Читать книгу Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything you need to know about taking control of your asthma - Patrick McKeown - Страница 12

‘Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.’

– Nathaniel Emmons

For the vast majority of people, breathing is an everyday fact of life which occurs on a subconscious level. It is something that is all too often taken for granted – until there’s a problem. Yet breathing is the most important physiological function you can exercise control over and this is something that can easily be achieved through increased attention, observation and will-power. With practice both the rate and volume of breathing can be changed for the better and the only prerequisite is to be aware of the existing breathing pattern.

Claude Lum, a noted physician at Papworth University hospital, Cambridge, described hyperventilation, or overbreathing, as a bad habit that has the effect of lowering carbon dioxide levels. It is only necessary to look at examples such as smoking to realise that bad habits are easy to acquire – and not quite so easy to lose. Changing a habit of a lifetime can initially cause disruption to a daily routine and focus attention on the change that is to be made.

While in extreme cases the fight to combat a bad habit can consume every waking minute, acquiring a good habit can inspire a new wave of self-confidence. Once the new habit has been acquired, even one that requires enormous self-discipline and a large helping of patience, it quickly becomes very easy to live with and can help boost selfesteem and self-belief. The investment of time, effort and concentration in the short term will ensure a reward of positive long-term results.

Making the change to a reduced volume of breathing should be treated as simply acquiring a good habit – one that will reap untold health benefits. Ultimately the benefits can include the complete recovery of an individual with asthma.

Many of Professor Buteyko’s patients who were taught the Buteyko Method remained completely free from symptoms of asthma thirty years later. It was as a result of pressure placed on the Soviet authorities by those who recovered that independent trials into Professor Buteyko’s method were conducted. The results of the trials brought about the full recognition and acceptance of the Buteyko system in the Soviet Union.