Anyone who suffers from asthma, or has a friend or family member with this respiratory condition, understands just how stressful and serious an asthma attack can be. Western medicine is just starting to recognize how breathing exercises for asthma can be effective in minimizing an asthma attack and helping to reduce their frequency.
For many people with mild to severe asthma the use of steroids and inhalers to treat the symptoms is often the only treatment considered by the patient and the doctor. With more people concerned about the long-term use of these types of treatments, turning to alternative options, such as the Buteyko® breathing exercises for asthma, offers a very proactive option.
Over Breathing Habits
Individuals with asthma tend to have different breathing patterns that others do not, particularly when they are having an asthma attack. In fact, what Dr. Buteyko found, was that asthmatics tend to take in up to 20% more air than people without the respiratory condition, resulting in imbalances in the carbon dioxide in the body. This is actually a deficiency of carbon dioxide, and this is directly linked to increased allergic reactions and subsequent asthma attacks.
By practicing specific breathing exercises for asthma, including how to limit taking in too much air, it is possible to help to reduce the frequency and the severity of an asthma attack. This is really a reversible and triggered narrowing of the bronchial tubes, and by learning to breathe correctly a person experiences less anxiety during an attack, allowing them to avoid the fear and panic that then triggers further irregular breathing.
The Carbon Dioxide Connection
Contrary to the popular thoughts on asthma, when the patient or the individual is able to maintain the proper levels of carbon dioxide in their body through breathing normalization, there is a drop in the allergic reaction as well as the asthma flare.
It is critical to understand that breathing exercises for asthma do not treat the condition, rather they create the chemical conditions in the body to limit the triggering effects of the allergic reaction. When this happens, there is less risk of a significant asthma attack and no need to use steroids or inhalers to attempt to address the symptoms present.
Often people with asthma assume they need to learn to breath deeper and more frequently to push a greater volume of air through their respiratory system. In fact, this breathing method contributes to the problem, but learning breathing exercises for asthma to create gentle, quiet and natural breathing patterns will balance CO2 levels as provide amazing results.
