Excerpt from The Breathing Cure: Exercises to Develop New Breathing Habits for a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life by Patrick McKeown CHAPTER ONE: A NEW APPROACH Patrick's Story In 1998 my life changed forever when I discovered how the poor breathing habits I had developed in early childhood were affecting my body and my quality of life. I was constantly tired, suffering from sleep disorders and respiratory problems, and was taking ever-increasing quantities of medication to try to control my asthma. Then I stumbled across the work of the Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko, and, after making a few changes to my breathing, my symptoms dramatically improved within just a few short weeks. I learned first-hand how effective breathing re-education can be. Over the past eighteen years, following accreditation from Doctor Buteyko to teach his method to others, and working to develop my own program of training, I have witnessed life-changing improvements to the health of thousands of women, men and children. My story starts when I was a boy, growing up in a small village called Dunboyne on the east coast of Ireland. From a young age I suffered from asthma, persistent wheezing and tightness of the chest. My nose was always blocked, so I got into the habit of breathing through my mouth, causing me to snore at night. Sometimes I even held my breath during my sleep, a potentially dangerous condition known as obstructive sleep apnea. From the age of fourteen until my early twenties I felt constantly exhausted, with little energy to apply in school or university. In 1994 I had an operation on my nose in order to relieve fifteen years of nasal issues. However, there was no advice post-surgery on the benefits of breathing through my nose or how I might make the change. And so I continued to experience the same problems I'd had prior to the procedure, including moderate to severe asthma, sleep-disordered breathing, breathlessness, poor concentration and high stress levels. My dysfunctional breathing patterns were starving my brain of oxygen, resulting in excessive over-thinking, tension and fatigue. I drove myself to achieve a decent education by spending countless hours studying, but it wasn't easy. I had to place high demands on myself, and despite many years of hard work, my grades remained just about average. As my conditions worsened, my asthma medication intake increased to the point of hospitalization. By the time I reached my twenties, I was desperate for help. As chance would have it, my solution was right around the corner. In 1998, I happened to read an article in an Irish newspaper about the work of Doctor Buteyko. At the time, his discovery (which later became known as the Buteyko Method) was relatively new to the Western world. I followed Buteyko's technique and tried out an exercise that was meant to decongest my nose, just by holding my breath. I was so thrilled to discover that this simple method worked that I made the full-time change to nasal breathing. I also worked to slow down my breathing to help normalize the volume of air that I was taking into my lungs. Within a day or two of paying a little more attention to how I was breathing, my energy levels improved considerably, the tension in my head lifted, and for the first time in my life my breathing was easier. During that first week, I experienced what it was like to have a good night's sleep and wake up feeling energized. For the first time in years I didn't have to drag myself out of bed in the morning and spend hours trying to come round. The huge improvements to my health, energy and wellbeing that I felt within just a short period of time compelled me to learn more about the method, change my career, and train to teach the Buteyko Method to others. In 2002, I received accreditation from the founder of the method, Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, and ever since, my life has changed for the better in so many ways. I am now forty-eight years old. My wellbeing, focus and quality of life are immeasurably superior to those of my sixteen-year-old self. Had I not read that article in the newspaper I dread to think how my health would be today. I was one of the lucky ones. I've brought about massive positive changes in my life simply by learning how to reverse the poor breathing habits I had developed innocuously over the years. Now, I hope to impart the same information to you. A New Approach The practice of breath control for health and spiritual progression has existed for millennia in Eastern cultures. For instance, the yogic practice of Pranayama is an ancient way of exercising the breath primarily to vary its speed. It encompasses things like alternate nostril breathing, abdominal breathing, forceful breathing and chanting. However, even amongst yoga practitioners it's considered in some of its manifestations to be an advanced technique. The methods detailed in this book have a few commonalities with yogic breathing. They are also backed up by decades of scientific research in order that you fully understand why they work and how to use them. They are immediately accessible, take a short time to learn, incorporate easily into your daily routine whatever your current level of fitness, and will provide you with the tools to continue to improve your health for the rest of your life. It's time to go back to basics. Functional Breathing Pattern Training Functional breathing can help improve quality of focus, concentration, posture, and sleep, support the spine, reduce anxiety and take the hard work out of breathing. It can help you to move better, meaning there's less risk of injury in sports and in day-to-day tasks such as lifting and carrying your child. It can also reduce the onset and endurance of breathlessness and exercise-induced asthma (bronchoconstriction). Physiologically, it results in long-term improvement to blood circulation, dilation of the upper airways (nose) and lungs, and oxygen delivery to the cells, optimizing important connections between the respiratory system, heart and blood pressure. At this point, I'd like to note that what we're talking about here is a re-training of functional breathing habits for daily life. You may at some point have learned breathing exercises in a yoga class, with a personal trainer or on YouTube. You may have experienced good results, then promptly forgotten about your breathing the minute you stepped outside the studio or gym. Sometimes we aren't given the context that allows us to carry those exercises as part of a daily routine. In this book, we'll look at how your breathing is affecting your health, and how to use that knowledge to feel better. Every day. Understanding the Problem: Causes of Suboptimal Breathing In order to begin to grasp the importance of breath training, it is first necessary to understand what the problem is. When breathing is such an intrinsic function, it can be hard to accept that we could do it better unless there's an obvious issue that causes regular discomfort. Even then, we might not realize that the problem could be addressed by simply improving our breathing patterns. A breathing pattern disorder, otherwise called dysfunctional breathing, is a condition in which breathing is problematic and produces symptoms such as breathlessness. It manifests as a psychologically or physiologically based habit such as breathing too deeply, breathing too fast (both symptoms of hyperventilation), upper chest breathing during rest, or breathing irregularly with frequent breath-holding or sighing . Breathing pattern disorders affect 9.5 percent of the studied adult population, rising to 29 percent among people with asthma and 75 percent in those with anxiety. These figures are unsurprising, given that asthma, anxiety, panic attacks and stress all negatively influence breathing patterns, feeding back to create a vicious cycle of inefficient breathing. The tendency to breathe too much air, which is called chronic hyperventilation and was first described in the literature in 1938, is the most common and extensively studied trait in breathing pattern disorders. One typical characteristic of chronic hyperventilation is fast breathing, often through an open mouth. This can occur both during the day and while asleep. Other signs include using the upper chest to breathe and having noticeable breathing patterns. The term chronic hyperventilation is often used synonymously with dysfunctional breathing, but it is only one type of breathing pattern disorder, and when strictly classified by its biochemical definition it refers to breathing in excess of metabolic requirements, causing blood carbon dioxide levels to drop. While it may seem that dysfunctional breathing is a problem confined to the respiratory system alone, it has a significant impact on overall health. For example, excessive breathing is closely linked with cardiovascular disease. A research study of an intensive coronary unit in a Minneapolis hospital found that of 153 heart attack victims, 100 percent breathed predominantly using their upper chest, 75 percent were chronic mouth-breathers and 70 percent demonstrated open-mouthed breathing during sleep . In terms of the widespread impact on general health, a 1998 study reported that patients with just fourteen common symptoms were responsible for almost half of all primary healthcare visits in the US. Of these complaints, which included abdominal pain, chest pain, headache and back pain, only 10 to 15 percent were found to be the result of organic illness. However, every one of these ailments is recognized as a common symptom of disordered breathing. Put simply, the quality of breathing has significant implications for health and longevity. In the book Behavioral and Psychological Approaches to Breathing Pattern Disorders by Beverly Timmons and Robert Ley, the authors share a comprehensive list of the symptoms and signs of hyperventilation. This list was drawn up by L C Lum, an Emeritus of the Department of Chest at Papworth and Addenbrooke's Hospitals, Cambridge, UK, and sent in personal communications in 1991. We will meet Dr. Lum again later in the book. Faulty breathing can affect any organ or system producing symptoms including: General: fatigue, poor concentration, poor performance, impaired memory, weakness, disturbed sleep, allergies Respiratory (breathing): breathlessness after exertion, a tight chest, frequent sighing, yawning and sniffing, an irritable cough, the inability to take a satisfying breath Cardiovascular (the heart and blood vessels): irregular or fast heart beats and palpitations, Raynaud's Syndrome, chest pain, cold hands and feet Muscles: muscle pain, cramping, twitching, weakness, stiffness and tetany (muscles that spasm and seize up) Gastrointestinal (the digestion): heartburn, acid regurgitation or hiatus hernia, flatulence or belching, bloating, difficulty swallowing or the feeling of a lump in the throat, abdominal discomfort Neurological (the nervous system): dizziness, headaches and migraines, paresthesia (tingling or numbness, pins and needles) of the hands, feet or face, hot flashes Psychological: anxiety, tension, depersonalization, panic attacks, phobias L. C Lum, 1991 As explained earlier on, there are three main factors at play in the development of breathing pattern disorders. Biochemical Biomechanical Psychological While the cause of problem breathing may vary from one person to another, environmental factors, lifestyle habits and genetic predisposition are common triggers. In many instances these disorders are simply the result of a lack of awareness, and a lifelong habit of breathing through the mouth. Excerpted from The Breathing Cure: Develop New Habits for a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life by Patrick McKeown All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
