Olga Korbut won three gold and one silver medal at the 1972 Olympics. She also won the hearts of millions of men and became the talk of the planet. Nobody had ever seen a gymnast do what Olga could do, that's because no one had ever done it before. She performed with grace and super human athleticism, that combined with emotional music made her an icon. She wept openly when she faltered and the world fell in love.
Russians often refer to the Buteyko Method as breathing gymnastics. It's a good analogy, because the breathing exercises demand the lungs to perform like never before. People with COPD over breathe, they hyperventilate - they breathe more than the body requires. People with COPD even over breathe while resting. The lungs are performing on auto pilot, no one is at the controls.
Fortunately the lungs are organs whose function we have some voluntary control over. So it's a matter of sitting at the controls and doing something radical. At least the body will consider it radical because it has never experienced this force before. It has had no demands.
COPD is relentlessly progressive and once in its grip, there is a feeling of helplessness. Hope vanishes and the disease robs you of vitality, a sense of well being, and eventually your life. Buteyko offers a beacon of hope. It's the lighthouse in the dark windy, wave whipped night. If someone with COPD does nothing, but inhale medicine, they will suffer through a rather dismal life and die.
Western medicine can offer them very little. Dr. Buteyko offers "From Russia With Love."
The respiratory center is located in the medulla oblongata, the lowermost part of the brain at the rear of the head. The respiratory center receives controlling signals of neural, chemical, and hormonal nature and controls the rate and depth of respiratory movements of the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles. Long term hyperventilation plays havoc and upsets, or better yet, ruins our neural, chemical and hormonal balances.
It's the respiratory center that Buteyko Breathing resets. Too great a volume of air being breathed in and out of the lungs causes low levels of carbon dioxide. After months and years the respiratory center becomes accustom to this lower level of CO2 and determines it to be correct. Our respiratory center in turn instructs us to over breathe to maintain these low levels of carbon dioxide, even though our organs and tissues are starved of oxygen.
A bloody good story. The release of oxygen from the haemoglobin molecule is dependent on the quantity of carbon dioxide in our alveoli/arterial blood. If the carbon dioxide is not at the required level of five percent the oxygen sticks to the haemoglobin and is not released to tissues and organs. This bond was named after the physician who discovered it and is known as the Bohr Effect.
The Buteyko breathing method restores the body's levels of carbon dioxide thus resetting the respiratory center and causing the body to breathe in a healthy manner. The new elevated level of carbon dioxide dilates the smooth muscle around airways, arteries and capillaries. They OPEN UP. Now this increase in carbon dioxide results in a greater distribution of new oxygen rich blood which translates into reduced symptoms. People who could barely walk a block before they were breathless can now walk a couple of miles. Rapid heart rate may return to normal. Sexual activity is revitalized. Happiness returns. All I can say is God bless Dr. Buteyko.
Back to Olga Korbut and breathing gymnastics. Today my breathing gymnastics (breathing exercises) consist of three minutes of reduced, or very shallow breathing, thus reducing the volume of air entering and exiting my lungs. Then I do 3 maximum pauses of 25, 30, and 35 seconds, another three minutes reduced breathing, three more maximum pauses, 3 minutes reduced breathing and three more pauses. I am doing 4 sets a day, morning, noon, late afternoon, and before bed. Soon I will increase this to 6 sets, and increase my very shallow breathing time and my Maximum Pauses. My goal by the end of this 28 day fast is to have a Control Pause of 20 seconds or better, and a top Maximum Pause of 60 seconds.
This sounds easy, but it's not and some mastery is involved, the mastery comes with consistent practice, concentration, patience, tenacity, commitment, and the will to get well.
After the juice fast I'll begin further training with my Buteyko Teacher, Christopher Drake. The following two months my goal is Maximum Pauses of 90 seconds, and a Control Pause of 25. I capitalize the pauses out of reverence for Dr. Buteyko, and their importance in healing my life.
I'm writing this blog for people who have COPD. Those with asthma can be CURED by the Buteyko Method, especially younger people whose lungs have not been damaged.
On this planet asthma is an epidemic. The incidence of COPD is on the rise, killing millions of people every year.
Buteyko is not accepted by Western Medicine because it's a method of healing, not a pharmaceutical. If I could invent a pill that does what the Buteyko Breathing Method does, I'd be a billionaire. But I haven't and I'm not. But I know Buteyko works to heal and improve well being, and that is one hell of a gift to the sick people living on planet Earth.
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