Relaxed breathing improves your health, sleep and vitality.
Konstantin Buteyko, a physican from Ukraine, discovered in the 50s how important breathing is for our health. People who have difficulty breathing often breath in their upper chest and through the mouth. As a result, feelings of shortness of breath or fatigue quickly arise.
Buteyko developed a method to restore the breathing pattern. That starts with continuously breathing through the nose and doing exercises that make breathing light, regular and effortless. The method is still successfully applied all over the world.
Core principle of the method
The goal of the Buteyko method is to restore nasal breathing and normal, functional breathing patterns. You achieve this with breathing exercises in which you breathe just a little less air so that you create a slight air hunger. The intention is that carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood rises somewhat.
By regularly doing these exercises, the body gets used to it and the ratio between oxygen and carbon dioxide structurally improves. The result is:
- easier and calmer breathing with positive effect on the balance in the autonomic nervous system
- improved blood circulation and oxygenation of the body’s cells
- more steady balance of blood acidity and improved fluid-mineral balance in the cells
Buteyko fits into a healthy lifestyle
Healthy breathing is important because it is connected to all parts of the body. After all, all body cells need oxygen. Breathing is a highly autonomous process, but at the same time it is influenced by:
- the stress of everyday life
- what you eat and drink
- how you sleep
- how you exercise
- by sitting much and not moving enough
- and talking a lot
So it may be that you will also do something about this, with practice or adjustments, to breathe well again.
Oxygen
Although oxygen flows to the lungs during inhalation, this does not mean that the oxygen supply in the body is optimal. Dysregulated breathing makes the process less effective which can lead to various disorders or problems. The Buteyko method has proven to be a good complementary therapy, especially when it comes to:
