I'll try to list a few points that stuck with me from watching these videos and from doing some reading online. It's pretty complicated and I'm not even remotely close to being an expert, I'm still learning this stuff myself so take what I say with a good pinch of salt.
Like the Wim Hof method, the Buteyko method isn't really accepted by mainstream medicine, and there are claims, pathology, mechanisms, etc that are in dispute or not properly understood. Still, I find it interesting, and when you watch things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdev3OJrhVA it makes you wonder what's going on.
Some points that stuck with me from Buteyko method perspective:
-CO2 is not just a useless waste gas, It's essential for homeostasis and the body keeps it in blood within a specific range.
(ph level, vasodilation, airway dilation, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation efficiency (Bohr effect) etc.)
-Breathing is triggered mainly by high CO2 levels not low oxygen levels (unless COPD with a hypoxic drive low oxygen triggered)
-Most people are chronically over breathing, both consciously and unconsciously.
-Over time the part of our brain responsible for regulating breathing (medulla oblongata) becomes overly sensitive to CO2 levels.
-Because of CO2 sensitivity our autonomous breathing is deeper and more rapid leaving us with lower than ideal blood CO2 levels
-Lower CO2 effects some internal functions so they are not as efficient.
-Long term low CO2 levels could potentially lead to negative health problems or exaggerate existing ones.
-By using breathing techniques we can retrain the brain to tolerate higher CO2 levels again.
-If we train to tolerate more CO2 this will cause our autonomous breathing to become subtle and slower, lower heart rate, improve circulation by dilating blood vessels, so lowering blood pressure, and improve brain and tissue oxygenation do to the Bohr effect.
-We can test our CO2 sensitivity by breath-out pause test, average is around 20 seconds, can train to 50-60 seconds.
-Nitric oxide is produced in the paranasal sinuses, this helps disinfect and condition air, also has a dilating effect, and if breathing is subtle and slower it will be present in higher concentrations.
-Ancient Yoga teachers advocated breathing less and through the nose.
My take away: I've always seemed to have horrible cardio, there is a good chance I've been hyperventilating during physical exercise. I'm going to try and improve my breath-out pause time (Raise CO2 tolerance), which was around 18 seconds. The idea being if I can tolerate higher CO2 levels I'll feel less need to breathe out CO2 so my breathing will be easier to control and less likely to get away from me. Also I'm going to focus on proper breathing (nasal whenever possible, relaxed from diaphragm, controlled, avoid hyperventilation. -on and off the mats) and in time see if my breathing and cardio improve.
Pretty good quick over all explanation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Mbpt33Icw
Short video explaining respiratory gas transport and Bohr effect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrvrs6RXxwY
