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Stress, Hyperventilation & Panic Attacks
Learning Buteyko enables you to control your breathing, which allows you to master your thoughts, emotions and the physical symptoms of hyperventilation in a natural, drug-free way. Read on to find out more.
What is Hyperventilation?
Hyperventilation means breathing more air than your body needs. There are two types: acute and chronic. Most people are familiar with the acute kind that is the normal response to stress. It:
- Floods the body with adrenaline
- Increases the heart and breathing rates
- Puts the nervous system on red alert
- Tenses muscles and increases sweating
All of which are useful to escape from danger. However, acute hyperventilation also sometimes happens when you are worried about making a presentation, and instead of being useful it can cause a panic or hyperventilation attack.
Chronic hyperventilation is less visible but it still has a major effect on general health over time because less oxygen is delivered to your tissues (Bohr effect). This can cause pain, inflammation, or other malfunction. For example, less oxygen reaching your brain can cause you to make mistakes, or to have headaches, confusion, panic, or difficulty remembering things.When the body is threatened by the lack of oxygen, stress levels rise and further increase the heart rate, sweating and other normal responses to stress. This creates a vicious circle.
Examples of this type of hyperventilation include breathing from your upper chest, sighing or yawning every few minutes, or breathing through your mouth while driving a car or watching television.
Buteyko cuts right through the stress – hyperventilation cycle, restoring a normal breathing pattern and reducing stress-related symptoms because it addresses the cause of the problem. Some breathing patterns make you ill, but the Buteyko Method makes you well by restoring the balance naturally, without drugs.
Buteyko has been used continuously for more than 50 years and the Buteyko Works team have taught the Method to over 8000 people in the past 17 years. Buteyko is a safe and effective programme that addresses the cause of hyperventilation and its associated health risks. It eliminates symptoms and puts you back in control of your life.
"Buteyko has lessened the frequency and severity of my panic attacks. I have more energy and greater concentration." Kerryann