What is Over-Breathing and Hyperventilation

The problem with asthma is that when your having an attack, you just need more air, and you can't get enough, and if you've run out of inhalers it's even worse as the wheeziness and tight chest increases. But this "over-breathing" leads to hyperventilation, which can lead to a bad asthma attack that could be fatal. Over breathing can make your asthma worse! But what is over breathing?

The internationally recognised measure for breathing is the "Minute Volume". This measure depends on your age, size, height and gender, and is a measure of how much air you breath per minute. Normally this should be around 4 - 6 litres of air per minute while you are at rest. Over breathing occurs when you are breathing between 2 to 4 times the normal rate. This is called Hyperventilation, and can trigger an asthma attack. But why?

Over-breathing leads to the breather receiving LESS oxygen, not more! This is because by over breathing, the carbon dioxide that is required by hemoglobin to release oxygen into the blood stream is reduced. The reaction to this is to increase the rate of breathing to compensate. This leads to hyperventilation, and most certainly an asthma attack.

Taking control of your breathing is a key way of reducing the symptoms of asthma, and even eradicating it. By practicing the techniques of shallow breathing (breathing so that air flow through the nose is barely perceptible), and controlled breath holding, many asthma sufferers have reported amazing success in seeing their use of asthma drugs reduce drastically. The techniques require discipline, but they do work! But how?

Well, by holding your breath, you are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your body. This means more oxygen can be released into the blood stream, thereby normalising breathing. Its that simple! And very effective! Of course, you don't hold your breath until you are passing out, because that can cause an asthma attack. Hold your breath until its uncomfortable ( if you can work towards more than 30 seconds, that will certainly help your building strength and capacity in your lungs) and then slowly inhale.

The actual technique of breath holding is beyond the scope of this article, but will be covered in my up coming book on asthma. Needless to say, please consult your doctor when trying new breathing techniques.