Remedial Breathing

"For this is a great secret: all the healing forces reside originally in the human breathing system."
Rudolf Steiner

The information sheets presented on this site are based on the understanding that dysfunctional breathing is an important factor in many chronic illnesses and that insights on the breath, given by Dr Rudolf Steiner at the beginning of the 20th century, and in the late nineteen hundreds by Dr Konstantin Buteyko, compliment each other and offer many opportunities to understand the causes of such illnesses.

Also these two streams of knowledge, together with the recent discovery that nitric oxide is produced in the para nasal sinuses, now enable us to design breathing exercises which can assist with a return to full health by normalizing breathing patterns.

Within the breath we will be considering the physical and spiritual aspects of the substances carbon, nitrogen and oxygen along with their properties of warmth and pressure. With respect to our breathing processes we will be looking at bodily structures, musculature, regions of activity, analysis, volumes, rhythms and velocity. We gratefully acknowledge the work of Dr Steiner (1861-1925) on all of these items except probably analysis, Dr Buteyko (1923-2003) on all except the spiritual aspects of the substances and nitrogen itself, the Karolinska Institute¹ for their discovery that nitric oxide is produced abundantly in the paranasal sinuses and medical science for the ever increasing list of beneficial properties of nitric oxide.

Since hidden hyperventilation and mouth breathing are the predominant forms that dysfunctional breathing takes it follows that any drugs, equipment or surgery that inadvertently maintain or increase excessive breathing volumes may well serve to exacerbate such illnesses despite the admirable intention to perhaps save lives in the shorter term.

The illness-specific information sheets available herein try to provide an understanding of the contribution that dysfunctional breathing makes to the development of each illness however contact with us is required for a diagnosis of established breathing patterns and prescribing of appropriate remedial breathing exercises and regimes.

The provisional information that is available herein has been derived by taking the knowledge given by Dr Steiner, Dr Buteyko and the Karolinska Institute and translating it into breathing maneuvers which have then been tried and tested by us over 11 years of clinical experience with patients who believed that dysfunctional breathing could be an important factor in their illnesses.

When practitioners of Dr Buteyko’s breathing method introduced it to the west in the early 1990’s they never hesitated to welcome and give hope of betterment to all comers, including the sickest of the sick, who often had multiple illnesses. His book gives us a glimpse of this work detailing the progress of 46 adults with 58 illnesses and symptoms, and 104 children with 28, after using his treatment (Available per Email).
There is a wonderful resonance in this impulse with Dr Steiner’s comment ‘…A secret activity of healing resides in the breathing system, and all the secrets of healing are at the same time secrets of breathing.’ (‘The Four Seasons and the Archangels’ Lecture 5, Para’s 16&17)

John Wilson

Approx. 70% of the people who attended were asthmatics with the balance - in approximate order of frequency - being:

Sleep apnea, Snoring, CFS, Eczema, Migraine Headaches, Panic Attacks, Nasal Congestion, Allergies, Sinusitis, Rhinitis, Arthritis, Hay Fever, Emphysema, COPD, Insomnia, Depression, Osteoarthritis, Candida, Raynaud’s Disease, Lower Back Pain, Bronchiectasis, Fibromyalgia, Sarcoidosis,Cancer, Speech Impediment, Smoking, Sinus Polyps, Post-nasal Drip, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Phrenic Nerve Palsy.

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