|
It's well known that asthmatics hyperventilate. Most experts agree with that but believe that they hyperventilate because they have asthma. Professor Buteyko had a different point of view. He maintained that the hyperventilation comes first - and causes the asthma.
The Professor explained that asthma symptoms are caused by over-breathing, which he called "hidden hyperventilation" because the patient is not aware of it. This over-breathing may be so subtle that even a doctor doesn't notice it.
However, as most people breathe more than 20,000 times a day, each breath only needs to be slightly bigger than normal. When you multiply that by 20,000 that's a lot more air going in and out of your body in one day.
Does it matter? Yes!
In 1904, Danish Professor, Christian Bohr, discovered that for the body to get the best supply of oxygen to the tissues, including the brain, there must be sufficient carbon dioxide in the blood.
Like everybody else, you have probably been brought up to think of carbon dioxide as a waste gas and taught to breathe deeply to get rid of it. Sadly, that is exactly what asthmatics should not do.
The more air you take in the more must come out - and with it the carbon dioxide. Of course, it's necessary to exhale some carbon dioxide, but if you don't retain enough your tissues don't get the oxygen they need. To protect you from this, if you are asthmatic, you have an asthma attack.
Unfortunately, when you feel an attack coming on, what do you do? You try harder to breathe - it's a natural reaction. Then, when that doesn't work, you take a puff or two of the inhaler and usually that brings relief. The trouble is, it enables you to breathe even more and so the problem escalates until you require more of the inhaler, or a stronger one, to give the same relief.
So what's the problem? You have the medication, you're using it correctly and most of the time you feel fine. But, what about those days when you have an infection and need even more? What about when you go out and forget to take your inhaler with you?
Don't you sometimes feel at the mercy of your asthma and the doctors, nurses, hospital technicians and drugs you need to keep it at bay?
Compare it to over eating. If you eat too much you put on a lot of weight and that can make you ill. If you eat less, you lose weight and your health improves. How would you feel if you were obese and when you went to the doctor you were prescribed something to increase your appetite?
Yet, when you go with asthma symptoms because you've been over breathing you get an inhaler to help you breathe more!
Is asthma dangerous?
Yes! According to Asthma UK, more than 1,400 die of it each year in the UK alone.
In 'Medical Intervention Hit or Myth,' Dr Ronald S Laura wrote of an asthma epidemic in England and Wales in the mid sixties. During the epidemic, in the age group 15 - 24, asthma deaths trebled while in the 10 -14 age group, deaths increased seven-fold. Overall, an estimated 3,500 more people than normal died!
This disaster roughly coincided with the introduction of aerosol bronchodilators and investigations confirmed that the increase in asthma deaths correlated with the increase in their sales.
|
