Appearance and development of chronic diseases and symptoms, including fatigue, poor quality of sleep, mucus production, blocked nose, loss of vitality, anxiety, and confusion, are based on lowered body oxygenation. Cancer and heart disease, the main killers of modern people, are primarily based on tissue hypoxia (low cellular oxygenation), as it has been proven by hundreds of professional studies.
While many modern people are obsessed with diets, supplements, organic food, and quality of water, certain health factors (body oxygenation, rules and laws of respiration, and breathing patterns) remain the most neglected areas of contemporary health care, even among alternative health practitioners.
Medical evidence clearly showed that breathing remains the main factor that defines oxygenation of human cells. The main practical physiological law of respiration is simple: the more we breathe at rest, the less oxygen gets into cells of our vital organs. (This effect is easy to check: if we voluntarily start deep and fast breathing, brain oxygenation is reduced almost 2 times and this is the reason why most people can easily pass out or faint after 2-3 minutes of hyperventilation.)
No a single medical doctor or study has proven or shown usefulness of over-breathing, regardless of the fact that most people believe that they will get more oxygen in the body, if they breathe more. Meanwhile, thousands of articles and studies revealed the negative effects of hyperventilation on cardiovascular, hormonal, immune and all other systems and organs of the human body, based on developed CO2-deficiency, decreased perfusion of all vital organs, cellular hypoxia, generation of free radicals due to anaerobic metabolism, low cellular pH (acidity in cells), suppression of the immune system, and development of new allergies.
Moreover, dozens of published Western studies found 100% prevalence of chronic hyperventilation (overbreathing 24/7) among patients with heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and many other common disorders. Hence, breathing hygiene and breathing normalization are the key factors for improved cellular oxygenation and better overall health.
Among the main negative factors that reduce body oxygenation are:
- mouth breathing, even at night or during physical exercise (we reduce body CO2 content and cannot utilize nitric oxide generated in sinuses during mouth breathing; both factors lead to cellular hypoxia);
- sleep or being in horizontal position (as soon as modern people lie down, their body oxygenation drops);
- sleeping on one's back (breathing gets heavier due to absence of mechanical restrictions to movement of the belly and ribs causing reduced body O2 content);
- carpets in bedrooms (during night sleep, when breathing gets particularly deep and nasal passages dry, we inhale millions of air-born particles that irritate airways, get into alveoli, and stress our immune system);
- morning hyperventilation (from 4 to 7 am breathing is heaviest in modern people and the chronically sick are most likely to die during early morning hours);
- poor posture (slouching and inability to maintain straight spine suppress diaphragmatic breathing causing: 1. lymphatic stagnation in all vital organs located under the diaphragm due to absence of diaphragmatic massage of adjacent lymph nodes; 2. uneven gas exchange since lower parts of the lungs do not get fresh air);
- lack of swaddling in infants (all cultures and tribes throughout the history of humanity have been using swaddling or very tight wrapping of infants, from 0 up to 12-15 months old, in order to restrict their breathing and ensure vitality and excellent health before they can exercise).
While most modern medical doctors neglect these life style factors, there are hundreds of MDs, nurses, physiotherapists, and other medical professionals, who address these factors as a part of a holistic self-oxygenation therapy that is called the Buteyko breathing method. The goal of this therapy is to restore body oxygenation 24/7 and normalize one's breathing pattern. Correction of these life style factors is a part of this therapy.
