 | 29-62 | 42 | Han et al, 1997 |
| Normal subjects | 13+-3 | 36+-6 | 10 | Tantucci et al, 1997 |
| Normal subjects | 12+-1 | 65+-2 | 10 | Epstein et al, 1996 |
| Normal subjects | 12+-1 | 12-69 | 20 | Bowler et al, 1998 |
| Normal subjects | 10+-6 | 39+-4 | 20 | DeLorey et al, 1999 |
| Normal seniors | 12+-4 | 70+-3 | 14 | DeLorey et al, 1999 |
| Normal elderly* | 14+-3 | 88+-2 | 11 | DeLorey et al, 1999 |
| Normal subjects | 17+-1 | 41+-2 | 15 | Tantucci et al, 2001 |
| Normal subjects | 10+-0.5 | – | 10 | Bell et al, 2005 |
| Normal subjects | 8.5+-1.2 | 30+-8 | 69 | Narkiewicz, 2006 |
| Normal females | 10+-0.4 | – | 11 | Ahuja et al, 2007 |
| Normal subjects | 12+-2 | 62+-2 | 20 | Travers et al, 2008 |
| Condition | Minute ventilation | Age | N. of subjects | Reference |
The references for the above Table can be found here.
For details related to the prevalence of chronic overbreathing in the modern population (more than 90%), visit the Homepage of this site. An extended analysis of too fast and heavy breathing is provided on this page: hyperventilation.
