WHAT IS BUTEYKO BREATHING?

The Buteyko Breathing Method is a medically researched and scientifically confirmed breath retraining that reverses the condition of Over-Breathing or Hyperventilation.


What is Over-Breathing?

Clinically, over-breathing is known as hyperventilation. Put simply, it means breathing more air than the body needs metabolically. The standard volume of normal breathing for a healthy adult at rest is 4 – 6 litres of air per minute. Scientific research conducted by Professor Buteyko over four decades, along with scientific trials at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in 1995, demonstrated that people with asthma, for example, breathe a volume of 10 -20 litres per minute between attacks, and over twenty litres during an attack.

Over-breathing can result from modern day living. You could say we have a stone-age respiratory system for a space-age life. Environmental stressors include air, water, light, sound pollution. We eat poor quality food. Mental and emotional stress are constant and lack of physical exercise all trigger over-breathing in an obvious way such as hyperventilation attacks and in subtle ways such as holding our breath, gasping or sighing frequently or snoring.

Various estimates exist regarding the extent of over-breathing among the general population, ranging from 30% according to Claude Lum, a prominent respirologist from the UK to Alexander Stalmatski who believes it to be 90%.

Professor Buteyko stated that genetic predisposition determines which illnesses people develop from over-breathing. The response of each individual to hyperventilation depends on inherited factors. Regardless, the Buteyko Method has been effective with over 150 different chronic conditions as evidenced by Dr Buteyko's research and clinical application.