Normally, during an asthma attack, people panic and breathe quickly and as deeply as they can, exhaling more and more carbon dioxide. The breathing rate is controlled not by the amount of oxygen in the blood but by the amount of carbon dioxide, the gas that regulates the acid-base level of the blood.
Dr. Buteyko concluded that hyperventilation — breathing too fast and too deeply — could be the underlying cause of asthma, making it worse by lowering the level of carbon dioxide in the blood so much that the airways constrict to conserve it.
This technique may seem counterintuitive: when short of breath or overly stressed, instead of taking a deep breath, the Buteyko method instructs people to breathe shallowly and slowly through the nose, breaking the vicious cycle of rapid, gasping breaths, airway constriction and increased wheezing.
Benefits to swimmers
Swimmers have to stop to catch their breath after a few lengths of the pool because they take long deep breaths with every other stroke, whereas if you take in small puffs of air after several strokes, you can swim for longer, almost indefinitely, without becoming winded.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment