As we start the new year, many of us once again return to making resolutions about our health. Maybe we want to lose weight or eat better. Maybe we want to exercise more or quit some of those bad habits that we have. I wish you luck, but if you are like the average person resolutions are soon forgotten and we return to our old ways just to start over again the following year.
Well even if your diet doesn't work out, or if your new exercise routine fizzles, I want to encourage you to be proactive with your health. So many times, we become sick or have a health issue and we rush off to the doctor looking for answers. I've been there and doctors can be a great resource to help us get better many times with just a cream, some pills or possibly a shot and life is soon back to normal. This is all great when this quick fix works. But what about the times that you don't get better and have to go back? More cream, more pills, another shot? At some point we have to say enough.
Now let me tell you my story. At 45 years of age, I had struggled my whole life with asthma resulting in numerous trips to the doctor or to the emergency room in the middle of the night. I was given painful allergy tests and weekly shots to reduce my reactions to pollen and other airborne particles. Doctors gave me pills, inhalers and specific instructions how to get better and manage asthma through their use. I was ok with that for a long time because it worked.
Then came the day that I had to see my allergist to renew my prescription for my inhalers. One was for asthma attacks and the other was for daily use to prevent them. The resulting visit required me to breath in tubes and do a variety of tests to check my lung function. The doctor asked me if I was taking my daily inhaler as prescribed and I guiltily told him that I only used it when I was feeling short of breath. I was told that this was not sufficient and that I needed to take it twice a day as directed. He went on to tell me that I had the lungs of a 60 year old and that if I didn't manage to get my asthma under control right away, I'd develop chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD). OK, COPD or take my medicine as directed? This was not a tough decision for me. He sent me home and told me to come back in a month to see how I was progressing.
A month later, I returned to my allergist who asked how I was doing. I told him that I was taking my medicine as directed and felt like I was getting worse. Some more tests and he sent me off with a prescription of the highest dose provided for this medicine. After several more weeks, my asthma was getting even worse. I was constantly short of breath and taking my rescue inhaler several times a day. I found myself clock watching so I could take my next dose of meds to try and feel better. I was relatively young, exercised regularly and ate a pretty healthy diet. I was not going to live the rest of my life taking large doses of inhaled steroids to prevent the ominous COPD that was ensuing if I didn't. That is when I said enough is enough.
I decided to research some natural methods to control my asthma. In my search I came across the Buteyko Breathing Method developed by Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko . His belief was that asthma is a reaction to hyperventilation or "overbreathing". This overbreathing causes us to breathe out too much carbon dioxide (CO2) from our lungs. Healthy lung function should maintain an ideal 6-7% CO2. So where do we get that CO2 from when the air we breathe in has less than 1%? Our body has to make it! So asthmatics breathe in such a way that we purge our lungs of most of this CO2. The result will be an asthma attack or a reaction to this lack of CO2 in our lungs.
This was a revelation because, as asthmatics, our tendency is to try to breathe in deeper and more air when we feel an asthma attack coming on. We struggle to force air into our lungs which only makes our body react more. What really needs to happen, is that we need to breathe less so that we can build up the CO2 reserves in our lungs. Aha! Now I understood why I had to keep taking higher and higher doses of asthma medication. The medication allowed me to continue to breathe improperly which would create an even stronger asthmatic reaction from my body. And this overbreathing would also explain why some people have exercise induced asthma as an increase in breathing rate could cause CO2 deficits as well.
Now how did I put all this knowledge into practice? I went to Amazon and found a book by Patrick McKeown titled "Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything you need to know about taking control of your asthma". This book was a great resource in understanding asthma and the Buteyko Breathing Method. After reading the book, I began working on my breathing on a daily basis. After three months, I was able to quit my asthma medication and have not used it for over three years now. I live an active lifestyle and exercise regularly without any asthma symptoms. I regularly will go for a two or three hour bike ride or skate ski in the cold of winter while being asthma free.
Of course, it's highly unlikely that you will ever learn about the Buteyko Breathing Method from your allergist. I'm betting that he/she probably doesn't really even understand the connection between CO2 content and lung function. So I encourage you all to be proactive in your health. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. God gave us miraculous bodies that can heal themselves in many cases without modern medicine if we take the time to understand and remediate the causes of our illnesses rather than just taking a pill or a cream or a shot to alleviate the resulting ailments.
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