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wow never thought this would make the front page of HN. My great grandfather learned this method from Konstantin himself to help manage his debilitating asthma (back in the Soviet Union) and he kept it up daily into his 80s once we moved to the US. He did it daily for so long that he was able to hold his breath for almost 10 minutes if I remember correctly. He taught it to my grandma who then taught it to me when I was a kid but neither she nor I do it anymore unfortunately. Imagine an 11 year old sitting in a bedroom with his grandma doing breathing exercises. I honestly can't believe she got me to sit still longer than 5minutes to do it.

> hold his breath for almost 10 minutes

Konstantin must have learned that from Guybrush Threepwood!

What a lovely story and a great connection to a post. Thanks for sharing.

I highly recommend the book Breath by James Nestor. The only health/pop sci book I'd recommend. Doing breathwork has increased my HRV by ~10ms and lowered my respiratory rate when I sleep. I no longer snore as a result.

I've read that book and also Patrick McKeown's 'Oxygen Advantage', which also talks about CO2 tolerance and the benefits of Buteyko.

https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breat...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m8jIhQyiDY

Good stuff honestly, helped me a lot

What breath work do you do every week please?

Reason why I'm asking: the book contains many techniques, and I'm curious about what's working best for people.

It seems Buteyko method aims to increase carbon dioxide tolerance. This blog post has an interesting discussion about that:

Carbon Dioxide as a Stimulant for Respiratory Function —https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2020/7/28/carbon-dio...

I cannot tell, from the article, how to perform the Buteyko method.

From the "Medical Evidence" section, it seems I'm not missing much.

There are a few free apps that will teach it, I have used the “Advanced Buteyko” ios app.

If you demand extensive peer reviewed medical evidence of some specific quantified outcome before doing any activity in life you will miss quite a lot of valuable things that can’t be easily quantified or measured, or funded academically. There is however actually a lot of medical research on breathwork like this, they just will use the technical terms for what you are actually doing instead of a name like Buteyko.

Advanced buteyko doesn't let me go very far unless I sign up for an $160 course

> you will miss quite a lot of valuable things

Arguably, the lack of medical evidence tells us that this is in fact not a valuable thing.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. So yes, extremely arguable indeed

There may be evidence, but there may not be a peer reviewed study of the evidence.

I have tried a lot of breathwork techniques lately and Buteyko is very good. One thing I always tell people that sit and slouch a lot is that your diaphragm is probably very tight (the same way your quads/hamstrings/etc can get tight). breathing exercises are very good for loosening it up, which, at least for me, have had a very positive impact on my health and wellbeing.

Buteyko is helping me manage thoracic outlet syndrome (I think; haven't had a diagnosis). My main symptom was a jarring feeling in my head when walking. Went from months where walking even a short distance gave me very mild concussion symptoms, to walking and running 12 miles in a day without issue, and the only difference seemed to be the way I was breathing.

Edit - a couple of other things possibly helped around the same time, so I'm not sure if I ever isolated the effect of breathing. But it definitely felt like it was a significant part of it.

I thought I had that too, similar problems but it was just anxiety mixed with the effects of trying to quit smoking.

I recommend getting an ultrasound of the relevant veins/arteries, it's a relatively cheap and safe way to confirm what kind of problems you have.

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One of the earliest findings of the investigations into oxygen that O2 is toxic in excess.

Space-cabin Atmospheres: Oxygen toxicity (1964) (google.com) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25883728

The Haldane Effect and the Bohr Effect are the central findings that explain the transportation and exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haldane_effect / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_effect

People who hyperventilate exhale too much carbon dioxide, which disrupts the acid/alkaline balance of the blood and makes it harder for the body to use the oxygen available to it.

The Apollo capsules were originally spec'd to use a mixed gas atmosphere. When the capsule got too heavy they switched to using a pure-O2 atmosphere. After the Apollo 1 fire they switched to using an atmospheric mix (80/20 N2/O2) at launch, which gradually changed to pure oxygen as the flights progressed.

Treatment with pure oxygen is not helpful for sick people:

Mortality/morbidity: acutely ill adults liberal vs. conservative Oxygen Tx (2018) (thelancet.com) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993262

I typed up some notes about oxygen toxicity: https://www.taxiwars.org/2021/06/folly-medical-hyperventilat...

Medicine decided that the antidote to oxygen toxicity didn't need to be used anymore in the mid-1950's.

>Strictly nasal breathing during physical exercise is another key element of the Buteyko method.

This seems like extreme nonsense. How light would you have to exercise to only breathe through your nose? I had an ex gf that tried to do this when we would go running and it was a disaster.

Nasal breathing has a lot of benefits and it's arguable that maintaining your level of exertion such that you're always breathing nasally is a good technique for building cardiovascular & aerobic capacity.

I have a close friend who got her pretty hardcore asthma and nasal issues under control over last year. Her quality of life improved dramatically after doing this thing – I tried some basic first exercises and I felt there is some practical resemblance to breathing meditation. Anyway, I am planning to get more into it and would definitely recommend it if you upper respiratory issues have strong negative effects on your life.

I was taught this method as a child to help with constantly blocked nasal passages. I think it helped! I'm still doing it, although not religiously.

I think the major part of what makes it useful is just adding resistance for breathing. It helps to train the breathing muscles, just like any other resistance training.