What is dysfunctional breathing?

The science bit first.CO2 is a very light gas and when you regularly gulp in extra lungfuls of air, it gets pushed out. The occasional sigh or puffing your way through an exercise routine is no cause for worry, but if the air is whistling in at twice the normal rate, round the clock, for months on end, that's when the troubles start. Less CO2 in the blood means your system gradually becomes more alkaline, which is why hyperventilation can have such a range of effects.

The early signs are dizziness and pins and needles. Later, as the body tries to reduce the alkalinity, it produces more lactic acid, which in turn leads to feelings of tiredness and depression. Even more dramatic are the effects when the low CO2 levels start making smooth muscles like the heart and arteries constrict.

Doctors know all about acute hyperventilation, which can happen when someone has a violent shock. He or she breathes faster and feels they are suffocating. Then what you do is to get them to breathe into a paper bag to raise their CO2 levels. But there's still not much awareness of the dramatic effect hyperventilation over a long period can have, which is why these patients are often written off as hypochondriacs or neurotic.

“Just relaxing does not help chronic hyperventilators, because over-breathing feels right for them. You have to re-train them.”

Deep in the most primitive part of your brain is a cluster of cells whose job it is to monitor your breathing. When you are not getting enough air it sends out those awful and irresistible messages that say. “Get more air, I'm suffocating." But what this system responds to is not oxygen but CO2. When the level gets too low the alarm goes off. But if you constantly keep the level down by hyperventilation, this breathing thermostat resets itself. Now levels of CO2 that should be regarded as normal seem too low and the message goes out: "Breathe more."

So, learning to breathe properly can be hard at first, because you are trying to alter a very basic survival system that ignores all your higher reasons and logic and just keeps yelling, "I'm suffocating."

But patients soon understand that hyperventilation provides a clear and understandable link between something as nebulous as psychological stress and dozens of all-too physical effects. When we are anxious or worried, our whole system speeds up ready for action, including our breathing. But just relaxing does not help chronic hyperventilators, because over-breathing feels right for them. You have to retrain them. And isn’t this just the case for people moving dysfunctionally too?