Scientific explanation
In 1952, Russian respiratory Professor Konstantin Buteyko discovered that the volume of air we breathe has notable effects to our health. He listed approximately 150 diseases that are caused by over breathing, or hyperventilation.
Hyperventilation means breathing more air than your body needs at a particular time. Examples include breathing through your mouth while driving a car or watching TV. Often, hyperventilation occurs subconsciously, resulting in irritation, inflammation, and constriction of the airways. Breathing incorrectly may have devastating results on your health.
The Buteyko method corrects this problem. It consists of breathing exercises specially designed to restore normal breathing patterns and principles about exercise, food and sleeping to achieve maximum control and greatly reduce symptoms.
Biomedical engineer Peter Kolb has written the documents below about chronic hyperventilation and asthma and how/why they respond to the Buteyko Breathing Method. Illustration by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe