The two pillars of the Buteyko Based Breathing Therapy are Dr's Steiner and Buteyko and it will be found by the Educator that the breathing pattern advocated is entirely natural albeit tending more to being hypoventilatory rather than hyperventilatory.
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1. Philosophy behind changing one's breathing.
2. Brief history of the basic components of the BBBT.
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1. Philosophy behind changing one's breathing.
'Breathing is meant to be sub-conscious, except if one is unwell'*. The lungs are the only vital organ which have both manual and automatic controls, voluntary and involuntary. This is why Konstantin Buteyko called his method the Deliberate Voluntary Breathing Method DVBM. Any intermittent conscious interventions to the breathing pattern should be seen in this light.
This however only applies to adults. For children that are ill the therapy is mostly taught via games involving limb movement with the parents learning at the same time the concepts around which the games are designed.
*Rudolph Steiner
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2. Brief history of the basic components of the BBBT
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The Buteyko Based Breathing Therapy started in 2004 and is a combination of a number of fields of research over the last 100 years which complement each other sufficiently to make it possible to now offer a good understanding of how incorrect breathing can be a cause, and therefore corrected breathing a remedy, of many illnesses.
The BBBT works with:
- preferred breathing volumes (nearly always reduced) in order to optimize the processing of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide,
- the preferred locations in the head, thorax and abdomen for strengthening, or alternatively constraining, the breathing process,
- the best rhythms of breath and pulse for each individual,
- regularly performing prescribed breathing exercises in order to ensure any return to health, and
- assisting, as required, a gradual return to sub-conscious breathing once an ideal breathing pattern has been achieved.
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Interestingly there can be found a single common thread throughout all these fields of research, and that is the need for enhanced concentrations of retained, own-produced carbon dioxide which has become depleted as a result of over-breathing. This was at the centre of Dr Buteyko’s life's work. Discovered in 2000, nasal-sinus produced nitric oxide is also an important part of the BBBT therapy, however, again, with its proper use depending on adequate levels of carbon dioxide.
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An outline of the main fields of research which combine to form the BBBT is here presented chronologically:
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• Prof. B F Verigo (Russia 1860 - 1925). At the end of the 19th century Prof Verigo discovered that ‘As a result of a fall of carbon dioxide in the blood, the bond between oxygen and haemoglobin becomes stronger.’
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• •Christian Bohr (Denmark 1855 - 1911) first stated in 1904 that ’Haemoglobin's oxygen binding affinity is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide’.
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Regarding the above two items, in his book Dr Buteyko states “This particular law, not very well known so far, underlies our discovery. As the Verigo law was left under wraps, the same discovery was made by a Swedish Scientist and named the Bohr Effect. Being unfamiliar with this law would have resulted in great difficulties in understanding and accepting the theory offered by us”
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• • Dr Konstantin Buteyko (Ukraine 1923 - 2003). Dr Buteyko's Breathing Method is predominantly concerned with the illnesses associated with carbon dioxide depletion in the body as a result of unrecognized chronic over-breathing together with the body’s defence mechanisms (so-called illnesses) against such depletion. Of immense value also is his breath-holding time technique for use as a guide to alveolar carbon dioxide concentrations.
​• Dr Rudolf Steiner (Austria/Germany 1861 - 1925)
(1) GA 346 'THE BOOK OF REVELATION’ Lecture 9 - ‘…Building the Old and the New Jerusalem’ Dornach 13th September 1924 para. 24.
‘What the human being needs for his system of metabolism and limbs is absorbed through an immensely delicate breathing process. Ordinary breathing is quite coarse by comparison. And what the human being does with oxygen – namely* producing carbon dioxide – is once again something more delicate than what happens, so that the foods passing through the stomach can supply the head. The transition takes place in the rhythmical human being.’
*The English word ‘namely’ in German is ‘nämlich’ which has the connotation ; to be exact. This can be stronger than the Oxford dictionary meaning of ‘namely’ which is ‘…that is to say ; in other words’.
(2) GA 221 Lecture 'The Invisible Man within us' February 11th 1923 para 11 'Our life would be much shorter if we absorbed more oxygen. The more the carbonic acid (water + carbon dioxide) formation process of the blood counters the absorption of oxygen in the breathing process, the longer our life will be'.
(3) GA 327 The Book 'Agriculture' Lecture 3 para 17 'Everywhere, in the animal and plant kingdoms, and also in the interior of the earth, the bridge between oxygen and carbon is provided by nitrogen'.
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​• Prof.G.Hildebrandt (1922 – 2005). Regarding respiratory rhythms, Prof Hildebrandt reported in 1967 that the peak incidences in a relatively large group of people was a breath rate of ~18pm and a pulse rate of ~72pm. These two numbers give a quotient of 4:1 which, since it was observed in most people between 12 and 3 in the morning, can be used as a guide during breath re-patterning.
​Regardless of what an individuals subconscious breath rate may be at any time, during breath re-training the Buteyko Based Breathing Therapy recommends breath rates for adults at rest of ~14-18 per minute be tried. This is slightly faster than the textbook norm of 12 breaths per minute. These faster rates make the best use of anatomical dead space in further limiting alveolar ventilation.
• The Karolinska Institute (Sweden) in 2000 discovered that ‘ a lot of nitric oxide is normally formed in the sinuses (respiratory) of humans’ and later (in 2009) published that ‘Previous work has already described the biological significance of nasal breathing, which improved peripheral oxygenation by 5 –- 15% in healthy volunteers compared with oral breathing.’
• • Case Western University School of Medicine Cleveland 2015. Prof J Stamler MD. A new view of the respiratory cycle. . <medicalxpress.com Basis established for nitric oxide…> ‘The bottom line is that we have discovered the molecular basis of blood flow control in the respiratory cycle loop,’ Stamler said. ‘It's in the haemoglobin protein itself, which has the ability to deliver the nitric oxide together with oxygen. The simplified textbook view of two gases carried by haemoglobin is missing an essential element - nitric oxide - because blood flow to tissues is actually more important in most circumstances than how much oxygen is carried by haemoglobin. So the respiratory cycle is actually a three-gas system'.
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John Wilson
Member ANZRS Aust-NZ Society for Respiratory Science.
Member AAMA Australian Anthroposophic Medicine Association. Email -johnwilson4221@gmail.com www.buteykobasedbreathingtherapy.com
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