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By Tim Altman 22/11/2023 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Latest News, Naturopathy, Performance, Sleep Enhancement , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Capnometry Biofeedback Technology Looks Like and Measures

In a follow up to my last video discussing the potency of Capnometry biofeedback technology for assessing and retraining client’s breathing, I discuss what this technology measures and what you will see on the screen as you are being measured.

Firstly, Capnometry is measuring the volume of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air that you are exhaling. In hospitals it is used to monitor a patient’s breathing, especially if they are unconscious or have undergone an anaesthetic or are in a coma. The graph starts to curve upwards at the beginning of exhalation (with a slight delay) as CO2 increases, and it curves downwards as exhalation ceases (again, with a slight delay).

The technology provides 2 measurements which give us great information on breathing efficiency for assessment and training:

1. Breathing rate per minute – ideally 8-10 bpm in adults at rest.

2. End-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) – ideally 40mmHg. This is a measurement of the volume of CO2 in the lungs at the end of exhalation. This ETCO2 is essential for respiratory efficiency as it acts as a reservoir of CO2 that permeates back into the blood stream to maintain ideal levels of arterial CO2, which plays a major role in allowing the passage of oxygen from the air we inhale in the lungs, to the cells of the body for energy production. This process is based on the principles of the Bohr Effect and discussed in my last video/post. However, in short, without sufficient arterial CO2 levels. this process is impaired and we produce insufficient amounts of energy, which can lead to fatigue and many other symptoms of illness, including asthma, breathing difficulties, anxiety, sinusitis, snoring & sleep apnoea, headaches & migraines, memory problems, cognitive disturbance etc.

The beauty of this technique is that not only is it fantastic as an assessment of breathing efficiency (non-diagnostic), for breathing retraining it provides in the moment feedback about the efficacy of techniques and rhythms we implement to improve a client’s breathing to ideal, or optimal levels.

As such, we are able to find the best techniques and rhythms specific to each client, and therefore provide them with a specific, individualised breathing retraining program to remove symptoms of illness, improve quality of life and sleep, give them greater energy levels and relaxation, and improve performance.

Breathing as a function, and modality of health is as important and nutrition and exercise. In fact, it is more central than both of these, so it certainly should not be ignored, neglected, or taken for granted (as most of us do).

If you’d like your breathing assessed and to work out an ideal retraining program for your breathing, contact me via me website, www.timaltman.com.au, or email tim@timaltman.com.au.

By Tim Altman 21/11/2023 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS, Chronic Illness, Latest News, Naturopathy, Performance, Sleep Enhancement , , , , , , , , , , ,

Video: Capnometry Biofeedback Technology is Super Potent for Clinical Assessment & Training of Breathing.

After learning extensively about the science of breathing, and techniques for optimising breathing, implementing biofeedback technology called Capnometry, which us used in hospitals to monitor patients breathing, into my clinical work with breathing has seen my understanding of breathing function, and the best techniques for retraining breathing function to optimal levels skyrocket.

In clinic this technology is highly effective for assessing the efficiency of a client’s breathing based on breathing rate per minute (ideally 8-10 bpm), and end tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2), or the amount of CO2 in the lungs at the end of exhalation (ideally at least 40mmHg).

The body regulates breathing based on arterial levels of CO2 predominantly, rather than arterial oxygen (O2). This is because the challenge with breathing is not getting enough oxygen in. We have heaps. In fact, at rest, we utilise less than one quarter of the O2 we inhale (the rest is exhaled), and we have heaps of oxygen stores in our blood stream (known as oxygen saturation levels, which are typically 97-99%).

The challenge is actually getting the oxygen we have in our blood stream, or that we inhale, into our cells for energy production (the main purpose of breathing). If we fail to do this, the consequences are fatal. CO2 plays a major role in this process. Rather than being a waste gas that we completely exhale, we store CO2 (as there’s only 0.03% in atmospheric air, so we can’t rely on this) as it is the limiting factor in determining breathing efficiency,

Based on the principles of the Bohr Effect, CO2 facilitates the passage of oxygen from our lungs to our cells for energy production. If CO2 levels are too low, we simply don’t get enough oxygen to our cells, so energy production is impaired, and survival is threatened. Conversely, if CO2 levels are too high, it upsets respiratory balance, and our body will increase breathing rate and volume to reduce levels. In order to maintain sufficient CO2 levels, our body stores CO2 in our lungs at the end of exhalation, known as end-tidal CO2, which then permeates back into the blood stream to maintain respiratory balance.

We definitely should not fully exhale all of the air in our lungs in order to maintain respiratory balance (at rest) – the exhale is simply a recoil of the diaphragm and lungs.

Unfortunately, without realising it, the vast majority of us breathe nowhere near ideal efficiency- we breathe twice as often as we should and with far too much volume.

This adversely affects our arterial CO2 levels, and therefore the balance in our respiratory system, and ultimately energy production. The consequence of this long term is that our body starts to produce symptoms of illness as a result of the body’s attempt to compensate for this inefficiency and restore balance. These symptoms include difficulties in breathing & asthma, anxiety, sinusitis, snoring & sleep apnoea, fatigue, digestive complaints, headaches & migraines, ADHD and many more.

Therefore this biofeedback technology is fantastic for assessing respiratory efficiency, and also in implementing techniques and rhythms to retrain breathing back to ideal, or functional levels. In so doing, with regular practice, clients experience greater energy levels, relaxation, and reduced symptoms of illness.

In addition, as clients can see significant differences on a screen of their baseline breathing efficiency and when they introduce optimal breathing techniques, so compliance of clients to their at home breath training improves significantly also.

Finally, as a result of measuring and observing the breathing of thousands of clients over the years, my understanding of breathing function and ideal techniques has grown exponentially.

If you’d like to have your breathing efficiency assessed , or learn how to breathe optimally, please contact me for a one on one clinic  appointment, or inline consultation.

By Tim Altman 18/07/2018 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Naturopathy, Sleep Enhancement , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Video: We Breathe Twice As Often As We Should and It Affects Our Health in Many Ways

We breath twice as often as we should (according to medical diagnostic norms).
If our blood pressure were twice as high as it should be, or we ate twice as much as we should, we all know that would lead to health and well-being problems.
Yet we take our breathing for granted, not realising that over-breathing upsets the delicate biochemical balance in our respiratory system that dictates how we get oxygen from the air we inhale in our lungs into the cells of our body for energy production (all known as, and explained in detail by ‘The Bohr Effect’).
he implications of this are:
1. We produce less energy – contributing to fatigue related illnesses, and poor mental functioning.
2. We are more predisposed to apnoea episodes – resulting in poor sleep, low energy, poor cognitive function, fatigue, and a potential flow on to increased likelihood of suffering inflammatory conditions.
3. Smooth muscle constriction around our breathing tubes predisposing to asthma and breathing difficulties, and also conditions relating to constriction or reduced function of all of the other tubes servicing our body (circulation, digestion, lymphatic, urinary etc) – these include IBS, reflux & other digestive complaints; high blood pressure & hypertension: sinusitis, hay fever & respiratory system illnesses; headaches and migraines; anxiety & depression.
The good news is that learning how to breath functionally again is not that hard, and does not take that long. And you will feel better for it…
Email Tim at tim@timaltman.com.au or call 0425 739 918. Tim is available in clinic at: Barwon Heads – 13th Beach Health Services Torquay/Jan Juc Melbourne – Sth Melbourne or Ivanhoe Or via Online Consultation
mickel therapy
By Tim Altman 12/03/2018 Chronic Illness, Mickel Therapy, Sleep Enhancement , , , , , , , , , ,

Building Strong Social Networks Could Cure Your Illness

The town that’s found a potent cure for illness – community.

A great article (linked at the bottom) by George Monbiot of The Guardian in the UK, about a town in Somerset, Frome, which has seen a dramatic fall in emergency hospital admissions since it began a collective project to combat isolation.

Here (in italics) are a couple of extracts from the article, that highlight the importance of social relationships and a sense of community for our physical and mental health – previous research indicating that the magnitude of the effect being comparable with quitting smoking.

What this provisional data appears to show is that when isolated people who have health problems are supported by community groups and volunteers, the number of emergency admissions to hospital falls spectacularly. While across the whole of Somerset emergency hospital admissions rose by 29% during the three years of the study, in Frome they fell by 17%. Julian Abel, a consultant physician in palliative care and lead author of the draft paper, remarks: “No other interventions on record have reduced emergency admissions across a population.”

Remarkable as Frome’s initial results appear to be, they shouldn’t be surprising. A famous paper published in PLOS Medicine in 2010 reviewed 148 studies, involving 300,000 people, and discovered that those with strong social relationships had a 50% lower chance of death across the average study period (7.5 years) than those with weak connections. “The magnitude of this effect,” the paper reports, “is comparable with quitting smoking.” A celebrated study in 1945showed that children in orphanages died through lack of human contact. Now we know that the same thing can apply to all of us.

The contents of this interesting article come as no surprise to us at Mickel Therapy because joy / lack of joy are important Mickel concepts and areas of focus. In short, joy helps to lead us in the direction of health and well-being whilst lack of joy sends us in the opposite direction. And there isn’t a huge amount of joy to be found in social isolation.

Very often, when treating clients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, IBS, anxiety/depression and many more, using Mickel techniques, we see that clients have become socially isolated because of their illness, and rectifying this plays a huge role in the resolution of their health condition. Here are some links outlining more information on the Mickel approach, and a couple of cases of the Mickel technique in action.

Mickel Therapy

The Great CFS or M.E. Debate Continues. Yet Highly Effective Solutions Already Exist

Testimonial: CFS and Anxiety Recovery

Mickel Therapy Case Study – Fibomyalgia

If you would like to make an appointment, or find out whether Mickel Therapy can help you, email me at tim@timaltman.com.au or phone 0425 739 918.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/21/town-cure-illness-community-frome-somerset-isolation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

By Tim Altman 22/08/2017 Breathing Dynamics, Chronic Illness, Evolutionary Medicine, Mickel Therapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition and Weight Loss, Sleep Enhancement, Testimonials , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Testimonial: CFS and Anxiety Recovery

Natural Recovery From Anxiety and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

Below is a testimonial from a lovely client of mine who made a full or complete recovery from a long term case of debilitating anxiety and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

She sent me a letter and some amazing chocolates also as thanks which was very nice – and yummy.

I’ve included part of the letter also as it gives a bit of an idea of the process we follow and the guiding and supporting relationship I play as clients navigate their way back to health. We worked initially via a one on one consultation in person, and then mostly via phone due to simplicity and to eliminate the need for Em to drive too far to consultations. At that stage I worked only in Torquay and Em lived in Melbourne. Nowadays I work both in Torquay and Melbourne.

 

“This is just a little something to show you my gratitude for having you as a guide over the last year. Your phone calls were often a light at the end of the tunnel for me. Not only did your support and insight get me through some rough days, but the tools you have taught me have become part of my everyday routine and have permanently transformed the way I live my life.”

“Looking back to where I was before I started sessions with you, I can’t believe how much has changed. My energy levels are sustained throughout the day, my anxiety attacks have subsided and I deal with my emotions in a much more healthy way. My life has reached a new level of balance that I did not see possible. Using this holistic approach and working from the root level has enabled me to resolve deep issues and create new habits and pathways for myself that I will use for life. For this, I can’t thank you enough Tim.”

Whilst it is very flattering to receive such kind words, I am constantly humbled by both the potency of the techniques I use with clients, and the openness, courage and persistence of many clients in implementing them. It is clients such as Em who deserve the most praise. It is so rewarding to see the transformation in them, and their recovery.

I won’t be falsely modest and say that I don’t need or enjoy some kind words occasionally however 🙂 And chocolates of course!!

If you suffer from anxiety and/or CFS, or know anyone who does, and would like to explore a natural, and permanent recovery, then contact me at tim@timaltman.com.au or 0425 739 918.