Reverting Diabetes
with a Buteyko Breathing Course
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by either a lack of insulin or the body's inability to use insulin efficiently.
Cause of diabetes
Considering Buteyko theory, diabetes will develop when:
- You generally overbreathe throughout the day.
- Overbreathing causes respiratory alkalosis (pH higher than 7.45).
- The body reacts to respiratory alkalosis by developing metabolic acidosis (pH lower than 7.35) so the overall pH of the body stays the same.
- The metabolic acidosis affects your metabolism, the activity of emzymes and hormonal production (insulin, glucagon) - raising your bloodsugar.
When you overbreathe, excessive exhalation of carbon dioxide leads to a low carbon dioxide content of the blood and less effective oxygen delivery by the blood. The low carbon content of the blood leads to respiratoty alkalosis (a pH higher than 7.45). To compensate for the low pH, the body will start producing more acids, causing matabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis strongly affects your metabolism, enzyme acivities and hormonal production, so insulin and glucagon will be affected and diabetes type 2 will start to develop.
Revert diabetes with a Buteyko Breathing course
Since overbreathing and a lack of carbon dioxide are the underlying causes of the metabolic issues causing diabetes, improving your breathing will help revert diabetes. All hormonal activitiy is improved with the normalization of the carbon dioxide level of the blood, including the production and utilization of insulin (and glucagon).
Within a few weeks after starting a Buteyko Breathing course, most diabetes patients will already require significantly less insulin and/or other medications, and notice an improvement in disease symptoms. Usually a few months of practice will be required for optimal results. Close supervision during that period will in most cases be required. Results are dependent on:
- Severity of symptoms
- Students' compliance to instructions and guidance
- Students' level of practice (basic, intermediate or advanced)
- Frequency of support sessions for additional guidance
- Other factors (for example: age, general state of health, other diseases and activities.)