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Archive for the ‘sports performance’ Category
Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Rebecca Adlington is an asthmatic, has won gold medals for her swimming. Why has her asthma helped her do this?
All asthmatics breathe 2 or 3 times more than normal, this lowers carbon dioxide in the body to dangerously low levels (We all need carbon dioxide, like every living thing on the planet,to survive. It is essential for life. ) This is one of the main factors that lead to “asthma attacks” caused by smooth muscle wrapped around airways spasming, tightening and restricting breathing. This can be seen as the body’s way of stopping hyperventilation and further carbon dioxide loss that could be life threatening.
Now let us consider Rebecca ready to win the next medal at the side of the pool. Because she is asthmatic, she has a very low carbon dioxide store in her body before she dives under the water. Whilst swimming half the length under water she cannot breathe so her carbon dioxide levels rise to normal, she surfaces and completes the swim above water now with optimal carbon dioxide and oxygen in her body. This scenario is very similar to a pearl diver who trains himself to purposefully hyperventilate before diving thus giving him much longer under water before needing to surface.
So, what’s the conclusion? should we look for future great swimmers from the population of 5.3 million asthmatics in the UK? Should Rebecca carry on suffering the misery of asthma in order to stay on top?
No. We should all breathe normally during our normal daily lives, this may reduce the risk of succumbing to over a hundred modern diseases and extend our healthy lives. However if you want to replicate Rebecca’s experience try hyperventilating before diving into the water but take care not to over do it as you could pass out! Pearl divers don’t spend their leisure time hyperventilating , they only do this when at work otherwise they would shorten their life expectancy somewhat or suffer asthma, hypertension, hay fever, panic attacks, IBS, ME and a myriad other possible ailments that are treated with drugs in our society.
 Asthma helps gold medalist!
Tags: Asthma, carbon dioxide, drug therapy, Exercise, health, hyperventilation, over breathing, pearl divers, swimming
Posted in Asthma, Exercise, General health, Health promotion, breathing, drug therapy, quality of life, sports performance | No Comments »
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Exercise and Asthma
Asthmatics often have a problem with exercise because they either lack stamina and need to slow down or stop sooner than they would like, or they develop breathing difficulties. Why does this happen?
Since at least 1968 it has been well-documented that people who have asthma breathe more air each minute than is considered normal, and this elevated breathing pattern continues when the person sleeps, watches television, and of course while exercising.
During exercise, everyone has to breathe more air, but if you are already breathing more than you really need to before you even start, then the extra burden will cause more problems than usual.
Part of the problem is that while breathing too much air, additional pollen, dust and pollutants are also inhaled. The airways try to restrict the intake of these irritants by narrowing the airways, which makes the breathing muscles work harder to provide sufficient gas exchange for the desired level of activity, creating fatigue sooner rather than later.
The other major part of the problem is that an excessive breathing pattern creates an abnormally high rate of cooling and drying of the airways. Airways function best when they are warm and moist, and so they react in a negative way to this excessive breathing.
To compensate for the drying out, airways increase mucus production, and in an effort to slow down the flow of air, the inner airway lining swells and the outer smooth muscle tightens. These are symptoms of asthma, but instead of recognising that breathing too much air is causing the problem, the person usually just takes a puff of their reliever and continues to breathe badly. The more you breathe the more short of breath and the tighter the airways become…
You seldom see animals with asthma, and you also seldom see them breathing through their mouth, even when they are exercising. So take a leaf out of their book and go a little slower so that you do not become excessively short of breath. By following this rule you will build fitness without distressing yourself. Copy of article by Jenny Stark www.buteykoworks.com
 Asthmatics can exercise!
Tags: Asthma, asthma management, breath training, breathing, British Thoracic Society, Buteyko, buteyko breathing, Exercise, hospitalization, sports performance, the Buteyko Method
Posted in Asthma, Exercise, General health, breathing, quality of life, sports performance | No Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
The Buteyko Method could help you return to living a full normal life again. It teaches you how to improve your breathing in five training sessions. This will help you take better control of your asthma, safely reduce your need for drugs and improve the quality of your life. The method is endorsed by the British Thoracic Society and proven to be safe and effective in clinical trials.
Tags: Angina, Asthma, asthma management, Buteyko, death from asthma, drug therapy, drugs, hospitalization, hypertension, hyperventilation, medicines, phamaceuticals, sleep apnoea, Stress, the Buteyko Method
Posted in Asthma, Buteyko Kent, General health, Health promotion, Stress management, quality of life, sports performance | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Although the Buteyko Method is recognized worldwide for asthma management many people seek this training for the numerous conditions associated with hyperventilation. This year alone I have taught people with anxiety, panic attacks, sleep apnoea, depression, emphysema, COPD and others who have no illness but wanted to improve their health or sporting performance.
The general rule is “if you are breathing more than normal your health will be adversely affected and you will benefit from Buteyko training”
Once you have learnt the Buteyko Method you have the knowledge for life.
Don’t waste this opportunity to raise your QOL and general health, check your own breathing on this site now, then decide to improve it.
Next Free Introductory Talks in Hawkhurst & Crowborough, Kent UK Phone for details and to book 01580 752852 You will learn how to improve your breathing and hence your health even with this short talk. You will learn how you can start to take better control over your asthma right now!
The next courses will be held in Hawkhurst, Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells Kent in July, phone for Registration Form & details.
Tags: breath, breathing, Buteyko, depression, exercises, health, hypertension, hyperventilation, IBS, marathon, ME, over breathing, panic attacks, sleep apnoea, Stress, the Buteyko Method, wellbeing
Posted in Buteyko Kent, General health, Stress management, quality of life, sports performance | 22 Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Maybe you weren’t told at school how useful our noses are?
You have a most amazing piece of equipment in the nose, so why not use it?.
Just to give you a brief idea of what it does I’ll list some of them here:
It cleans the air we breathe of dust and dirt
It warms the air in cold weather so the lungs don’t get chilled
It kills most bacteria in the air protecting us from many infective agents hitting the lungs
It moisturizes the dry air in our centrally heated homes so as not to irritate the lungs
It produces 50% of the nitric oxide needed in the body, this substance kills germs and dilates blood vessels.
The net effect is a nose breather has near perfect air entering the delicate tissue of our lungs, the mouth breather’s lungs get whatever is floating in the air, dust, bugs, and my mother used to say flies would be breathed in if I kept my mouth open!
An essential part of Buteyko training is teaching people to nose breathe when exercising, sleeping, relaxing or talking.
One Buteyko student was a marathon runner and can now run better just nose breathing.
Tags: bacteria, marathon, mouth breathing, nitic oxide, nose
Posted in Buteyko Kent, General health, sports performance | 90 Comments »
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