Hacking Breathing for the Wrong Reasons: In the rush to get the latest “hack” that will make us fit, slim and attractive to others with no personal effort or self awareness needed, Professor KP Buteyko’s methodology has become reduced to a set of epithets about shutting your mouth and holding your breath. Today there is so much Buteyko advice online about “how” to “Do Buteyko”, that so many people are forgetting to ask “do I need Buteyko?”. There is a belief these days that fixing everything – even when it is not broken – is a worthwhile undertaking. But you cannot “optimize” something that is ..read more

Claudia Juárez is a Clinical Psychologist, Stress expert and Health and Wellbeing Consultant. Claudia directs Transforma tu Estrés, a consulting firm focused in Organizacional Stress Management and Wellness programs. She has dedicated the last decade to improving her clients health. She is also the author of Todo lo que quería saber sobre el estrés de la A a la Z, published for Manual Moderno (2019) This interview was held during pandemic, considering the huge impact that breathing can have in our health and wellbeing. Thanks to Melody Mitchell, Buteyko Method Educator Trainer and Bu ..read more

Masks from a “Buteyko” perspective: We understand that many people are finding compulsory mask wearing in public difficult. We understand that this is a natural reaction which is caused by slightly reduced airflow. This is not easy for some people. We understand that if you had a previous trauma, accident, or negative experience where your mouth was covered or you couldn’t breathe, then any airflow restriction often quickly activates stress responses when this is repeated. We understand the feelings of defensive aggression and we understand the hostility. The body is doing all it can to not h ..read more

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Feeling anxious? Overwhelmed? Tired of being told to “take a deep breath” as a panacea for stress? Or that there are “ten easy steps” to an “anxiety free life”? Calm isn’t something you can turn off and on. Or is it? While taking a deep breath may not be the ultimate instant stress buster it’s made out to be, we do know that it does seem to do something. Activating that deeper breath seems to “re-set” us somehow. Yet it also can physically stress us even more. In some people, just the act of “taking a deep breath” is impossible. In some people, like those with asthma; deep breathing is guarant ..read more

When breathing increases in response to any stimulus, it can create stress which can lead to negative physical reactions in susceptible people. Wearing a mask creates a slight reduction in airflow, which causes a compensatory response of over-breathing (hyperventilation). Hyperventilation is a well documented cause of many diverse symptoms in all humans. With people who have the functional and adaptive ability breathe normally, (i.e. nasally most of the time); the adjustment to mask wearing does not cause any symptoms because their breathing is able to functionally adapt to reduced air flow wi ..read more

When an obstetrician in the mid 1800’s named Ignaz Semmelweiss declared that invisible matter was transferred on the unwashed hands of surgeons from patient to patient and a likely cause of the disease that claimed up to ten percent of women who had newly delivered babies in clinical settings, he was thought of as a lunatic by the Gentlemen Doctors who felt that their hands were naturally clean. Semmelweis; who paid for his discovery with his life and reputation; was later understood to be a man ahead of his time. Regular hand washing had become a new behaviour due to better understanding of g ..read more

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