Asthma: Your lungs are like a car's carburetor

Asthma: Your lungs are like a car's carburetor

Learning how much your lungs overbreathe isn't that difficult. In fact, it's a simple calculation to figure out what factor you're overbreathing by. Divide 60 by your break and multiply by 100%.

For example, a break of 30 gives 200%. This means you breathe enough for two people. If your break is 60, your factor is 100%, which is exactly right. If your pause is 5 seconds, your factor 60/5 x 100% is 1200%, or deep enough for 12 people. [Note that as the time gets really smaller 'this estimation gets less accurate. Just be aware that whether it is 5 or 10 times too much' it is far too much!]

Having your break this low will make you very uncomfortable, and unless you suffer from asthma symptoms, you need to investigate other effects of chronically low CO2.

In general, what would happen to you if you ate two, four, or twelve times as much as you physically need? Would you be healthy? The truth is, if you ate that much, it wouldn't take long for you to become morbidly obese.

Another way to look at this is to use the analogy that compares your breathing to an engine's carburetor. A carburetor is the device that controls the gas mixture for an engine. You will know the engine is running poorly or not running at all if the mixture is wrong. Running on a non-ideal mixture will reduce performance, reduce economy, cause misfires and reduce engine life. The only thing that can improve this is correcting the mixtures by adjusting the carburetor.

It's the same with your lungs. If you have the wrong mix of gases in your lungs, your body will perform poorly, use too much fuel, fail, and wear out much sooner. All you have to do is adjust your carburetor. Buteyko will teach you that. Your respiratory center, or apnea, is the carburetor for your lungs.

Inspired by Chris Le Roy