I was asked by a Personal Trainer after speaking at this year’s CamExpo, whether Buteyko exercises could do the same as HIIT to improve V02 max output.

Q: Will Buteyko exercises improve V02 Max results?
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A: The answer is yes, but not directly.

As a follow up to the last blog on Diabetes, there begs the obvious question; “Well Declan, what should we do about it then?” “Go on, don’t just complain, make a positive suggestion”.

Well, chillies get their flavour and attitude from Capsaicin. For arthritis, some people are prescribed Capsaicin as a medication.

It is a strong anti-inflammatory and commonly and cheaply available as a food for all of us and while it’s not the only or complete answer, is a place to start as a preventative/curative.

One of those (very few) occasions that I regret being right.
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Those of you who remember me 15 years ago, lecturing at the Raworth Centre, may recall how I was bleating on about you as trainee therapists, who in a decade or so would be facing Diabetes at epidemic proportions.  The overweight kids you saw on their way to school, who would be diabetic teens.  We have arrived.

This is a very cheery story.  We need more of those.

I have protected her identity to focus on her results.

Here is my Buteyko story :

​“I’ve been diagnosed with asthma, which very quickly developed in a severe form. I had to use prescribed medication, the well-known “puffers” that have written, as a warning, on the Patient Information that “it could worsen the medical condition of asthma patients”… scary, isn’t it?

In the second of a series of short blogs to show medical studies that back up what we ‘alternatives’ have been saying for some time, here is an abstract to how Tart Cherries can increase melatonin for all you world travellers and shift workers out there.
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Detection and quantification of the antioxidant melatonin in Montmorency and Balaton tart cherries (Prunus cerasus).
Burkhardt S1, Tan DX, Manchester LC, Hardeland R, Reiter RJ.

In complementary therapy we get a lot of…”well it’s not scientifically based, so we can’t trust it.”

​This short abstract from the Journal of Psychosomatic Research shows a study which found breathing techniques worked better than the comparison procedure.  Importantly, it also showed that the control register in the brain stem was altered to maintain the benefit.

For many young people, some of the main obstacles they’ll face in life are in their heads.  A lack of self belief, or a belief that they are so gifted and clever, they don’t have to try.

As parents, we need to think carefully about our language, as some of those obstacles are placed in their heads by our own well meaning.

When we speak, are we giving well thought through guidance, or just our opinions?

​Pause, think, edit………….perhaps speak.

Professor Cecilie Svanes of University of Bergen, Norway has published research, which was presented to the European Respiratory Society in Munich.

It shows that men who smoke in their teens stand a more than 50% chance of having children with non-allergic Asthma (that excluding Hay ever).  If they smoked before age 15, this could be as high as 60%.  This is only reduced if the men give up more than 5 years before conceiving.

The study covered 13000 men and women in total and the women’s habits were not implicated.
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I believe this result was not expected.

Oxygen carries no regulatory function in the body. The body simply uses it to oxidise other substances. We are not sensitive to it, as there is 20 times more in the atmosphere than we need at any time.
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Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is an “informative humeral vital constant, which regulates – without exception – all body functions”. We are very sensitive to it and more importantly its loss as there is only 1/200th in the atmosphere of what we need.