It would be good to get your feedback about this training course so that we can improve it in any way and offer you more personalized help.

It would also be useful to know what made you decide to take this course, perhaps you had a health problem you thought might be helped with improved breathing, or you had heard of the Buteyko Method but not been able to find a trainer near you, or you may have just decided this would be a good way of improving your health and immune system. 

If you have any suggestions as to how the course might be improved or developed , that would be welcomed as well.

I am passionate that as many people in the world should have access to this remarkable work of Professor Konstantin Buteyko, most of us need it. Tell your friends and relatives about this powerful aid to health and you might even Twitter a comment!

My email is  lingard@totalhealthmatters.co.uk or lingard@ohsoeasy.net

Better Breathing Means better Health - Episode #16 

What you eat affects how you breathe and how you breathe affects what you eat.

This idea comes as a surprise to many people who have never believed there was a connection between our eating and our breathing habits. However over the past forty years inn the health profession I have come to the conclusion that our health is connected to everything, and a few years ago I published a book entitled “Connection - Towards a Broader Understanding of Health in Medicine” that expands on this concept. 

After three years of research, gathering data from over 250 patients it seems quite clear that there is a strong relationship between our breathing and are eating habits. There are good physiological reasons why our diet impacts on our breathing and Professor Buteyko incorporated this in his training programme, but our Western diet today is very different from the diet of ordinary people in Russia back in the 1950’s. The link between our breathing and the food we choose to eat and how we eat it is more subtle with psychological influences.

Basically the better our breathing, the more selective and better is our eating and likewise the better our eating habits, the better is our breathing.

In the current situation of the COVID-19 (2020) this may have a profound impact on people's capacity to deal with infections and in particular all viral infections. 

Our immune system can be improved by lifestyle changes and there are three key factors that can influence the immune system in this way. 

They are: our nutritional status or what we eat, the way we breathe and our management of stress. 

Just as what we eat affects how we breathe, there is another correlation, and that is how we react to stressors is linked closely to how we normally breathe. If we usually breathe very gently and quietly we invariably are calm, if we are habitually hyperventilating or over-breathing we are usually stressed. We all have been told to breathe slowly and gently when we have been stressed. So in fact we have these three activities very closely linked; if we improve one, the others will improve. If we learn to improve all three, our health, wellbeing and immune system will all improve, and we shall be better able to respond to any infection. 

This podcast of Better Breathing Means Better Health will have given you an insight into how you may teach yourself to breathe better and in doing so you will be taking better control of your stress and you will find the way you eat will improve. 

To deal with the nutritional side of this question you may want to listen to my podcast entitled the World's Finest Diet, which guides you how to improve your diet, thereby improving your health and boosting your immune system this way. 

Alternatively you may take on my Skype training course entitled the Skype Lifestyle Training Course that incorporates these major factors. Details of this may be obtained on my website: www.totalhealthmatters.co.uk

Observed relationship between Dietary Status & Breathing Status

Dietary status was based on the 4LeafSurvey that estimates the %age of calories derived from Whole Plant Foods and the Breathing status is based on the Buteyko Control Pause that estimates the %age of carbon dioxide in the lungs or degree of oxygenation of the body.

The 4LeafSurvey scores range from -44 to +44, the Control Pause ranges from 5 to 60 seconds  for most of the population.

4LeafSurvey Score (X)

Control Pause Score (Y)

70% CP Range

-44

12

5 to 19

-40

13

6 to 20

-35

15

8 to 22

-30

16

9 to 23

-25

18

11 to 25

-20

19

12 to 26

-15

21

14 to 28

-10

22

15 to 29

-5

24

17 to 31

0

25

18 to 32

5

27

20 to 34

10

28

21 to 35

15

30

23 to 37

20

31

24 to 38

25

33

26 to 40

30

34

27 to 41

35

36

29 to 43

40

37

30 to 44

44

38

31 to 45

Michael Lingard BSc. DO.WPNutCert. 28/3/2020

**Episode # 13 Stopping Buteyko Exercises & Taping **

Hi, welcome to episode thirteen of Better Breathing Means Better Health. I hope by now you are really making progress and feeling the benefits of better breathing. One of the great attractions of the Buteyko Method breath training is that people don’t need to carry on doing exercises indefinitely, but once their carbon dioxide receptors have been re-set and they are achieving good control pauses of 35 to 45 seconds all the time, then they can begin to reduce their exercises and eventually stop them altogether.

So at some time in the future you will have established a new habit of breathing normally, you will have a morning control pause of over thirty-five and will often achieve control pauses of over forty. You will have achieved ideal breathing when your control pause is between forty-five and sixty seconds.

How quickly you get to these levels depends on many factors: how bad your breathing was, how many exercises you have been doing each day (the more, the faster you change your breathing pattern), whether you are going through a stressful time, whether you are getting enough physical exercise (walking is perhaps the safest), whether your diet is helping with your breathing (listen to episode seven again), whether you are only nose breathing, even when talking and sleeping, and a few more points need to be considered. Every one is different and this is why face to face training by a Buteyko Educator is by far the best and fasted way of getting good results.

You will get a check-list in episode 14 that you can refer to if your progress isn’t as great as you’d like.

Assuming you have reached the thirty-five plus control pause, you can start reducing the number of exercises you do each day, progressively, until you are only doing an exercise if and when your control pause drops off. Remember to keep measuring your morning control pause regardless because this is your early warning system should your condition begin to deteriorate at any time. It takes under a minute so there is no reason to drop this essential safety measure.

If you have been using tape to stop you mouth breathing in your sleep you may by now have broken the bad habit of mouth breathing when asleep. You can test yourself very simply; take your control pause just before going to sleep, do not tape your mouth and check your control pause when you wake up in the morning. If your control pause has not fallen during the night it means you have not been mouth breathing in your sleep. If however your control pause has fallen by ten or more seconds you need to carry on taping at night for a little longer. The other indicator is you will probably have a dry mouth if you have been mouth breathing.

Some people I have trained prefer to maintain the taping as it gives then better sleep and they don’t have to worry about mouth breathing or snoring in their sleep.

Remember you have been on a major health promoting journey by improving your breathing. In the East breathing is central to all health care systems. Here in the West over-breathing or chronic hidden hyperventilation is almost an epidemic, with over 75% of people breathing badly and suffering from, according to Professor Buteyko, over a hundred modern diseases because of this bad habit. If you want to learn more about the profound effect on our health generally of over-breathing you could watch my video on YouTube entitled “Chronic Hidden Hyperventilation 21st Century Epidemic” HERE

The next episode will cover a revision of the most important points and advice on when to see your doctor if your symptoms begin to return.

Episode # 11 Posture, Sleep, and Taping.

Hi, this is Michael Lingard welcoming you to Better Breathing Means Better Health, episode eleven, entitled Posture, Sleep and Taping.

I hope you are finding this course already helping with your general health and that the work you have put in so far beginning to pay off as you feel more in control of your health and perhaps experiencing more energy, better sleep and fewer symptoms.

So how does posture affect our breathing? The raised shoulders, expanded chest and tense upper muscles are to be seen on most patients who normally over-breathe.
With habitual heavy breathing these ancillary respiratory muscles need to be used repeatedly and they become chronically tense with over-use.
We should breathe primarily with just our diaphragm, the large dome shaped muscle under our lower ribs, and we should not normally use the upper chest for normal activity breathing.

During Buteyko training the effects of different postures on our breathing, when awake and asleep are discussed, based on Professor Buteyko’s research.

He found that sleeping on our left side reduced breathing at night the most, sleeping on the right side or stomach was almost as good for our breathing, but sleeping on the back invariably increased the breathing rate.
So try to avoid sleeping on your back as this has been clearly demonstrated to
lead to over-breathing in sleep and often also mouth breathing since the lower jaw easily drops when on our back. This is usually the sleep position when snoring is at its worst.
Sleeping on the left side was found to reduce breathing the most, on the right side or front was found to keep breathing rate lower than when sleeping on the back.

When sitting try to keep the back upright and the diaphragm free to move easily, avoid slouching and restricting the lower ribs and abdomen. Good posture is just part of the many elements taught on a Buteyko course. Good posture permits normal body action and in particular aids better breathing. Improving your posture is part of the bad habit correction. Improved posture will also improve the overall physiology of your body.

There are various ways you can train yourself to avoid sleeping on your back and one is to attach a cork or small ball to the back of your pyjama top, whenever you roll onto your back this will painfully remind you to go onto your side or stomach!

Obviously during your waking hours you will by now be very aware of how you are breathing but when you are asleep you are no longer in control of your breathing.
One of the commonest bad habits when sleeping is mouth breathing and snoring.
If you awake in the morning with a dry mouth, the chances are is that you have been mouth breathing in your sleep. If you snore you almost certainly have been mouth breathing. So how do we stop this when we are unconscious?
The simplest solution is to use a thin strip of micropore adhesive tape as used to secure dressings.
You can use one centimeter wide tape, tear off about 10 centimetres, fold over one end, it's a good idea to reduce some of the stickiness by pressing it on your bedclothes a couple of times then place it diagonally across your mouth. You will still be able to talk and breathe through the corners of your mouth but it will remind you to keep your mouth closed. When you get used to using the tape this way you may need to begin to place it horizontally across your mouth to ensure you do keep your mouth totally closed.
Don’t forget to make sure your nose is clear before going to sleep by doing the nose clearing exercises if you need to.
Many people have found this simple procedure has stopped them from snoring and that they have the best sleep ever.

The next episode 12 will be about When You Are Ill. If you haven’t yet downloaded the book to accompany this course entitled “The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Health” by Michael Lingard, you can view it or buy it
From Lulu.com HERE