Buteyko Primer

So I've been dealing with this lung thing since July. I know what aggravates it...bad air quality, elevated heart rate, stress. But haven't found much that helps it (except rest...not to be undervalued, rest, it's been very useful). Until now.

I've discovered the Buteyko Breathing Method.

While searching for nutrition advice for asthmatics on Patrick Holford's site, I came across the book Asthma-Free Naturally by Patrick McKeown. I ordered the book through Amazon and they offered a discount if I ordered it along with Close Your Mouth: Buteyko Clinic Handbook for Perfect Health, also by Patrick McKeown, so I got both.

These two books are very similar, "Close Your Mouth" is just a more concise version of Asthma-Free, with a better quality cover. If you want to just learn the exercises, get "Close Your Mouth". If you want more information on the method, how it was developed, a fuller explanation of the exercises, get "Asthma-Free Naturally". Either book will take a while to get to you because it's not very popular (yet) here in the US (big in the UK however). Worth the wait (at least for me!).

Here's a quick synopsis...theory: asthmatics (and other people with lung issues like me) have too little carbon dioxide in their lungs. The tightness is their lungs makes them feel the need to try to breathe deeply, "overbreathing", which ironically only further depletes their CO2. The aim of the Buteyko method is to teach you to breathe less. Always, always through your nose (filters out impurities, humidifies air going in, keeps humidity from going out, limits the volume of air going in or going out). I'm not on any medication, (I don't have asthma and my condition isn't responsive to asthma meds, so I never got started down that path) but apparently if you're asthmatic and on meds, you can reduce or eliminate your medication by following the Buteyko techniques and diligently doing the exercises.

Info on the underlying theory of why the exercises work can be found here (you won't find much on the actual exercises online, practioners charge about $400 for a series of lessons, videos go for ~$100, they don't want to be giving that info away!). But here's a little more on the exercises and here too. Beware! If you have serious health problems, it clearly states in the 'Asthma-Free' NOT go just start doing these exercises!

After more than 4 months of dealing with my RADS I was able to go for a long walk yesterday, with no setback today, and have had moments the last few days where I felt NORMAL. Normal! No tightness in my chest! I've been diligent about doing the exercises at least twice a day, usually 3 times, and I will continue to be until my control pause is routinely at least 40 seconds (which seems like an eternity to me now!). I'll keep you posted.