About Breathing
	An Overview What is overbreathing? What are its effects? Overbreathing & performance Overbreathing & health Why do we overbreathe? What can you do about overbreathing?
Mission Organization Certification Workshops About breathing Professional services Instrumentation Business Opportunity Downloads Links Contact us Are you overbreathing? Which brain is yours?	OVERBREATHING AND HEALTH A British general practitioner at a conference recently asked: “Why is it that we physicians don’t look at physiology for understanding symptoms without pathology, or what we often call ‘unexplained” symptoms? If we did, most of our patients wouldn’t go off in despair to complementary healthcare practitioners, and we might even earn back their respect.” Overbreathing leads to a major shift in physiology, a shift that can mediate “unexplained” physical symptoms, emotional reactivity, and performance decrements! The New England Journal of Medicine (2002) says: “…extensive data from a spectrum of physiological systems indicate that hypocapnia has the potential to propagate or initiate pathological processes. As a common aspect of many acute disorders, hypocapnia may have a pathogenic role in the development of systemic diseases” And, then, “Increasing evidence suggests that hypocapnia appears to induce substantial adverse physiological and medical effects” In Clinical Acid-Base Balance (1997), a basic medical textbook, the authors say, “Hypocapnia-induced vasospasm is responsible for reduced cerebral blood flow and neurological symptoms, for reduced coronary blood flow and chest pain, for paraesthesiae of limbs, and circumoral pallor.” Vascular system: migraine, arrhythmias, hypertension, heart attack, angina, stroke. The New England Journal of Medicine (2002) says, “Hypocapnia has been clearly linked to the development of arrhythmias.” Studies in Holland have documented medical savings of 45% over a 5-year period in heart attack patients, findings that led to legislation requiring cardiac rehabilitation centers to offer breathing training. Digestive system: nausea, cramping, irritable bowel syndrome, pain, bloatedness. Alkalosis triggers smooth muscle constriction in the gut, and thereby triggering or exacerbating the digestive and related disorders. Nervous system: headache, “brain fog,” blurred vision, fatigue, pain threshold, numbness, neurological syndromes. Overbreathing is used deliberately in emergency medicine for controlling cerebral bleeding. This fact points to the immensity of the impact of hypocapnia on brain functioning, and its implications for triggering neurological syndromes, e.g., epilepsy and ADD. Respiratory system: asthma attacks, altitude sickness, shortness of breath, chest pain, sleep apnea. For example, according to the New England Journal of Medicine (2002), “Hypocapnia is a common finding in patients with sleep apnea and may be pathogenic.” Overbreathing can trigger asthma attacks and it is the primary factor in altitude illness (respiratory alkalosis). Musculoskeletal system: repetitive strain injury, headache, calcium-magnesium imbalance, and muscle spasm, pain, weakness, and fatigue. According to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2002), hypocapnia can “…have adverse implications for musculoskeletal health, including increase muscle tension, muscle spasm, amplified response to catecholamines, and muscle ischemia and hypoxia.” Reproductive system: pregnancy, premature birth, eclampsia, placental perfusion deficiency, erectile dysfunction. According to the New England Journal of Medicine (2002), in regard to pregnancy “…further lowering of the partial pressure of arterial CO2 - even for a short duration - such as during anesthesia for cesarean section - may have serious adverse effects on the fetus.”