Buteyko Update (May 2014)

So I haven't written in this blog for a while, but I have remembered it, for the one or two of you that view it each month.

I stuck with the principles of Buteyko breathing but forewent the breathing exercises. This means I continued to breathe through my nose at all times when awake and tried to sleep on my left side at night. I alsodid a lot of walking in these past few months and my CP is now around 22-25 seconds during the day (the length of time that I can comfortably hold my breath without any involuntary physical movement, for example, like stomach tensing inward or unconscious swallowing / throat movements). I have noticed that I usually feel more awake, have a better memory, and my extremities are much warmer these days.

I used to have very cold hands and feet, whenever the air was even slightly cold my hands would turn purple and get these orange-highlighter-type blotches all over them, it was kinda freaky, especially since it happened due to the slightest provocation. It wasn't like it had to be a cold day for this to happen at all, really just any sensation of cold would do it. Now, even when I do feel significantly cold, my hands will actually appear as though they belong to a human being, which I find rather comforting to be honest. My feet are still purple nearly all the time, but it is a much lighter shade, and I am confident that if I keep looking after my body and adhering to the principles of Buteyko breathing, that they too will improve.

The results I have had from this experiment could happen a lot faster, i.e. within a week or 2 if the person doing so was of a more healthy frame of health to begin with and also practised more diligently than I. I retained the unconscious training in the sense that I would automatically breathe through my nose and into my stomach and would immediately correct any mouth or chest breathing while I was awake. I feel that this is a beneficial practice to have in life because it stops one from falling to the lowest depths of breathing disorders. The worst thing you could do is constantly breathe in your mouth and into your chest, causing jaw joint dysfunction and unnecessary oxidative stress upon the respiratory system, not to mention the entire body which becomes fatigued by being forced to participate in such an inefficient exercise for many thousands of repetitions daily. It is such a small change to make just to get into the way of carrying out breathing in a more healthy manner, yet it can bring about very large differences.

I think that for me, I really need to be drinking more water, I notice now that I am almost always dehydrated and this will certainly affect the rate at which I breathe (more dehydrated = more minute ventilation (the amount of air breathed in and out per minute)). The smaller the amount of air you can tolerate breathing in each minute, the less effort breathing takes up for your body and less damage is done to your lungs and related tissue by the act of breathing in oxygen, which in itself is quite a damaging gas, albeit essential for life.