Episodes

  • Escape from Asthma

    Escape from Asthma
    Mar 1 2019
    Escape from Asthma Episode 1 The Buteyko Method & How It Helps Asthmatics. This is a series of fifteen five to ten minute episodes that will give you all you need to know about the Buteyko Method of Breath Training to improve the management of your asthma. This course of training is free and you will learn how you will be able to manage on far less medication, have better control of your asthma and have improved energy and sleep by simply improving your breathing and a few other lifestyle changes. The Buteyko Method has been subjected to clinical trials that have proved its effectiveness and millions across the world have benefitted from the training. Until now training was either in small classes or one to one courses and would cost hundreds of pounds and even internet-based courses have been over a hundred pounds usually. With the new facility of the podcast we can offer quality training to every asthma sufferer who has access to the internet for free. If you find this course has been useful, you may want to explore the full potential of the Buteyko Method and seek further training and help from a Buteyko Educator where you live. When you decide to take this course you may want to buy my book I published to compliment the podcast course. It will give you far more information about the method and also has a section for recording your breathing exercises, entitled “The Breath Connection - The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Health” just click HERE to view or order it. Breath training is a powerful tool for healthcare and will usually change the need for medication significantly. You are advised to discuss this with your doctor or asthma nurse before commencing this course and to review your progress from time to time with your asthma practitioner. You might want to buy my book to help explain what you are doing, entitled “Doctor’s Guide to the Buteyko Method” that outlines in medical terms the essentials of the Buteyko Method. HERE Make sure you listen to the episodes in order from 1 to 15 as each adds to the earlier ones. So let's begin with some facts. First, every asthma sufferer over-breathes or suffers chronic hidden hyperventilation and according to Professor Buteyko this is the main reason they have all the symptoms of associated with asthma. Professor Buteyko spent all his life studying the effect of breathing in health and disease. Now millions of asthma sufferers worldwide have discovered by learning to improve their breathing and a few other lifestyle changes they have been able to either eliminate all the need for medication or reduce the dosage by 75% or more. The first medicine to be reduced is reliever medication and once all reliever medication has been removed and the patient is free of symptoms, then they can begin to reduce the preventer medication with the guidance from their doctor. Safety is paramount in this re-education programme. You will learn all about the physiology of breathing and how over-breathing can generate the symptoms every asthmatic suffers from. It might be true that some people are predisposed to develop asthma because of genetics, but they also need to breathe badly to trigger the symptoms of asthma. Many parents are happy for their children to take asthma medications but we must realize every medicine carries adverse side-effects and if we can safely minimize the medicine required, that makes good sense. Many doctors have referred their asthma patients to Buteyko Educators and have had excellent results, but sadly these doctors are the exception and most will simply follow the drug protocol guidelines laid down by their professional body. You may ask, if this approach is as good as we are suggesting why is it not more widely used by the medical profession. They argue that more research should be done to confirm the benefits, and that would be reasonable considering the millions of asthma patients who would be affected, but sadly, most medical research is funded by the drug companies and they are not prepared to fund research that would demonstrate patients could manage without their medications. This especially is true since up to 20% of their income is derived from asthma medication and they have responsibility to their shareholders. The last major research trial was conducted in Canada and funded with a million dollars by a benefactor who had enjoyed the benefits of the Buteyko Method. So it would seem that if we are to wait until more research is done before accepting this approach to asthma management, we could be waiting a long time. Meanwhile you can decide for yourself whether to give it a try, it is safe, the commonest side-effect is the need for less medication, it’s free and will require only a few hours of your time doing exercises. The benefits will amaze you and you will be better able to control the condition yourself. In the next episode I will explain how asthmatics are different and what happens when they breathe is too ...
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training

    Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training
    Mar 8 2019

    Episode 2. Why Asthmatics Need Breath Training
    As an asthmatic you may have never considered yourself as suffering from over-breathing, especially as you have often found yourself short of breath and needing to breathe more. This is the paradox that many people don't understand; that an asthmatic seems to suffer from shortness of breath and needs to breathe more but the cause of their asthma is the fact they are breathing too much. The reason for this is we all need to breathe around five litres per minute at rest, and our breathing is controlled by the level of carbon dioxide in our lungs that ideally should be between 5% and 6%. We produce all the carbon dioxide ourselves, in fact far more than we need, so breathing is the way we control this. If the carbon dioxide level is too high breathing is increased automatically to expel the surplus, if too low, breathing is reduced to conserve it.

    So why does carbon dioxide matter? Professor Buteyko called carbon dioxide the hormone par excellence as it has a profound effect on all of the body’s functioning. When carbon dioxide levels fall too low smooth-muscle wrapped around airways, blood vessels and other hollow organs begins to contract. This is the sensation every asthmatic feels when an attack is imminent, airways narrow & constrict and make it hard to breathe. Most asthmatics also breathe through the mouth rather than through their nose and this causes extra irritation of airways which leads to increase production of mucus. Most asthmatics have more mucus producing cells in their airways and lungs. Breathing through the nose filters out dust and irritants and so mouth breathing leads to more irritation of the airways. Also when we breathe too much there is an increase of histamine production that makes us more sensitive to pollen and other allergens. Most asthmatics do not breathe through their nose but through their mouth. The nose is for breathing, and the mouth is for eating and talking. When we breathe through the nose dust and irritants are filtered out, the air is warmed if it is cold, the air is moisturized if too dry and most bacteria are killed off while passing through the nose so protecting us from infections of the chest.

    When carbon dioxide levels are low the blood carrying the oxygen to all the cells in the body doesn't releases oxygen readily and holds onto it. This creates a sensation of a shortage of breath that makes us try to breathe even more, but as we breathe more we expel even more carbon dioxide and the problem gets worse.
    So perhaps you see why breath training is essential for asthma sufferers.

    **Let's check whether you are really breathing too much now. **
    We're going to measure what Professor Buteyko called the “Control Pause” (CP).
    The control pause is the maximum comfortable breath hold after exhaling while at rest. It gives a fair measure of how well your body is oxygenated. If you are breathing normally and have good oxygenation, you will be able to hold your breath for 45 to 60 seconds without any effort. If you are very poorly oxygenated you may need to take a breath almost immediately or manage only a few seconds before you have to take another breath in.
    So let's try it now.
    Make sure you're sitting comfortably and relaxed and that you haven't just eaten as this will affect the result, wait at least an hour after eating before checking your control pause.
    Keep your mouth shut and breathe in through your nose a normal breath, breathe out through your nose and then hold your nose. Checked the time on your second hand of a watch or start a timer. Hold your breath until you feel the need to take another breath in, release your nose and breathe in.
    Note how many seconds you were able to hold your breath.
    This was your control pause. The next episode will discuss how well your breathing is and what the control pause means.
    You can purchase my book that accompanies this podcast for revision and recording your exercises entitled "Better Breathing Means Better Health" HERE
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • What's Your Control Pause & How's Your Breathing

    What's Your Control Pause & How's Your Breathing
    Mar 11 2019
    Asthma Episode #3 What’s Your Control Pause & How’s Your Breathing? Welcome back to episode three of escape from asthma entitled “What's your control pause and how is your breathing?” Now you know your control pause, what does it mean and how can you improve on it? As an asthma sufferer I will be surprised if your control was much higher than 20 seconds as most patients I have taught with asthma have a control pause in the teens anything from 13 to 19 seconds. If your control pause was under 10 seconds you are breathing almost 3 to 4 times more than normal and need to try to change this urgently because your medicine will not change your breathing, but will simply control the symptoms. If you achieved 20 to 25 seconds with your comfortable breath hold your breathing is about 2 to 3 times more than normal. A control pause of 25 to 35 seconds still means you are over-breathing, almost twice much as you need but you will only have problems when under stress or hit by any of the triggers that make your asthma worse. If your control pauses 35 to 45 seconds it is good for any asthma sufferer, but you will still benefit from improved breathing in many other ways. It is very unlikely that your control pause was over 45 seconds as this would mean your breathing would be normal, a very rare situation for any asthmatic. A control pause of 45 to 60 seconds is what we should all try to achieve and this will be the target for this full training course. If you have any doubts that your asthma is not due largely to over-breathing you could try and purposefully breathed heavily for a minute or so and you will properly feel many of your symptoms coming on. You may in fact need to take medication to help reduce the symptoms after this exercise. However I would not recommend this procedure except under the supervision of your doctor or asthma nurse. You may have been given two types of medication, Reliever medication that you can use whenever you feel tight chested or wheezy, this opens the airways but also increases your breathing rate. If you are using the reliever medication more than twice a week you will have been given a Controller medication, this is a steroid that will reduce inflammation of the airways and calm your breathing down. You may have been told to take the controller medication on a regular basis, if so, that is what you have to do until your breathing has improved so much that you don't need any reliever medication and don't have any symptoms. At that stage you can discuss with your doctor ways of reducing your controller medication safely. At the end of this course we will also give you advice on how to do this. So just to let you know what the rest of this course will cover I’ll give you an outline of the next episodes. Already you have been advised to try to always breathe through your nose and not to mouth breathe. However many people find it difficult to nose breathe because it is congested or stuffy, this is in part because they haven't been using their nose in the past and as the old saying goes “If you don't use it, you lose it!” So the next episode will tell you how to unblock and clear your nose to get it back to perfect working order. Later you will be told to download a free workbook that summarizes most of the course content and you will use it to record your exercises. You will learn how to reduce your breathing through relaxation, you will have advice on good posture for better breathing and what is the best way of avoiding over breathing when asleep. You will learn how to check your pulse, how to reduce coughing bouts and a later episode will explain how certain foods may cause a problem for asthmatics, and you will be given a dietary screening that will help you improve your diet at the same time that will improve your breathing. You will learn how to avoid mouth breathing when talking and how to use the control pause or reduced breathing as an alternative to your reliever medication. Towards the end you will learn about anti-hyperventilation exercises that you will be able to use whenever you feel your breathing is getting out of control, at times of stress or after exercise. You'll be told what danger signs you should be aware of and went to see your doctor. And finally when you have improved your breathing you will be told how to stop exercises and monitor breathing with just a minute check-up each day. You'll be given a summary of the Buteyko Method for your doctor to read so that he or she knows what you're doing and can help you on your way. The next episode is entitled “Nose Clearing & Your First Buteyko Exercise” At this stage you might prepare for the full course by buying the eBook "The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Asthma Management" HERE or my book that accompanies this podcast entitled "Better Breathing Means Better Health" HERE
    Show More Show Less
    6 mins
  • Nose Clearing & Your First Buteyko Exercise

    Nose Clearing & Your First Buteyko Exercise
    Mar 14 2019
    Asthma Episode #4 Nose Clearing & Your First Buteyko Exercise Hello this is Michael Lingard welcoming you to “Escape from Asthma” episode 4, “Nose Clearing and Your First Buteyko exercise”. Nose breathing, an aid to better asthma control. Perhaps the simplest advice is to try to always breathe through the nose. Why? Because the nose functions to deliver air to the lungs in as perfect condition as possible. It makes over-breathing physically more difficult simply because of the smaller size of the nostrils compared with an open mouth, it filters out most of the dust and particulates found in the atmosphere, it moisturizes the air when it's dry, as in centrally heated rooms, delivering air that doesn't irritate and dry out the delicate membranes of the lungs, it conserves water and helps reduce the risk of dehydration, it contains active organisms that trap and destroy many potential infective agents in the air we breathe, protecting the lungs from infection, it is also found to be responsible for the production of up to 50% of nitric oxide in our body when we breathe normally through our nose. Nitric oxide has many vital functions in the body that are still being discovered, we know nitric oxide can dilate blood vessels and improve circulation hence its use for treatment in angina. When people have not been habitually nose breathing for many years it may take a little time and perseverance to retrain the nose to do the work of breathing it was designed for. A Buteyko Conference I attended in Brisbane a marathon runner told, how with Buteyko Training she had learned to nose breathe throughout the entire marathon and had improved her performance by doing so. Many Olympic athletes in Australia and New Zealand have undergone Buteyko Training to improve their sports performance, endurance and recovery. What if it is difficult to breathe through the nose? There is a saying “If you don't use it you lose it!”, this seems to be what many people are found who have difficulty breathing through their nose. However it is the experience of all Buteyko Educators that with specific exercises and perseverance practically everyone can relearn to nose breathe easily. Whether there is a history of chronic catarrh, deviation of the nasal septum, polyps, old injury or any other condition, everyone can improve their ability to nose breathe. Two simple exercises are taught to help regain normal nose breathing capabilities. Nose clearing exercise number one. On a normal out-breath, hold your nose and keep the mouth shut, and nod the head forward and backwards about eight times gently, then released the nose and breathe gently through the nose, always keeping the mouth shut. Repeating this up to 3 times will clear most stuffy noses and mild blockages. You may need to repeat this procedure a number of times in the first few days until the nose remains clear. Note clearing exercise number two. This is similar to the first exercise but more effective when the congestion or blockages are more severe and long-standing. On an out-breath hold your nose, keep the mouth shut and walk as many steps as you can. When you feel the urgent need to breathe, keep your mouth shut, release the nose and breath in gently through the nose. Repeat till the nose becomes clear. Despite the simplicity of these exercises they have been repeatedly shown to work remarkably well. Remember always breathe through your nose it's what it's therefore. Reduced breathing. Since Professor Buteyko claimed asthma is a disease of hyperventilation or over-breathing, a substantial part of the full Buteyko course is spent teaching patients how to reduce their breathing. This is probably the greatest conceptual hurdle for asthma sufferers to overcome, and reasonably so! They find themselves breathless, struggling to take another breath, then to be told they are breathing too much and should reduce their breathing to overcome the symptoms takes a great leap of trust initially. It is only when they understand the physiology of tissue oxygenation which is part of this training does it then makes sense to them. The basic background is that triggers or stresses cause us to hyperventilate and the hyperventilation produces the symptoms. Some people require a lot of individual support and help to learn to reduce their breathing and to break often a lifetime's habit of habitual chronic hidden hyperventilation, others find it easier to learn quickly. At its simplest level the secret is to be totally relaxed, as Professor Buteyko said “Be soft as a cloth”. When we clench our fist we need more energy hence more oxygen to meet the muscles demand, hence more breathing to provide the oxygen. If all muscles are relaxed, a demand for oxygen goes down and are breathing is reduced. If we then relax our breathing muscle, the diaphragm, breathing is reduced further. Because some people may initially have unpleasant reactions when they do reduced breathing they are carefully ...
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • Getting Started

    Getting Started
    Mar 16 2019

    Escape from Asthma Episode#5

    Hi! This is Michael Lingard bringing you episode five of “Escape from Asthma” entitled getting started. Now have completed one Buteyko exercise you can begin to do more on a daily basis using the worksheet you have downloaded and printed off, my book "Better Breathing Means Better Health" fror recording your exercises and for revision HERE or the booklet The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Asthma Management you may have purchased from Lulu.com.HERE

    Try to do at least one exercise in the morning and perhaps two in the evening, you can choose how long you spend doing the reduced breathing depending on how much time you can spare. If you want a short exercise that will take less than 10 minutes make the reduced breathing just three minutes long each time but if you have time you will get better results with a reduced breathing of five minutes each time giving you an exercise that will take about 15 minutes.

    You should find each time you do an exercise your control pause will rise from start to finish, and your pulse will fall or remain unchanged, depending on how far above your normal pulse rate you were at the start of the exercise.

    There are a few tips you can note when doing the exercises.

    Firstly make sure you are relaxed and undisturbed before beginning an exercise don't try to push your control pause for breath hold to try to increase the control pause, the control pause should always be the maximum comfortable breath hold and should not be in any way stressful.
    When doing the reduced breathing there are many ways patients achieve this but it is always through relaxation. Remember to be sitting comfortably feet on the floor, all muscles throughout the body relaxed, eyes closed, mouth closed, only breathing through your nose. Most people find it helps to visualize some favourite scene, for instance by the sea on the beach or in the garden or by a gentle flowing river. Whatever the scene you use, try to focus on small details there, so as to take your attention away from the daily problems and chores, to quieten your mind.
    This is not the same as meditation, since you need to keep aware of your breathing and relaxation. Some people find listening to certain music can help them relax more. Whatever you choose you will know you have found the right way if your exercises give good results.
    I usually suggest plotting the average of the start control pause and end control pause. If you use a computer you can do this easily on Microsoft Excel or similar programs, these programs will allow you to add a trend line also to clearly see how you are progressing. You may decide to monitor your progress this way once a week.

    In the next episode we will discuss what to do if you find you are not making progress and not achieving an increasing control pause. I will introduce some simple things you can do during the day that will help improve your breathing habits.

    It will help for you to read the sections on reduced breathing in the workbook suggested
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • Checking Your Progress & The Mini Pause

    Checking Your Progress & The Mini Pause
    Mar 16 2019

    Asthma Episode # 6 Checking Your Progress & The Mini Pause

    Hi, Welcome to podcast episode six of Escape from Asthma. We shall be checking your progress and introducing the Mini Pause.
    By now you will have probably done a few Buteyko Exercises and recorded them on a worksheet or in the Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing & Better Asthma Management. In the last lesson I suggested you plot the average of each start Control Pause and end Control Pause.
    You will find your control pause will vary from day to day and also during the day depending on many things, so don’t be surprised if some days your exercises are not as good as you expected, what we are looking for is a slow steady improvement . This will always come if you persevere.
    You may improve your control pause by just a few seconds each time you do an exercise, perhaps increasing it by 3 to 5 seconds from start to finish but usually you will find by the time you do your next exercise your control pause will have dropped a little, this is normal. There are many ways of reducing this effect. The first thing to try to remember is to keep your mouth closed as you go about your daily routine, breathing only through your nose. Don’t forget to do the nose clearing exercises if your nose gets stuffy. Just being aware more of how you are breathing will help, if you catch yourself breathing heavily, just take a moment to think “reduced breathing”. This is something you can do throughout the day , anywhere you get delayed , in a supermarket queue, at traffic lights or waiting on the phone, rather than get stressed you can use these moments to do some more reduced breathing.
    The good news about breath training is that exercises are only needed until your breathing returns to normal, then you can stop doing any exercises and your breathing will continue to be good. This is because what we are doing is re-setting special receptors in the brain that control our rate of breathing. Every person that is over-breathing is doing so because their receptors are telling them to. Once you have changed the receptors they will keep you breathing normally. Curiously our breathing rate is not governed by the oxygen in our body but rather the level of carbon dioxide. Ideally this should be kept at around 5-6% when breathing normally but every asthmatic will have too low a level of carbon dioxide probably nearer 3-4 % and this is one of the major causes of all their symptoms.
    So if your progress is not as fast as you would like you can try an additional simple trick when doing your reduced breathing; just try taking slightly smaller breaths in and breathing out more slowly so that you feel a little “air hunger”. You would like to breathe a little more but it is not stressful or anxiety provoking. What you are doing is pushing against your carbon dioxide receptors, getting them used to accepting a slightly higher carbon dioxide level than they have been used to.
    If this is in anyway unpleasant then revert back to just relaxation as the way to do your reduced breathing.
    Something else you can do to help keep your breathing better between exercises is the Mini Pause. The Mini Pause is exactly what it suggests, a breath hold after exhaling of just 3 to 5 seconds, then return to normal breathing. You can dot Mini Pauses in at any time during the day whenever you think about your breathing and this will help maintain a higher control pause. Some people may do up to a hundred during the day.
    Later on in the course we will talk about an exercise you can do when out walking. The next episode will be about food and your breathing. Did you know that what you eat affects the way you breathe and the way you breathe affects how you eat?
    If you haven't yet purchased the eBook "The Buteyko Guide to Better Health & Better Asthma Management" click HERE to access it.
    For recording your exercises and more background information purchase "Better Breathing Means Better Health" HERE
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • Food and Your Breathing

    Food and Your Breathing
    Mar 17 2019

    Asthma Episode # 7. Food and Your Breathing

    Professor Buteyko included advice on diet for people learning to improve their breathing. He found that a number of common foods tended to increase patient’s
    breathing rate; they included dairy food such as cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream and milk; stimulants such as strong tea, coke, coffee, alcohol and cocoa; other foods such as chocolate, honey, raspberries, strawberries, fish, chicken, nuts and beef, chicken or fish stock. However, when this research was conducted in Russia, the diet of most people was much simpler than today’s Western diet. In the West today our consumption of meat, dairy and processed foods is far greater and the link between our food and our breathing has become much more important.
    My research over the past two years has led me to believe there is a strong relationship between our diet and our breathing. Chronic hidden hyperventilation is related to stress, diet and bad breathing habits, but diet appears to be the major factor perhaps because a stressful lifestyle usually leads to bad eating habits, as well as directly affecting breathing due to the fight/flight responses to stressors. I believe this is so important that I would advise all Buteyko Educators to screen their patients for diet before teaching them to improve their breathing. I use a simple screening method that is well established and used by many doctors in the USA called the 4LeafSurvey. It is based on just twelve questions about your normal eating habits and give a good estimate of the percentage calories you are getting from whole plants as opposed to meat, dairy and other foods.
    I would strongly advise you to check your diet this way. You can do this online HERE
    I have included in the notes that go with this episode a table that shows the range of Control Pause associated with the 4LeafSurvey Score:
    4LS Score -40 to -30 (CP 16) Range (10 tp 22)
    -30 to -20 (CP 19) Range (12 to 25)
    -20 to -10 (CP 21) Range (15 tp 28)
    -10 to 0 (CP 24) Range (17 to 30)
    0 to +10 (CP 26) Range (19 to 32)
    +10 to +20 (CP 29) Range (23 to35)
    +20 to +30 (CP 32) Range ( 25 to 37)
    Most asthmatics will have a lower control pause than indicated in the table above simply because of their condition.
    The good news is that as you improve your breathing you will also begin to improve your diet. The reverse is also true and anyone wanting to improve their diet should check out my website HERE
    If you haven't purchased my new book "Better Breathing Means Better Health" you will find it useful for recording your exercises and as a reference book HERE
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
  • Step Exercises & The Extended Pause

    Step Exercises & The Extended Pause
    Mar 20 2019

    Asthma Episode # 8 Step Exercises & The Extended Pause

    Hi, this is episode eight of Escape from Asthma entitled Step Exercises and The Extended Pause.
    As part of your breath retraining wouldn't it be good if you could speed up your breath training while out for a walk or while walking to work each day? Well this is exactly what the step exercise allows you to do. Remember what we are trying to achieve is a change in your breathing through a re-setting of your carbon dioxide receptors in your body that control your rate of breathing. Every asthmatic is over-breathing and their receptors are trying to maintain a lower level of carbon dioxide than is normal and healthy. The Buteyko exercises you have been doing have been gradually accustoming the receptors to accept a higher level of carbon dioxide through relaxation and perhaps reduced breathing with the accompanying slight “air hunger”.
    If we could apply more pressure on your receptors to get used to a higher level of carbon dioxide, that would speed up your recovery of normal breathing and reduce all your asthma symptoms. Step exercises do just that.
    Very simply next time you are out walking, firstly remember to only breathe through your nose and pace yourself so that you can even when going uphill. When you are ready just hold your breath on an out-breath and see how many steps you can do before you feel the need to breathe in, counting in your head, then breathe in through your nose and continue on your way until you feel your breathing is comfortable again, when you can repeat this step counting with another breath hold after exhaling. Try to steadily increase your count each time, each time returning to normal nose breathing as you walk.
    This is a very powerful exercise that will speed up your progress. You may find the next time you do your Buteyko exercise after such a walk your Control Pause will have increased notably.

    This is the main exercise that children are taught when leaning the Buteyko Method, there is a rough conversion rate of steps compared with the Control Pause, divide the number of steps you can achieve with a breath hold after exhaling by two should equal your control pause, many children achieve up to 100 or more steps by the time their breathing is back to normal which would be the equivalent to a Control Pause of over 50 seconds.

    The second subject in this episode is how to replace the use of your reliever medication with an Extended Pause. The next time you feel you need to reach out for your reliever puffer, because you feel wheezy or tight chested, try to first relax, breathe in gently then out and hold your breath a little longer than you would for a control pause, until you feel the need to breathe in quite strongly, then breathe in gently through your nose followed by a minute of relaxed breathing. Then breathe in and out gently and hold your breath again for an extended pause as before, if after another minute of relaxed breathing you still feel you need to use your inhaler, take one puff followed by two minutes of reduced breathing.
    Most asthmatics find that more times than not, this simple exercise is effective and they can avoid using their reliever. This is a great achievement, to become less reliant on always having to use the puffer. Initially you may still need the reliever but with time you will find the extended pause followed by a short period of gentle reduced breathing will replace your puffer except in extreme situations. When you do use your reliever remember to follow with a few minutes of reduced breathing as the reliever medication does open up the airways but also increases your breathing rate.

    Try both these new exercises out over the coming days until the next episode when I will introduce you to three exercises you may use when you feel your breathing has begun to get worse for whatever reason, these exercises are the three Anti-Hyperventilation Exercises.

    Remember you can revise on most of the information taught in these episodes in the accompanying ebook “The Buteyko Guide to Better Breathing and Better Asthma Management” you may have already bought from Lulu.com, if not click HERE
    You might still want to purchase my new book entitled "Better Breathing Means Better Health" to record your exercises now and in the future, and to be a reference book HERE
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins