Hyperventilation is known to be connected to asthma, but if you are like me, you would be surprised to discover the myriad of diseases and conditions it has been linked to.
First of all, let me define hyperventilation. As the name suggests, this is when someone breathes too much. There are two main kinds of hyperventilation. If you know someone with asthma or anxiety, you may be familiar with how sometimes we can breathe really fast, trying to take in gulps of air. This is the kind of hyperventilation that most doctors recognize. However, there is another type of hyperventilation, one which is far less in severity and usually goes completely unnoticed, even by the sufferer. This is the one which lurks in the background as a hidden major cause of asthma, hay fever, and a host of other conditions. Many of these conditions do not, on the surface of things, seem to have any connection to breathing. This is because when we breathe too much, the biochemistry of our body changes, and we are then thrown out of balance, but the connection between the breathing and the disease is not a direct one, hence most people, including most doctors, do not connect the dots.
The list of conditions this hyperventilation is known or suspected to cause or exacerbate includes, but is not limited to, the following conditions, written in lay-man terms:
- Asthma
- A tendency to catch bugs, such as someone being more likely to catch colds than their normal-breathing friend
- An over-reaction to pollen, which is known as hayfever or hay fever
- Arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis
- Diabetes
- CFS or ME
- Heart problems, including myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and failure of coronary bypass grafts
- Bloating, constipation, or diarrhoea
- Muscular stiffness and aching
- Headaches
- Hyperactivity
- Epileptic fits and seizures
- Irritable cough
- Lack of concentration and memory loss
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Addictions
- Phobias
- Panic attacks
- Sleep apnea (an exhausting condition where the person keeps being awakened throughout the night when they stop breathing, in order for them to breathe, which they stop doing once they go back to sleep, only to be awakened soon after)
- Snoring
Despite a great deal of research done primarily in Russia by Dr Buteyko, most doctors do not get to learn about this kind of hyperventilation nor the conditions that it is a cause of. And because these conditions are varied, depending on the genetic pre-disposition of the individual patient, most doctors totally miss any connection between hyperventilation and what is ailing their patient. This is a tragedy, because Dr Buteyko found a simple management system for hyperventilation that anyone can do, even little children. And when there is such a simple technique, it is surely madness not to try it.
If you have been battling one of the above conditions for a while and still seek a solution, there can be no harm in trying the Buteyko Breathing technique. And you may even find your health mysteriously improving!
Reference
Buteyko for the Reversal of Chronic Hyperventilation with References, Kolb P, A Knol by Alex Spence, http://knol.google.com/k/buteyko-hyperventilation#
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