Close Your Mouth: Buteyko Clinic Handbook for Perfect Health

I have an infuriating problem with nasal congestion, dry mouth and horseness. I have seen 2 ENTs, an allergist, tried every kind of medication including prescription medication (both oral and nose drops), had a sleep study and tried a C-pap in an effort to find a remedy. Another book i was reading made reference to Dr. Buteyko and I did some research and decided to buy this book. The theory behind this approach is fascinating and makes a lot of sense. This book explains the theory and provided exercises to improve the quality of breathing. It was really designed for use by people with asthma. I have no idea what kind of success those people have. But I have experienced a great improvement in my breathing as a result of doing the exercises. I usually do the exercises religiously and have gotten great relief from my nasal congestion. If I miss doing the exercises, I can tell immediately. If I have difficulty with congestion, doing some of the exercises helps right away. The exercises are simple to do, but also difficult because they involve decreasing your breathing. This feels uncomfortable and even scary at first, but with practice they become easy to do and provide a great deal of comfort. I now look forward to these exercises and sometimes substitute them for my meditation program, they are so relaxing. The book came with adhesive strips which I wear to bed to prevent mouth breathing during the night. This has worked wonders for improving my sleep. I no longer have dry mouth or gum problems, less snoring and according to my FItbit, the overall quality of my sleep has improved from "Fair" to "Good. This book, along with the strips has changed my life for the better. If you buy this book and have difficulty with doing the exercises, I urge you to keep trying until you get the hang of it. It's worth it. (I sent information on this book to my doctors. If they don't know about this - they should)

I sat on this book for several months because it seemed like it was going to be some work. I wish I had picked it up sooner because his recommendations really do work, and are well worth the effort. I found a difference with my sleeping, with my sports and exercise performance as well as a general all around breathing.

I learnt some very useful things from this book. The main things I learnt are: 1) It is possible to dramatically improve your breathing 2) You can determine how well you are breathing by how long you can hold you breath out 3) Breathing through your nose is the superior way of breathing 4) Holding your breath out improves your breathing and health I have done a lot of yogic breathing exercises in the past. With practice I became very competent at holding my breath for a long time. I could even swim the entire length of an olympic sized pool under water in one breath. This lead me to believe that my lungs were good. However, a massage therapist once commented that while I had very good lung capacity my lungs weren't actually functioning that well. This book explains what he meant. The reason I give this book four stars instead of five is that it does not explain that breathing exercises need to be approached with a lot of caution. The book recommends an exercise in which you walk while holding your breath out. I experimented with this and it definitely upset my body's rhythms. The science of breath in India is called Pranayama and it is deep and profound - and it strongly advises having a competent teacher and taking things very slowly. I feel that the Buteyko approach is effective but compared to Pranayama it is unsophisticated. For example, the book talks about how holding your breath out will help with elimination. This is because it stimulates "apana prana" - downward moving energy. It definitely works but it should be taught along with the four other major functions: prana, udana, samana, vyana. So while this book has a lot of good things in it, I do recommend you take it easy, slowly, don't strain and get qualified guidance.

Having done in-depth research in the field of alternative healing for over 40 years, I must say Patrick McKeown's work and genuine care for people is incredibly impressive. After researching on the internet, I borrowed and read his book "THE OXYGEN ADVANTAGE". It gave more detailed information about the Buteyko Breathing and the science behind it, and especially how it can improve athletic performance. Thankfully it also gave me what I needed to correct an error that I had picked up in my research when I first started doing the Buteyko exercises. It is an extraordinary book. Since I already knew Buteyko was probably one of "thee" most important things that could be done for a person's health, I needed a book that didn't have so much of the science and explanations, and cost less. This "CLOSE YOUR MOUTH" book fulfilled that need. It is concise yet gives the most important information and exercises, as well as the cautions of which exercises to do regarding certain health challenges. If I had started with these two books, I could have saved myself a lot of time and unnecessary difficulties. These books have helped me to make great progress. As soon as I get into better condition and can be athletic, I would also like to purchase "THE OXYGEN ADVANTAGE" book for myself. I think it is extraordinarily remarkable that Patrick McKeown actually takes the time to email, answer inquiries, and help people. It's rare to find anyone who puts the needs of others before the "almighty dollar". Also, if I had realized I could have purchased this book, the DVD, and the CD as a package deal on Amazon for just $10 more, that's what I would have done. I truly feel this breathing method improves a person's health and helps prevent serious and chronic disease. "To your health" __ buy the books.

I have suffered from asthma all my life. I'm 24 now. I have only been hospitalised twice but in my younger years I used to dread the summer time as my wheezing would be pretty remarkable. I wouldn't be able to play some of the games other kids were playing because I'd just have an asthma attack and need to be calmed down my the school nurse. I took medications for years and years. Inhalers. Steroids. All sorts of crap. I kept a peak-flow meter and monitored my lung power. Year after year, nothing really changed. My parents took me to see different Dr's, tried different home remedies, but slowly but surely I just accepted the limit of asthma and became less active. I then became convinced I was 'normal'. Dr's told me I had 'grown out' of asthma... That was until I turned 17 and wanted to get into shape. I am a very hard-headed and determined man. If I want something, I go for it with all my strength. I learned a tonne about strength and conditioning, attended workshops, even took time to attend seminars when I was travelling around the world. Yet, I was never able to quite get the results I wanted. I would train my ass off, yet there was never a session in the past seven years I did not feel flat out destroyed. I would always wheeze like a locomotive. I just told myself too push through, but one evening when I was in an MMA class I flat out fell to my knees during one of the conditioning drills and crawled to the corner, panting like I was holding on for dear life. Yet, people who physically looked way worse than me were bounding through the drills just fine and getting fitter and fitter by the week. Guys who were plain out of shape were leaving me for dead. I knew something was deeply wrong. I went online to an MMA forum and asked some of the helpful people on there what the hell was happening to me. I had understood all the latest conditioning research. I had applied the high-low method. I was doing cardiac output work, high resistance intervals, tempo intervals. I was wearing a Polar heart rate monitor with chest strap and meticulously tracking all the data. Yet, nothing was happening for me. A few people told me to be patient, but then one man told me something I was completely unaware of. My breathing was probably holding me back. He told me to check out the Buteyko Method. He said he it really worked. Desperate, I looked into it. After watching a few YouTube videos and two documentaries on the method, I began to understand the logic. Asthma, according to Buteyko, is brought on my chronic hyperventilation. The problem was not that I was breathing too little, but too much! It made a lot of sense. I was a Uni student at the time and very busy, but now I had to give up MMA and other activities I enjoyed because my breathing was holding me back, I had time to put the puzzle together. Somewhere amongst writing my dissertation and going on my first business venture, I was unable to make Buteyko breathing a habit. It left my mind. I became way less active and again, I forgot about my asthma. I was 'normal' again... Fast forward to now. Now, I am in the position where I have changes to make physically and fitness goals to attain, but it's a bit deeper than that. Breathing is a foundation for health. My concentration is slipping at times, and I long for the feeling of pounding the pavement running. I now find myself having graduated last month with a 2:1 with a burning desire to break this bad habit of over-breathing once and for all. Patrick's book is extremely helpful. As a guy who is just out of Uni, I will keep it honest, money is not abundant right now. However, with Patrick's book I have been able to really get to grips with the Buteyko Method. I have personally reached out to Patrick via e-mail and I am now clear on how to make the jump into making Buteyko work for me. The book is so, so clear and engaging. I finished reading it with a feeling of HOPE! I've been given 'advice' from medical practitioners year after year which not only did not help, but made matters worse as they had me believe I was stuck with chronic asthma and had to accept a life of low activity! Had it not been for the internet and the ability to freely research and contact others, I'd be a lost. In many ways this highlights the beauty of the internet and the growth of this huge, global web which allows for the transit of something deeply liberating and powerful - information. Reminds me a lot of Hardt & Negri's concept of 'the multitude'.We're conditioned in society to trust doctors, we're told not to diagnose ourselves but put faith in the professionals, but in many respects authority is no more than the successful establishment of a hegemonic position. Many doctors and other established authority would be a lot more honest to admit that there is a lot of grey area, that the paradigms we currently have might be wrong, and that we need to continue to dig to find the answers we need. I would much prefer that than being told there is only one way. In 1900 Lord Kelvin announced there was nothing new to be discovered about physics, that all that remained was more precise measurement. Five years later Albert Einstein published his paper on Special Relativity and shattered the framework of understanding at the time. 100 years later, I still think we've not learned the deeper lesson from Kelvin's mistake. Be sceptical. Be your own detective. Buteyko WORKS. Thank you Patrick for this great, insightful book. Keep doing the great work you do. It is appreciated.

Everyone ought to read this gem

This manual provides clear, concise instructions on how to reverse asthmatic symptoms. I have experienced relief from sinusitis, chronic cough, difficulty breathing at night thanks to these exercises. Most important, it helped me to understand why these conditions develop and how to cope with the body's mechanisms and form good habits. I recommend this to anyone wanting to understand their difficulty breathing and searching for a non-pharmaceutical solution. Very grateful to Patrick McKeown for making this method known.

Da explicaciones y técnicas que cualquier persona puede entender y poner en practica.

Ich leide an einem persistenten Asthma und das ist gefühlt das Einzige, das hilft. Kann jedem die Buteyko Methode echt empfehlen. Jede Frage, die ich hatte, wurde in diesem Buch beantwortet.