What you eat affects how you breathe & how you breathe affects what you eat!

Better Breathing Means better Health - Episode #16 

What you eat affects how you breathe and how you breathe affects what you eat.

This idea comes as a surprise to many people who have never believed there was a connection between our eating and our breathing habits. However over the past forty years inn the health profession I have come to the conclusion that our health is connected to everything, and a few years ago I published a book entitled “Connection - Towards a Broader Understanding of Health in Medicine” that expands on this concept. 

After three years of research, gathering data from over 250 patients it seems quite clear that there is a strong relationship between our breathing and are eating habits. There are good physiological reasons why our diet impacts on our breathing and Professor Buteyko incorporated this in his training programme, but our Western diet today is very different from the diet of ordinary people in Russia back in the 1950’s. The link between our breathing and the food we choose to eat and how we eat it is more subtle with psychological influences.

Basically the better our breathing, the more selective and better is our eating and likewise the better our eating habits, the better is our breathing.

In the current situation of the COVID-19 (2020) this may have a profound impact on people's capacity to deal with infections and in particular all viral infections. 

Our immune system can be improved by lifestyle changes and there are three key factors that can influence the immune system in this way. 

They are: our nutritional status or what we eat, the way we breathe and our management of stress. 

Just as what we eat affects how we breathe, there is another correlation, and that is how we react to stressors is linked closely to how we normally breathe. If we usually breathe very gently and quietly we invariably are calm, if we are habitually hyperventilating or over-breathing we are usually stressed. We all have been told to breathe slowly and gently when we have been stressed. So in fact we have these three activities very closely linked; if we improve one, the others will improve. If we learn to improve all three, our health, wellbeing and immune system will all improve, and we shall be better able to respond to any infection. 

This podcast of Better Breathing Means Better Health will have given you an insight into how you may teach yourself to breathe better and in doing so you will be taking better control of your stress and you will find the way you eat will improve. 

To deal with the nutritional side of this question you may want to listen to my podcast entitled the World's Finest Diet, which guides you how to improve your diet, thereby improving your health and boosting your immune system this way. 

Alternatively you may take on my Skype training course entitled the Skype Lifestyle Training Course that incorporates these major factors. Details of this may be obtained on my website: www.totalhealthmatters.co.uk

Observed relationship between Dietary Status & Breathing Status

Dietary status was based on the 4LeafSurvey that estimates the %age of calories derived from Whole Plant Foods and the Breathing status is based on the Buteyko Control Pause that estimates the %age of carbon dioxide in the lungs or degree of oxygenation of the body.

The 4LeafSurvey scores range from -44 to +44, the Control Pause ranges from 5 to 60 seconds  for most of the population.

4LeafSurvey Score (X)

Control Pause Score (Y)

70% CP Range

-44

12

5 to 19

-40

13

6 to 20

-35

15

8 to 22

-30

16

9 to 23

-25

18

11 to 25

-20

19

12 to 26

-15

21

14 to 28

-10

22

15 to 29

-5

24

17 to 31

0

25

18 to 32

5

27

20 to 34

10

28

21 to 35

15

30

23 to 37

20

31

24 to 38

25

33

26 to 40

30

34

27 to 41

35

36

29 to 43

40

37

30 to 44

44

38

31 to 45

Michael Lingard BSc. DO.WPNutCert. 28/3/2020