Breathing Remedies

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  • BREATHING
    • Breathing Assessment and Buteyko course
    • How I help – About Buteyko breathing
    • Symptoms of Disordered Breathing
  • POSTURE
    • Postural alignment therapy (Egoscue): conditions treated
  • FAQ
  • Success Stories
    • Asthma allergies sinusitis
    • Anxiety panic stress
    • Snoring sleep apnoea insomnia
    • ME/CFS
    • Dysfunctional Breathing
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Is yoga breathing damaging your health?

April 22, 2017 by info@breathingremedies.co.uk Leave a Comment

Dr Mercola on yoga breathing “In fact, the whole field of breathing and breath-work has enormous potential for improvement, as most prevailing ideas about breathing promoted in yoga, Pilates, and meditative methods tend to focus on taking big, deep breaths — which is actually the opposite of what you should do”

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Is ME/CFS/SEID linked to disordered breathing/overbreathing/hyperventilation?

March 17, 2015 by info@breathingremedies.co.uk Leave a Comment

litchfield

Dr Peter Litchfield, a breathing expert notes that “Overbreathing can be a dangerous behaviour immediately triggering and/or exacerbating a wide variety of serious physical and mental symptoms, complaints, and deficits in health and human performance.”

So does overbreathing or hyperventilation play a part in ME/CFS/SEID?

 1) Hyperventilation symptoms are very like those of ME/CFS/SEID

“Hyperventilation syndrome (HVS) can show itself in different ways. Most people with HVS will experience some, or many, of the following symptoms:

Respiratory: breathlessness tightness around the chest fast breathing frequent sighing

Tetanic: tingling (e.g. in fingers, arms, mouth) muscle stiffness trembling in hands

Cerebral: dizziness blurred vision faintness headaches

Cardiac: palpitations tachycardia (rapid heart beat)

Temperature: cold hands or feet shivering warm feeling in the head Gastrointestinal: sickness abdominal pain

General: tension anxiety  fatigue and lethargy insomnia”

(this information was taken from my local Derbyshire NHS Community Health info on Hyperventilation Syndrome, and it is great that they recognise it).

Any and every system in the body can be affected. Here is a more detailed list, not everyone has the same symptoms, genetics also plays a part.

 2) Hyperventilation depletes the tissues of oxygen

a. Low levels of CO2 stop release of oxygen from the blood

Short of breath? Breathe less!  Says Dr Myhill, well known CFS expert.

“Many patients, particularly asthma patients, but also CFS patients, have a sensation that they are not getting enough oxygen to their tissues. Their response to this is to breathe more deeply. However blood cannot become more than 100% saturated with oxygen. All that happens is that more carbon dioxide is washed out of the blood. This makes oxygen cling more fiercely to haemoglobin in red blood cells and therefore oxygen delivery to the tissues is made worse! Paradoxically, to improve oxygen supply to the tissues you have to breathe less! Breathing less increases carbon dioxide levels and improves oxygen delivery.”

b) Low levels of CO2 reduce blood flow to the brain

Dr Medows researches orthostasis (feel worse when standing) and  ME/CFS  “Some of those with ME/CFS and orthostasis (feel worse when standing) also experience very rapid, deep breathing during an orthostatic challenge, like trying to catch your breath after strenuous exercise. This hyperventilation, in turn, leads to reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, or affecting the pH of the body. And, guess what? One of the most powerful modulators of brain blood flow happens to be CO2. The lower the CO2, the lower the cerebral blood flow.”

Dr. Medow’s hypothesis: that the reduced cerebral blood flow and brain fog occurs, at least in part, because of impaired control mechanisms for regulating C02 and/or blood pressure.

3) Learning to breathe less can help ME/CFS/SEID symptoms

Breathing normalization by re-education can help; you can find some success stories here.

 

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How hyperventilation harms: part 3 hyperventilation can unbalance the blood gases and reduce transfer of oxygen from the blood to the organs and tissues that need it.

September 30, 2014 by info@breathingremedies.co.uk Leave a Comment

Breathing air into and out of the lungs supplies us with oxygen and gets rid of excess CO2. Air entering the lungs is oxygen rich, and the blood supply, as it passes through the lungs, picks up oxygen easily and carries it round the body attached to haemoglobin molecules in red blood cells. You can buy quiet cheaply a handy device (a pulse oximeter) that you stick your finger into and it can actually measure how much oxygen is carried on your haemoglobin (I don’t suggest you rush to buy one, results can be hard to interpret, see below). Normal oxygen saturation levels (sats) are usually considered to be between 96- 99%; people with lung damage might struggle to achieve that. However, a plentiful supply of oxygen circulating in your bloodstream and a 99% oxygen reading is not always an indicator that your body and its organs are well oxygenated. There is another step to consider;  the blood has to carry the oxygen round the body to where it is needed most and that will be where there is low oxygen – for example in an actively contracting muscle -and then the blood has to release the oxygen from the haemoglobin so it can be utilised where it is needed.  An active muscle will be rapidly metabolising and will require more oxygen, and will produce more CO2. The higher local levels of CO2 and the lowered local pH are important triggers that help to release oxygen from the haemoglobin so it can be used exactly where needed.  This is known as the Bohr Effect and has been described in physiology text books for a century.

The more you breathe, the less oxygen you get.

Unfortunately, hyperventilation (breathing more than you need for the activity you are doing) can cause loss of too much CO2 from the body (hypocapnia). There is only a tiny amount in the air we breathe, so to maintain a healthy level in our bodies, we have to retain and accumulate CO2 by breathing correctly. Breathe too much and CO2 levels can become too low, and alter the whole body biochemisty.

When CO2 levels are too low,  oxygen is not released efficiently from the blood to where it is needed.

When CO2 levels are too low, oxygen is not released efficiently from the blood to where it is needed. (Picture by V Lunn Rockcliffe)

One thing that can happen with lowered CO2 is that oxygen is no longer efficiently released from the haemoglobin in circulating red blood cells in the blood supply. Instead of the oxygen being released in the body where there is high metabolic activity, and high CO2, the oxygen sticks tightly to the haemoglobin and continues to circulate in the bloodstream, where it really can’t do any good. It is easy to see that aching muscles and brain fog and a host of symptoms could be related to low oxygenation caused by hyperventilation and unbalanced blood gases. It is very common for people to say “breathe deeply” “take big breaths for more oxygen”. In fact it is easy to get enough oxygen, air is about 21% oxygen and the cells of the body only need about 2%. Much more likely deep breathing will flush out too much CO2, air only has 0.04% and the cells of the body need about 6%. So by trying to breathe deeply for more oxygen, you can do the opposite and starve your body of oxygen. The more you breathe, the less oxygen you get.
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How hyperventilation harms: part 2 hyperventilation can narrow the blood vessels and reduce blood and oxygen supply.

August 22, 2014 by info@breathingremedies.co.uk Leave a Comment

Chronic hyperventilation unbalances the blood gases; one of the important changes can be low body carbon dioxide (CO2) or hypocapnia. CO2 is not just a waste gas; you need a certain amount for healthy body function. co2
Part 1 focused on low CO2 and tightening of the airways and how hyperventilation, or over-breathing, can cause respiratory issues.

In part 2 we turn the spotlight on blood vessels and circulation: hyperventilation-induced hypocapnia can lead not only to the airways narrowing but also constricts certain blood vessels and affects the blood supply to many organs, leading to diverse symptoms from IBS to brain fog to cold hands and palpitations (fuller list of hyperventilation related symptoms). One example of reduced blood flow/low O2 supply is shown in the figure of a brain scanned before and after just one minute of voluntary hyperventilation. The reduction in cerebral blood flow can lead in turn to poor oxygen (O2) supply to the brain, and may contribute to brain fog, poor concentration and anxiety. Continue Reading

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How hyperventilation harms: part 1 hyperventilation can narrow the airways.

August 10, 2014 by info@breathingremedies.co.uk 2 Comments

People who have asthma and other respiratory problems (blocked nose, sinusitis, cough etc) tend to breathe a lot more than normal (yes it is possible to breathe too much!)

Over breathing or hyperventilation is breathing more than the body’s requirement at any given time, so if you are seated quietly, but breathing as much as you would need for walking, that is hyperventilation. So you can breathe too many breaths per minute, or too much air per breath, or both. The blood gases can then get out of balance; one of the important changes can be low body carbon dioxide (CO2) or hypocapnia.Continue Reading

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About me, Buteyko breathing educator

Janet Winter breathing and posture educator (Buteyko and Egoscue)

Dr Janet Winter (PhD)

Hello, I am Janet,  a  Breathing educator (Buteyko), and Posture specialist (Egoscue).

I help people recover from asthma, allergies, sinusitis, anxiety, sleep problems, headaches, IBS chronic fatigue (ME/CFS) and more, by improving their dysfunctional breathing.

Listen to a client’s (Suzy Glaskie, functional medicine health coach at Peppermint Wellness) 15 minute podcast on how Buteyko helped her.

I teach natural health control with no drugs, gadgets or manipulation. You can sign up to my newsletter here.

Phone me 01663 743055 (Dr Janet Winter) or contact me here.

What I do

Breathing education gently retrains a disordered breathing pattern and helps people naturally recover from breathing-related health problems.

The Buteyko Method relieves asthma symptoms, and has been listed in the UK Asthma Guideline since 2008.
I am a member of the Buteyko Breathing Educators Association and am fully insured.

I am also a qualified postural alignment specialist (PAS) Egoscue method. Good posture is essential for good breathing and proper function in general.

My background

I was involved in healthcare/biomedical research for 30 years although previously in a very different role: before training as a Breathing educator, I spent 20 years in drug discovery looking for new painkillers for a major pharmaceutical company based in a London Institute.
I worked as a neuroscientist and cell biologist, directing a team of bench scientists. (So I am not a medical doctor but I have a PhD in Neuroscience) I authored or co-authored more than 50 journal articles and reviews on my research.  My professional profile can be seen here on LINKEDIN.

Why I became a breathing educator

If you are reading this because you have CFS/ME, I know what you are going through. I know what it is like to hold onto a job by my fingernails, worried about how we would feed the family if I lost my job, come home and eat and sleep and spend my weekend recovering.

I had no social life. I was lucky to quickly get to a consultant who diagnosed me with candidiasis, and anti-fungals and a yeast and sugar-free diet helped a lot, but not enough.

I felt I had been “written off” and had nothing to offer. I was a mum, partner and employee with massively reduced physical and mental output compared with previously.
For me (after trying many different avenues, cranial osteopathy, chiropractic, mercury amalgam filling removal and more – I became a “fat-folder patient”).

How I got sick

I suspected my symptoms were “stress related” but they did not ease when I left my stressful job and moved out of London to the countryside.

Looking back on my history I can clearly see my own physical and emotional stresses accumulating, from a very traumatic bereavement, on-going work and family stresses, then a really bad summer respiratory infection and cough that was not shifted by two different antibiotics (but they probably contributed to unbalancing my gut flora, hence the fungal overgrowth/candidiasis).

A cough seems to be one of the best ways to mess up your breathing pattern, and many of my clients tell me “I was fine until I had that cough/chest infection, and I never really got my health back!!”

The breathing centre in the brain gets to think that big volume breathing is normal and unless you know about it, it is sometimes hard to recover. Luckily you CAN retrain your breathing by doing a series of gentle exercises and making some life style changes, and you CAN have hope of better health.

My recovery

Changing my breathing back to a more normal pattern really helped me. It was a big missing piece of my health puzzle, and one I had frankly never considered. One definition of stress is “anything that makes you breathe more”. And I know now that breathing too much can actually deplete the body of oxygen. And stress can be emotional or physical.

So that is why I do what I do and why I am passionate about it; I found a way to improve my chronic fatigue by better breathing and I trained as a breathing educator so I could help others with this devastating disease. There is so little help out there for them (you?).

Then chronic backache made good breathing impossible, and I discovered postural alignment therapy (Egoscue) to help with that. And I am still amazed at the progress I am making -it’s wonderful to have decreased pain and increased function when I had accepted decline at my age was inevitable. It’s not!


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Recent Posts

  • Facemasks against coronavirus; tips
  • How to breathe for immune health: self help for Coronavirus protection
  • Breathing quotes; why it might be worth learning to breathe well…
  • Is yoga breathing damaging your health?
  • The importance of nasal breathing: 11 reasons to breathe through your nose
  • ME/CFS, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), joint hypermobility, teenagers and anxiety
  • Smiling and snoring; humming, posture and sinusitis.
  • Posture and breathing
  • Records of three better breathing success stories
  • The microbiome in asthma and ME/CFS
  • Self-compassion to reduce the stress response in ME/CFS/SEID
  • Is ME/CFS/SEID linked to disordered breathing/overbreathing/hyperventilation?
  • A new name “systemic exertion intolerance disease” (SEID) for ME/CFS?
  • Self-improvement is a big job. Breath retraining requires personal discipline and effort.
  • ME/CFS/fibromyalgia/anxiety: are you stuck in fight or flight?
  • How did we get a disordered breathing pattern/hyperventilation in the first place?
  • Better breathing enhances sports performance
  • How hyperventilation harms: part 3 hyperventilation can unbalance the blood gases and reduce transfer of oxygen from the blood to the organs and tissues that need it.
  • How hyperventilation harms: part 2 hyperventilation can narrow the blood vessels and reduce blood and oxygen supply.
  • How hyperventilation harms: part 1 hyperventilation can narrow the airways.
  • Five health benefits of breathing with your diaphragm
  • Three more good reasons to breathe through your nose and not your mouth.
  • I know how to breathe or I would be dead wouldn’t I? –5 Interesting responses I have had when I tell people that I am a breathing educator!
  • My Blog Tour – meet Viviann, Gillian and Nicola – all three have inspired me
  • The disease of deep breathing? Three dysfunctional breathing patterns; have you got one?
  • ME/CFS/fibromyalgia? You are not broken: Never give up hope, I recovered, so can you.
  • Unhealthy breathing patterns and low oxygen: link with ME/CFS and fibromyalgia?
  • Five ways that chronic cough can damage your health; and how better breathing helps
  • Do you ever feel out of breath or dizzy or exhausted after only minimal exercise? How are you breathing?
  • Seven reasons why you should always breathe through your nose

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