The problem
It may be hard to believe that most of us modern-day humans over-breathe chronically. It has been proven that chronic hyperventilation is at least in part responsible for a range of chronic diseases, such as asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.
The causes
There are quite a number of factors that cause the vast majority of us to chronically over-breathe, including lifestyle factors, such as sedentary habits, lacking regular exercise, over-eating, and incorrect breathing patterns and habits.
Regarding lifestyle, more and more people are becoming aware of it, and with determination and discipline, a healthier active lifestyle can be achieved. However, incorrect breathing patterns and habits formed over many years may not be easy to change, especially if the patterns and habits have been consolidated by one’s every breath since a very young age!
The following are the most common unhealthy breathing patterns and habits:
- Mouth breathing
- Chest breathing
- Fast and big breathing
CO2 – the leading factor responsible for breathlessness
It sounds very odd to many, but CO2 plays a critical role in breathing, in a sense, even more, critical than O2!
The reason we say this is that our blood is normally saturated with oxygen, and it doesn’t matter if we breathe a bit more or less than normal, the O2 saturation in the blood is hardly changed.
However, if you chronically over-breathe, the breathing nerve centre in the brain will become over-sensitive to CO2 increase, which causes breathing faster than normal, and a vicious cycle like the below will occur:
The faster you breathe → the more CO2 will be removed from the blood → and according to Bohr Effect, the less O2 will release from the red blood cells to the body tissues → the tissues thus sending the signal to the brain to breathe even faster.
This process causes breathlessness.
The Buteyko Method to breathe normally
Believe it or not, to get healthier, most modern people need breathing retraining. Buteyko Breathing is a science-based systematic breathing method to train reduced breathing and achieve normal breathing, which is well suited to prevent chronic over-breathing.
Based on Dr. Buteyko and his team’s medical research from the 1950s through to the early 2000s, plus tens of thousands of people’s positive practice of the breathing method, the following steps summarize the Buteyko Method in a simple way to work towards breathing normally and healthily:
- Use the diaphragm to breathe through the nose in and out only whenever you can.
- Practice reduced breathing, including breath-hold, small volume diaphragmatic inhalation, and full body relaxed long exhalation.
- Practice breathing exercises involving slight air hunger.
AYO BT – A perfect tool to assist Buteyko Breathing
AYO BT breathing trainer works by controlling the air inlet to add resistance to reduce breathing, such that it makes the inhalation slow and long and activates the diaphragm that one must use to achieve normal breathing.
The following are the key points about why AYO BT is ideal for Buteyko breathing training:
- Encourage and train to breathe using the diaphragm via the nose.
- Easy to adjust the air resistance to reduce breathing.
- Easy changeover between inspiratory and expiratory training.
- Easier adaptation to higher CO2 and lower O2 – reduces breathlessness.
Tool for Breathing Training – Using AYO BT as a tool perfectly aligns with the key elements of Buteyko Breathing Method.
Using AYO BT over a period of time will train you to use your diaphragm naturally, allowing you to practice reduced breathing and adapt to higher CO2 without having to focus on your breathing all the time, thus making it easier to normalize your breathing.
In addition, the unique modular design of AYO BT allows a future upgrade to more advanced AYO BT+ which provides breathing data measurement with state-of-the-art technology.