Hypoventilation as a Health Problem

- Updated on December 15, 2021

By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Alternative Health Educator and Author

As shown in other articles, many disease states are characterized by hyperventilation. Are there any health problems in which sick people breathe less than the norm?

Low minute volume can be found, for example, in cases of hypothyroidism. Such people usually have abnormally low levels of thyroid hormones. As a result, their cells cannot generate enough energy. Typical symptoms of hypothyroidism are low energy, hypoxia, apathy, sleepiness, and weight gain. Indeed, since little CO₂ is produced by cells, less O₂ is released to them by hemoglobin cells, due to the suppressed Bohr effect. Chronic mountain sickness patients can have lower than normal ventilation, but this rare health condition is observed only in those who live about 3,000 m or more above sea level.

Abnormal breathing may be observed in sleep apnea, in which sleeping patients stop breathing for 10-20 or even up to 40-50 seconds. Such apnoeic spells interrupt the normal functioning of the nervous system. As a result, these spells can awaken the patients many times during the night, interfering with physiological and psychological recovery. These people can breathe too little during spells. The inter-event ventilation (i.e. between spells) has been observed to be usually more than 20 l/min.

Patients with hypothyroidism and sleep apnea can normalize their breathing patterns using the method described in later Chapters. Moreover, practical work of breathing practitioners revealed that normalization of breathing of these patients dramatically improves their health state. Even more surprising is the fact that these patients can use virtually the same methods and breathing exercises (to be discussed) to restore their health.

Extract from Dr. Artour Rakhimov's Amazon book "Normal Breathing: The Key to Vital Health", also available in PDF.