Your Mouth Isn't for What You Think

• According to Dr. Buteyko, a CP of 60 seconds is a sign of perfect health. That corresponds to roughly a 6.5% concentration of CO2 in the alveoli.
• From 40 seconds up you can consider yourself healthy, with no asthmatic symptoms.
• 20 – 40 seconds means that most asthmatic symptoms are gone, but if a trigger comes along, they can appear again.
• Under 10 seconds suggests asthma and the physical troubles that stem from it, such as breathlessness, wheezing, coughing, restless sleep, and so on. The CO2 concentration in the body is less than 4%.

Once you know the length of your MCP, you can start working on your score. You do that by changing the way you breathe throughout the day and night, and by bringing in some specialized breathing exercises. You can study how these exercises are done in THIS DOCUMENT.

The most important thing is to reduce the amount of air you breathe in throughout the whole day and night. For this reason the Buteyko Method has become synonymous with nasal breathing.

Put simply, the nose is a smaller opening than the mouth, so the diaphragm has to work harder (by more than 50%) when we breathe in through the nose. At the same time, we retain more CO2 in the body when we breathe out through the nose as well.

Breathing through the nose is natural, even at rest. The nose can clean the air, filtering it, warming it, and moistening it. Our mouth is equipped for none of these functions. In Patrick McKeown's book Asthma Free Naturally, it says that if we breathe through the mouth, it takes 120 days for the lungs to clear the impurities breathed in through the mouth, whereas the nose deals with them in 20 minutes!

When we realize how many impurities get into the air because of exhaust fumes, smoking, factories, deodorants, candles, perfumes, and the other pitfalls of modern times, we understand how important nasal breathing is for a healthy, well-functioning body!

For some people, nasal breathing is quite difficult, because they've breathed through their mouth for most of their lives. Fortunately, the exercises Mr. Buteyko came up with make it possible to return to nasal breathing and to raise the CO2 level.

The aim of these exercises is to reduce both the volume and the frequency of the breath. In other words, they teach us to breathe in less than we're used to.

There are two basic exercises in the Buteyko Method. The first is a meditative practice. The aim is to reduce the breath through relaxation. This reprograms the rhythmic center in the brain so that we breathe in less air, even when we're not focusing on it!

The second is holding the breath while walking. The aim is to raise the CO2 level through exercise and then to hold that level during the breath-hold. Over time, thanks to the combination of these two exercises and a change of lifestyle, the CO2 level rises, the brain resets, the MCP score goes up, and the symptoms of chronic illness ease.

Is it for everyone? What are the contraindications?

The method is for everyone who wants to improve their health! I've worked with yogis and people who practice meditation, as well as with athletes and corporate professionals, with moms, dads, and children, the healthy and the ill.

Every time I introduce someone to this method and they bring the exercises into their lifestyle, their energy level and their quality of life go up.

I should add that not everyone is willing to really put in the work. It takes time, effort, and perseverance to uncover the potential of this method. So the foundation of success is enough motivation and a commitment to practice daily.

There are very few contraindications. Pregnant women must be very cautious and shouldn't take up the method without a teacher. People with cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and lung conditions should also be careful. Otherwise the Buteyko Method is suitable for everyone.

For people with chronic illnesses, I recommend consulting a trained professional.

What about taping the mouth at night?

Taping the mouth at night has become synonymous with the Buteyko Method. This practice, however, wasn't part of the original Buteyko Method. It was one of Dr. Buteyko's patients who discovered the benefits of nasal breathing at night.

Taping the mouth for sleep is a safe practice for most people. It should be avoided by people under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or people who are in any way impaired.

For people who suffer from anxiety and panic disorder, taping the mouth can be challenging. Please don't tape your mouth if you're not mentally at ease with it!

Can children use mouth tape too?

It's perfectly safe for children over six, because they can easily peel the tape off themselves. Still, the child needs to be willing to try it on their own and to enjoy it. The important principle is that we never force children into mouth taping.

Most of the time children aren't very keen on mouth taping. That's all right. It isn't a goal in itself. The goal is natural nasal breathing at night. Adjusting the position in which the child sleeps can help a great deal with this, along with becoming aware of proper breathing during the day.

Does this mean we should tape our mouth at night for the rest of our lives?

No! Even though some Buteyko teachers recommend it. I don't. Mouth taping is a tool meant to help us breathe through the nose in our sleep. Over time we should be able to breathe this way without any aids. We can ask ourselves: "is my mouth dry or moist in the morning when I wake up?" That tells us fairly reliably whether we breathed through the nose during the night or not. Because if we use the mouth to breathe, we'll have a dry throat and feel the need to drink right after waking.

When did the results of the Buteyko Method win you over?

I work with many clients who find success with the method, and also with those for whom it's the other way around. The ones it works for have decided to go all in on healing the body. The ones who don't succeed usually didn't keep practicing long enough. What won me over most was my own experience. Through it I discovered that we carry a self-healing power within us, no matter what doctors, family, or society tell us.

Once I'd experienced this for myself, I expect it works for others too. Happiness, strength, and health are here for everyone. We just need to decide for them and stay the course.

When I was 18, I spent six months in bed with asthma. Over the course of 14 months I got through 3 inhalers, 14 courses of antibiotics, and more than 425 steroid tablets of prednisolone. At one point my doctor gave up on me. He saw no chance I'd recover and become a fitness trainer. I was in despair about my life.

Three weeks later my mom called and told me about the Buteyko Method. That phone call changed my life forever.

After another 18 months of daily practice, I was free of symptoms and free of medication. I became a healthy person, and I set out on a career as a fitness and health coach.

Since then it no longer surprises me what tremendous innate power we hold as human beings. I've seen people recover from depression, asthma, vascular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and many other illnesses, simply through lifestyle changes involving exercise, diet, sleep, faith and gratitude, community, contact with nature, and breathing.

With the help of this method I've supported clients in coming out of asthma, allergies, and anxiety.

Can the practice do any harm?

By taking up the Buteyko Method, we return our body to its natural state. When we set out on this path, we meet a cleansing reaction, as with many other lifestyle changes. I'm not aware of the method having any harmful effect beyond this reaction and the safety precautions for specific groups of people.

What benefit does this method have for athletes?

I personally used the Buteyko Method to get back to playing soccer, to earn my first dan in judo, and to run a marathon (with my mouth taped and zero running training). Thanks to this method, I've taught soccer players, martial arts practitioners, and endurance athletes to breathe properly.

By learning to breathe more efficiently, we draw on aerobic metabolism for longer. That means our endurance in sport increases.

The Buteyko Method also helps me keep a clear mind under athletic strain, and it aids recovery too. As the old saying goes: the one in the best shape is the one who can recover the fastest.

A new technique grew out of this method, one that specializes precisely in athletes. It's called Oxygen Advantage (O.A.), which I also teach. If an athlete has no health problems, I would recommend they learn Oxygen Advantage to improve their performance through the breath. O.A. also aims to restore functional breathing patterns and uses powerful exercises for athletes in higher fitness condition.

Tereza's tips to finish

If this article caught your interest, which it probably did, since you've read this far, you can start improving your health and fitness by noticing how you breathe throughout the day and consciously closing your mouth and using your nose. Even during exertion!

According to Pavel Tsatsouline, a top fitness trainer who introduced kettlebell training to the Western world, the only indication for mouth breathing is high-intensity sport during competition. At any time outside competition, he recommends breathing in exclusively through the nose. Which applies to about 99.8% of us for most of our lives. (Then again, we're not robots, right, so if it won't go through the nose, it won't.)

If you want to go even further, buy yourself some hypoallergenic medical tape (this one works best for us, because it's breathable and elastic) and you can try out a night with your mouth taped. If you have any doubts, give your doctor a call first. I mean that!

If taping your mouth feels unpleasant, you can use a narrow strip of tape and cover, say, just one corner and get used to it gradually. Or you can tape only the middle of the mouth and leave the corners free. Or it simply isn't for you!

Where can you find more information?

• I learned the basics of the Buteyko Method from Patrick McKeown's book Close Your Mouth, 2004. Here you can hear him speak at TEDx. There he mentions a very interesting link between the development of children's faces and their breathing style.
• Also interesting is this interview with Patrick, in English. In it you'll also learn one breathing exercise.
• If you type "Buteyko method" into the YouTube search bar, you'll have entertainment for weeks to come.
• A great source of information is the site Buteyko Clinic.
• Interesting too is this documentary about an experiment carried out with seriously ill patients in Great Britain.

I'll say goodbye with a quote from Konstantin Buteyko:

Today's person needs to eat less, breathe less, sleep less, and sweat more in physical work, because that is good for them.

You're still here? I like your interest…

Let me add one more important connection, the one that fascinates me most about nasal versus mouth breathing.

When we breathe through the nose, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for rest, recovery, and digestion. Whereas breathing in through the mouth is linked to the sympathetic nervous system, which is designed instead for action, fight, and flight.

So simply by consciously developing nasal breathing, we also change our neurological setting. A deep, calm breath into the belly through the nose helps us reduce nervousness and stress, and can sometimes even stop panic, if we start it in time. It really does turn us into different people. Calmer and more balanced. It's a return to our natural state.

Do you also wonder why doctors don't first ask how we breathe, when it directly shapes our physical reality and we do it, on average, 20,000 times a day?

The breath has a more significant influence on our body, our mental well-being, and our health than food does. And let's be honest. How many thoughts and how much time do we give to preparing, eating, and thinking about food? And how much waking attention do we give to the breath? There's no need to watch and control it all the time, but even if we just stopped 3 times a day and, for one minute, softened the breath and let it down into the belly, things would start to happen…

If you're reading this now with your mouth closed and thinking there might be something to it, and you feel like playing with your breath a little more, then I've done my job! Hoorayyy…

P.S. If you know someone who suffers from asthma, information about the Buteyko Method could fundamentally change their life. Don't keep it to yourself!