How to Improve Digestion with Lifestyle and Higher Body O2

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How to Improve Digestion with Lifestyle and Higher Body O2 Artour Rakhimov (PhD)

Disclaimer The content provided herein is for information purposes only and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent digestive problems or any other chronic disease. Always consult your doctor or health care provider before making any medical decisions. The information herein is the sole opinion of Dr. Artour Rakhimov and does not constitute medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the Ontario Ministry of Health nor by the World Health Organization. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information herein, Dr. Artour Rakhimov accepts no responsibility or liability and makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information provided herein and expressly disclaims any liability for errors and omissions herein.

Content copyright Content copyright © Dr. Artour Rakhimov. All rights re served This book is copyrighted. It is prohibited to copy, lend, adapt, electronically transmit, or transmit by any other means or methods without prior written approval from the author. However, the book may be borrowed by family members.

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Table of content Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................... 2 Content copyright ...................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 1. Good and poor digestive health .............................................................................................. 9 1.1 Common symptoms of digestive problems ................................................................... 9 1.2 Signs of good digestive health (absence of digestive problems) ........................... 10 1.3 Causes of digestive problems and poor GI health ..................................................... 12 1.4 Body-oxygen test ............................................................................................................. 14 1.5 Restoration of digestive health: the main goals ......................................................... 19 1.6 Expected effects of breathing retraining on common GI problems ....................... 22 2. Common triggers of digestive problems ............................................................................ 25 2.1 Allergies ............................................................................................................................. 25 2.2 Chemical triggers present in food and water .............................................................. 28 2.3 Mechanical triggers ......................................................................................................... 32 2.4 Allergic reactions via skin, air, and EMF fields ........................................................ 35 2.5 Negative effects of some breathing exercises ............................................................ 35 2.6 Synergetic effect of GI triggers ..................................................................................... 37 2.7 Sequences of negative symptoms for digestive flare-ups ........................................ 37 2.8 Healthy villi and summary of putrefaction effects .................................................... 39 2.9 Why does the gut react with diarrhea? ........................................................................ 40 2.10 Effects of poor digestive health on body O2 and general health ......................... 40 3. Symptoms and signs to monitor........................................................................................... 42 3.1 Commonly known symptoms ........................................................................................ 42 3.2 Frequent-urination log..................................................................................................... 42 3.3 Soiling effect ..................................................................................................................... 43 3.4 Ear buzzing ........................................................................................................................ 43 3.5 Unquenchable thirst due to recent GI exacerbation .................................................. 43 3.6 Moist nose ......................................................................................................................... 44 3.7 Cold feet ............................................................................................................................. 44 3.8 Mental states ..................................................................................................................... 45 3.9 Body O2 monitoring ........................................................................................................ 45 3.10 Why to record pulse? .................................................................................................... 45 4. Body weight ............................................................................................................................. 47 4.1 Effects of breathing exercises on overweight people ............................................... 47 4.2 Effects of breathing exercises on underweight people ............................................. 48 5. Focal infections ....................................................................................................................... 50 5.1 How dead tonsils prevent high CPs .............................................................................. 50 5.2 How cavities in teeth block the CP growth ................................................................ 51 5.3 Effects of higher body O2 on foot mycosis (athlete's foot) ..................................... 51 5.4 Intestinal parasites prevent body-O2 increase............................................................ 52 5.5 Effects of root canals on health and CP ...................................................................... 52 6. Practical actions in relation to focal infections ................................................................. 53 6.1 Tonsils ................................................................................................................................ 53 6.2 Cavities in the teeth ......................................................................................................... 53 6.3 Foot mycosis ..................................................................................................................... 53

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6.4 Intestinal parasites............................................................................................ 54 6.5 Root canals ...................................................................................................... 54 7. Effects of chest breathing, posture, sleep and exercise ........................................... 56 7.1 Chest breathing ................................................................................................ 56 7.2 Poor posture makes GI recovery impossible ..................................................... 57 7.3 Sleep postures.................................................................................................. 58 7.4 General effects of sleep .................................................................................... 59 7.5 Sleep deprivation effects .................................................................................. 60 7.6 Exercise and running........................................................................................ 60 7.7 Exercise after meals ......................................................................................... 61 8. Nutrients and food ................................................................................................. 63 8.1 Proteins............................................................................................................ 63 8.2 Fats.................................................................................................................. 64 8.3 Carbohydrates.................................................................................................. 65 8.4 Gluten.............................................................................................................. 66 8.5 Fruits ............................................................................................................... 66 8.6 Dairy products ................................................................................................. 67 8.7 Soy products .................................................................................................... 67 8.8 Sea salt vs. table salt ........................................................................................ 68 8.9 Water quality ................................................................................................... 69 8.10 Honey ............................................................................................................ 70 8.11 Too high blood glucose .................................................................................. 70 8.12 Early years of life........................................................................................... 72 8.13 Major nutritional deficiencies......................................................................... 72 8.14 Major sources of pollution in modern people.................................................. 73 9. Chewing and soft diets........................................................................................... 75 9.1 What are the key goals of chewing? ................................................................. 75 9.2 Effects of poor chewing ................................................................................... 75 9.3 Which solid foods do not require chewing?...................................................... 76 9.4 Which liquefied foods do not require chewing?................................................ 77 9.5 Which diet is best?........................................................................................... 77 9.6 Why many people cannot eat raw foods? ......................................................... 78 9.7 Good chewing defined ..................................................................................... 78 9.8 Using a blender to make raw meals .................................................................. 79 9.9 Effects of raw foods on the inflamed gut .......................................................... 80 10 The anti-inflammatory diet ................................................................................... 81 10.1 Squashes ........................................................................................................ 82 10.2 Root vegetables.............................................................................................. 82 10.3 Nuts and seeds ............................................................................................... 83 10.4 Grains and other starches ............................................................................... 83 10.5 Meats, fish and eggs....................................................................................... 85 10.6 Dairy and soy products................................................................................... 85 10.7 Beans and lentils ............................................................................................ 86 10.8 Berries ........................................................................................................... 87 10.9 Fruits ............................................................................................................. 87 10.10 NutriBullet for the soft anti-inflammatory diet ............................................. 87

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11. Positive factors ...................................................................................................................... 89 11.1 Breathing exercises........................................................................................................ 89 11.2 Earthing (electrical grounding of the human body) ................................................ 89 11.3 The “perspiration-breathwork” method .................................................................... 91 11.4 Duration of physical exercise ...................................................................................... 91 11.5 Mechanical vibrations of the body during physical exercise ................................ 93 11.6 Positive effects of massaging devices and vehicle riding ..................................... 94 11.7 Food combining ............................................................................................................. 95 11.8 Use of probiotics ............................................................................................................ 96 11.9 A super mixture with probiotics, prebiotics and psyllium husks ......................... 97 11.10 Holding urine ................................................................................................................ 99 11.11 Taking a warm shower with soap........................................................................... 100 11.12 Taking a cold shower ................................................................................................ 100 11.13 Barefoot walking and foot stimulation.................................................................. 101 12. Steps for GI recovery ......................................................................................................... 102 12.1 Approximate guidelines for breathing and physical exercises ........................... 102 12.2 Disappearance of symptoms of poor GI health ..................................................... 103 12.3 Transition to rougher foods ....................................................................................... 103 12.4 Intermediate diets......................................................................................................... 104 12.5 Reintroduction of fruits .............................................................................................. 105 12.6 Common mistakes during the transitory period .................................................... 106 12.7 The avalanche effect ................................................................................................... 106 13. Transitory and unusual effects during GI recovery ..................................................... 107 13.1 Temporary constipation .............................................................................................. 107 13.2 Getting sleepy after meals .......................................................................................... 107 13.3 A blocked pyloric valve (due to a peptic or duodenal ulcer) .............................. 108 13.4 Mild heartburn .............................................................................................................. 108 13.5 Intestinal gas due to separation of colonic fecal impaction ................................ 108 13.5 Foam in the mouth or frothy saliva .......................................................................... 109 13.6 Vomiting old bile ......................................................................................................... 109 13.7 Feeling cold all the time (chill) ................................................................................. 110 14. Questions and answers ...................................................................................................... 111 15. Conclusions and final remarks ......................................................................................... 113 About the author: Dr. Artour Rakhimov .......................................................................... 114

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Introduction Contemporary books and articles on digestion (including books written by doctors and nutritionists) are full of myths and fantasies about causes and solutions to digestive problems ranging from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and gallstones to IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), pancreatitis, diverticulitis and many others. As a result of popular treatment methods, people are mainly busy with endless changes in their diet and the daily use of probiotics and other supplements. These treatment programs are sometimes sprinkled with ideas of better chewing, more exercise and other lifestyle changes. Typical success rates for most methods are virtually never reported since they are usually much less than 50% in the short run. In the long run, since there are no criteria for normal or good digestion, many of the recovered people will get the same and sometimes other symptoms some weeks or months later. There are simply no books and internet resources that provide even a list of specific signs of normal digestive health. These signs do exist, and they include such factors that are virtually never mentioned in the medical literature or sources related to alternative medicine. For example, a person with normal digestive health does not require any toilet paper due to the absence of soiling (i.e., no residue is left on the anus after a bowel movement). Also, bowel movements are regular, and the feces do not produce any odor and do not leave marks on the toilet bowl. If someone has a GI problem (such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, GERD, diverticulitis, pancreatitis, gallstones, dyspepsia or indigestion), they nearly always require use of toilet paper and the degree of soiling generally correlates with the severity of their digestive problem. Most ordinary people require toilet paper as well. This is an indicator of their poor GI health. A person with normal digestion is able to hold up to 1 liter (4.2 cups) of urine in the urinary bladder, while modern sources do not even mention frequent urination with reduced urinary volume as one of the key symptoms of active digestive problems, such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Frequent urination is also common for people with irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, diverticulitis, and dyspepsia. (People with GERD or gallstones may not necessarily suffer from this symptom.) Normal digestive health is also manifested in the absence of a tongue coating: scraping the tongue does not yield any white or yellow thick coating. Normal digestion means that there is no need to regularly or perpetually consume pounds of yogurt, probiotics, and/or any other fermented foods due to the continuous presence of good bacteria in the gut since the healthy immune system does not allow pathogens to reside on the surface of the gut and form biofilms. All mentioned and other signs of good digestion relate to normalization of gut flora and the absence of pathological microbial films on the surface of the small intestine. This is

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another key topic that is rarely discussed. Formation of biofilms by pathogens is the norm in cases of inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. Similarly, the presence of diverticulitis, pancreatitis, dyspepsia and indigestion also leads to formation of biofilms. These biofilms prevent absorption of nutrients and pollute the body with toxins. Soiling has a very simple cause directly related to biofilms. In fact, soiling indicates a dominance of common pathogens in the gut, such as Candida Albicans and H. Pylori. In conditions of low body O2, pathogens are able to survive and even thrive on the mucosal lining of the GI system. Biofilms are created by “stick y” pathogens, while good bacteria, which favor the absence of soiling, are unable to adhere to the surface of the gut. (The same sticky pathogens make one’s stool greasy and leave marks on the walls of the toilet bowl.) When people improve their body-O2 content up to the medical norm (40 seconds for the body-oxygen test), regardless of their initial health states and existing digestive problems, they naturally acquire these and other signs of good digestive health. However, with the application of various methods, even people with low or usual body-O2 content (about 20-25 seconds are normal for modern people) are able to achieve the main signs of good digestion mentioned above (only tongue coating requires more efforts).

You can consume tons of super foods and supplements, observe the most stringent diets for years, practice yoga and many other techniques for many hours every day, but if your body-O2 content remains unchanged, then the state of your immune system, blood flow and oxygenation of the GI organs, and overall health will also remain unchanged. If you increase your body O2 up to 40 or more seconds, then you will naturally acquire the main signs of good (or normal) digestive health. The main conditions addressed in this book are: - inflammatory bowel disease, which includes: * Crohn's disease * ulcerative colitis. These are the most stubborn and difficult-to-treat digestive problems. At the present moment, most people with Crohn’s disease require surgical intervention during their lifetime. There is no known cure for ulcerative colitis, and popular therapies may only reduce some symptoms of ulcerative colitis. This book focuses on these, most difficult conditions. Once we know the method to defeat IBD, it is much easier to deal with other conditions, such as: - irritable bowel syndrome - GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disease - gastritis - diverticulitis - pancreatitis

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- gallstones - dyspepsia or indigestion. There are many more conditions and diseases that can be addressed and eliminated with the methods suggested in this book.

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1. Good and poor digestive health In this chapter, we are going to focus on general topics related to good digestive health, common symptoms of poor digestive health, causes of digestive problems in modern people, and expected effects of increased body oxygenation on digestive problems and restoration of normal digestive health.

1.1 Common symptoms of digestive problems Common symptoms of GI problems are known and described in many books and other information sources. These symptoms can appear within hours after meals, or can even be triggered by other factors (that are discussed later). These GI symptoms include: - bloating - belching - flatulence - diarrhea - constipation - fullness - nausea - rectal itching.

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There are many additional symptoms that are usually ignored by most doctors. However, these symptoms are important due to their intimate relationship with digestive health. This relates to such symptoms as tongue coating, frequent urination, constantly moist nose, ear buzzing, cold feet, unquenchable thirst, degree of soiling (how much toilet paper is required), changes in water color in the toilet bowl, shape and consistency of stool, and others. Digestive symptoms that require medical attention - rectal bleeding - anemia - lack of appetite - significant weight loss - vomiting - middle of the night abdominal pain and cramping.

1.2 Signs of good digestive health (absence of digestive problems) Normal digestive health can be described as the ability of the GI tract to produce digestive enzymes, efficiently absorb nutrients, prevent growth of pathogens, recycle useful nutrients and chemicals, and eliminate toxins and unwanted substances. Good digestive health also can be identified by the presence of good GI flora in the gut with a prevalence of friendly bacteria and absence of biofilms. People with less than 30 seconds for the morning body-oxygen test (or more than 90% of modern people) usually naturally harbor pathogens in the gut. Abnormal GI flora is manifested in numerous signs, some of which are summarized in the Table below.

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Body-oxygen content is the key factor that defines the strength of the immune system and predetermines one’s digestive health. When the body oxyg enation in the morning is about 30-35 seconds or more, the immune system starts to successfully reject pathogens from the mucosal surfaces of the large and small intestines and other GI organs. This leads to rapid disappearance of digestive problems. Numerous positive changes indicate changes towards the ideal digestive health. On the other hand, poor digestive health is manifested in various unpleasant symptoms and effects described in the Table above. Due to the presence of inflamed villi and GI biofilms, many breathing students get stuck at about 20-25 s for the morning body-oxygen test even if they try to do more physical and breathing exercises. The key reason of their lowered CPs is biochemical stress due to inflammation and pathogens in the GI system. This abnormal state of the GI system can exist due to low body O2 (less than 20 s) and/or due to harmful stimuli or triggers that leads to digestive flare-ups (or exacerbations). These triggers include hidden factors such as gluten or dairy products in diet, wrong types of physical exercise, wrong breathing exercises, and many others. There are in total several dozen adverse factors that are important to know and address in order to ensure GI recovery. Without getting over 30 s for body oxygenation, it is very difficult or sometimes impossible to permanently solve many GI problems. However, chronic GI flare-ups drive the CP down to about 20-25 s or even smaller numbers. This leads to the formation of the

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vicious circle that is impossible to break unless a person identifies all these factors and makes and carries out a comprehensive plan to address them. Increased urination and reduced volumes of urine per toilet trip are additional signs of poor GI health. A healthy bladder can hold up to about 1 liter of urine. When there are large structural abnormalities in the large or small intestines (such as inflammation, tumors, diverticula, and so on), the person cannot hold more than 500 ml of urine and has more frequent trips to the washroom/toilet. During flare-ups or when digestive problems are more severe, this amount can drop down to as low as 200-300 ml or even less.

Increased frequency of urination and small urinary volumes can be signs of prostatitis, UTI (urinary tract infections) and some other health problems. However, for most people with digestive problems, which are originated in bowels, frequent urination is a symptom that indicates the presence and degree of abnormalities (e.g., inflammation). When the small intestine is involved, apart from increased urination and soiling, it is common to experience additional symptoms such as: - ear buzzing - cold feet - unquenchable thirst after meals or due to other triggers - constantly moist nose. Furthermore, these symptoms are also sensitive to and reflect one’s current GI health. These symptoms will be discussed in more detail later. Since most people have less than 25 seconds for the body-oxygen test, intestinal dysbiosis and the soiling effect (a need to use toilet paper) are very common, indicating poor digestive health. Virtually all people who get over 50 seconds for the body-oxygen test testify that they do not need toilet paper anymore (or some of them may say that they have very little soiling, but this can happen only due to insufficient chewing). As a result, the no-soiling effect appears naturally due to retraining of the automatic breathing pattern for people with high body-O2 content.

1.3 Causes of digestive problems and poor GI health Causes of poor digestive health are numerous. They are discussed throughout this book. We need to understand that there are differences between fundamental causes (such as low body-O2 content) and triggers (or technical mistakes, such as eating foods that irritate the gut, insufficient chewing, and so forth). By fundamental causes I mean those primary physiological factors that make one’s digestive recovery impossible. These factors include reduced blood flow (or perfusion) and oxygen supply to GI organs, and a suppressed state of the immune system. When the immune system functions normally and the GI organs have normal oxygenation and blood circulation, there are conditions for digestive recovery since the immune system will not allow the pathogens to form biofilms, which prevent absorption of nutrients and generate toxins that suppress the immune system and reduce body oxygenation. Normal

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immunity also includes the ability of the body to eliminate abnormalities such as inflammation, tumors, diverticula, strictures and so forth. Virtually each and every person with digestive problems has reduced body-O2 content. The cause of reduced body-O2 content and, therefore, the main cause of digestive problems is abnormal or ineffective automatic breathing. There are 3 fundamental causes of low body O2: mouth breathing, chest breathing and chronic hyperventilation (the main cause that triggers 2 previous causes). When blood flow to vital organs is below the norm and the body-O2 content is reduced (below 20 seconds for the body-O2 test described below), the immune system gets suppressed due to free radicals caused by cell hypoxia. This is the case, at least for early morning hours, for more than 90% of people. However, this was not the case with ordinary people living during the first half of the 20th century. They had up to about 3040 seconds for the body-O2 test, while the medical norm is about 40 seconds. In order to prove these ideas related to poor health in modern people, let us consider medical evidence related to historical changes in breathing (minute ventilation).

Most people believe that more breathing provides more oxygen for cells, and that CO2 is a toxic gas. However, hundreds of medical studies showed the following results that can be considered as fundamental laws of physiology and respiration. 1. When we breathe more than the medical norm (or hyperventilate), the oxygenation rate 13

of the red blood cells in the lungs remains about the same: 98-99%. 2. Hyperventilation (or breathing more than the medical norm) causes CO2 deficiency (called “hypocapnia”) in the lungs, blood and other cells. 3. Since CO2 is the most potent dilator of blood vessels (vasodilator), arterial hypocapnia reduces blood flow to all vital organs of the human body. Hypocapnia also results in the suppressed Bohr effect (or reduced release of oxygen in tissues). 4. As a result, hyperventilation causes reduced perfusion and tissue hypoxia in all vital organs including organs of the digestive system. 5. Tissue hypoxia leads to production of free radicals in cells due to anaerobic cellular respiration. This leads to suppression of the immune system. Therefore, most contemporary people suffer from reduced blood flow, reduced body oxygenation, and a suppressed immune system. These are the fundamental causes of digestive problems. These causes explain the very low efficacy of common medical treatment (such as antibiotics and surgeries) and alternative health techniques used for digestive problems. All these findings were known to and outlined by the leading Soviet physiologist Dr. Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, who invented the Buteyko breathing method to deal with hyperventilation and restore normal breathing and normal body oxygenation. In relation to GI problems, low CO2 in the arterial blood leads to vasoconstriction and reduced blood flow to the digestive system compromising transfer of oxygen, glucose, digestive enzymes and many other vital nutrients. Low body oxygenation, due to immunosuppression, also allows attachment of pathogens to the mucosal surfaces of the digestive system: in the mouth, throat, stomach, large and small colons, rectum and anus. This leads to formation of biofilms that are very resistant even to medical drugs in people with less than 20 seconds for the body-O2 test. Therefore, on a cell level, the cause of poor digestive health is low body-oxygen levels caused by hyperventilation. Note that mouth breathing and chest breathing are additional causes of GI problems, since both these factors also reduce body oxygenation. However, both mouth breathing and chest breathing are caused by overbreathing. People with normal breathing naturally (without deliberate effort) have nasal diaphragmatic breathing during sleep and at rest (or for their unconscious breathing). You can daily eat best supplements, drink canisters of herbal drinks, have hundreds of colonic irrigations, and practice yoga for hours every day, but if your body-oxygen level remains the same, you will likely suffer from the same symptoms and require the same dosage of medication. After applying any treatment that does not change your body O2, your colitis, Candida, gastritis, GERD, or whatever GI problem you have, is likely to come back again (together with accompanying parasites and pathogens) until you increase your body oxygenation to at least 25-30 seconds.

1.4 Body-oxygen test The DIY body-O2 test is the most fundamental and very accurate health test for more than 99% of people. Clinical experience of over 150 Soviet and Russian MDs showed

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that this test is possibly the best ever-known health test. How to do this test? Sit down and rest for 5-7 minutes. Completely relax all your muscles, including the breathing muscles. This relaxation produces a natural spontaneous exhalation (breathing out). Pinch your nose closed at the end of this natural (not deliberate) exhalation and count your breath holding time in seconds. Keep the nose pinched until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, "Enough!") If you release the nose and start breathing at this time, you can resume your usual breathing pattern (in the same way as you were breathing prior to the test). Do not extend breath holding too long trying to increase the result. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth when you release your nose. The test should be easy and not cause you any stress. This stress-free breath-holding time test should not interfere with your breathing, as shown here:

Warning. Some, not all, people with heart disease, migraine headaches, and panic attacks may experience negative symptoms minutes later after this light version of the test. If this happens, they should temporary avoid this test. This body-O2 test is also called the CP (control pause). This popular abbreviation will be used in the later parts of this book. CP (control pause) = body-O2 content = breath-holding time after usual exhalation and only until the very first signs of discomfort What is known about usual CP norms and CPs of sick, normal and healthy people?

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“If a person breath-holds after a normal exhalation, it takes about 40 seconds before breathing commences” From the textbook “Essentials of exer cise physiology”, by McArdle W.D., Katch F.I., Katch V.L. (2nd edition), Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, London 2000, p.252. Results of Western medical and physiological research studies are summarized in these 2 Tables: - Body-oxygen test in sick people (13 medical studies; less than 20 seconds)

- Body-oxygen test in healthy people (24 references; about 20-30 seconds now; about 40-50 seconds 80-100 years ago)

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Doctor Buteyko and his medical colleagues (about 150 doctors) tested more than two hundred thousand Soviet and Russian patients and found that the following relationships generally hold true for the body-oxygen test: 1-10 s - severely sick, critically and terminally ill patients, often hospitalized 10-20 s - sick patients with numerous complaints and, often, on daily medication 20-30 s - people with average health and usually without serious chronic health problems 40-60 s - very good health Over 60 s - ideal health, when many modern diseases are virtually impossible. How does the body-oxygen test relate to your automatic breathing? Medical evidence suggests that sick people are heavy breathers (you can find these research studies on the Homepage of NormalBreathing.com). Heavier breathing leads to reduced results for this body-oxygen test: - If you have about 40 seconds for the body-oxygen test, you have normal breathing (with about 5-7 L/min for minute ventilation at rest). - If your CP is 20 s, you breathe for 2 people or twice more than the medical norm. - If you have 10 s of oxygen in the body or less, you breathe for at least 4 people. 18

Hence, if you learn how to breathe slower and less (in regard to your automatic or unconscious breathing), you will naturally increase your body-oxygen levels. It is very difficult, and in many cases nearly impossible, to improve or solve digestive problems without increased body oxygenation.

1.5 Restoration of digestive health: the main goals Nearly all people with serious digestive problems have less than 20 seconds for the bodyoxygen test. Their digestive problems would be less severe, when they achieve more than 20 seconds for body O2 and maintain the CP at this level 24/7. This is a crucial initial step to achieve significant improvements in GI health. Here is a Chart that describes the main requirements and expected effects.

Explanations and notes for this Chart. A 40 min breath-work program can include 2 breathing sessions each 20 min long, or 3 sessions about 13-14 min long, or 4 sessions at 10 min each. People with some GI problems need to follow special guidelines in relation to breathing exercises. Among other fundamental steps are Prevention of breathing through the mouth and Prevention of sleeping on one’s back. There are 2 special manuals that can be used, if relevant: the Manual "How to prevent sleeping on one's back" and the Manual "How to maintain nasal breathing 24/7". They are both provided on the main site (NormalBreathing.com). No morning HV means no morning hyperventilation (i.e., the CP drop throughout the night should be no more than 5 seconds, preferably less than 3 s). You have to solve all sleep-related problems that cause your overnight CP drop.

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1 hour suitable PE means 1 hour of total Physical Exercise every day with strictly nasal breathing (in and out) all the time. Usually, less than 20 seconds for the current CP indicates feeling tired and an inability to do running, jogging, or any other rigorous exercise with strictly nasal breathing. However, for most people with GI problems and less than 20 s CP, walking with nose breathing is possible. Moreover, with further CP increase, students feel empowered and surprised by energy and skills previously hidden in their sick bodies. All required nutrients are discussed later in this book. The most common deficiencies include fish oil, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and protein. Some other nutritional deficiencies can also slow down or even halt breathing retraining. Mild cortisol deficiency and existing GI inflammation can also be corrected using a special program related to Earthing and described in this book. “ Eat only when hungry” is the central common sense rule developed by Dr. Butey ko in relation to meals. This rule is particularly important for people with GI problems. It also means that you should stop eating at the first sign of satiety. No focal infections requires your analysis of certain health conditions that can not be solved using breathing retraining. Breathing retraining is successful against heart disease, asthma, diabetes and even cancer. However, if you have large intestinal parasites (worms), depending on the toxic load, your current CP will be restricted to about 20-35 seconds. The focal infections are able to slow down your GI recovery (for low CP numbers) or even prevent it entirely (when you achieve about 20-35 s CP). There is a separate chapter in this book devoted to focal infections. Focal infections include: 1. Large intestinal parasites (roundworms, flatworms, hookworms, liver flukes, etc.) 2. Dental cavities (caries or pathogenic anaerobes in teeth) 3. Dead tonsils (degenerated tonsils that do not have blood supply and harbor pathogenic bacteria) 4. Feet mycosis (or athlete’s foot). Sometimes, the presence of root canals or mercury amalgams can become the main issue that requires attention (i.e., removal) for higher CP and better health. No allergy triggers and No other GI triggers involve avoidance of any triggers of your allergic reactions and flare-ups. These triggers can include: - air-born dust mites, cat and dog proteins, mold, pollen, paper ink, cigarette and tobacco smoke (including secondhand smoke), toxic air born chemicals, pollutants, and fumes - digested gluten products, dairy products, peanuts, tomatoes, and many other foods and substances - tap water or other consumed liquids with chemical triggers that are present in them - substances and objects that can produce an allergic response due to skin contact (synthetic clothes, tiny residues of detergents on fabrics, paints, metals, plastics, etc.) - electromagnetic and other penetrating radiation - mechanical pressure on abdominal organs due to bending, body twisting, and so on. These and other examples are considered below.

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Regular allergic inflammatory response exhausts cortisol reserves, promotes pathogens in the gut, and suppresses the immune system, making breathing normalization very difficult or even impossible. Earthing (electrical grounding of the human body) is considered in more detail below. The main next target: over 30-35 s CP With over 30 seconds the immune system starts to deal with pathogens and biofilms, dramatically improving the GI symptoms described above. Many GI problems gradually disappear if the person maintains over 30 s CP 24/7. However, complete elimination of inflammation and restoration of structural integrity of the gut for virtually all GI problems can be achieved with about 35-40 seconds for body O2 24/7. The next practical observation is that digestive flare-ups cause a variety of problems that lead to reduced body O2 with usually less than 25 s for the body-O2 test. It follows from this observation that getting higher body-O2 numbers requires avoidance of triggers and allergic reactions that causes flare-ups. In other words, one cannot normalize breathing, body O2 and health without addressing his or her GI issues. When teaching breathing retraining to hundreds of students, it was noticed that, for many people, restoration of digestive health (with no soiling effect) is a "side effect" of breathing normalization. They gradually see disappearance of main symptoms and greatly improved or completely normalized digestive health. However, an increasing number of breathing students worldwide experience serious digestive problems that can not be solved using the standard program of breathing retraining due to negative effects of numerous triggers that cause digestive flare-ups. Such people get stuck at about 20-25 seconds for the body-oxygen test for many months or even years. Digestive exacerbations or flare-ups create numerous negative effects: - advance of pathogens and increased toxic load - formation of GI biofilms in the small intestine - reduced absorption of nutrients - worsened inflammation in the gut - reduced cortisol reserves and general stress - worsened hormonal profile, leading to fatigue, more problems with sleep, and various psychological and emotional problems - suppression of the immune system - possible development of multiple allergies due to immunosuppression. Therefore, the suggested solution to the GI problems is to address 2 factors at the same time:

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- increase body-O2 content using known breathing techniques such as the Buteyko method, combined Frolov-Buteyko therapy, or the Amazing DIY breathing device. - avoid all triggers and modify lifestyle so as to create conditions for health recovery.

1.6 Expected effects of breathing retraining on common GI problems Listed below are clinical findings of Russian doctors (my experience with my students confirms their observations) about effects of better body oxygenation and breathing exercises on common GI problems. ● Chronic gastritis - Immediate decrease and, later, complete elimination of pain and symptoms due to dyspeptic effects (heartburn, regurgitation, nausea, etc.). - Increase in the CP is accompanied by normalization of colonic tone, phasic contractility of the GI tract, perfusion, metabolic processes in the mucosal surface of the esophagus and stomach, causing accelerated healing of erosions and ulcers, together with regeneration of the mucosal surface of the stomach. - When the student achieves 35 s for the morning CP and maintains this level for more than 2 weeks, normalization of the immune profile leads to eradication of Helicobacter Pylori. - Prevention of complications due to chronic gastritis, and complete clinical remission for many years. - Significant improvements in the quality of life. ● Chronic non-ulcerative colitis - Immediate decrease and, later, complete elimination of pain and symptoms due to dyspeptic effects (bloating and rumbling in the belly, regurgitation, nausea, inconsistencies in bowel habits, etc.). - Increase in the CP is accompanied by normalization of colonic tone, phasic contractility of the GI tract, perfusion, and metabolic processes in the mucosal surface, leading to its regeneration. - When the student achieves 40 s CP or more and maintains this level for more than 2 weeks, normalization of the immune profile leads to normalization of the GI flora with elimination of pathogenic bacteria and inflammation in the lining of the large intestine. - Prevention of complications. - Complete clinical remission for many years (cure). - Significant improvements in the quality of life. ● Chronic pancreatitis - Immediate decrease and, later, complete elimination of pain and symptoms due to dyspeptic effects (bloating and rumbling in the belly, regurgitation, nausea, vomiting, alternating bowel habits, etc.). - Increase in the CP is accompanied by normalized colonic tone, phasic contractility of the GI tract and recovered internal secretion. - Prevention of complications (diabetes mellitus, pancreonecrosis, secondary diseases of the biliary tract, etc.). - Complete clinical remission for many years (cure). - Significant improvements in the quality of life.

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● Chronic cholecystitis - Immediate decrease and, later, complete elimination of pain and symptoms due to dyspeptic effects (bloating and rumbling in the belly, regurgitation, nausea, vomiting, alternating bowel habits, etc.). - Increase in the CP is accompanied by normalization of colonic tone, phasic contractility of the GI tract, perfusion, metabolism in the lining of the intestine, tone of the bile-conducting organs and elimination of inflammatory processes in the bileconducting system. - When the student achieves 35 s morning CP and maintains this level for more than 2 weeks, normalization of the immune profile leads to normalization of the GI flora, disappearance of pathogenic bacteria and elimination of inflammation in the biliary tract. - Prevention of complications. - Inhibition of formation of stones in the gallbladder. - Complete clinical remission for many years (cure). - Normalization of the emotional life of the students and significant improvement in the quality of life. ● Gastro-esophageal reflux (GERD) - Immediate decrease and, later, complete elimination of pain and symptoms due to dyspeptic effects (heartburn and regurgitation). - Increase in the CP is accompanied by improved perfusion and normalization of the metabolic processes in the mucosal surface of the esophagus and stomach, with accelerated healing of erosions and ulcers. - When the student achieves 35 s morning CP and maintains this level for more than 2 weeks, normalization of the immune profile leads to normalization of the GI flora, disappearance of pathogenic bacteria and elimination of inflammation in the esophagus and stomach. - Prevention of recurring appearances of erosions and ulcers. - Normalization of the emotional life and significant improvement in the quality of life. From these typical results, one can infer the similar expected effects for many other GI conditions, such as: ● inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) ● irritable bowel syndrome ● diverticulitis ● dyspepsia. If an average breathing student with, for example, asthma or hypertension, requires a certain amount of work in order to achieve a certain CP level and corresponding health recovery (with no symptoms are present, and no medication are required), then a student with additional digestive problems often requires at least 2-5 times more effort in order to achieve the same result. This relates to dietary changes, lifestyle changes, breathing exercises, and some other adjustments. It also takes much more effort for a breathing practitioner to restore the health of a student who, in additional to his or her low CP, has serious digestive problems.

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A small number of students with GI problems are able to progress smoothly to higher morning CPs (about 30-35 seconds), and their digestive problems cause only a minimum impact on their health recovery. Many breathing-retraining students are slowed down (up to 2 times or more) since they need to learn from mistakes they make. In more serious cases, some breathing students get stuck for months or years (usually with about 15-25 s for the morning CP) due to problems with identifying and addressing all hidden GI factors that prevent their CP growth. Obviously, our goal is to pinpoint all these adverse factors and empower the person with practical tools to restore their digestive system to its original state as it was designed by Nature.

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2. Common triggers of digestive problems 2.1 Allergies If a person is exposed to any allergic trigger every day and if this trigger creates inflammation in the GI tract, then this person will very likely have less than 30 seconds for the morning CP (most likely less than 25 seconds). An allergic reaction works similar to a focal infection. The final results are: generation of free radicals, advance of pathogens, reduced cortisol reserves, suppression of the immune system, heavier breathing, a lower CP, increased heart rate, and many others. While there are many allergy tests, one of the best choices is allergy skin prick testing.

A microscopic amount of an allergen is introduced to a patient's skin, usually with a needle or pin, containing a small amount of the allergen. It is also called a “scratch test”. A single test can include up to 30-40 different substances to be injected under the skin.

After injection of a solution of food or other substance, there are several minutes of waiting time. In cases of allergic reaction, the area around the pricked place becomes swollen and inflamed. The diameter of the inflamed area (which is visible as an inflamed and swollen dome-shaped area) reflects the degree of the reaction. Usually this inflamed area is from 1 to 5 mm in size. It is assumed that the same effects (inflammation and swelling) take place in the GI tract. Medical professionals are not yet aware about the finding that the results for this prick test, as for any inflammatory reaction, depend on the electrical voltage of the person or presence of grounding (Earthing). When the body is grounded (or electrically connected

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to the Earth), many allergic reactions do not take place, and even existing inflammation is dramatically reduced. (Surgeons do know about importance of grounding, and all major surgeries are done on grounded patients.) That means that an insulated person can be positively tested for some food allergy to, for example, oranges or tomatoes. This person can indeed be allergic to oranges or tomatoes but only when he or she is insulated from the Earth and has a positive body charge. It is possible that in conditions of grounding (or while having the same negative voltage as the Earth), this person can safely eat oranges or tomatoes. Medical professionals also use blood tests for allergies. These tests are more expensive, limited to only one substance (per test), and suffer from the same problem related to the effects of grounding. Some alternative health practitioners use muscular kinesiology and muscle testing to find allergies. These tests are even less reliable due to additional factors related to unconscious beliefs and psychological denial. Note that if you have serious digestive problems and have been complaining about these problems to your health care provider for some months, it is very likely that your doctor will either suggest or agree with your request to conduct an allergy prick test. This test is valuable and provides you with practical knowledge related to your immune reactions.

Most common food allergies There are no exact numbers, but approximate results provided by medical professionals suggest the following. In conditions of electrical insulation, from 50% up to 90% of all severe allergic reactions to foods are caused by: - milk - wheat - eggs - peanuts - tree nuts - soy - fish - shellfish. Most common allergy triggers There are other allergy triggers that usually affect the respiratory system or skin. Nearly any of these allergens can cause serious GI distress, especially in conditions of electrical insulation: - pollens - animal hair - dust mites and dust mite droppings - insect bites - mold - latex

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- medical drugs - perfume - secondhand smoke - proteins from feces of cockroaches. Usually these allergy triggers affect the respiratory system and/or may cause symptoms of hay fever. However, even though this may look unusual, there are thousands of people who can get GI flare-up and inflammation due to dust mites, perfumes and other triggers.

There are also individuals who experience serious GI exacerbations due to their exposure to, for example, ordinary laundry detergents used to wash their clothes that they wears 24/7. These people can experience constant (hidden) allergic reactions and suffer from digestive problems for years. Other factors may look like triggers. In reality, they may play only a secondary role. For a person who spends most of his time indoors, chemicals that are used to wash floors or dishes can be triggers. Here are again we have a situation with a hidden, constantly present trigger. When electrically insulated people wear synthetic fabrics on their skin, these fabrics extract electrons and dramatically increase body voltage to hundreds or even thousands of volts (creating a positive charge) due to triboelectricity. This positive electrical potential dramatically worsens the inflammatory response. Note that grounding (or Earthing) is a very new health area. Electrons are able to act as antioxidants to eliminate the destructive effects of reactive-oxygen and reactive-nitrogen species on healthy cells. However, it is possible, that the immune reaction itself (or the chain of multiple events that is involved in the immune response) also depends on grounding. Therefore, it is smart to get grounded, ideally, nearly all the time, or, at least, when you expect possible allergic triggers or have meals and while you digest them. If you identified an allergy trigger, you need to follow the most important rule related to your GI recovery: Rule # 1. Any allergy trigger that causes digestive problems or flare-ups should be avoided.

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2.2 Chemical triggers present in food and water Depending on the location and types of existing damage in the GI tract, various chemicals and substances can irritate the inflamed mucosal lining and villi. The effects of irritating chemicals are easier to consider using examples. Example 1. Raw garlic, raw onions, and other spices If a person with gastritis eats raw garlic, he or she may notice much more burping some 1-3 hours after the meal. This gas is due to powerful chemicals present in raw garlic. For people with healthy guts, raw garlic is an excellent food. In fact, it is one of the best foods to suppress and destroy Candida yeast infection, and many other parasites often residing in the GI tract. However, the presence of damage and existing inflammation makes mucosal surfaces too weak to resist the strong chemical effects of raw garlic, which destroys mucosal cells in the stomach (and inflamed villi in the small intestine), causing more inflammation, possible thirst (due to swelling of the stomach and colon), and worsened body-O2 content and health. The same effect can take place in people with damaged GI organs due to eating onions and many other spices, such as black pepper, hot chili pepper, cloves, ginger, and so forth.

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However, when garlic and onions are cooked, the same person with gastritis may not experience any adverse symptoms. Even in cooked form (when enzymes and some other useful chemicals are destroyed due to high temperatures), onions and garlic are still able to fight pathogens in the gut since these foods provide inulin, a type of fiber that is not digested, but becomes food for probiotics or beneficial bacteria that should dominate the healthy gut. Note that some other spices (such as ginger or black pepper) create GI distress even after very long cooking. Someone else, who has IBS, colitis or Crohn’s disease, can also experience the same negative effects of raw garlic or raw onions. The main negative symptoms are likely to appear about 1-4 hours later after the meal. Example 2. Oranges and other citrus fruits Here is another example of a chemical trigger. When a person with an irritable bowel syndrome (or Crohn’s disease) eats oranges, he or she ma y notice some adverse effects about 2-4 hours later. These effects can include thirst, flatulence, sleepiness, nausea, mental fog, and some others. Oranges can be an allergy trigger for the immune system. At the same time, there are other chemicals that are present in oranges that may not cause any allergic reaction, but produce chemical damage to the inflamed lining of the GI tract. What are these chemicals? When the small intestine is inflamed, acids are able to damage its villi. This relates to citric acid and ascorbic (vitamin C) acid present in oranges and other citrus fruits. Both these acids are generally beneficial for our health. Ascorbic acid is even known as an essential nutrient. However, the inflamed areas of the gut are not able to defend themselves from any of these acids. Even 10 or 50 mg of vitamin C (50 mg is a daily RDA dose) can be sufficient to trigger a digestive flare-up with negative symptoms. Note that the prick test for oranges and other citrus fruits can be negative (with no allergy

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triggers). However, any time when citrus fruits are consumed, there can be a negative reaction. Obviously, if a person with such an adverse reaction consumes citrus fruits every day, he or she will not be able to restore the gut. There is an additional negative factor in most citrus fruits: fructose. People with digestive problems often have Candida Albicans residing in their duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). Candida yeast consumes simple sugars (like those present in nearly all fruits) causing sleepiness, nausea, mood swings and mental fog. When the CP is less than 10 s, Candida can become systemic due to inability of the immune system to resist pathogens even in the blood.

Among all citrus fruits, lemons and limes are safest in relation to Candida, but, as explained above, even lemons and limes can cause adverse effects due to their acids. (The effects of acids can be neutralized with baking soda as we are going to consider below.) Example 3. Essential oils Another large group of obnoxious chemicals (but only when the structural integrity of the gut is compromised) includes essential oils. Not all people with digestive problems are sensitive to essential oils. However, in many cases, the problem is that tiny amounts of essential oils cause chronic irritation and inflammation, while these minuscule amounts of essential oils can be hidden in, for example, a tooth paste or chewing gum that can are used on a daily basis. Since most people brush their teeth about 2-3 times every day, just this single procedure (tooth-brushing with a tooth paste that contains essential oils) makes digestive recovery for people with, for example, IBD impossible. Most tooth pastes have peppermint, mint, menthol or some other essential oils.

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Essential oils are beneficial in diets of people with a normal gut due to the powerful abilities of essential oils to fight pathogens. However, for many people with GI problems, essential oils destroy damaged villi and cause exacerbations of symptoms. If you suspect or are certain about such an adverse reaction to essential oils, get a toothpaste without essential oils such as a toothpaste used for babies or children, and use it until your gut is restored to a better state. Some tooth-whitening pastes are free from essential oils.

The adverse reactions to above-mentioned and some other chemicals are not present in all people with digestive problems. These negative reactions are more common in cases of serious GI problems or severe damage to the stomach or the small or large colon. If the same person with severe GI problems partially recovers his or her GI health (in an ideal scenario, 1-2 days are enough to achieve the first positive changes), the same person can have much better chances to avoid any negative reactions from the same chemicals due to the improved gut state. How to reduce or eliminate adverse effects of offensive chemicals There are 2 useful tips that can either reduce or even completely eliminate the adverse effects of some chemicals. Tip 1. Start a meal with some friendly food that can coat the lining of the stomach and the small intestine with a layer that will later prevent the chemical attack of spices and other chemicals. Often, people start their meals with eating spices and other offensive foods first. This causes an immediate chemical attack on the lining of the GI tract. In the suggested scenario, when a person eats some neutral or friendly foods first, the adverse reaction will be either greatly reduced or altogether avoided. Tip 2. Acidic substances, such as citric acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can be buffered with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). You can purchase buffered vitamin C and citric ions

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in forms of neutral salts. Or you can do it yourself. How to neutralize acids? You will need about a quarter or half of tea spoon of baking soda to neutralize acids in juice from a medium-size lemon. Or you can crush a tablet of vitamin C with a metal spoon in a small cup with water and add about a double volume of baking soda. If you use vitamin C powder (which becomes more common in health food stores and pharmacies), just add it to water, then add about an equal amount of baking soda, and mix them well. The chemical reaction between them (acids and baking soda) lead to formation of carbon dioxide in a form of bubbles or even foam as when you open a bottle or sparkling water or a soda pop. Note that common or cheap brands of baking soda can be heavily processed and can have aluminum (the same as in table salt). Therefore, you need to find those types of baking soda that claim absence of aluminum (“aluminum-free” or “no aluminum” baking soda). Sometimes a good brand of baking soda can have a label “organic baking soda”. If you take calcium and/or magnesium supplements, it would be a wise step to get magnesium citrate and calcium citrate, which are becoming more common in the USA, Canada, the UK, and other countries. (You can easily find them online as well.) Neutral citric-acid salts usually do not cause any negative reactions even for people with the most severe GI problems. If we compare the effects of citric and ascorbic acids, ascorbic acid has a stronger negative effect on the inflamed gut. In cases of flare-ups and severe inflammation, even buffered vitamin C (such as sodium ascorbate or calcium ascorbate) can still cause a negative reaction. However, if the same person makes no mistakes and eliminates the biofilms (this may require only 1-2 days), he or she can use buffered ascorbic and citric acids with no adverse effects. Then consumption of buffered vitamin C will be very beneficial to further detoxify the gut. As we can observe in these examples, a given food or substance can be either beneficial (in cases of good GI health) or destructive (for people with GI problems). The same is true for many activities and lifestyle factors (to be discussed in the next section). It is also possible to be sensitive to ordinary tap water and conventional foods (or nonorganic foods), which usually contain miniscule amounts of various chemicals that can irritate the gut. This topic will be discussed in more detail later in this book. With the right program of gut restoration, within a few days, the person should be able to re-introduce many previously-destructive substances, chemicals, foods, and activities into his or her diet and lifestyle since they are often useful to speed up the recovery.

2.3 Mechanical triggers Mechanical pressure on the abdominal area When some part of the lower gut (located after the stomach) is already inflamed or has an ulcer, or diverticula, or stricture, bending yourself, doing body twisting, and performing

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other activities that create an additional mechanical pressure on the abdomen and the colon can cause an immediate flare-up (with intensive peristaltic waves leading to swelling of the gut due to additional inflammation, causing possible thirst, flatulence, ear buzzing, and other nearly immediate symptoms). Sometimes, the GI problems can be so severe that a person can have a hard time to tie his or her own shoe laces without creating this GI distress.

Sleeping in a fetal position can easily cause the same negative effect. In some serious cases, even pressure due to sleeping on a stomach or sides is sufficient to trigger an immediate (usually additional to previous ones) flare-up. With the right behavior this situation can be quickly corrected (within days). More details are provided separately in a section devoted to sleep postures. Slouching or poor posture is another culprit that is not easy to notice. You need to pay attention to such situations and activities, and possibly be careful with bending forward, side twists and all other activities that can immediately trigger a flare-up. Some people with digestive problems are able to notice these negative effects. However, sometimes the symptoms are vague and difficult to spot. This often happens in cases with multiple daily triggers that lead to the chronically inflamed and irritable state of the gut.

Pressure on the gut from abdominal muscles A similar negative effect can take place due to contraction of abdominal muscles. Many activities (such as grating carrots, tooth brushing, physical exercises for training abs, and so forth) can cause an immediate flare-up as well. In some people even scratching some itchy body part causes the same effect. Therefore, a person with serious GI problems should keep an eye on effects of significant (or repetitive) activities with involvement of the main abdominal muscles: transverse abdominal, the internal obliques, the external obliques, and rectus abdominis. Shaking of the body and the effects of mechanical vibrations

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Other mechanical triggers of flare-ups include those situations that are accompanied by intensive mechanical vibrations of the body as during jumping or running. When one has a duodenal or gastric ulcer, intensive vibrations that are transmitted to internal organs can make the lesion or ulcer open due to its low mechanical strength. There are similar dangers when structural integrity of other GI organs is compromised due to tumors, diverticula, hernias, and other abnormalities. Generally, shaking and vibration of the body are beneficial for human health due to positive effects on metabolism, lymphatic drainage, and increased strength of bones and other body parts and tissues. Dr. K. P. Buteyko was among first physiologists who suggested this idea. The body gets healthier and stronger due to its adaptation to mechanical stress. However, when the body is already damaged, mechanical vibrations can have a serious destructive power. Apart from running and jogging, what are other possible examples with intensive body vibrations? Grating carrots or rigorous mechanical body shaking due to brushing teeth can trigger a flare-up. (Here we can see that tooth-brushing can have 3 independent triggers: essential oils, contraction of abdominal muscles and body vibrations, all of which can trigger a flare-up.) It is known that falling down or being in car accidents cause more serious problems to people who already have damaged or weak body organs. The negative effects of such accidents are more common in elderly people, who often have worse GI health, structural GI abnormalities and reduced mechanical strength of GI organs. Running or jumping can cause the lesions of the ulcer to open. The same activities can produce other types of damage to already injured digestive organs. Sometimes, even ordinary walking can lead to adverse symptoms. In most-severe cases, there are individuals who can not stand up (after sitting) without a flare-up and desire to urinate. Such people need to learn how to stand up slowly in order to strengthen their problematic areas (or weak parts) of the GI system. Application of other methods (such as correct physical exercise, massaging devices, Earthing, and other methods) will quickly (in 1-2 days) help to achieve partial GI recovery. Then the person can do the same activities (e.g., standing up and walking with an ordinary speed but with an empty stomach) without negative effects. The negative effect of sudden jerks or too-intensive body vibrations, when present in people with ulcers, can be much stronger after meals since presence of the food (or even water) in the stomach makes it much heavier. Therefore, just after meals, even smaller vibrations or jerks can open the lesions of the ulcer. In some cases, such people can easily tolerate strictly vertical vibrations (such as while travelling in a car or train), but have negative reactions to vibrations that involve side-to-side movements. We can see that in this area (effects of mechanical factors on GI health), there is a wide spectrum of reactions. These bodily reactions also depend on the position of ulcers and

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other abnormalities. You need to pay good attention to which types of exercise are ok for you right now and which should be temporary avoided.

2.4 Allergic reactions via skin, air, and EMF fields While other types of allergies and hypersensitivities are rare, there are still thousands of people who regularly experience digestive flare-ups due to other causes. For example, if their skin is in contact with synthetic fabrics, especially when they are not grounded, such people will react with diarrhea, burping, bloating, and many other negative GI effects. The effect can be much stronger at low CPs (less than 20 s). Another type of reaction leading to a digestive exacerbation can take place due to skin contact with fabrics that were washed using ordinary detergents (we considered this example above). In order to avoid such reactions, you can use either hypoallergic, or dermatologically-tested detergents or those detergents that are designed for washing the clothes of babies. Certain chemicals in air, such as tree pollen, some perfumes, smoke (including secondhand smoke) and other chemicals, can trigger digestive flare-ups or cause a chronic reaction, leading to constant inflammation. Finally, there are cases when exposure to EMF (electromagnetic fields) produces a nearly-immediate adverse digestive response. This can take place due to wearing a cell phone in a pocket for only for 1-2 minutes or standing for a few seconds next to a working microwave, kettle or electrical oven.

2.5 Negative effects of some breathing exercises There are 2 types of dangers due to breathing exercises and manipulation of breathing. A. When solid food is in the stomach Many breathing students get so obsessed with reduced breathing that they start doing it nearly all the time or whenever they are awake. While this strategy can help to increase the CP and improve one’s health for some students, many people get problems when they do RB with solid food in the stomach. With food in the stomach, only people with very strong stomachs and good digestion are able to get benefits from light air hunger and increased CO2 (without any damage). Most people need to avoid any breathing manipulations during and after meals until the stomach is empty. B. When biofilms are present Breathing exercises and breath holds can also cause problems even when the stomach has no solid food. An increase in CO2 is a chemical trigger that causes mechanical effects (intensified peristalsis) and enhanced sensitivity of the immune system. Therefore, strong air hunger, long pauses, and large CO2 increases; all these factors can lead to intensive peristaltic waves that can destroy already-inflamed villi. Here is an example:

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A person with about 25 s for their current CP starts practicing an intensive breathing session and increases his results for up to 35 or higher numbers for intermediate breath holds while doing Buteyko reduced breathing with strong air hunger. This immediately causes unquenchable thirst and ear buzzing, with bloating and burping appearing later. Even though the final CP after the session is higher, the final heart rate, due to increased inflammation, also gets higher. Within 1 hour after the session, the CP drops to about 2025 s. Later effects are increased urination, intestinal gas, greasy stool (with increased soiling), cold feet, poor mood, and many others. Why do these effects take place? Since many people with digestive problems suffer from GI dysbiosis, abnormal GI flora in the gut, and biofilms in the small intestine, this sudden CO2 and CP increase leads to intensive peristalsis since the body tries to get rid of pathological content in the small and large intestines. This effect of strong peristalsis is generally beneficial: the gut tries to flush out pathogens and their toxins. Such a positive reaction, in the form of diarrhea, takes place, for example, after food poisoning. Higher CO2 and CPs intensify this effect: you probably noticed that it is much easier to have a bowel movement with breath holds and reduced breathing. (In fact, instead of straining the abdominal muscles, people should do reduced breathing to have an easier bowel movement.) However, when the mucosal surface of the small intestine is inflamed and covered with biofilms, the damaged villi are weak. Intensive peristaltic waves can easily cause the villi covered with pathogens to be broken and wiped down along the GI tract. All these processes take place beyond the stomach and, as a result, broken villi cannot be digested and used by the body. Instead, these nutrients start to putrefy in the large colon, which, in such cases, is full of pathogens that will "enjoy" proteins and other nutrients from the broken villi in the warm moist conditions of the large colon. This, in turn, will produce toxins in the blood, offensive smell before or during the next bowel movement, increased soiling, marks on the toilet, and other negative effects. Such a severe GI reaction due to breathing exercises occurs in students with existing GI damage due to colitis, Crohn's disease, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), and some other conditions with biofilms on the lining of the small intestine. Sometimes, the gut is so damaged that even a light reduced breathing with food in the stomach or the CP test on an empty stomach can cause a GI exacerbation. The tricky part here is that such flare-ups are easy to induce. The body readily “accepts” reduced breathing and makes a quick transition (in 1-2 minutes) to higher CO2 with a large temporary CP increase. This is particularly easy to achieve with maximum breath holds or maximum pauses. In contrast, when biofilms are absent, and the same (or other) person practices reduced breathing, it takes much more effort to slow down breathing due to normal (inherent) resistance of the breathing center to higher CO2. As a result, one may spend 10-12 minutes on breathing exercises before the breathing center yields to higher CO2.

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How to prevent practicing reduced breathing with food in the stomach? One of the suggested solutions for such people is to practice humming through the nose immediately after meals while food is in the stomach. Another part of the same problem is that some Western Buteyko practitioners declare to their students that these adverse symptoms (with intestinal gas, bloating, diarrhea, soiling and other effects) are signs of a "body cleanse" or "body detoxification" due to higher CPs caused by breathing exercises, even though this reaction can be present for many months. As a result, their breathing students continue the same intensive breathing sessions that destroy their new villi and cause inflammation every day. The main effect of such intensive breathing exercises is the destruction of the GI tract, leading to a cascade of negative events involving worsened inflammation, increased urination, flatulence, foul odor, cortisol deficiency, fatigue, poor sleep, mood swings and many other negative effects. Most of all, the morning CP remains at about 20-25 s.

2.6 Synergetic effect of GI triggers Any 2 or more GI triggers, when they occur at the same time, produce disproportionally stronger negative effects in comparison with a simple sum of their effects. In other words, a little bit of one adverse factor and a little bit of another adverse factor together can cause an avalanche in the gut. When the same person, just a few days later, partially recovered his or her gut, the same triggers have much less power (but they still can reduce the gut to its initial damaged state). Why do existing GI problems make people more sensitive to other triggers?

This is because the presence of biofilms on the mucosal surface of the gut is a large initial factor, while additional triggers are greatly amplified due to a presence of biofilms. This also explains why digestive problems can often last for years, and why they require a comprehensive program of diet and lifestyle changes.

2.7 Sequences of negative symptoms for digestive flare-ups When a person has heartburn, this symptom of acid reflux (and sometimes acid taste in the mouth) is obvious. Similarly, burping due to gastritis is another easily noticeable sign. Blood on a toilet paper is also easy to notice. These symptoms are usually accompanied by many others, such as soiling, coating on the tongue, flatulence, and offensive smell.

However, the symptoms of a flare-up in the duodenum or the small intestine, due to duodenal ulcers, Crohn’s disease, or IBS, can often be vaguer and can remain unnoticed for many hours after the meal. These symptoms often have a typical sequence that can slightly vary from person to person. When the small intestine is involved, one of the common sequences, after a flare-up, is the following. The person eats a wrong food or does something that causes problems for the small intestine (e.g., rigorous tooth brushing with essential oils). The very first sign can be ear buzzing due to mechanical or chemical damage to the gut. This noise is likely

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coming from the enteric nervous system that orchestrates the work of the GI system. This is the initial stage of a flare-up, when many villi in the small intestine get destroyed. In order to protect the lining of the gut from further damage, neighboring cells swell and get inflamed (in cases of ungrounded people; electrical grounding minimizes these negative effects on surrounding healthy tissues). Damaged tissues draw a large amount of water to the small intestine. As a result, the next symptoms are heaviness in the abdominal area, moist nose (or moister nose than it was before), and unquenchable thirst: an unpleasant sensation of dryness on lips (similar to thirst) that cannot be reduced even by drinking 1 or 2 liters of water. There are also delayed effects for this typical flare-up. Once villi are inflamed and partially destroyed (and some of them can be wiped down the gut with this meal or the next one), putrefaction of villi in the colon occurs. In other words, your tissues start to rot inside yourself. This process of their disintegration by pathological bacteria usually takes many hours. The conditions in the gut are ideal for putrefaction: warm temperature, high humidity, and large concentrations of different pathogens that will be happy to digest your proteins, lipids, blood nutrients, and other substances from broken villi by converting them into toxins to poison the body and drive the body O2 and health down 24/7. Note that proteins are digested mainly in the stomach. Bacteria and other pathogens that we eat with food also need to go through the stomach (where they get either weakened or killed). However, decay of villi takes place beyond the stomach. Therefore, the body is defenseless against this effect. The only partial solution of the body, for this hard challenge, is to expel the polluted content of the large intestine with bowel movements. Inflammation and swelling of the small colon presses on the walls of the urinary bladder, creating an urge to urinate even when one has only 100-200 ml of urine in the bladder. Therefore, the next (measurable) symptom is increased frequency of urination and reduced volume of urine per one toilet trip. For many people, the amount of urine that can be stored in the urinary bladder is a very sensitive parameter that accurately reflects their current GI health. Putrefaction of own tissues in the colon leads to another set of symptoms that appear hours later. These later or delayed symptoms usually include cold feet, bloating, flatulence, intestinal gas, loose and greasy stool (or diarrhea) with foul smell, possible rectal itching, increased soiling, dirty water in the toilet bowl, fatigue, nausea, mental fog or reduced focus and concentration, worse sleep, and many others. Villi can re-grow with an amazing speed (in about 8-12 hours), but they require about 1-2 days of ideal conditions in order to become mechanically strong and resilient in relation to raw greens, vegetables and other rough foods, as well as various chemicals (as we discussed above). Our goal is to reveal and adhere to those factors and lifestyle parameters that create conditions for villi to re-grow and mature. In order to discover these ideal conditions

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(which are very individual), you need to pay close attention or even record all details after each meal and after possible exposure to other situations that can cause such digestive exacerbations. Note that this Chapter considered most common triggers causing digestive flare-ups. Addressing all these above-discussed triggers can help many, but not all people since there are dozens of other triggers and factors (such as sleep and sleeping positions, water quality, pesticides and herbicides, and so forth). We are going to look at other triggers in more detail later.

2.8 Healthy villi and summary of putrefaction effects If we imagine that the small intestine is a hollow tube, its surface area will be less than one square meter. This area is greatly increased due to the existence of villi and the convoluted shape of the small colon with numerous folds. The ability of the GI tract to effectively absorb nutrients is based on the existence of normal villi since the total surface area of the small intestine in an adult is over 200 square meters (or more than 2,000 square feet). Therefore, the presence of healthy villi and the convoluted shape of the small colon increase the area for absorption of nutrients more than several hundred times.

However, in cases of typical GI flare-ups, as in Crohn's disease and colitis, large areas of the small intestine can be wiped out. A typical flare-up causes serious negative effects: - inability to effectively absorb nutrients - a need to spend amino acids and resources of the immune system to repair the villi - a severe GI pollution caused by putrefaction of destroyed villi. (By definition, "putrefaction" is decomposition of organic matter, especially protein, by microorganisms, resulting in the production of foul-smelling matter).

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The last effect becomes more apparent if you realize that proteins are mainly digested in the stomach due to low pH and digestive enzymes secreted by the wall of the stomach. Since villi are located below the stomach, their proteins cannot be reused for direct absorption. Instead of being recycled, proteins and amino acids of destroyed villi become food for gut pathogens that generate toxins and other harmful substances.

2.9 Why does the gut react with diarrhea? A digestive exacerbation or flare-up does not always mean an immediate bowel movement. However, it implies a significant intensification of peristalsis in the small colon. This means that the food is going to travel through the small intestine many times faster than the normal time (a few hours). Obviously, this fast transit time prevents effective absorption of nutrients. Furthermore, these nutrients, instead of building the body, are transformed into harmful substances that are going to poison the body. The question is: what are the causes of this seemingly strange effect? The GI system reacts with a digestive flare-up when it feels (or calculates) that a possible damage due to normal peristalsis can cause more harm for the body rather than the damage created by putrefaction. Imagine that you swallowed some sharp object (such as a small porcupine), and this object is not in the small intestine. If the GI system tries to digest this object and moves it back and forth and to the sides in the small intestine, this sharp object can shred the tissues of the small intestine into pieces, and you may die due to severe blood losses. In order to prevent this damage, the GI system rushes this offensive object into the large colon. A similar effect takes place when the person with IBD eats raw vegetables or nuts. These raw foods can produce significant damage to the lining of the weak and damaged small intestine. Therefore, a digestive exacerbation is a protective mechanism that helps the organism to prevent a more significant damage. Appearance of chemical irritants, such as spices and essential oils, can also cause large damage if these substances remain in the small intestine for long time. Therefore, the GI system eliminates them rapidly in order to have less destruction.

2.10 Effects of poor digestive health on body O2 and general health Abnormal digestive flora also creates a serious negative effect on the CP and health of ordinary people. If you already practiced breathing exercises, you know that it requires effort and time even to increase the CP by 3-5 seconds. The body, for some reasons, resists easier breathing and higher O2 content. This effect of resistance can be very strong, but it also can be nearly absent in other people or at other times. For example, a healthy child can sometimes have up to 50-60 s CP. But the same child can have large CP fluctuations: the CP can drop down to about 10 s. Imagine that this healthy child, whose CP is about 10 s, does the same breathing session (about 12-20

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minutes), as you or some other adult. What would be the final CP of this child? It will be about 50-60 s. Why couldn’t another adult or you get the same high CP in 12-20 minutes? You may even start with much higher CPs than the child, but your increase would be only about 5 s or slightly more. The child gets better results because the body of the healthy child is clean and has no resistance to easier breathing. What are the causes of resistance in adults and sick children, who never have high CPs? There are abnormal tissues, toxic chemicals, and numerous pathogens present in different body organs and parts. They all drive the CP down. For example, airway inflammation in a person with asthma is a negative factor that makes breathing heavier and slows down his or her CP progress. When people consume medical drugs, these drugs accumulate in body cells (especially in fat cells) and intensify breathing. Finally, there are various pathogens residing in and on the human body. The contribution of these pathogens can vary. For people with existing tissue abnormalities (such as airway inflammation in asthmatics), the contribution of abnormal flora in the gut can be small: let say only about 10-20% of the total resistance to CP increase. However, when the same asthmatics starts to avoid triggers of asthma and gets up to 25-30 s CP, then the negative effect of the gut can reach 50% or more. For people who do not have any physiological pathology (or physical illness), the negative effect of GI flora can account for up to 50-90% of total resistance to their CP increase. Indeed, if they do not have abnormal tissues in the body and did not consume large amounts of drugs, there should be a cause of their inability to increase their CP to very large numbers within one breathing session. The only remaining source of pollution is due to body pathogens, and most pathogens (well over 90%) are usually located in the gut. Toxic load from pathogens also drives down the morning CP, which is the key measurable factor that reflects our health. Since the putrefaction in the gut takes place 24/7, the toxins from the gut should cause overnight CP drop. These are also the reasons why no-soiling is an important factor and one of the requirements for breathing students who want to break through 40 s for the morning CP. To get over 40 s MCP is the most difficult challenge in breathing retraining, and even here good digestive health plays a significant role.

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3. Symptoms and signs to monitor After weeks or months of digestive problems, most people have certain patterns related to their digestive symptoms. These patterns can range from very regular to totally erratic. Sometimes, the sufferers are able to pinpoint some or nearly all causes of their problems. In other cases, they have only vague ideas about what is going on in the gut and why they get their specific problems.

3.1 Commonly known symptoms Many of these symptoms are discussed in books, articles, internet posts, and other sources devoted to GI health. These symptoms include: - Bloating - Belching - Flatulence - Diarrhea - Constipation - Fullness - Nausea - Rectal itching - Tongue coating - Thirst. Apart from these symptoms, there are many others that often provide even more accurate information about the gut state.

3.2 Frequent-urination log If you suffer from reduced urinary volume, it is useful to have exact measurements related to timing of trips to the bathroom and exact numbers for the urinary output: e.g., 300 ml, 450 ml, 400 ml, etc. for each trip. (If you prefer cups or some other units of measurement, you can surely use them.) Recording details in a log will help you to identify triggers of your flare-ups. Males can measure urinary volumes by using a bottle with a large hole, like a Gatorade bottle, and measure the amount of urine and timing of each trip (+-5-10 min) so that to find out the gap between toilet trips. Females may need a basket and a measuring cup. After some days of measurements, there is no longer any need to collect urine. One can simply count the duration of urination in seconds (with a clock/watch or using mental counting). The greater the inflammation, the more frequent the urination (the number of trips to a washroom) and the less its volume. In many cases, these numbers are the most indicative measurable parameters for the gut state and conditions you created. As soon as you make a mistake (or have a flare-up), your urinary output becomes smaller. Some of the possible mistakes were discussed above. When you are on the right track, you can naturally keep more urine in the urinary bladder naturally and will have less frequent toilet trips.

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For example, during exacerbations, a person may hold only about 150-250 ml (less than 1 cup) and have bathroom trips every 3 hours or even more often (especially in cases of reactive hyperglycemia or high blood glucose). During recovery, the same person may hold up to 700-900 ml and have trips only every 7-10 hours.

3.3 Soiling effect The degree of soiling and the amount of required toilet paper are easy to monitor. The great thing about the system described in this book is that there is a clear goal in relation to digestive health: to achieve no soiling. When soiling is present and there are no digestive infections causing diarrhea, it is most likely that the person made a mistake that took place within the time period starting from 2 meals before. Sometimes, soiling does not mean any serious mistakes, but is caused by a soft diet, or a raw diet, or large amounts of honey.

3.4 Ear buzzing This symptom is nearly an immediate one. As soon as the small intestine is under stress (with ongoing damage to villi), ear buzzing either appears or becomes more intense. A modern environment is usually full of noises. As a result, it is often not easy to notice and remember the degree of ear buzzing at each moment of time. Since people with GI problems have ear buzzing for months, they simply stop paying attention to this symptom that becomes hidden in other background noises. You may need to find a quiet place or close your eyes, and listen for 10-15 seconds to hear buzzing or high-pitch noises that are produced within the body. When the gut starts to repair, ear buzzing can disappear completely. In some people, even during recovery, it can be present in the evenings, after 6 or 9 pm. There are also cases, when during GI recovery, people experience ear buzzing only when they make a transition to a horizontal position for night sleep.

3.5 Unquenchable thirst due to recent GI exacerbation Unquenchable thirst is a common sign that often reflects the fact that the small intestine has been damaged, became inflamed, and requires more water due to swelling. This can happen due to mechanical damage or other causes. For example, a sudden jerk of the whole body, for a person with damaged GI organs, can make him or her thirsty within 1-2 minutes due to a flare-up. Bending forward or jumping can cause the same nearly immediate effect. Mechanical damage to the small villi of the small intestine due to poor chewing can also lead to unquenchable thirst. Imagine a person with Crohn’s disease or IBD. If this person eats raw vegetables (such as Broccoli, cauliflower, and many others), even while chewing these foods very well, he or she can feel thirst at the time when particles of this food will

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pass through the inflamed parts of the small intestine. Similarly, taking unbuffered acidic supplements (such as vitamin C and citric acid) can also cause unquenchable thirst. The same is true for many spices and other irritating substances. Another possible cause of unquenchable thirst (and GI damage) is too high blood sugar levels. This factor and how to solve problems with hyperglycemia will be discussed below.

3.6 Moist nose This is another nearly immediate parameter that tells you the story with water turnover in the gut. Flare-ups in the small intestine can result in a very moist noise. During recoveries, it is common for a light crust to form on the nose which makes the nose a little bit itchy since the drying crust pulls the mucosal surfaces of the nose together. The formation of this crust often signifies that biofilms are eliminated and the villi are in a better state. The formation of a light crust should not be confused with a blocked nose due to infections caused by low CP (less than 20 s). Here, we are considering those situations with a light crust in the nose when one has about 20 s or more for the current CP. When a person is in good or excellent health, the nose is not too moist and not dry. It is in an intermediate state with little moisture and very little mucus (just enough to do the job).

A moist nose should not be confused with nasal drip. People who had serious respiratory or sinus infections in the past and whose nasal passages still harbor remnants of pathogens can experience transitory nasal drip, when they push their CPs up. This can happen at 25-30 s CP, or even sometimes at higher numbers (up to 50-55 s CP). This is an example of a local cleansing reaction that usually lasts only for 2-4 days. It can suddenly appear and suddenly disappear due to higher CP numbers.

3.7 Cold feet Many people have constantly cold feet due to poor circulation (low arterial CO2 constricts arteries and arterioles). This symptom often disappears at about 20 s CP (people with hypothyroidism may need higher numbers). However, cold feet are also common among people with digestive problems. Apart from low CP, there is an additional contribution to cold feet due to toxins generated by pathogens located in the gut. As a result, people with GI problems have a tendency to have cold feet even at higher CPs of 20-30 s. In addition, while the breathing of people with digestive problems may remain nearly unchanged (with about 20-25 seconds for the body-oxygen test), their feet become colder or warmer depending on the state of the gut. This symptom is not an immediate one (it takes time for positive and adverse changes to develop), but cold feet is another useful parameter that makes a person more certain about either exposure to triggers or right actions.

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Certain pathogens, such as Blastocystis hominis, cause very cold feet. Blastocystis hominis infections are common in people who have problems digesting fats, usually due to poor liver function. Candida Albicans and larger parasites (intestinal worms) also contribute to colder feet. When a person is on his or her road for digestive recovery with increased body-O2 content, he or she nearly always experiences a pleasant sensation of natural warmness in the feet. There are even cases when recovering people experience heat in their feet, a sensation that they have not had for months or years.

3.8 Mental states Presence of biofilms in the gut (together with the constantly moist nose, soiling, and other signs of poor GI flora) have a strong effect on mental states of the person. Many GI pathogens generate powerful neurotoxins that have direct adverse effects on the brain and nerve function including concentration, focus, planning and other mental qualities. Poor GI health means confusion, procrastination, excessive anxiety or depression, panic attacks, indecisiveness, and many other negative symptoms. Such negative mental states can be caused by overbreathing and low body O2 (usually less than 20 seconds). However, nearly all these adverse symptoms are greatly reduced or disappear altogether with higher CPs. In many cases, about 25 s CP is enough to achieve large improvements in the mental area. When biofilms are present, the same 2025 s CPs do not mean a clear mind and good concentration. The existing GI flora has an independent negative effect on mental well-being. Toxins released by Candida yeast are particularly strong in their mental effects. Therefore, in addition to physical symptoms, one can monitor his or her mental states. Usually the negative effects in this area relate to the presence of biofilms (the same as with, for example, cold feet). As soon as the biofilms start to disappear, there are improvements.

3.9 Body O2 monitoring The body-oxygen test is highly sensitive to digestive problems. Mistakes related to digestion cause heavier breathing at rest and reduced body-O2 content. The CP drop is usually at least 5 or more seconds. Since the ultimate goal of better GI health is to increase body oxygenation, it is clear that CP recording helps to monitor one’s GI health. The CP monit oring is particularly useful during the transitory period when one is likely to experience some unusual digestive symptoms and effects.

3.10 Why to record pulse? Pulse is good to record since it can indicate many problems like GI flare-ups, low calcium, low cortisol, allergy effects, loss of CO2 sensitivity, and so on. Pulse also

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reflects the degree of inflammation in the digestive system or other body parts. With higher CP and general progress in digestive health, the pulse gets lower. If the heart rate of a person with IBD, after Buteyko breathing exercises, increases, this can indicate that the session likely caused GI distress due to too large of a CO2 increase. In such cases, increased heart rate helps a student to be more certain about the negative effects of incorrect breathing exercises, while reduced heart rate is a sign of correct breathing exercises.

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4. Body weight When humans have less than 20 s CP, it is very common for them to accumulate body fat (due to specific effects of overbreathing on blood sugar control). Most people gain more weight when their CPs become even lower. However, in people with serious GI problems (with weak liver, GI bleeding, cachexia, night sweats, and so on) weight loss is common as well. The easiest solution to normalize body weight is the same for both cases: as a first step, it is important to increase body oxygenation up to 20 seconds. Then a partial normalization of main physiological functions will help to move one’s weight in the right direction. The next step is to get over 30 s CP.

4.1 Effects of breathing exercises on overweight people When people suffer from chronic overbreathing, most of them are going to accumulate more fat. This happens because chronic overbreathing usually reduces blood glucose levels. Low blood sugar causes low energy, weak muscles, poor mood, grumpiness, abnormal brain function (up to severe migraines) and hunger. As a result, one needs to eat. After meals, blood glucose raises and the symptoms of hypoglycemia are solved, but overbreathing becomes more intense. This leads to formation of a vicious circle where hyperventilation and low body O2 are the key hidden factors that cause weight gain.

The obvious solution is to slow down breathing. Increased CP means higher blood glucose levels without eating foods. The body starts to use its own reserves.

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Therefore, when people are overweight and they increase their body O2, they have much more energy, higher blood sugar levels, and greatly reduced or absent hunger, especially in relation to fats and complex carbohydrates. As a result, it is easy and natural to lose weight with those breathing exercises and lifestyle changes that increase body oxygenation. I have seen this effect in hundreds of breathing students. When they arrive to a class, they have empty stomachs (this is a requirement in order to practice breathing exercises) and often feel cold while wearing additional clothes, like jackets and sweaters. However, during the breathing session, nearly all of them starts to feel warm or even hot. They remove heavy clothes and leave on only T-shirts. This warming effect of breathing exercises on blood sugar levels in overweight people takes place within a few minutes. With over 30 seconds for the body-O2 test, most people have their nearly ideal weight. (Some people may need up to 50 s to have their ideal weight). Physical exercise becomes more pleasant. Most importantly, they have high levels of energy and improved quality of life.

4.2 Effects of breathing exercises on underweight people

Because of breathing exercises, a small number of people (often due to a poor liver function or some other serious digestive problems) loose weight and become thin. Their chronic hyperventilation makes GI recovery very difficult or impossible. In most serious cases, some of them start to suffer from night sweats and cachexia (as during advanced stages of cancer and HIV-AIDS), when the body triggers catabolic processes, while using proteins and amino-acids as an energy source. Furthermore, due to production of some hormones and/or an abnormal state of the autonomic nervous system, such underweight people often feel warm or hot, with high blood glucose, and have no desire to eat leading to further weight loss. This is another vicious circle where overbreathing plays a central role. These problems are also possible to solve with breathing retraining and increased CP.

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The typical effects are as follows. The previously hot or warm underweight person with a high blood glucose level starts to feel colder and hungry immediately after the breathing session. Correct breathing exercises increase blood supply and oxygenation of all digestive organs, including the liver, pancreas, stomach and both intestines. Also, their previously high blood sugar levels drop down due to partial normalization of the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. This is a huge boost in their overall health that allows them to gain weight quickly, often within a few weeks or 2-3 months, and get higher CPs. Calories generally come from carbohydrates and fats. The common problem is that people with low weight have a weak liver and pancreas, which are able to handle only small amounts of fats and carbohydrates per meal and per day. Apart from low CPs, this also causes problems with weight gain. The additional solution, apart from the higher CP, for this low-weight problem is too increase honey intake. Raw honey does not require digestive enzymes and is very easy to digest. However, keep in mind that pasteurized honey promotes pathogens in the gut, and one should use only raw (cold pressed or unpasteurized) honey. Note that honey has some laxative effect due to certain carbohydrates that humans cannot digest. Therefore, it can cause some soiling. However, one does not need to worry about this temporary effect and can use up to 0.5-1 kg of raw honey per day until one's weight is nearly normal, and this feeling of being cold during and after breathing exercises disappears. Another suggestion is to chew complex carbohydrates or starches very well. (We are going to discuss this topic in more detail later.) Whatever starchy food someone with low weight eats, from potatoes to bread, rice, corn, and buckwheat, they all should be chewed up to 70-120 times or more until the food disappears in the mouth naturally (without any swallowing movements). This reduces the load on the pancreas since ptyalin and other digestive enzymes from the salivary glands in the mouth can digest up to 80-90% of starches in the mouth. This will help to gain weight fast. Finally, one can also take steps to restore the liver using betaine hydrochloride (especially if the liver was damaged due to medical drugs or alcohol), black cherry juice (or black cherry juice concentrate), and Milk Thistle (a herb used for liver detoxification that starts to work especially well at over 20 s CP). Use those dosages that are commonly suggested since it is mostly duration of treatment (often 1-3 weeks are required) and especially one's body oxygenation that play the main roles in liver restoration and the appearance of strong hunger or even a voracious appetite. The first main target for underweight or slim people is about the same: over 20 seconds for the morning CP test.

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5. Focal infections It is only through considering the breathing retraining process that the full picture of the relationship between focal infections and chronic disease, including digestive problems, can be provided. Dr. Buteyko and his colleagues clinically observed, tested and developed their theory of focal infections. The presence of focal infections interferes with the ability of breathing students to increase their CPs, normalize breathing, or even to recover from relapses of their digestive problems. The focal infections cannot be eliminated using the Buteyko breathing exercises and lifestyle changes. Moreover, due to the "rebound effect", the health of people who have focal infections may get even worse when the breathing exercises are practiced and higher CPs are temporarily achieved.

5.1 How dead tonsils prevent high CPs The effect of dead or degenerated tonsils on one's digestive and overall health and CP is easy to understand using a practical example. Imagine a person with IBS or IBD, who starts with about a 10 second CP and raises it up to 20-25 s. His digestive problem is then under some control (with less soiling, more clear mind, better sleep and other effects) when his CP gets up to 20-23 s. But if this person has, for example, dead tonsils, further progress (beyond 25 s CP) would cause high-grade fever and throat pain with coughing, angina, and copious mucosal discharges. All these effects take place due to a severe reaction of the immune system, which tries to fight the bacteria and toxins generated in the dead tonsils. The problem is that the degenerated tonsils have no normal blood supply and the immune cells in the blood cannot reach the pathogens hiding in his dead tonsils. As a result, the immune system creates inflammation in the surrounding tissues and the pathogens use this inflamed area to their advantage as a new breeding ground. That leads to infection and fever with heavier breathing and a sudden CP drop down to about 10-15 s. As a result, this student may again get more serious problems with IBS or IBD due to the fact that the focal infection in the dead tonsils became worse due to the higher CP achieved (25-30 s). Dead tonsils can have an additional local effect due to toxins leaking from the tonsils into the throat and the digestive system. Many toxins, as with cavities in teeth in the next example, are very powerful in miniscule amounts. These poisonous substances have a direct effect on inflammation, ulcers, tumors, diverticula, strictures, and other abnormalities present in the gut. This vicious circle (Breath work and better health → Higher CP → Tonsillar infection and fever → Low CP and recovery from the infection → Breath work and better health → Higher CP → Tonsillar infection and fever → Low CP … ) can go on forever due to the rebound effect, even with application of other therapies (medication and antibiotics, throat gargling with best natural remedies, and many others). Some tonsils are not degenerated completely and can be restored with special techniques.

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5.2 How cavities in teeth block the CP growth As another example, imagine that a student has cavities in her teeth. This person can improve her breathing, and thus partially recover from a chronic health condition. When her CP rises up to about 30-40 s, her immune system can turn its attention to cavitycausing pathogens, but cannot defeat them since these pathogens reside on the surface of teeth, with no blood access. More breath work leads to an even stronger immune response, but this enemy (cavities) is beyond the immune abilities. Therefore, no further progress is possible. The negative effects of tiny amounts of toxins leaking into the digestive system are sufficient to cause chronic GI problems. This focal infection does not have a strong rebound effect if the student maintains good or normal dental hygiene. (Poor hygiene with higher CP will favor the advance of cavities to other teeth and stronger inflammation in the gut.)

5.3 Effects of higher body O2 on foot mycosis (athlete's foot) If a student has low CP (e.g., below 20 s), his athlete's foot infection usually remains dormant. While there could be an affected area between the smallest toes with light skin peeling, there is no redness, bleeding or feeling hot. This situation can be present for years. However, when his CP rises up to 25-40 s (even temporarily), mycosis of the feet advances to neighboring areas, causing intense skin peeling, redness, deep lesions, bleeding and sensation of heat in the foot. The higher the CP achieved, the worse the spread of this fungal infection due to the same rebound effect.

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This focal infection also produces a serious additional burden for the immune system that is constantly busy with fighting pathogens and tissue repair. Such an additional load makes digestive problems more resilient and can partially or completely prevent GI recovery.

5.4 Intestinal parasites prevent body-O2 increase The toxins produced by mature intestinal parasites (usually worms) intensify breathing regardless of the CP (immature parasites that do not lay eggs do not affect breathing to the same extent). Their negative effects depend mostly on their types and load, as well as their feeding cycles and food availability (when people fast, the parasites produce much less damage). Presence of intestinal parasites can restrict the CP to 20-35 s CP. Breathing exercises can increase the CP only for short periods of time. Many types of worms feed in the duodenum, but reside in the lower parts of the GI tract. Their toxins worsen the flora in the gut and can also cause local inflammatory effects in the small intestine.

5.5 Effects of root canals on health and CP This is the most unpredictable focal infection. It can be deadly for some patients or hardly noticeable depending on the personal health state and quality of periodontal work done. Properly-done root-canal treatment, with the right disinfection and correct sealing procedures, would probably not cause any big problems for a person who maintains moderate CPs (about 25-30 s) all the time. In this case, the immune system is strong enough to prevent the interaction of bacteria from dead teeth with other organs, while the toxins can be safely eliminated by the immune system from the organism. However, since people with chronic health problems nearly always have less than 20 s CP, their root canals start to degenerate and interact with other pathogens present in the body. These processes can prevent their CP improvement and GI recovery. Their low CPs either don’t improve or quickly drop down after breat hing exercises.

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6. Practical actions in relation to focal infections 6.1 Tonsils If tonsils have been infected for several years, it is impossible to restore their functional abilities. In this case, tonsillectomy is necessary for breathing normalization, digestive improvements, and going beyond 25-30 s CP. Children and some adults who had infected tonsils for only 1-2 years can sometimes restore their tonsils using special conservative and prophylactic measures.

6.2 Cavities in the teeth Regular visits to the dentist are important for general health. However, sometimes caries can develop in tiny cracks of treated teeth (between the filling and tooth) so that they are invisible even during dental examination, but still a very small amount of toxins are able to leak out. When a breathing student with about 20-35 s MCP tries to get higher CP numbers, he or she may notice that something prevents his or her further CP progress. The CP may rise slightly only for about 1 hour or less, or it may remain unchanged.

Here is a simple test to check for the presence of dental cavities. Gargle your mouth with a strong antiseptic solution (not with ordinary Listerine, but with more professional solutions used by dentists) for 10-15 minutes 3-4 times per day to suppress pathogens. Practice breathing exercises and monitor their effects. Follow this regime for 1 day. If your CP progress is stopped due to cavities, this “gargling” te st will allow you to temporarily suppress the pathogens and achieve much higher CP numbers (e.g., 10 s more with the application of this method). If this method is applied for some days, some people can even temporarily break through 40 s MCP. If the use of this method does not yield any CP improvements, there are other causes for your CP deadlock.

6.3 Foot mycosis Application of over-the-counter creams for affected skin areas and disinfection of all shoes and socks are necessary to deal with this fungus, which causes athlete's foot. There are now new creams available on the market. They have a double action and higher chance of success. The cream is to be applied exactly as instructed: usually twice per day using a very thin

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layer, but for the whole affected area. The therapy should continue for some 5-7 days after all signs of the infections have disappeared. Natural remedies (including essential oils, garlic, hydrogen peroxide, grapefruit extract, alcohol, urine, and many others) have a notoriously poor success rate against athlete's foot. Do not forget to disinfect your other shoes (which I do not wear now and store somewhere else). They can harbor spores of these fungi for months or years and infect you later.

6.4 Intestinal parasites When the parasitic load is high, the student can easily notice that while she eats more food, she does not gain weight, but possibly even loses it. If this is the case, a family doctor can take fecal samples (2-3 more samples maybe required since many worms have cycles of laying eggs). Then either standard medication or some natural remedies can be used. It is much more difficult to identify the presence of intestinal parasites, when there are only a few worms, which are not large in size. Paying attention to symptoms is useful in such cases. For example, activities of hookworms usually cause anal itching (since these worms lay their eggs at night near the anus), roundworms cause cold feet even at high CPs, etc.

6.5 Root canals Some people, who have root canals, can achieve up to 2-3 min CPs without removal of their dead teeth. However, usually this relates to those people who do not have any serious health problems.

For people with long-lasting GI problems, the situation is usually different. When pathogens in the gut produce systemic effects (suppression of the immune system), these GI pathogens interact with pathogens due to root canals. As a result, treatment of other health problems, such as gastritis, Crohn’s disease, pancreatitis, and many other GI conditions, becomes impossible. The teeth bacteria, which are inaccessible, provide a support for other pathogens. The only way forward is to extract the dead teeth. Therefore, in cases of poor health, long-standing serious health problems or a weakened immune system, it is advisable to extract the dead teeth as soon as possible. Such students are usually stuck at lower CPs (about 12-15 s) and, while doing breathing exercises, these students cannot get even 2-3 s CP improvements.

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A root canal generates toxins due to anaerobes and other pathogens living inside about 20 km of tiny tubules (former blood vessels of the live teeth). In addition, there is a deadend of the artery leading to this tooth. When the CP is below 20 s, even temporarily, the tissues of this dead-end artery and the vein leaving the same tooth often become the source of infection and toxicity. Why? During the root canal operation, the artery leading to the healthy live tooth is cut. As a result, the internal areas of these blood vessels become an excellent breeding ground for pathogens. The effect is much stronger at low CPs, while high CPs (over 30-35 s) will ensure quick tissue repair. These dead blood vessels themselves, at low CPs, become available to pathogens. Then the same pathogens can damage other blood vessels and cause appearance of the cardiovascular problems. Several published studies found a link between root canals and increased incidence of the heart diseases (Mattila, 1993; Mattila et al, 2000; Dorn et al, 2002; Willershausen et al, 2009). In my view, the existence or appearance of any cardiovascular problems is a definite indication for immediate root-canal removal. Only then is progress with breathing training and a higher CP more certain. Warning. If in addition to your GI problems and a root canal (or 2 or more root canals), you have atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, or some other serious cardiovascular disease, you need to pull out your dead teeth as soon as possible. References Dorn BR, Harris LJ, Wujick CT, Vertucci FJ, Progulske-Fox A, Invasion of vascular cells in vitro by Porphyromonas endodontalis, Int Endod J. 2002 Apr;35(4):366-71. Mattila KJ. Dental infections as a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction, Eur Heart J. 1993 Dec;14 Suppl K:51-3. Mattila KJ, Asikainen S, Wolf J, Jousimies-Somer H, Valtonen V, Nieminen M, Age, dental infections, and coronary heart disease, J Dent Res. 2000 Feb;79(2):756-60.

Willershausen B, Kasaj A, Willershausen I, Zahorka D, Briseño B, Blettner M, GenthZotz S, Münzel T, Association between chronic dental inf ection and acute myocardial infarction, J Endod. 2009 May;35(5):626-30.

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7. Effects of chest breathing, posture, sleep and exercise 7.1 Chest breathing Over 80% of modern people are habitual chest breathers. What are the effects? The textbook, Respiratory Physiology (West, 2000), suggests that the lower 10% of the lungs transport more than 40 ml of oxygen per minute, while the upper 10% of the lungs transport less than 6 ml of oxygen per minute. As a result, the lower parts of the lungs are about 6-7 times more effective in oxygen transport than the top of the lungs due to richer blood supply. This effect takes place mostly due to gravity. During thoracic breathing, the lower layers of the lungs, which are most valuable in oxygen transport, get much less, if any, fresh air (they get much less oxygen supply). This causes reduced oxygen levels in the arterial blood and can lead to so-called "ventilation-perfusion" mismatch (as in COPD or emphysema). Normal breathing is diaphragmatic, allowing homogeneous inflation of both lungs with fresh air, similar to what happens in the cylinder of a car engine due to the movement of the piston. During diaphragmatic breathing, all alveoli are homogeneously stretched vertically and get fresh air supply with higher O2 concentration for superior arterial blood oxygenation. In contrast, chest breathing creates problems with blood oxygenation. Therefore, chest breathing leads to reduced cell oxygenation: the driving force for all chronic diseases, digestive problems included. Dr. Shields, in his study, "Lymph, lymph glands, and homeostasis" (Shields, 1992) reported that diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the cleansing work of the lymph system by creating a negative pressure pulling the lymph through the lymphatic system. This increases the rate of the elimination of toxins from visceral organs (digestive organs included) by about 15 times. Why is this so? The lymph system, unlike the cardiovascular system with the heart, has no pump. The lymph nodes are located in those parts of the human body that get naturally compressed (squeezing) due to movements of body parts. For example, lymph nodes are located around the neck, above arm pits and in the groin area. Hence, when we move, stretch or turn the head, arms and legs, these lymph nodes get mechanical stimulation to push the lymph through valves. This is the reason for the movement of the lymphatic fluid.

However, the lymph nodes connected to the stomach, kidneys, liver, pancreas, spleen, large and small colons, and other vital organs are located just under the diaphragm over 60% of all lymph nodes in total! Hence, Nature expects us to use the diaphragm in order to remove waste products from the lymph nodes of all digestive organs all the time - literally with each breath, 24/7. Hence, another problem with thoracic or chest breathing is stagnation in the lymph

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system and accumulation of waste products in vital organs located under the diaphragm. As a result, chest breathing causes lymphatic stagnation in the digestive system and prevents its recovery. From this view, it also becomes clear why breathing devices and physical exercise (especially with the Training Mask) are very beneficial for digestive health. These types of exercises are done with large ventilation rates (up to 100 L/min and more) and without CO2 losses. In fact, CO2 levels in the lungs increase during these activities. Chest breathing usually naturally disappears when a person has more than 30 seconds for the morning body-oxygen test. Here are more details about the CP and chances of chest breathing.

7.2 Poor posture makes GI recovery impossible When the small intestine is inflamed, the passage of eaten food through the small intestine is already limited because of inflammation, which includes swelling. Slouching further constricts certain areas (or folds) of the small intestine, prevents normal blood flow to GI organs and normal peristaltic waves. In addition, slouching leads to habitual chest breathing, causing reduced blood oxygenation and lymphatic stagnation.

Slouching occurs due to low body-O2 content (usually less than 20 seconds). However, even people with about 25 s CP still have tendency to slouch. When a person has over 30 s CP, slouching becomes less likely. And it disappears at higher CPs naturally, as is reflected in this Table.

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If you achieve over 30 seconds CP and try to slouch, your CP will drop down to about 25 seconds. I had breathing students who practiced a lot of physical exercise and, as a result, they could achieve about 30-32 seconds for the morning CP. However, still they were slouching during the day, their daily numbers were dropping down to only about 25 seconds. Once, they kept a straight spine during the day, their CP increased up to 30+ seconds. Slouching decreases one’s CP due to chest breathing, lymphatic stagnation and other effects. These effects are present in all people. In people with GI problems, the effects can be worse. Therefore, you need to learn how to have correct posture all the time, especially whilst eating and after meals. One great option is to eat while standing. Computer work can also be done while standing. If you have a tendency to slouch while sitting, you can try to use a sitting ball or make a slightly inclined chair (with a small slope of about 5-7%), similar to an Alexander chair. Magnesium deficiency is an additional factor that exacerbates this problem. People with low magnesium levels have a strong tendency to slouch, which disappears once they start using Mg supplements. Hence, make sure that you have enough magnesium in your diet. A lack of magnesium is the most common mineral deficiency present in modern people. Study how to conduct a 3-day test and later select the optimum amount of magnesium supplementation (if you need it) for higher CP and better health. Summary. If you adopt those postures that are common in modern people, it will be impossible to defeat many digestive problems, such as IBD and IBS. You need to have a straight spine 2/7.

7.3 Sleep postures For some people with serious GI problems, slouching during sleep can cause GI flareup. The gut might be so sensitive that, in some cases, the best sleeping position is supine (on one’s back), reclined or while sitting. If you decide to sleep in a supine or reclined position, it would be smart to use one or two belts to prevent chest breathing during sleep. The main belt should be located on lower

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ribs (the lower part of the rib cage). It should be very tight so that it is difficult to insert a finger under the belt and it prevents any large chest inhalations. If you decide to use a second belt, it should be located 1-2 inches below the main belt to provide a slight restriction on abdominal breathing. People with inflamed villi and chances of a GI flare-up should not position a belt on their navel (or the belly button). As we discussed before, additional pressure on the abdominal area can easily trigger a flare-up. If you decide to sleep on the back or in a reclined position, in addition to 1 or 2 belts, you will also need to tape your mouth. Get the free manual “ How to prevent mouth breathing” and follow its instructions for better sleep. Sleeping sitting is a better choice since it helps to maintain higher morning CPs in comparison with any horizontal position. The main problem with sleeping sitting is discomfort. However, as a temporary measure (for some 2-3 nights), most people are able to tolerate or “survive” sleeping sitting. If a person is unable to safely sleep on the chest or left side, he or she should try to partially repair his or her gut during daytime. Most people are able to recover their GI organs within 1 day to such a degree so as to sleep on the chest or left side without any problems.

7.4 General effects of sleep Ideally, a person should have about 1-2 hours with no food in the stomach right before going to sleep. In order to achieve this, those people who go to sleep at about 11 pm can have a supper at about 5-6 pm and then a small snack later (at about 9 pm). Note that going to sleep with too low blood sugar can have disastrous effects. You may spend up to 1-2 hours unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep. Having a small snack with carbohydrates, about 1 hour before going to sleep, quickly solves this problem. (A better long-term solution is to get over 50 s CP, or even higher numbers, that will help a person to be more flexible and tolerant to no meals or larger meals.) For those people who exercise late (after work or at about 6-8 pm), late meals and hunger before sleep can be a serious problem. Then the solution is to find an exact (minimum) amount of eaten food that will allow you to fall asleep and sleep through the whole night without blood sugar drops. This amount of food should be digested before you go to sleep so that you have at least 15, better 30 minutes with an empty stomach before sleep. This will help you to slow down your breathing before falling asleep. Those who have very low body weight can eat larger meals even 30-40 min before sleep without negative effects on their morning CP and quality of their sleep. In fact, they get even better sleep if they eat sooner before going to bed. They can go to sleep at the exact time when the stomach gets empty.

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Somehow, if a person falls asleep in any horizontal position and there is still some food present in the stomach, hours of immobility during sleep have a large negative effect on biofilms and flora in the gut. (This effect is less strong for sleeping sitting.) As a result, eating late greatly worsens soiling and causes more frequent urination with reduced urinary volume. One solution to this challenge is to have a mechanical shaking of the body or the whole bed during sleep as when you have an overnight train, plane or bus. Then you can go to sleep with food in the stomach without any negative effects.

7.5 Sleep deprivation effects When experimental animals are subjected to total and chronic sleep deprivation, they are likely to die, in about 2-3 weeks. The cause of death is a neurological stress combined with a lost desire to eat. Why do they lose a desire to eat? Even mild sleep deprivation worsens the production of digestive enzymes, the presence of healthy hunger, and flora in the gut. Therefore, getting sufficient sleep is very important for fast GI recovery. There are many lifestyle factors, including fresh air and physical exercise during the day, that make quality of sleep much better. One of your goals in relation to sleep is to create conditions when your morning CP is about the same as your evening CP. A small drop of 2-3 seconds is not a big deal, but if your CP drops by 5 or more seconds, you should review all possible causes that decrease your body O2 during sleep and find out which factors require corrections. Keep in mind that with increased body-O2 content, people naturally require less sleep, make better food choices and have more effective digestion.

7.6 Exercise and running Those people with GI problems, who do not tolerate abdominal pressure, need to avoid bending forward and twists to the sides. We discussed some of these problems above. What about running, swimming, playing basketball, and other activities and games?

Some people with inflamed villi are not restricted in relation to such activities and are able to run and jump without any negative effects. However, if someone has a duodenal or stomach ulcer (or some other structural defect), running or jumping can open the lesion and cause a GI flare-up. What is safe for you is hard to predict. This depends on your current GI state. Also, the situation can change with time. For example, at one moment of time, running on a soft grass might be ok (if there are no violent jumps or shaking), but you cannot run on the concrete or paved roads since running on hard surfaces makes your GI health worse. This problem takes place due to rigorous shaking caused by each step during running on a hard surface (imagine how the crack opens and gets inflamed, drawing water from other body parts). However, in 2-3 days, you can possibly run on hard surfaces without any problems. The lesion is a type of a crack which has 2 sides and a tip. When the tissue or a solid

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body experiences intensive mechanical vibrations or even a single sudden displacement or a light shock wave, the tip of the crack is under a large mechanical stress. The tip of the crack is a concentrator of mechanical stress. At the same time, the line of the GI lesion is the place that is mechanically weak. The main cause of weakness is inflammation and biofilms that prevent complete structural recovery of the tissues.

The position and direction of an ulcer (or some other structural abnormality) are also important since some ulcers do not accumulate large tension and do not open due to running or jumping. They, however, can be sensitive to some other types of mechanical stress. In any case, it is sensible for people with GI problems to pay good attention to effects of physical exercise. Sometimes people are uncertain if they can safely run even on grass or sand. In order to check this, you can try to exercise on an exercise bike or ordinary bike (but you need to find a road without any large bumps). Do exercise with about the same intensity and watch the effects. If “smoother” types of exercise c ause different effects (no burping, no thirst, no increased ear buzzing, no flatulence, and so forth), then you need to apply these safer types of exercise. Correct physical exercise is an exceptionally beneficial factor in GI recovery. Most of all, about 1-2 hours of exercise with good perspiration (so that you have a lot of sweat on the back of your shirt, in its front part, and under the armpits) can nearly completely eliminate the biofilms. (We are going to discuss this effect later.) Then you can eat more rough foods (such as raw spinach or cooked broccoli and other vegetables) and practice breathing exercises, even the most intensive ones. Imagine a person who found that even running on a soft surface causes GI flare-ups. In 10-15 minutes, he started to burp and produce more gas. Running also caused an increased desire to urinate with a very small amount of urine (less than 10-15 seconds in duration). Later he discovered that such an exercise session lead to more soiling. However, the same person tried 2 hours of cycling with heavy perspiration and found that not any one of these symptoms did occur. Then he tried to go running and it did not create any problems. Once running is safe, it should become the main physical activity since it provides better stimulation for the GI organs and the whole body. Here we observe one general principle or law that states: “ The ideal challenge should be strong enough to strengthen the body, but not too strong to cause any damage.” In relation to exercise for people with GI problems, you should to do only those types of exercise that are safe for you. At the same time, if you avoid those types of exercise that are already suitable for you, then you slow down your progress to better health.

7.7 Exercise after meals When a person has soiling, it is beneficial (for people with severe GI problems, it can be even be necessary) to have at least light physical activity after each meal. If there are no

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contraindications and the person can walk right after a meal (with food in the stomach), this should be done after each meal for at least 12-15 minutes. Those people who have more serious GI problems or ulcers are often unable to safely walk right after meals (with food or even water in the stomach). Then they can and should do physical exercise when the food is gone from the stomach. If such people can walk without any adverse effects, they need to go for a walk. If walking is impossible, they need to get outdoors and do cycling, weight lifting, or other exercise that is friendly in relation to the damaged gut. The duration of exercise should be at least 12, or better more than 15 minutes. For those who cannot walk with food in the stomach, this after-meal exercise should be done as soon as one’s stomach becomes empty. In fact, such people are able to notice that they get a natural desire to exercise exactly at this moment of time. When the body craves exercise and you sit down and do nothing, your CP drops and the state of the gut gets worse.

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8. Nutrients and food Which fats, proteins and carbohydrates are best to eat?

8.1 Proteins Problems with metabolism or absorption of proteins are rare even among people with digestive problems. Too low protein intake is manifested in reduced growth of hair and nails, and thin skin. There are simple tests to check if these parameters are within the norms or not. As about vegetarianism, many Russian Buteyko doctors and experienced Western Buteyko practitioners noticed the following effect. When the breathing students get higher CPs, almost all of them can report that they either eat less animal protein or become vegetarians. My experience is the same. Nearly each of my students who increased their morning CP at least 2 times (usually from about 10-15 up to 20-30 seconds) or more could confirm that they ate less animal protein. About 20-30% of them (my approximate values) told me that they stopped eating animal protein at all. According to Dr. K. P. Buteyko, people require much less proteins at higher CPs and many of them become vegetarians. However, Dr. Buteyko also suggested that some people have better health while eating animal proteins even at very high CPs (e.g., up to 2-3 minutes). At lower CPs, it is more difficult to become vegetarian. There are millions of ordinary people who tried to be a vegetarian for some months or even years. However, many of them later found that their health got better when they resumed eating meat, fish, dairy and/or eggs. What are the possible causes? One of the key overlooked factors in becoming vegetarian is following. It is known that there are additional nutrients present in animal products, such as meat, fish, dairy, and eggs. These extra nutrients and factors are: - Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) - Iron (in read meat and fish) - A nearly ideal ratio of amino acids. While many nutritionists and medical professionals are aware that vegetarian diet may suffer from low B21 and iron, and abnormal proportions in relation to amino acids, these people rarely notice that there is one amino acid, arginine, that is present in large amounts in animal products and is very limited in vegetables, greens, sprouts and lentils. Arginine is considered a non-essential amino acid for adults, but it is essential for children. However, when the CP is low (less than 20 s), the body may not produce arginine at all. Therefore, one will require dietary arginine. One of the main functions of arginine is to be used for production of NO (nitric oxide) that is probably the second most powerful vasodilator (after carbon dioxide). Vegetarian diets with low arginine content can affect body NO reserves.

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It seems that this negative effect of low arginine intake is particularly strong in people who are genetically predisposed to heart disease. To my knowledge, there are no studies yet, but the idea makes some sense due to positive NO effects on the cardiovascular system. The solution to this problem with vegetarian diets (reduced arginine intake) is to eat more nuts and seeds that are naturally high in arginine.

8.2 Fats Requirements and correct amounts of fat (apart from fish oil) for each person depend on his or her body weight, CP, liver’s and stomach’s abiliti es to digest fats, lifestyle, current climate and daily physical exercise. For most people, consumption and digestion of fats is not a problem. For people with GI disorders, it is more common to have problems with digestion of fats. This often happens due to liver problems and lack of liver enzymes. When some fat is not digested and makes its way past the duidenum, this fat becomes food for pathogens. Blastocystis hominis is one of the common protozoal parasites that thrive on fats. Prolonged consumption of fats that are not digested by the body leads to overgrowth of this protozoal parasite. Common symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramps, bloating, greasy stool that is difficult to flush due to its floatability, excessive gas, poor mood, cold feet and anal itching. Most cases of Blastocystis hominis infection become diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome (even though one can easily notice large spherical species of Blastocystis hominis using an ordinary microscope). Larger CPs, together with dietary changes, exclusion of fats from the diet, and liver repair steps, allow fast elimination of Blastocystis hominis infection and greatly improved GI symptoms. Which fats are better to eat? In the area of digestion, there are a few common rules, and I completely agree with the saying, “One man's food is another man's poison”. Healthy people, with over 50 s CP, can generally eat whatever they find agreeable since they can trust their tastes. The situation with sick people is more complex, especially when digestive problems are present. If the liver is weak, the fastest solution is to increase body O2, as Russian doctors proved in a clinical trial on people with liver cirrhosis and hepatitis B. Apart from the improved CP, it is beneficial for CP progress to create conditions for restoration of the liver and pancreas (see suggestions for underweight people above). As about specific types of dietary fats, many people believe that cold-pressed olive oil and other cold-pressed unsaturated oils are best choices. However, due to their saturated nature, saturated fats are easier broken down by digestive enzymes and used by body cells. Common saturated fats include butter, coconut oil and palm oil. Candida is a very common pathogen (even for those people who are not diagnosed with

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Candida yeast infection). One of the best fats against Candida is coconut oil which has caprylic acid, a powerful anti-fungal. Caprylic acid is sold as an anti-Candida remedy. Coconut milk and creamed coconut (brickets with a semisolid or solid white paste) are also good fat sources, especially for people with Candida yeast infection. Butter is another great choice, for those who have no problems with digestions of fats. However, due to an abnormal state of the dairy industry, of you live in the USA, Canada, or Australia, consider using only organic butter since ordinary butter in these countries contain large amounts of pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics. Also, be aware about possible allergic reactions due to casein (main dairy protein) naturally present in butter. Common margarines, even when they are based on unsaturated oils, have their own advantages. Margarines often contain an additive lecithin that helps to emulsify and digest fats. As a result, while margarines are considered by many doctors and nutritionists as a poor dietary choice, they are not that bad even for people with liver and GI problems. Margarines with hydrogenated oils should probably be avoided. Keep in mind that, in the stomach, fats are digested last (due to their lower density in comparison with water and other foods). This means that no matter how thoroughly you chew your meals, fats are going to float on the top in the stomach, while others food particles will be digested along the walls of the stomach and moved down into the duodenum. As a result, the symptoms of fat malabsorption, if one has them, in the duodenum and further down the GI tract will be delayed.

8.3 Carbohydrates Carbohydrates include simple and complex sugars. Simple sugars, such as glucose, fructose and lactose, are found mainly in table sugar, cane sugar, nearly all fruits, honey, and some dairy products. The main problem with simple sugars is that many people with GI problems have Candida as one of the (main) pathogens in the small and large colons. As a result, nearly all fruits (avocado is ok) makes GI health worse. Raw honey and birch sugar Xylitol do not feed Candida though. They can be used, but be aware of their light laxative effect. Millions of people enjoy fruits. However, if you have GI problems and your duodenum is not in a great shape (due to an ulcer, Crohn’s disease, IBS, and so on), you need to stop feeding Candida or, at least, to find out if you have Candida overgrowth. It is very likely that fruits contribute to your poor health. How can you find out the effects of fruits and other simple sugars on your GI and overall health? You can simply check, for 3 days, the effects of a diet that does not include simple sugars. Exclude fruits and foods with table sugar, glucose, or fructose from your diet. This will help you to temporary starve Candida. If Candida becomes less active, you should be able to notice improved GI signs (less soiling, and so forth). Nearly all my students who tried this 3-day no-fruit test noticed greatly reduced soiling and other

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improvements in 1-2 days. Complex carbohydrates are also able to feed pathogens. The key factor for better digestion in relation to complex carbohydrates is good chewing. The human body can digest up to 80% and more of starches in the mouth, but only if a person chews his or her complex carbohydrates very well.

8.4 Gluten When the gut is already damaged or inflamed, gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye and other grains) acts like a sand-paper on the inflamed (i.e., damaged) villi located on the lining of the mucosal surfaces. Gluten wipes out or erases inflamed villi each time the person eats products with gluten (including bread, pasta, noodles, and so on). Even one piece of bread per day is enough to prevent gut restoration. Note that we are not talking about Celiac disease, but about a gradual conditioning of the immune system to a chemical that is too aggressive in relation to the inflamed or damaged lining of the GI tract. These destructive effects of gluten on the inflamed duodenum are proven in clinical studies. In such conditions (a strong negative mechanical effect of gluten), the immune system virtually always gets conditioned to gluten. In other words, gluten also becomes a chemical trigger of the allergic reaction. A presence or appearance of this allergy can be confirmed using the allergy prick test. As a result, people with inflammation in the GI tract often (maybe in most or nearly all cases) develop an allergic reaction to gluten. This reaction can probably appear in some weeks after a person has inflammation somewhere in the GI tract. This relates not only to problems with duodenum, but also for those who have problems with gastritis or GERD. As a result, in my view, every person with colitis, Crohn’s disease, IBS, duodenal ulcers, duodenal cancer, gastritis, GERD, and other conditions that involve inflammation or structural abnormalities in the small intestine should avoid gluten during and after (for, at least, some months) GI recovery. Even in cases of diverticulitis in the large colon, blood in stool, and other GI conditions, elimination of gluten from the diet helps to heal the gut. Note that, in most people with GI problems, the presence of gluten in their diet does not cause an immediate severe reaction. Gluten wipes out villi that later slowly putrefy in the colon. This leads to a greasy stool with an offensive smell, soiling, marks on the toilet, and many other negative effects. Therefore, they have a delayed long-term reaction.

As an alternative, you may try a 3-day gluten-free test and see the effects.

8.5 Fruits As we discussed above in Carbohydrate Section, simple sugars from fruits feed Candida, which is, nearly always, one of the pathogens that thrive in the damaged gut. As a result, many people are not able to repair their gut with daily consumption of fruits. Even 1-2 fruits per day are usually enough to keep biofilms and GI symptoms unchanged. (A lot of physical exercise with heavy perspiration helps to subdue Candida, but a temporary rest

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from fruit intake is useful also, and can be often necessary for faster GI recovery.) Eating fruits can be resumed when a person has over 30 s CP 24/7 with no soiling and good perspiration due to exercise. However, even in these cases, one should be slow or gradual in increasing the amounts of eaten fruits. For example, one can eat 1-2 fruits for several days or an even longer time, while monitoring soiling, urination, and other GI signs. Depending on the results achieved, one may increase fruit consumption later.

8.6 Dairy products Negative effects of dairy are delayed and often mild. Therefore, these negative effects of dairy can remain unnoticed for many months. How to check if you are sensitive to dairy products or not? You can also exclude all dairy products for 3 days and see the effects. The problem is that, if there are any other remaining triggers, apart from dairy, then you will not find much difference. For example, if you eat gluten during this 3-day no-dairy test, gluten will spoil the results. If you have fruits every day, you will not be able to see the positive effects of your 3-day dairy-free diet. Therefore, you will need to exclude many other suspected foods and do other changes in order to be certain about the real effects of dairy on your GI health. Some people can be fine with organic dairy, but not with conventional one. Other people may find that they can safely eat organic milk yogurt, but cannot drink organic milk. The reasons for these numerous reactions are in the large number of potentially offensive substances that can cause GI problems. The possible triggers in dairy products are: - milk sugar (lactose) - casein (main protein in dairy products and milk) - pesticides and herbicides (if dairy products are not organic) - hormones and antibiotics (if dairy products are not organic and they are produced in the USA, Canada or Australia).

8.7 Soy products Most soy products are not a right food for most, maybe all people. There are some additional substances present in soy products that cause a variety of problems. - High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of many minerals such as calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. - Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum, which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys. - Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and may cause more problems with infertility and promote breast cancer in adult women. - Soy phytoestrogens are potentially dangerous for the thyroid gland and can cause hypothyroidism and thyroid cancer. - Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with digestion of proteins and may cause pancreatic disorders. Studies show that the content of some harmful chemicals is reduced in fermented soy products. For people with GI problems, it is often useful to eliminate soy products for 3-5 days so as to see that the effects on their digestive health.

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Soy yogurt may not cause any problems and even help in your GI recovery. If you buy it, you need to make sure that you get organic unsweetened soy yogurt. Some brands of soy yogurt even have inulin added to it. Inulin is a naturally occurring, indigestible and non-absorbable oligosaccharide that is produced by certain plants. Inulin has some prebiotic and potential anticancer activity. (Prebiotic properties mean that it is a food for probiotics. We will discuss this topic later.)

8.8 Sea salt vs. table salt Sea salt is usually produced, using solar evaporation, from sea water or salt lakes. Production of table salt involves mining and use of vacuum pan evaporators for extraction of salt at a very high temperature. As a result, both types of salt have 98-99.9% sodium chloride with nearly the same sodium content. However, sea salt, due to more gentle production methods, has a higher mineral content, up to about 2%. For example, magnesium can be at the level of about 2,000 ppm (parts per million). Table salt has large amounts of iodine added (sufficient to produce health benefits) and aluminum (as anti-caking agent). Even though nearly all people on the Earth consume salt every day, there are virtually no studies that compare health benefits and differences between these types of salts. After using medical search engines, I found only one such study research, conducted at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Maplewood. This study compared effects of tap water vs. distilled water and sea salt vs. table salt on blood pressure in rats over a 4 month period of time. The abstract of this study is provided below.

Flowers SW, Jamal IA, Bogden J, Thanki K, Ballester H, Hypertension induction in Dahl rats, J Natl Med Assoc. 1990 Dec;82(12):837-40. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Maplewood. There is experimental and epidemiologic evidence that some minerals and trace elements play a role in hypertension. We designed an experiment in which salt and water sources were manipulated to examine the possible impact of this relationship. A strain of rats (Dahl rats) known to become hypertensive with sodium chloride ingestion was used to study the effect of salt source and water source on the induction of hypertension. The group on tap water and table salt had blood pressures (184 mmHg +/- 19) significantly higher than every other group in the experiment. The experimental animals receiving tap water plus table salt had the highest blood pressure levels, although they consumed the lowest quantity of sodium. Analysis of the tap water samples showed "soft water" by analysis of calcium and magnesium concentration. This could adversely affect blood pressure. The relatively high magnesium concentration in sun evaporated sea salt may play a protective role in hypertension induction. The zinc and copper present in tap water may play an exacerbating role. Soviet and Russian Buteyko breathing doctors suggested that sea salt health benefits are particularly noticeable in those people who produce large amounts of mucus (sputum or phlegm) due to presence of respiratory problems (such as asthma, bronchitis, cystic

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fibrosis, and so forth). Table salt, as these Russian doctors proposed, is not suitable for human consumption due to aluminum used as anti-caking agent and possibly due to other causes. These doctors did not discover any adverse effects of sea salt (even at large doses) on most people, including those with high blood pressure. Furthermore, since most of their patients reported better well-being when using sea salt, leading Soviet physiologist Dr K. P. Buteyko, MD, PhD, suggested to use additional amounts of sea salt (up to 1/2-1 teaspoon per day) every day for increased body oxygenation. They found that even people with severe gastritis, GERD and other digestive problems do not have any adverse reactions to extra sea salt if they follow certain rules. Here is the protocol. Instructions: how to use sea salt Dissolve 1/2-1 teaspoon of sea salt in a glass of spring or purified warm (or room temperature) water. Sip it slowly on an empty stomach when you start using it. Later, after 1-2 weeks, you can use it after meals or at any other time. You can also use more sea salt with meals. Additional suggestions are: - People with serious kidney problems need to follow their specific guidelines related to daily sodium intake. - People with asthma or inflammation of airways need to use warm water only. - People with gastritis should sip water with dissolved sea salt slowly only on an empty stomach until they solve their digestive problems. It seems that all evidence points out that table salt is not good for human (and rat) health as a food. It is much better to use (of the two types of salts) only sea salt for our nutrition. Table salt can be used to make salt-water feet baths when one applies electrical grounding. Many researchers believe that sea salt, when dissolved in purified or clean water, is able to restructure water forming clusters, while table salt does not have this ability. Some Buteyko practitioners heavily emphasize benefits of supplemental sea salt and nearly insist that their students should use additional sea salt every day. There are possible added benefits of breathing exercises when one breathes through sea salt or rock salt while using the Frolov device or Amazing DIY breathing device to increase body-oxygen content, especially for people with problems including the lungs and airways or with excessive mucus production.

8.9 Water quality When the gut is already a problem, water also becomes a factor that can either keep you sick or provide conditions for recovery. Nearly all US cities, as well as large cities in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and many other countries have poor quality of tap water. Tiny residues of several chemicals often have a significant negative effect that can prevent gut recovery. Some other countries (Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, and so forth) have much better water quality.

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In cases of GI problems, instead of tap water, you can use spring water. There are, however, people who are sensitive to most types of spring water due to minuscule amounts of pesticides and herbicides (that contain aluminum). As a result, such people notice that nearly all spring waters make their GI problems worse. The best choice in such cases is to use reverse osmosis water, Evian and Volvic. These types of water have the highest purity and quality. Note that there are many water brands that are produced with the use of reverse osmosis. This relates to Aquafina, some water brands for infants (often sold in separate sections in large US grocery stores and pharmacies), H2O (a brand name in Australia), and many others.

8.10 Honey Honey is an excellent food for people with low weight, those who do a lot of physical exercise, and people with problems related to digestion of fats. Note that only raw honey does not feed Candida. Raw honey can also be labeled as “unpasteurized” or “extracted at cold temperatures”. If there are no relevant labels, ho ney in health food shops is usually unpasteurized, while in conventional-food stores, it is heated. Whatever the case, it is still better to ask grocery people about their honey or to buy only those types of honey that clearly states that it is raw or unpasteurized. Raw honey can be eaten as a first thing (before other foods) or separately. It has a mild laxative effect. Therefore, it can also be used by people with chronic constipation. Large amounts of honey (about 100 g daily or more) can cause some soiling, but no any other negative effects.

8.11 Too high blood glucose For people with existing GI problems, even 1-2 minutes of high blood sugar level produces a strong negative effect on their GI health. Somehow, increased blood glucose creates conditions favorable for pathogens that multiply, form biofilms, and generate toxins. Among the very first signs of high blood sugar, in people with GI problems, are unquenchable thirst (on lips), feeling warm, and increased ear buzzing. Soon later, they notice increased urination with reduce urinary volume and lower CPs. Finally, for the next bowel movement (which can occur after or before the next meal), their stool becomes greasy (or more greasy) with more soiling. There are many other possible negative symptoms that we discussed above. In people with GI problems, high blood sugar can have a double negative effect manifested in larger total urinary output. As we discussed before, a digestive flare-up causes inflammation and GI flare-up, increasing water turnover and urinary volume. In addition, at over 10 ml/l for the blood glucose level, the kidneys try to remove excessive glucose from the blood and increases urine production, leading to even larger urinary output. High blood glucose can appear due to a variety of reasons. The main cause is too low CP (less than 20 s), as in nearly all people with diabetes. The next factor that causes higher

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blood sugar levels is the circadian changes. As a result, many people experience high blood glucose in the morning: before the breakfast. Another common cause of abnormally high blood glucose is a reaction to meals (so called “reactive hyperglycemia”). This effect usually occ urs about 1-2 hours after a meal. Also due to circadian hormonal changes, reactive hyperglycemia is much stronger in the morning (after the breakfast), and becomes less prominent in the afternoon. At higher CPs (about 20-30 s), people have much better blood glucose control both, in the morning, before breakfast, and after meals. However, 20-30 s CP is still not enough to prevent blood sugar increases and their negative effects on GI health. One needs to have about 35 s for the morning CP and even higher daily CP numbers (with good chewing) in order to avoid reactive hyperglycemia. Even a slight daily increase in blood sugar levels (alone or as a single adverse factor) can make GI recovery impossible. Therefore, people with GI problems and excessive blood sugar fluctuations, should take good care about their blood glucose values. What are the possible solutions? Smaller meals In order to achieve normal blood sugar levels 24/7, one can have smaller meals. Assume that you found that an ordinary breakfast causes unquenchable thirst and other symptoms of high blood sugar. Due to an additional negative effect on inflammation in the intestines, a person is likely to have a reduced urinary volume for each single trip. Both these factors greatly increase urinary frequency. If you found that, for example, your breakfast causes increased blood sugar levels, you can divide it in 2 or 3 parts. Note that with a strong hunger, the first half of your meal will be digested very fast (the stomach can be empty in 20-30 minutes). Good chewing Chewing food very well helps a lot with a better blood sugar control. With good chewing, a person is much more sensitive to his or her own satiety signs. Good chewing helps one to notice these earliest signs when it is time to stop eating. How to chew foods, what the effects of poor and good chewing, and which foods require especially good chewing will be discussed in later parts of this book. More fiber Having more fiber and vegetables with your meals also assists in having better blood sugar control after meals due to slower digestion. Foods with lower glycemic index Some foods, due to a variety of reasons, release their energy slower and cause smaller blood sugar fluctuations. For example, corn meal, brown rice and buckwheat have very similar contents of starches and proteins. However, corn meal creates a largest blood sugar spike, while buckwheat the least. Beans and lentils cause smaller blood sugar

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fluctuations than the mentioned starchy foods. Finally, nuts have even smaller GI numbers. You can find GI tables online and use them to plan your meals, if you suffer from or suspect that you have problems with too high blood glucose levels. Important note. When a breathing student is slightly overweight (due to fat present on the belly) and he or she gets higher CPs, even small amounts of starches or fats can cause high blood glucose levels. This effect can take place in a large CP range: from about 15 up to 35, sometimes 50 s: In such cases, one solution is to avoid all starchy foods and fats (with the possible exception of fish oil) or dramatically reduce the amounts of these foods, and have mainly vegetables in the diet. Better chewing will help here as well. Chromium supplements (glucose tolerance factor) For some people, taking a chromium supplement helps to have better blood sugar control. Cooling down yourself and taking a cold shower Imagine that you had your breakfast and in about 1.5-2 hours you start to feel warm and thirsty. You can reduce blood glucose by having less clothing, watering your arms and legs with cold water, or taking a cold shower for up to 2-3 minutes or even longer. Spikes of high blood sugar can last for 10-30 minutes only. When blood sugar gets higher, in most people, the body produces more insulin that helps to drive excessive glucose from the blood stream into liver, muscle cells, and fat cells. As mentioned above, even 1 minute of high blood sugar is enough to cause GI damage. Therefore, one needs to be pretty fast in these self-cooling actions.

8.12 Early years of life Early years of life is an additional factor for choosing your optimum diet due to a better adaptation of the GI system to certain types of foods. It is true that most people can digest many types of vegetables, fruits, berries, greens, nuts, beans, lentils, and other food items that they never ate before. However, those foods that were eaten during formative years, up to teenage years, are often easier to digest. The body learned well and knows well what to do with familiar foods.

8.13 Major nutritional deficiencies There are 4 major nutritional deficiencies in modern people: - fish oil (or lack of DHA and EPA in the blood) - calcium - magnesium - zinc. These deficiencies appear and are present due to 3 major factors: - low body O2, which indicates poor perfusion of GI organs - dramatic changes in the diet of humans during last 100 years

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- high prevalence of digestive problems and other chronic diseases that impose additional requirements for many nutrients. Many people are able to achieve normal digestive health without nutritional supplements. However, for most people, correct and minimum supplementation with these 4 nutrients helps to speed up their progress up to several times. There are also people who cannot progress at all without additional supplements, such as taking fish oil, Ca, Mg and/or Zn. For more details, you need to know about how to conduct a 3-day test for nutritional deficiencies and define your personal requirements which also depend on your current CP level and GI state. This information can be found on NormalBreathing.com.

8.14 Major sources of pollution in modern people Low body O2 When a personal CP is below 20 seconds, cells of the human body switch from aerobic to anaerobic respiration. This often leads to a generation of lactic acid (the normal value is about 1 mmol/L) and free radicals (incompletely oxidized products) with reversal of the Krebb cycle (also called the “citric acid cycle”) and im munosuppression. This is the reason why getting over 20 s CP is a very important initial step to stop progression of many chronic diseases, including digestive disorders. Abnormal GI flora What are the main internal sources of pollution for modern humans? The human body harbors billions of viruses, bacteria, and other organisms living in different parts of the body. In fact, the total number of these microorganisms is greater than the number of cells in the body. Some of these microorganisms perform various useful jobs, but many others produce harmful or toxic substances. Which region of the human body has the greatest number of these microorganisms? This is the large colon since about 50% of stool consists of bacteria and other microorganisms. If you have a normal GI flora (with no soiling), then the toxic load from the GI tract will be very small. However, since most people do not have normal GI health, their gut becomes a significant source of pollution. Aluminum cookware Avoid aluminum pans and other aluminum utensils. Use stainless steel and other safer utensils for cooking. Stainless steel is probably the best choice (if you do cooking) since it also provides some iron. (Iron-based utensils were the major source of iron for humans living centuries ago.) Microwave cooking The heating action of microwaves is based on the resonation of chemical bonds between atoms. Microwaves generate mainly those electromagnetic frequencies, which resonate chemical bonds between hydrogen and oxygen (as in water), and hydrogen and carbon (as in fats). However, the intensity of the electromagnetic impact for microwaves is high enough to break molecules into parts. This may not be a problem with water, but when

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some larger molecules are broken into 2 or more parts, they can become either useless or harmful (due to formation of free radicals). Therefore, microwaves can be safely used for heating water or killing pathogens in toys, kitchen sponges and rags, but not for heating or cooking food. Toxins coming with tap water and food Tap water, as we discussed before, can contain many harmful chemicals. For people with digestive problems, these chemicals cause a stronger negative impact due to their direct contact with the surface of the GI tract. Similarly, conventional (not organic) foods produce the same double negative effect (the systemic effect and the local one) due to the presence of pesticides, herbicides, nitrites, nitrates, hormones and antibiotics. Therefore, you can accelerate your GI recovery up to 2-5 times, if you eat only organic food and use pure water. For some people (in cases of sensitivity to aluminum), transition to organic food and pure water can be a necessary factor for their digestive recovery.

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9. Chewing and soft diets 9.1 What are the key goals of chewing? 1. Chewing mechanically breaks solid and semi-solid foods into smaller particles. The stomach and both colons do not have teeth. Therefore, they are unable to tear apart or separate even soft foods such as pieces of cooked vegetables or chunks of fruits. As a result, if one does not chew such foods well, their nutrients will putrefy in the large colon. This effect is considered in detail below. 2. Chewing provides information for the ENS (enteric nervous system) to better identify the incoming substances (to check if the body really needs them) and to prepare the appropriate enzymes for efficient processing down the conveyor. When meals are well chewed, the chum slowly leaks from the mouth to the stomach. This process allows chemical analysis of the incoming foods. Existence of this process prevents overeating. 3. Chewing chemically breaks down food substances due to digestive enzymes produced in the mouth. When food is well chewed, up to 80% of starches, 15% of fats, and 5% of proteins can be digested in the mouth, reducing the burden of digestion for the stomach, liver, and, especially, pancreas. More importantly, good chewing and digestion in the mouth prevent putrefaction of many substances, such as starches and proteins, in the colon. 4. With good chewing, it is nearly impossible to overeat. It is easier to notice the first signs of satiety. In some people, at a certain moment of time, their saliva can stop flowing, and they cannot eat anymore.

9.2 Effects of poor chewing When chewing is insufficient, some food particles remain too large and some chemical substances (especially starches) are not predigested. What are the effects of poor chewing? - Many nutrients remain locked in their cells and become unavailable for the organism. - Instead of providing nourishment, these large particles, with locked-in goodness, become a burden for the GI tract, causing more wear of the GI linings even for people who do not suffer from digestive problems. - Worst of all, undigested substances and particles start to putrefy (rot) in the large colon, which has ideal conditions (temperature and humidity) for the decomposition of nutrients, growth of pathogens, and generation of toxins. Imagine what happens if you do not chew well enough. The proteins and starches from the eaten foods are going to putrefy in the colon for many hours, until they are eliminated with a bowel movement. Of course, the body, especially at higher CPs, tries to get rid of this poisonous fecal matter. This can cause diarrhea or greasy stool with frequent bowel movements. We see that in such conditions (when soiling takes place), diarrhea is a protective reaction that reduces absorption of toxins from the gut. However, some of

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these toxins will still be able to penetrate into the blood stream night and day, causing various negative effects (brain fog, poor mood, cold feet, and so on). These toxins also constantly reduce one’s CP, including the morning CP. Therefore, a lack of chewing causes gradual and constant self-poisoning. If the toxins from these small undigested amounts of foods are eaten all at once (imagine you eat only 1 gram of rotten fish or meat), then you can get signs of serious poisoning and end up in critical care. However, slow release of the same amount of your daily toxins (due to insufficient chewing) usually goes unnoticed. They poison the body 24/7.

I have had many cases when my breathing students managed to achieve no soiling in about 2-3 days just by better chewing. This is easier for those people who do not have serious digestive problems. However, if a person with Crohn’s disease, duodenal ulcers or IBS is able to create the right conditions for gut recovery, he or she can also achieve no soiling in about 2-3 days with dramatic improvement in gut flora and reduced body pollution. As a result, poor chewing is the main diet-related factor that leads to soiling (presence of fecal matter on the anus after defecation) and very poor digestive health in modern people.

9.3 Which solid foods do not require chewing? If you swallow, without chewing, large chunks of raw, cooked or fried meat, fish, or eggs, these large chunks will be completely predigested in the stomach (with proteins successfully split on polypeptides). Let us consider this process in more detail.

When the walls of the stomach are in mechanical contact with food particles that are inside the stomach, the mucosal layers of the stomach produce hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes that try to digest these food particles. This process can result in 2 outcomes: either the digestive enzymes reduce the size of these food particles (meaning that their digestion takes place) or not. In the first situation, the ENS (enteric nervous system) is able to get information that food particles are yielding to the chemical action of digestive enzymes. Then the ENS will make the stomach continue digestion until these food particles are completely predigested (or become a paste). This explains why the stomach will keep chunks of meat, fish, or eggs until they are reduced in size to a smooth paste. However, if you swallow whole pieces of corn, whole nuts (cashew nuts or almonds), then the stomach will not be able to predigest them. (The predigestion of large pieces of nearly all types of food in the stomach is possible if you have over 90 s CP, but not when you have less than 70 s.) As a result, for nearly all people, whole pieces of corn or whole nuts will be pushed into the duodenum and they will make a long trip until they are eliminated with a bowel movement. (In fact, swallowing several corn pieces is sometimes used to define one’s transition time, from the mouth unt il elimination with a bowel movement.)

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Whole pieces have a relatively small surface area. Therefore, these whole pieces can generate only small amounts of toxins when they putrefy in the large colon. The situation is much worse, if you chew a nut some 10-20 times and then swallow these tens or even hundreds of small pieces (each about 1-3 mm in size). These small pieces have a much larger total area and they can “successfully” rot in the colon and cause self-poisoning. The same is true when we swallow raw or cooked pieces of vegetables, beans, lentils, greens, and many other foods. Therefore, people can safely swallow only large chunks of foods with a high protein content, such as meat, fish and eggs. Depending on their fat content, pieces of cheese possibly can also be digested in the stomach. But nearly all other solid foods cannot be digested by the GI system without good chewing. This relates even to many soft foods as well, such as grains of cooked rice, well-cooked Broccoli, cauliflower or carrots, and ripe soft fruits (peaches, apples, mangos, papayas, and so forth).

9.4 Which liquefied foods do not require chewing? Many foods can be transformed into a smooth paste, or a liquid or nearly liquid state. There are commercially available fruit smoothies, vegetable juices with pulp, vegetable pastes, nut milks, nut butters, and other products. In addition, one can use a blender to make a paste or smoothie from nearly any food. Do these soft foods require chewing? If we review our previous ideas related to the digestion of various nutrients, we can see that only starches can be and should be almost completely digested in the mouth, while fats and proteins remain almost unchanged after they are chewed in the mouth. Fats and proteins will be digested in the stomach and duodenum. We can see that those foods that have a large starch content should not be liquefied or, if liquefied, require good chewing. Therefore, smoothies and juices from most fruits and vegetables are relatively safe provided that one has hunger and digestive enzymes to take care of their good digestion. However, foods that contain grains, rice, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, and other starches cannot be liquefied and swallowed with little or no chewing. Therefore, one cannot simply blend all his or her foods thinking that this will solve the problem with chewing and particle size. What would happen if one blends an ordinary meal with proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fats and drinks it at once or even slower, in a few minutes? If this meal has starches, especially due to grains, they are going to promote pathogens in the gut. This will worsen GI health and prevent GI recovery.

9.5 Which diet is best? The answer to this question is simple. The best diet is one that naturally provides the human body with the easiest breathing and maximum oxygen content without

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compromising energy level, ability to exercise and other parameters. However, if we consider practical life, the situation becomes very complex since people have very different digestive health states and lifestyle. When a person has good digestive health (with no soiling after bowel movements, and other signs of good GI health) raw vegetarian diets provide many advantages. Such diet plans require minimum digestion while offering a wide variety of nutrients. However, people with digestive problems are not able to tolerate many raw foods. As a result, their best diet is the one that helps to recover their GI organs. In many cases, when people have Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, other GI problems with inflammatory processes in the gut, they require a gluten-free dairy-free soft diet that is considered below. This diet can be called an “anti infla mmatory diet” even though this phrase often refers to a diet that reduces inflammation in the whole body. There are millions of naïve people who believe that the diet is the main factor that helps to reduce chronic inflammation. In reality, inflammation is mainly controlled by 2 other factors: grounding (or electrical voltage) of the human body and tissue oxygenation. Inflammation becomes chronic if one’s CP is less than 20 seconds. Inflammation starts to disappear when one has more than 30-35 seconds for the CP test. Earthing (grounding) is the key additional factor that helps to reduce inflammation and increase CP in those people who suffer from inflammatory conditions.

9.6 Why many people cannot eat raw foods? If a raw vegetarian diet is the best choice, there should be reasons why ordinary people do not use these diets. First, most people have less than 25 seconds for the CP test. As a result, they naturally prefer (and enjoy) junk foods that include white flour and table sugar. Second, if an ordinary person tries to have a raw diet, he or she can create mechanical damage to his or her GI system. This happens due to one modern cultural habit that we discussed above: insufficient chewing. Raw foods, such as most vegetables, nuts, sprouts, and fruits, require very thorough chewing. But very few people chew foods well. In conditions of fast eating or insufficient chewing, cooking makes vegetables and many other foods softer, increasing bioavailability of their nutrients and reducing the damaging effects due to mechanical friction and putrefaction of raw foods. In other words, when raw foods are not chewed well, their starches and proteins are going to putrefy in the colon, poisoning the body. At this point, we can consider good chewing in more detail.

9.7 Good chewing defined Good chewing means chewing long enough so that you do not make any swallowing movements in your throat. In other words, the food must disappear itself due to slow leaking through a small gap (less than 1 mm in size) that exists between the tongue and mucosal surfaces of the mouth. If you chew food very well, your food becomes so small and watery (runny) that it can move like a mucus from the mouth into the stomach.

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Practically, if you try to chew soft ripe fruits (like peaches, mango, papaya, and apples) you may need about 40-60 chews per one small bite. If you take a teaspoon of brown rice or buckwheat, you may need up to 100-150 chews to make it disappear. If you have an average (or typical) portion of cooked rice, then it requires about 40-45 minutes of good chewing. If you suspect or know that you do not chew food well, you can certainly check that good chewing greatly improves your digestive (and mental) well-being while increasing body oxygenation and improving overall health. Try it for 2-3 days and see the effects. For people with digestive problems, chewing can become a single factor that predetermines their efforts to regain GI health. If you chew food very well, and follow other ideas described in this book, and get high CP (over 30 s) 24/7, your chances of digestive recovery are about 100%. If you do not chew food very well, especially your starches, you will be unlikely to get even 30 s for the morning CP and your GI health will remain nearly the same. The only alternative to good chewing is to avoid starches (or follow those diets that avoid grains, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, yams, and other foods with high content of complex carbohydrates) and to cook or pre-blend vegetables. A blender can be used to reduce chewing time of raw vegetables, sprouts and fruits. This method allows getting nearly all benefits of raw foods. Let us consider how you can benefit from a simple blender.

9.8 Using a blender to make raw meals Spending 40-45 minutes chewing starchy foods makes meals very long. However, chewing time gets even longer if you also try to chew well raw vegetables, nuts, berries and sprouts. (When we eat cooked vegetables, there is no need to use a blender since cooking changes the structure of fibers, making them softer. Therefore, most cooked foods do not require a long time for chewing in order to be chewed well or until they become a paste.) This problem can be solved by using the blades of a blender (or mixer), instead of our teeth, to chop or cut vegetables, greens, nuts, sprouts, berries, seeds, and so forth to much smaller pieces (but not to a liquid or paste state that requires no chewing since the GI system needs to know what is coming and how much). You can pre-blend raw foods using the "Pulse" button of a blender. Here are the instructions. First, you need to prepare a base. The base can be made from fruits only if you are ok with fruits. Blend 1-2 fruits (about 200-300 g or little more than 1/2 of a pound in total) for about 1 minute to make a smoothie. This is your base.

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People with numerous GI problems, such as Crohn’s disease, colitis, IBS, and many others have soiling and should avoid simple sugars and fruits, as we discussed above. If fruits are not for you at the present moment, you can use pure water. You will need the right amount of water. If you have too little water in the blender (and too dry mixture later), then the blades of the blender will not be able to grab and cut your pieces of raw foods. If you have too much water, the mixture will be too watery. You can also use nut butters with water added or salad dressings as a base.

The next step is to put large pieces of vegetables, greens, nuts, sprouts, etc. in this liquid or semi-liquid base. Push the "Pulse" button for about 0.5 seconds up to 30-40 times, and you will get a semisolid mixture with particles up to about 0.5-1 mm in size. This meal does not require up to 100-120 chews to disappear in the mouth (remember that we should not swallow food at all). Then you can eat this meal in 10-15 min instead of 45-50 minutes. You will get a perfect raw goodness with all nutrients preserved. The blender can reduce the time of chewing by about 3-5 or 7 times. This means that you will spend much less time for a meal that is based on raw vegetables, nuts, and sprouts: not, for example, 40-50 minutes, but only about 10-15 minutes of chewing. With a little practice, you should be able to optimize the parameters and become fast in making such raw meals with a blender. Note that this raw meal should be eaten within 10-20 minutes after it is ready. You may store it in a refrigerator for later use, but the food will loose its great quality. While these ideas (related to the blender) can be used by most people, people with inflammation in the small intestine cannot eat most types of raw vegetables and most nuts even if they chew these foods very well. Let us consider why.

9.9 Effects of raw foods on the inflamed gut If you observe a drop of water on a skin of an apple or tomato, you will notice that the drop stays compact and does not spread over the surface of these types of produce. However, the inner parts of apples and tomatoes easily attract a lot of water. What are the causes of these large differences? Fibers have different properties or abilities in relation to the attraction of water molecules. Molecules of some fibers are more polarized and, as a result, these types of fibers attract many layers of water since water molecules are also polarized. Some other types of fibers have less polarized molecules. When water molecules are located on such un-polarized fibers, water molecules prefer to stay together rather than to spread over the surface of the “not-attractive” fiber. This is exactly what we observe on the skins of apples or tomatoes. Researchers say that there are about 4-7 different types of fibers. Leaves of most trees and bushes and skins of many vegetables and fruits repel water molecules. Such fibers are usually crispy if you try to chew them.

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Some other fibers can attract a lot of water. For example, psyllium husks easily draw a very large amount of water. These types of fibers can be covered by several layers of water molecules due to their polarized chemical structure. This ability to attract water often correlates with the softness of the fibers. When these fibers are in the damaged small colon, they produce different effects on the inflamed villi. Crispy types of fibers can easily damage (mechanically) or cut inflamed villi that are already weakened due to inflammation. What is the reason? These harsh fibers do not have a cushion (layers of water) on their surface. Therefore, these fibers can be destructive for the inflamed villi. The soluble types of fibers are different since they are covered by layers of water molecules. These layers of water act as a cushion to reduce the mechanical impact and prevent additional mechanical damage caused by peristalsis. As a result of their gentle stimulation, the inflamed villi have chances to mature and recover. Therefore, if a person with an inflamed small intestine eats raw foods (or skins of vegetables and greens) every day, he or she constantly creates additional damage that destroys villi and does not allow them to mature and become resilient to ordinary foods.

The solution to this problem is to eat only those foods that do not cause additional mechanical damage. Vegetables need to be cooked and chewed very well. Note that cooking changes the structure of some fibers only to some degree. It does not matter how long you cook green peppers, cabbage, or leaves of kale. They will still remain too harsh for the inflamed villi. The same is true for many other vegetables.

10 The anti-inflammatory diet In this book, the term “the anti-inflammatory diet” i mplies something that is very soft or of nearly paste-like consistency (as soft as sour cream or baby food) and also not irritating for the inflamed villi. For some people, it may sound like a “soft diet” or a “liquid diet”. However, if you look at examples or list s of foods commonly suggested for the soft diet and liquid diet, you can easily discover that these diets are unsuitable for many people with chronic digestive problems due to the presence of simple sugars from fruits or gluten. The anti-inflammatory diet is a temporary and necessary solution for the damaged or inflamed gut. Raw foods have a negative impact due to two different mechanisms. First, crispy types of fibers mechanically irritate new villi. Second, enzymes and other chemicals present in many raw vegetables (they can be blended to a paste or puree, but still remain destructive) can produce a negative chemical effect, causing increased inflammation (as in cases of raw garlic and onions, considered before). This idea of having special foods for the damaged gut can be rephrased: “The dead gut requires dead food”. It takes only several hours for villi t o re-grow (even after their

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complete destruction in the duodenum). The problem is that many people with serious GI problems continue to consume wrong foods (or do not have enough chewing) with each meal or every day. As a result, their villi are not able to become strong, resilient and mature. With a right approach (when no mistakes are made), maturation of villi can be achieved within 2-3 days. Then the person can make a gradual transition to slightly rougher foods. Let us consider examples of foods that can be used when a person has an inflamed small intestine.

10.1 Squashes The best friends for the inflamed villi are organic squashes, such as kabocha, butternut (also called buttercup), pumpkins, golden squash and others. Cooked or baked squashes almost melt in the mouth and are easily transformed into a paste with tiny soft particles, which somehow manage to strengthen the inflamed villi. Beware of tough fibers (which look like threads) that can be present near the skin or near the seeds of these squashes. These fibers should not be eaten. If you chew squashes well, the strings of these fibers should remain in your mouth. Similar long fibers, but larger in their diameter, can be found in spaghetti squash. Even after very long cooking, this squash is not suitable for the anti-inflammatory diet. Zucchini (also called courgettes) relate to squashes, and they have large seeds. However, if you cook zucchini for about 30-35 minutes, they become soft and can be easily chewed well (even with their green skin). Zucchini are almost as good as other squashes, but require good (but not long) chewing. Note that long storage can change fibers in zucchini and make them or their skin unsuitable for this diet.

10.2 Root vegetables Among organic root vegetables, some can be made very soft by long cooking. For example, after 30 minutes of cooking, parsnips and rutabaga become soft enough and suitable for the inflamed villi, if they are chewed well, and if you do not swallow tough fibers that can be present in these foods. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams are examples of starchy root vegetables that are possible to use for the anti-inflammatory diet. Make sure that you chew them well and remove all tough thin fibers. These fibers are often present in sweet potatoes and yams.

Very long cooking (over 40 minutes) makes carrots soft, but not soft enough for the antiinflammatory diet. It is possible to make a paste from cooked carrots. However, since this paste includes starches, it requires good chewing. This is not easy to do when you already have a paste-like substance. As a result, carrots are not among the suitable foods.

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You can only eat cooked fiber (pulp from a juicer) from carrots after you make a carrot juice. However, raw carrot juice has quite a large amount of fructose and cannot be used as a part of the anti-inflammatory diet. (Cooking carrots transforms their glucose into starches.) Therefore, the only option is to get a raw, nearly dry pulp of carrots after using a good juicer and cook this pulp for 1-2 minutes.

10.3 Nuts and seeds Organic nut- and seed-butters are great for the anti-inflammatory diet. This relates to smooth butters made from organic almonds, cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and other nuts and seeds. Always read the labels and make sure that these butters do not have simple sugars (fructose, glucose, etc.) or cane sugar added. Even crispy types of nut butters are usually appropriate since making these nut butters involves very high mechanical pressure that shear nuts and seeds, making them more susceptible to actions of digestive enzymes (provided that you chew crispy nut butter very well). No matter how long you chew raw or roasted organic almonds, cashew nuts, or sunflower seeds, they will remain unsuitable for the anti-inflammatory diet. The same is true for pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, linseed (flaxseed), and many other seeds. But when in forms of nut or seed butters, they are acceptable. Organic smooth and crunchy peanut butters can be used as well, if you have no allergies to peanuts.

10.4 Grains and other starches Starchy foods require very good chewing. In fact, among all types of foods, starches are the least suitable for the anti-inflammatory diet due to their nearly unavoidable negative effect on the inflamed villi. However, with very good chewing and the presence of right other foods, this negative effect of starches can be minimized. And when we apply several additional positive factors, while avoiding all triggers, GI recovery is easy to achieve, even with some grains and other starches in the diet. If you do not have time and/or patience for chewing starches, you can explore diets that exclude grains and other foods with a high starch content. The main digestion of starches should take place in the mouth due to the action of ptyalin. Let us consider specifics related to different types of starchy foods. No matter how long you cook organic brown rice or white rice, it still remains chunky, and the small bits of skin of rice grains will damage the inflamed villi. There are different options. - You may try to buy rice cakes (with no simple sugars added). However, many types of rice cakes have too many rough or tough pieces that are still present even after long chewing. These pieces cannot be transformed into a homogeneous paste in your mouth even after 150-200 chews. In some cases, a different batch of the same brand or a

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different brand of rice cakes can be suitable. Therefore, you may try to test and explore these options. - You can make bread from organic brown rice flour. This flour can be found in large health food shops. To make bread, you will also need no-aluminum baking powder. However, if you make such bread in an oven, it may not be easy to chew and successfully digest its crust. The better option is to make the dough in a small stainless pot and put this pot (for about 40-45 minutes) in a larger pot with boiling water. Make sure that the piece of dough is no more than 3 cm thick. If it is too thick, it requires longer cooking time to cook all the way through. (Instead of the stainless pot, a clay pot or a plastic container, a less desirable option, can be also used.) - You can make brown rice porridge from brown rice flakes. Brown rice flakes (crushed rice grains) are available in many European countries, but rare in North America. Cook them for 10-12 minutes and then chew this porridge very well. Do not use too much water. In fact, you need to use as little water as possible, just enough to make some water available for all rice flakes. Then you will have better chewing and digestion of rice flakes. There are different “cleaner” ways to cook rice flakes apart from simple boiling with water since the porridge can easily burn at the bottom even after only 2-3 minutes of cooking. In fact, you do not need any boiling for rice flakes. Just boil water in a stainless steel pot. Then add rice flakes and immediately wrap the whole pot in a blanket (or jacket) to keep it warm for 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, if you have a microwave, you can use it boil water in a glass or ceramic jar. Add rice flakes, close the lid, and wrap the jar in a blanket. Making porridge from grains is a good option in relation to starches since this method allows you to make them soft enough for digestion and dry enough for longer chewing. Using saliva, rather than water, makes them more digestible. Nearly the same ideas (as above for brown rice) are true for buckwheat. If you cannot get buckwheat flakes (e.g., you are located in North America) to make a porridge, you can easily make buckwheat bread, better in a plastic container, as described above.

Corn also requires tricky techniques in order to be a part of the anti-inflammatory diet. - You can soak organic unsweetened corn flakes in water for at least 15 minutes to make them soft (when dry, they are crunchy and, even after good chewing, they damage the inflamed villi). Put corn flakes in a jar or container that can be sealed. Add a minimum amount of water just to make all surfaces of corn flakes wet. Invert the jar every 1-2 minutes to distribute water more homogeneously. In about 15 min corn flakes become soft (and not crispy on your teeth - just try them). Eat them while chewing very well. - You can buy organic polenta and chew it very well. - You can make organic polenta or corn bread from fine corn flour. (Do not use medium or coarse corn flour.) Mix fine corn flour with baking powder in a glass jar. Add hot or warm water (but not too hot) to this jar. Put this jar in a pot with boiling water. (The glass jar may stay on the bottom of this pot, with most part of the jar covered in water.)

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Medium-size and coarse corn flours have a tendency to settle at the bottom and their particles are too large (they will worsen inflammation). You can cook corn without baking powder, but then you need to stir the mixture each 2030 s while cooking in order to prevent settling. At a certain moment, the mixture becomes hot and nearly solid. Then you need to cook it for about 45-50 minutes. (Some varieties of organic corn can be pre-cooked and require less cooking. Read the label for these details.) Remember that, as a part of the anti-inflammatory diet, we avoid gluten products. Therefore, all wheat and rye products are to be avoided. Oats have proteins that are similar to gluten and may cause a comparable damage for the inflamed villi. There is still no conclusive evidence in relation to the effects of oats on the inflamed gut or on people with sensitivity to gluten. Once you have achieved some success, you may check the effects of oats yourself. Maybe you can achieve no soiling while eating organic oat porridge.

10.5 Meats, fish and eggs These foods do not require good chewing. However, it is better to eat them first or separately from starches, following food-combining ideas described below. Note that conventional meat and eggs have reduced quality in North America and Australia due to use of hormones and antibiotics. European animal products are generally of higher quality. However, for faster GI recovery, whatever your location, it is better to use only organic animal products. Keep in mind that due to the pollution of oceans and seas, nearly all fish have some mercury and other toxic chemicals. It is better to be vegetarian to avoid this problem and other problems associated with animal proteins. Wild fish is much better, in comparison with farmed types of fish, such as salmon, due to higher content of EFAs (essential fatty acids) and better nutritional value. Smaller fish, like herring and sardine are virtually never farmed. Also, keep in mind that large, longest-living, carnivorous fish in the ocean, such as salmon, tuna, and swordfish, accumulate more toxins than smaller and younger types of fish. Avoid conventional eggs, especially if you live in North America. Organic free-range eggs have much better nutritional value and less toxic and dangerous chemicals. With higher CPs, people naturally eat less animal proteins. With over 40 s morning CP, many breathing students have no desire to eat meat and fish. This occurs due to improved metabolism of proteins.

10.6 Dairy and soy products We have previously discussed the effects of dairy and soy products on the damaged GI system. Amongst all dairy products, butter has the smallest casein and lactose content.

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However, even very small amounts of protein in butter can cause GI problems, especially if you eat large amounts of butter. In any case, if you decide to eat butter, it is better to eat organic butter. This is particularly important for people living in North America. We have also discussed above that, among soy products, only unsweetened organic soy yogurt might be suitable for the anti-inflammatory diet. If you decide to eat it, you need to closely monitor the effects of soy yogurt on urination and other GI signs. Most types of tofu are usually impossible to transform into a homogeneous paste in the mouth. Even though tofu is a fermented food, it still can have a negative effect on the inflamed villi (experience of my students validates this). One may blend tofu into a paste and try it. Experience of my students suggests that it is still has a negative effect.

10.7 Beans and lentils Since lentils and beans have a high content of starches, they require good chewing. The main problem with beans and lentils is their tough skin. The interior part gets soft after cooking, but the skin remains unsuitable for the anti-inflammatory diet. There are, however, some solutions. Red lentils are sold without skin. They can be used for the anti-inflammatory diet. In some European countries, you can also buy green lentils without skin. This is how they are sold there. Cook them for about 15 minutes, or until they become very soft. However, if you use too much water, red and skinless green lentils become mushy, and there is a strong tendency to chew them less. To avoid this problem, do not try to cook them for a shorter time. If they remain a little bit hard (so that you cannot squeeze them with your tongue only), they will worsen inflammation in the small intestine. The ideal solution is to have a minimum amount of water so that they become very soft, but dry at the same time. Then you will chew them longer naturally. How to cook red or skinless green lentils with the least amount of water? From the technical viewpoint, the “jar-cooking” method th at was described above for making polenta is the optimum solution to make red or skinless green lentils very soft and dry at the same time. Fill 2/3 of the glass jar with red or skinless green lentils, add pure water (almost up to the top of the jar), and close the lid tight. Then put this closed jar inside a pan filled with warm or hot, but not boiling, water. (Boiling water can break a cold glass jar due to a large temperature gradient.) The main part of the jar should be covered on the outside with water. The jar may stay on the bottom of the pan or float there. Once the water in the pan starts boiling, heat starts to slowly penetrate inside the jar. For this method, you may need to cook them longer (about 20-25 minutes of boiling instead of 15). Green and brown lentils with skin are not suitable for the anti-inflammatory diet, even if you cook them for a very long time. The same is true for many types of beans. Even after cooking for 2 hours or longer (some types of beans require even longer cooking search the internet for instructions), their skin is still unsuitable for the inflamed villi.

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However, you can buy cooked lentils and beans. The skin of lentils and beans from cans and jars is usually soft, but not because of longer cooking. It becomes soft probably due to long soaking in water after cooking (or they were cooked at high pressure). However, you must buy those cooked lentils and beans that are sold in jars, not in metal cans. Any type of food in metal cans should be avoided due to penetration of metals from the can into the food. Also read the label and make sure that the beans do not have simple sugars or strong spices added.

10.8 Berries Berries are probably the most beneficial single type of foods for achieving a higher CP and better health due to their high antioxidant content and other benefits. However, nearly all berries have too much sugar for the anti-inflammatory diet. Their typical sugar content is about 6-9% even though they may not taste sweet. This is true for blackberries, raspberries, black and red currants, strawberries, blueberries, and so forth. As a result, most berries promote Candida in those people who already have inflamed villi. Another problem for people with GI problems in the small intestine is that many berries have very tough indigestible seeds. Blackberries and raspberries are examples. Blueberries, currants, and strawberries have softer seeds, but their seeds are still too rough for the inflamed intestine. However, powdered Acai berries have small particle size. This powder is soft enough and does not contain much sugar (less than 2% in raw berries or several times less than most other berries). This powder can be found in large organic shops in North America or can be ordered online. Organic freeze-dried varieties of Acai powders would be a good choice.

10.9 Fruits Due to the presence of simple sugars, most fruits are not suitable for the antiinflammatory diet. However, avocado has a very small content of simple sugars, and ripe avocados are fine for the anti-inflammatory diet. Later, when the states of the villi and gut are improved, soft raw fruits can be used provided that the person has exercise with perspiration. This relates to ripe organic papaya, mango, peaches, kiwi, honeydew, some varieties of apples, pears, and other fruits.

10.10 NutriBullet for the soft anti-inflammatory diet NutriBullet is a powerful (600 watts) blender produced by the same company that manufactures the famous Magic Bullet. The advantage of this blender is that it has 6 blades and more powerful motor in comparison with other blenders. Ordinary blenders are generally unable to make vegetables, nuts and other foods suitable for the anti-inflammatory diet. However, according to a limited experience of a few people, NutriBullet is more effective and is able to chop and cut many raw vegetables into a paste that is acceptable for people with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, and 87

other conditions. This can be a great breakthrough since nearly all raw foods are not acceptable for the soft anti-inflammatory diet. If this finding can be expanded on all people with IBD and IBS, then NutriBullet can become an excellent tool for their GI recovery. So far, it has been found that, with the use of NutriBullet, people with an inflamed small intestine or with ulcers can safely eat blended raw foods such as greens, broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and many others. Limited experience suggests that the paste of raw vegetables has even a stronger healing effect on the damaged GI tract than squashes and other soft (cooked) foods.

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11. Positive factors After reviewing numerous adverse factors and triggers, you may get an impression that there are so many enemies that your chances of GI recovery are miniscule. In this Chapter, we are going to discuss numerous positive factors that can assist your GI restoration.

11.1 Breathing exercises This book does not discuss the details of breathing exercises. However, it is important to know the general guidelines for breathing exercises for people with GI problems and inflammation of the small intestine. We already discussed possible negative effects of some breathing exercises, and how breathing exercises can cause more inflammation and even mechanical damage due to the presence of biofilms. These adverse effects of breathing exercises, when the exercises are done on an empty stomach, take place at about 20-25 s for the initial CP. Since there are some individual differences, it is difficult to predict exactly and for all people if a certain person is able to safely perform breathing exercises. However, there are certain guidelines for those people who have inflamed villi and biofilms. If you have less than 20 s for the current CP, you can push the CP up to about 25 s (or slightly less) by doing light breathing exercises. Having over 20 s CP is a crucial positive factor in GI recovery. If you have about 25 s or higher CP, you should avoid breathing exercises, but do physical exercise with heavy or good perspiration in order to remove the biofilms and prepare the gut for more intensive breathwork. Further details are provided in the next Chapter, which discusses steps for GI recovery.

11.2 Earthing (electrical grounding of the human body) Earthing has a known direct positive effect on any inflammation. Chronic inflammation, according to new research, is a process that is essentially controlled by an electric potential (abundance or deficiency of free electrons) of the organism. This effect was mentioned in the Section devoted to allergy tests. Humans used to be electrically grounded to the Earth almost constantly (due to barefoot life and the absence of artificial fabrics and shoes) just several generations ago, and this provided the human body with a slightly negative electrical charge that corresponds to Earth's negative potential. However, nearly all modern medical research is performed on insulated humans and animals with a positive electrical charge or electron deficiency. What are the effects? Let us consider the key problem associated with chronic inflammation. In our current or popular understanding, inflammation is a response of the immune 89

system to injury. As a part of this response, the immune system sends white blood cells to the site of injury. These white cells include neutrophils that produce an oxidative burst in the injured area. The neutrophils release reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (also known as free radicals) in order to efficiently destroy pathogens (bacteria) that usually penetrate across the skin into the human body. This is a useful reaction that prevents infections. These free radicals also break apart damaged cells so as to rebuild healthy tissue and ensure healing. This process of destruction is based on the chemical aggressiveness of free radicals and their ability to "steal" electrons from other molecules. Now we come to the main problem that causes chronic inflammation. So far, these free radicals were doing a good job. However, together with destruction of damaged cells and pathogens, free radicals also leak into surrounding areas and destroy healthy cells, causing the classic quintet of hallmarks of inflammation: PRISH or Pain, Redness, Immobility (loss of function), Swelling and Heat. These classic features of inflammation are present in almost all books on medicine and physiology. However, this (abnormal) scenario takes place in modern humans (and during animal studies) only in conditions of electrical insulation from the Earth and due to electron deficiency. Grounding the human body to the Earth results in deactivation of free radicals in healthy tissues since the Earth can provide an abundant supply of electrons to neutralize free radicals, prevent damage of healthy cells, and "quench" chronic inflammation. As a result, grounding, within 10-30 minutes, reduces chronic inflammation and pain. Therefore, the first and easiest step, in order to reduce chronic inflammation (which is one of the key factors in people with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and many other conditions), is to provide free electrons for the body using Earthing (the name of the technique). This will ensure those natural conditions that existed for millennia during human evolution. In conditions of electrical insulation, lasting inflammatory problems often exhaust the adrenal gland that produces cortisol. Since cortisol is fundamental in the reduction of inflammation and immune function, chronic cortisol deficiency makes CP growth impossible. Breathing students with too low cortisol get stuck, usually at about 12-15 s CP, and cannot progress further with breathing and physical exercises, however hard they try. The solution suggested by Dr. K. P. Buteyko and his colleagues is to provide cortisol supplementation. However, in many cases, a faster and more natural health restoration can be achieved with Earthing. How to ground yourself (Earthing) You can ground yourself during daytime and/or sleep using simple DIY methods and techniques that can be found on this page: http://www.normalbreathing.com/e/how-toground-yourself.php. You can also buy commercial products (for example, an Earthing Mat or grounding sheets for sleep) online.

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11.3 The “perspiration-breathwork” method As we discussed before, if you have about 22-25 s CP and inflammation in the small intestine (with biofilms on its surface), nearly any breathing exercises lead to flareups. Even a mild CO2 increase produces damage to inflamed villi. At the same time, higher CPs is the most natural way to eliminate pathogens from the gut. What can be done to solve this challenge? In such conditions, the solution is in the “perspiratio n-breathwork” method. If you do physical exercise with good perspiration, the state of your small intestine will be dramatically improved. There is no need to do very long physical-exercise sessions (such as 3 hours or more). If such sessions are intensive and long, they can be quite exhausting. Find the balance and apply right-exercise sessions in order to clean your small intestine. If you sweat profusely and do about 1.5-2 hours of physical exercise, then later you can do intensive breathing exercises without any negative effects and quickly achieve much higher CPs. Correct physical exercise provides the following benefits for GI health: - mechanical vibrations of the human body that cleanse the lymphatic system and intensify metabolism - mechanical vibrations of the GI organs that assist recovery of villi and other tissues due to increased blood flow - perspiration that removes toxins and, therefore, produces a relief for Peyer’s patches in the gut helping with the removal of biofilms. These factors provide the foundation for the perspiration-breathwork method. Later, or in the long run, there is no need to have extensive concentrated exercise sessions. Daily physical exercise can be divided into smaller sessions. However, even after you made this step forward (and now can do nearly any breathing exercises), exercise starts to play a key role in your further CP growth. The effects of physical exercise depend on its intensity and duration. Ideally, it is better to do more intensive exercise but with nose breathing only.

11.4 Duration of physical exercise This Table reflects effects of duration of exercise on your next morning CP.

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Table note. “1.5 hour of devoted PE + 1 hour others” means t hat the person spends, for example, 1.5 hour on devoted PE (physical exercise), e.g., 2 daily jogging sessions of 45 min each, and also gets 1 hour of walking here and there, in total, throughout the day.

Other explanations for the Table Many sick people, especially city dwellers, often have about 20 min of physical exercise per day. (These 20 minutes include walking within the house, to the car, while shopping, etc.). Their body and brain oxygenation in the morning is, at best, according to this Table, about 18 seconds. This happens due to habitual chest breathing, possible mouth breathing and chronic overbreathing (breathing more than the medical norm at rest). This low bodyO2 content makes GI recovery nearly impossible. Medical drugs may kill some pathogens, but are unlikely to provide a certain long-term relief. If a person with an over 20 second CP (Control Pause or body-oxygen test result) devotes 1 hour to rigorous physical activity with nose breathing only, he or she can get stabilized, over a period of some days, at the level of about 25 seconds of body O2. Usually people with nearly 20 s MCP (morning CP) have about 30 min of light exercise throughout the day (e.g., walking here and there). This is still insufficient for natural GI recovery.

Having more than 2 hours of daily physical activity is generally sufficient to get or maintain any body-oxygen level. This number should also be a target for people with GI problems. Elderly people often require less physical exercise than suggested by this Table. For example, a 60+ or 70+ years old person may require only 1 hour of devoted exercise and 1 hour of walking to get any body oxygenation, provided that there are few, if any, negative effects due to other lifestyle risk factors. Teenagers and young people in their 20s and 30s sometimes may require more physical activity to achieve the main benefits of physical exercise and the corresponding bodyO2 numbers shown in the Table. Note that it is assumed here that, for getting higher CPs, other factors, including breathwork, sleep hygiene, diet, nutritional deficiencies, thermoregulation, daily work, and posture, do not produce negative effects on morning oxygenation. The same relates to various lifestyle factors related to digestion. In other words, it is necessary to avoid flare-

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ups to get morning CPs of 25 s and larger. The situation for people with more serious chronic digestive diseases (as well as other accompanying conditions) is often worse. This means that people with physiological conditions or pathological tissue changes (inflammation, tumors, diverticula, strictures, deposits, lymphomas, granulomas, and so on) generally cannot get even 25 s for morning oxygenation without additional physical exercise.

11.5 Mechanical vibrations of the body during physical exercise The anti-inflammatory diet requires soft foods in order to repair inflamed villi. Inflamed villi can tolerate only a minimum amount of mechanical and chemical stress. As a result of low or minimum stimulation, one of the expected negative effects of such a soft diet is the clogging of the villi with mucus and ingested food paste. In order to remove excessive mucus, it is necessary to provide suitable mechanical stimulation. Such stimulation naturally takes place during many forms of physical exercise. For example, ordinary walking and jogging provide such mechanical stimulation. There are different levels of intensities of body vibrations (shaking) due to exercise. Some forms of exercise provide very intensive (nearly maximum possible stimulation of body organs), while other activities are more gentle. Here are examples of physical exercise that are listed in an order, from gentle to more vigorous: - Using an exercise bike; riding a bike on a smooth road (without large bumps, cracks, and other irregularities) - Riding a bike on a bumpy road; slow walking with an empty stomach on an even (i.e., horizontal) surface - Power walking on an even surface with an empty stomach - Slow and gentle running on an even surface; power walking up and down a hill (all with an empty stomach) - Nearly normal running on a soft surface (such as grass, small gravel or sand); fast walking downstairs and upstairs (all with an empty stomach) - Nearly normal running on a hard surface (such as concrete, asphalt or rock); gentle running downstairs and upstairs - Jumping rope (or skip rope) exercises; running 100 m dash; playing basketball and other games (all with an empty stomach); walking on an even surface with food or water in the stomach. Note that the type of shoes you wear is an important additional factor if you do running on a hard surface. Some sport shoes greatly reduce the force of the mechanical impact that is experienced with each step, while other types of shoes (such as keds and sandals) do not make a large difference on the force of the impact. Usually, people with undamaged GI organs (or ordinary people) can tolerate the most intensive types of mechanical vibrations of the body. Depending on the type of the GI damage and its current state, a person with GI problems may not be able to do many or

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nearly all activities listed above. This particularly relates to more severe cases due to duodenal ulcers and IBD. (Note that we do not discuss here the most severe cases of damage to digestive organs that leads to punctures, rupture, internal bleeding, and other serious traumas.) Such traumas can take place due to car accidents, falling from high heights, and so forth. These types of damage often lead to inability of the GI system to digest any food. Such cases are handled in hospitals using total parietal nutrition, with nutrients delivered directly into a vein. Anything that is less damaging could be solved using ideas presented in this book.)

11.6 Positive effects of massaging devices and vehicle riding However, in some cases, even very light forms of physical exercise with shaking are poorly tolerated. This relates to cases when the digestive organs are damaged almost as intensively as in cases that require total parietal nutrition. What are the solutions? You probably have seen or maybe experienced massaging chairs. In addition, there are massaging seating devices (car seats), massaging heat cushions, and various electrical massagers. They can cost from about 20 up to 150 USD (for Shiatsu Massage Cushions).

When these massaging devices have motors that create high frequency vibrations, they are beneficial for the body. Dr. K. P. Buteyko pointed out positive effects of vibrations on the human body many decades ago. Such devices can be used for many hours every day after and/or during meals and even during sleep. These devices can speed up recovery several times and in severe cases can be life-saving. They are particularly beneficial for those people who cannot walk due to damage to GI and/or other body organs. However, even people with mild damage to the GI organs, as well as those people who cannot jog can benefit from their application. The most intensive types of mechanical vibrations can be achieved using whole body vibration machines that have become popular during last 1-2 decades. These machines provide intensive stimulation and can be used by some, but not all people, with GI problems. A similar (and sometimes even better) effect is present during vehicle riding. If a person with GI problems spends 2-3 hours in a moving vehicle (such as a car, bus, or train) or plane, this can lead to a faster GI recovery. This factor often speeds up GI restoration several times. It is not even necessary to experience or feel these mechanical vibrations. Many types of vibrations can be beyond human perception, but mechanical waves are absorbed by body tissues and villi, helping their recovery. There were cases of people who could not walk fast due to severe GI problems. However, after long trips in cars, trains or buses (up to 2-3 days), they achieved no soiling and could do running on a hard surface without any problems.

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To be accurate, one does not even need a vehicle to move. This effect is present mainly due to high-frequency vibrations created by the car engine and not due to bumps on the road. Therefore, you can simply sit in a vehicle that has its engine working, and this will greatly assist repair of villi, removal of the biofilms, lymphatic drainage and other positive effects.

11.7 Food combining The human digestive system is not well designed to digest mixtures of certain foods, especially at lower CPs. This is particularly true for mixtures that contain concentrated starches (such as grains, corn, buckwheat, and so on) and concentrated proteins (such as meat and fish). For example, if a person eats meat and rice (while mixing these foods together in the mouth), the stomach will experience a biochemical stress. The same is true for potatoes and fish eaten together and many other mixtures. Why does it take a much longer time for the stomach to digest these specific mixtures? The effect takes place due to nearly opposite requirements for digestion of concentrated starches and proteins. Proteins require increased acidity (lower pH in the stomach) and more stomach enzymes in order for the GI system to successfully split proteins on peptides and polypeptides. Starches are not digested in the stomach to any significant degree. They are digested in the mouth due to actions of ptyalin and in the duodenum in a more alkaline environment. As a result, the appearance of such complex mixtures (starches and animal proteins together) in the stomach makes the stomach “confused” re sulting in much longer digestion. For many people with less than 20 s CP, such meals can remain in the stomach for more than 3 or 4 hours. Among animal proteins, this effect is strong for meat and fish, but it is also present, in a smaller degree, for other animal products, such as cheeses and eggs. What are the solutions? There are 2 main options. One option is to eat these poorly compatible foods separately from each other (during different meals). We can call this method radical food combining. You can eat animal proteins separately with vegetables (and fruits if they are suitable for you), but with no grain and no other concentrated starches such as bread, potatoes, corn and buckwheat. Starches can be eaten with vegetables during the following meal. Then animal proteins and starches are separated since they are eaten during different meals. Another option is to eat foods in a certain order. We can call it a partial food combining. Here is an example. You can eat meat and fish first. Then you can eat vegetables, while chewing them well. Finally, you can eat starches at the end of the meal, while chewing them very well. What are the effects? If during this meal you do not drink too much water, the foods will be digested in the same order as you eat them. Animal proteins will be digested first. For the first portion of the meal, the stomach will be able to produce more hydrochloric acid for digesting animal proteins. Later portions of the same meal

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will get a less acidic environment. This is not a problem, since later foods do not require an acidic environment and stomach enzymes. As an overall effect for both types of food combining, you will spend much less time on digestion. As a result, you will have easier breathing and a higher CP for a larger portion of the day.

11.8 Use of probiotics There are certain types of beneficial (also called helpful) bacteria that should be naturally present in the large intestine in order to ensure good digestion and health. Some key functions of beneficial bacteria are: - fermentation of carbohydrates and their absorption - suppression of pathogenic microbial growth - improved immunity - syntheses of vitamins, such as biotin and folate - help with absorption of ions such as magnesium, calcium and iron - prevention of allergies and inflammation. In healthy people, the small intestine should be nearly sterile or without any bacteria. This is generally true for new born, but nearly all modern adults have numerous types of bacteria and fungi, including pathogens, in the small intestine (and often in the stomach too). When a person experiences soiling and other symptoms of poor GI health, the situation is worse. There are many pathogens that can dominate both the small and large intestines. Prolonged domination by pathogens can lead to the complete or nearly complete disappearance of beneficial bacteria. Diarrhea or frequent bowel movements worsen the situation. Most people living centuries ago did not use and, in many cases, did not have any foods with probiotics or beneficial bacteria in their daily diet. These people were likely to suffer from occasional digestive infections and severe diarrhea due to, for example, food poisoning. Therefore, on some occasions, they likely experienced a nearly complete disappearance of helpful bacteria from the large colon. How could they restore their digestive flora? The appendix was the likely source of helpful bacteria. The location of appendix (at the very beginning of the large colon) is most suitable for this purpose. However, many modern people chronically have very low body-O2 levels (less than 20 seconds) and, as a result, very poor health. People with low CPs often do not have sufficient amounts of beneficial bacteria in the appendix (or they have nothing at all). These are the main reasons why the use of supplements with probiotics became popular during recent decades. We can also understand why people with low CP benefit from frequent or daily use of probiotics. Meanwhile, this situation is not normal. High CPs (over 30-35 s) and a reasonable diet naturally suppress pathogens and promote the growth of beneficial bacteria.

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Experience suggests that, if you have less than 20 s MCP (morning CP), you may need to use probiotics nearly every day. If you have between 20 and 30 s for your MCP, you may need probiotics about every other day. With over 30 s MCP, only occasional use of probiotics is necessary (for example, once in 5-10 days) depending on soiling and other GI signs. With over 50 s CP 24/7, there is no need to use probiotics.

11.9 A super mixture with probiotics, prebiotics and psyllium husks Repopulation of the damaged gut with good bacteria is very important but often not easy. We already discussed, for example, effects of low CPs. There is one serious problem with the use of conventional probiotics and foods that contain beneficial bacteria (such as yogurt, kefir and others). Generally, nutritionists and even most doctors recommend probiotics in capsules, powders or from yogurt. However, it is also known from clinical studies that up to 99% (in many cases over 99.9%) of good bacteria cannot safely pass through the stomach that is designed, with its low pH and enzymes, to kill all types of bacteria. Out of 10-12 common strains of good bacteria (commonly used in supplements and present in fermented foods) only Lactobacillus Faecalis can safely pass through the stomach. But one is not enough. The gut needs other varieties of good bacteria as well. Therefore, good bacteria in yogurt, powders and capsules have a very low survival rate and poor efficiency. What are the solutions? Some companies started to produce enteric coated tablets and capsules that are able to survive low pH and actions of enzymes in the stomach and pass through the stomach unaffected. When such tablets or capsules arrive to the duodenum, pancreatic enzymes (with high pH or in alkaline conditions) dissolve these tablets or capsules, which safely release good bacteria for both colons. Such supplements are 2-3 times more expensive, but much more effective. The main problem with enteric-coated supplements for people with the inflamed small intestine is that these tablets and capsules are large and solid. They aggravate inflammation. Generally, for a person with IBD, taking 1 or 2 tablets or capsules is not as damaging as eating raw vegetables. However, it is better to avoid this stress. How? This solution was suggested by some of my Buteyko breathing students. They informed me that they could achieve no soiling by using one special mixture and better food chewing. (These students had only 20 s at this stage.) Later I suggested to use the same mixture to many other students, and virtually all of them reported either very little soiling or no soiling at all. It was generally true even for students with low CPs (about 20 s or less). The positive effects took place within 2-3 days. What is in the mixture? Imagine a mixture of 3 powders: probiotics, prebiotics, and psyllium powder (the main component).

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Probiotics is a mixture of several varieties of good bacteria. Prebiotics include those types of fiber that humans generally cannot digest (unless one has over 90 s CP), but these kinds of fiber are the main food for helpful bacteria. Inulin is the most common example, while fructooligosaccharides are other types of prebiotic substances that humans cannot digest. These types of fibers are commonly found in vegetables. Here are some common vegetables and their inulin content: onions have about 2-6 %, Jerusalem artichoke 14-19 %, garlic 9-16 %, artichoke 3-10 %, chicory 1520 %, and so forth. Cooking has some negative or destructive effect on the content of prebiotics, but even “dead” (i.e., cooked) onions, garlic an d other vegetables still fight pathogens by providing food for good bacteria in the gut. (This is another reason to eat vegetables, especially if you suffer from GI problems.) Psyllium husks or psyllium powder is the 3rd component in the mixture. Their role is to attract a large amount of water. How does this mixture work? When such a mixture is dissolved in water, it forms a collagenous structure (like a jelly) mainly due to an ability of psyllium husks to draw in a large amount of water. As a result, good bacteria remain hidden inside this water matrix formed by psyllium husks. What are the exact effects of such mixtures? When the stomach senses that it cannot digest the largest particles (such as particles of psyllium powder or husks surrounded by water), the stomach pushes the whole mixture through the pyloric valve into the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine). As a result, probiotics bacteria can survive their passage through the stomach by hiding themselves in the matrix formed by psyllium powder, while inulin immediately provides food for good bacteria, creating conditions, in the duodenum and following parts of the GI tract, for probiotics to grow and multiply 10s or 100s fold. Sometimes, such a mixture can be bought in health food stores. You can also order them online. BowelBiotics+ is one of the brand names that use the same 3 powders. One option is to make this mixture yourself. You should be able to find psyllium husks, inulin (or other prebiotics - just ask for them), and probiotics (better in powder form or in capsules) in pharmacies (in some countries) and/or in health food stores. Inulin or other prebiotics would be the component that is hardest to find (among those 3 ingredients). But even if you get only psyllium powder and probiotics (in any form: capsules, tablets, or powders), then by eating vegetables for the same or next meal, you can achieve about the same general effect. What are the ratios for this mixture? For a single dose, you will need about 1 tablespoon of psyllium powder (70-80% of the total dry weight for the whole mixture), about 1/4 to 1/2 of a teaspoon of inulin or other prebiotics (15-25% of the total dry weight), and 2-4 capsules of probiotics (3-5% of the total dry weight). Mix all powders before dissolving the mixture in water. Prepare and drink the mixture at the end of your meal to reduce the

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destructive effects of the stomach. When ordinary people, even with the CP of 15 s, use this super mixture 2 times per day and chew their food very well, they notice no soiling in about 2-3 days. Note that this relates to people without serious GI problems. However, with good chewing and avoidance of all triggers, most people with digestive problems can also achieve the same effect in about 2-3 days. Note that chewing is a crucial additional factor in order to achieve no soiling. Here is another example. Compare these low-CP no-soiling good-chewing people (discussed in the previous paragraph) with other people who may have over 30 s for the morning CP. MCP 30+ greatly assists the digestive flora in the gut. However, when such people do not chew food well, they may need to use the mixture again and again, maybe about 1-2 times per week or more depending on what they eat, and other factors.

11.10 Holding urine As we discussed before, in adults, a healthy urinary bladder can hold about 1 liter or more of urine, while people with digestive problems frequently experience problems with frequent urination and reduced urinary volumes due to mechanical pressure created by structural abnormalities. In many cases, especially when a person made a mistake and got a digestive flare-up, holding urine is nearly impossible. However, if a person makes the right choices, he or she can naturally hold urine for a much longer time. This allows natural normalization of organ positioning. The enlarged urinary bladder can push a prolapse or inflamed folds of the small intestine into their right places. This improves blood supply to all normalized parts. If the same person rushes to the toilet to pee at a slightest discomfort, this positive effect will not take place. This can prevent GI recovery. Furthermore, it is beneficial even to hold urine for as long as possible. It helps to speed up GI recovery. Let us consider suggestions related to holding urine. If you make right choices related to your GI health (no flare-ups) and you try to hold urine longer, then you are likely to experience several more urges during the next 3-5 minutes. However, if you overcome these urges, the desire to urinate usually disappears for about 1 hour or more. Later, the urge can re-appear again and, in many cases, it is possible to repeat the process with the same effect. Apart from these considerations, holding urine naturally favors easier breathing. In other words, when a person holds his or her urine, he or she naturally reduces his or her breathing and accumulates more CO2 and O2 in body cells. This does not relate to bowel movements. One clinical study discovered that holding one’s stool makes breathing faster and deeper. This makes sense since constipation can be quickly released with the Buteyko Emergency Procedure: breath holding and reduced

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breathing. Therefore, the general guidelines are simple: we need to postpone urination, but not bowel movements. Although generally correct, the last rule, related to bowel movements, has exceptions that we are going to discuss in the next Chapter, which describes the transitory effects that take place during GI recovery.

11.11 Taking a warm shower with soap When we take a shower, we eliminate large amounts of toxins from the surface of our skin. This effect is much stronger when we use warm water and soap. Skin is the largest organ of elimination which is exceptionally important for good digestive health. Let me prove this important idea with the following example. If a person was burnt in a fire and barely lived, he or she will be in a critical care (or Emergency Department) of a hospital. People can generally survive when up to 50% of their skin is damaged. This means that only the remaining 50% of skin can still detoxify the blood and eliminate unwanted and poisonous substances. One may think that 50% of the body’s skin is more than enough to do the job. Whe n 1/2 of the liver or kidneys are destroyed (due to mercury, petroleum products or medical drugs), we may not even notice this. However, when 1/2 of the skin does not function properly, the effects can be disastrous. These people (with about 1/2 of skin burned) often die. And the main threat to their lives is … kidney failure. When a large area of the skin is damaged, the kidneys are overburdened with the removal of metabolic waste products and toxins. Note that, if kidney function is reduced almost to 0 (as during kidney failure), the human organism can still survive for days since the skin can replace kidneys to some extent.

Taking a warm shower with soap every day and after each exercise with perspiration is an important factor in GI recovery. This means that, if you do exercise with sweating, it is very useful to take a warm shower with soap right after the exercise session.

11.12 Taking a cold shower Taking a cold shower is an additional tool that helps to increase the CP and blood flow to GI organs. In fact, a cold shower mechanically pushes blood from the surface of the human body (the veins) to inside (arteries and arterioles). There are many other benefits of taking a cold shower every day. For example, it leads to increased concentrations of brown fat cells. If your blood glucose level remains normal after physical exercise, then a cold shower can be used after exercise (together with a warm shower described above). Note that you should not take a cold shower if your current CP is less than 20 seconds. For more details, benefits and important safety rules related to cold shower, visit the web page - http://www.normalbreathing.com/l-cold-shower.php.

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11.13 Barefoot walking and foot stimulation Dr. K. P. Buteyko and his colleagues suggested that barefoot walking is an important part of their breathing retraining program. These doctors did not know about Earthing (grounding of the human body to the Earth). As a result, Buteyko breathing doctors suggested that the key benefit of barefoot walking is due to the massage of numerous nerve endings located on both feet. We described Earthing before, and the mechanical stimulation of feet has an additional positive effect on GI recovery. Sometimes, due to insufficient stimulation of feet, people with GI problems develop skin peeling and itchiness on their feet. In many cases, the itchy or peeling skin areas, if we investigate reflexology maps, correspond to locations of their GI abnormalities. If you decide to walk on gravel or do some other intensive foot stimulation, start with about 1-2 minutes per day and do it in the morning. If you walk or run on a soft grass, begin with about 10-12 minutes per day before noon and gradually increase the duration. (If feet stimulation is done before sleep, it can keep you awake for 1 hour or even longer.) Later, you can do feet stimulation before 6 pm. You can also use foot massaging slippers, foot massage mats and machines.

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12. Steps for GI recovery Due to a diversity of individual factors, there is no single diet that can well serve each person. The situation for people with GI problems is even more complex due to allergies, sensitivities and other parameters. However, there are several methods that can be used to get rid of biofilms and to slow down the hyperactive gut. As a first step, a person with GI problems needs to monitor and identify all possible triggers and test their effects. After such triggers are found, it is necessary to eliminate them and introduce those positive parameters and lifestyle changes that are discussed in the previous Chapter. What are the next steps? With avoidance of triggers, one needs to push the CP up with right breathing exercises, correct physical activity and other beneficial factors.

12.1 Approximate guidelines for breathing and physical exercises If you have less than 20 s for the current CP, you need to increase your CP up to about 22-25 s by doing breathing exercises with light air hunger or while using the Frolov or DIY breathing devices. If you already have about 22-25 s CPs, physical exercise will be a better choice since it allows you to partially restore the inflamed villi, to remove the biofilms and to prepare the gut for more intensive breathwork and higher CPs. Therefore, do some physical activity with good perspiration using the perspiration-breathwork method described in the previous Chapter. To increase perspiration, you can wear warmer clothing (even a jacket or vest) either for the last part or the whole exercise session. If the physical exercise session is long enough (e.g., about 2 hours) and with good perspiration, after this exercise session, you can practice reduced breathing with a strong air hunger without any negative effects. This strategy (the perspirationbreathwork method) helps to achieve fast initial GI recovery and much higher CPs (up to 30-40 seconds). At this stage, you can also start using long breath holds, maximum pauses or absolute maximum pauses safely. Another option (a slower method for “lazy” people) is to have less physical exercise, but with more intensive application of other positive factors, such as prolonged mechanical vibrations of the body (using massagers or riding vehicles) and using the super mixture with probiotics, prebiotics and psyllium husks. Then you may need about 2-3 days to achieve no soiling with other signs of good GI health. It is possible to slow down the angry gut without physical exercise while applying numerous other positive techniques and factors described in the previous Chapter. (However, in this case, one needs to be careful with eating. Even slight overeating can cause elevated blood glucose. This will eliminate all your achievement and nullify your efforts in a few minutes.) For instance, if you discovered that mechanical vibrations have a positive effect on your gut, then you can spend a day, for example, riding buses. Buy a

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daily pass for local transport, take interesting books or videos with you, prepare right meals for the whole day, and go traveling. What is going to happen next?

12.2 Disappearance of symptoms of poor GI health With a proper program (good chewing, correct physical exercise, use of the super mixture, and so forth ) and no mistakes leading to flare-ups, most symptoms (such as soiling, foul smell of feces, bloating, burping, frequent urination, cold feet, low or poor mood, and many others) disappear within 1-2 days. The morning CP can increase up to 510 seconds. Among previously mentioned symptoms of poor GI health, only thick (yellow or white) coating on the tongue remains present for a longer time. This is an ideal scenario that is present only in a small number of people. It is more common for a person to discover noticeable improvements in symptoms after making correct changes. However, he or she can learn that there are some other triggers that are not addressed yet. Therefore, many people get some improvements, but they still need to find out what else is missing (or present) in their lifestyle and diet. Elimination of some triggers allows a more detailed investigation of the hidden remaining causes. When you already have made many right choices, the effects of remaining hidden factors and triggers are more noticeable. Therefore, do not get discouraged if you did not achieve a large success in a few days. Study what is missing and address these factors. Note that due to the synergetic effect, the presence and dominance of pathogens in the gut (and the presence of biofilms) greatly amplifies negative effects of mildly negative factors, such as conventional foods (or not organic foods), tap water, and many other mild factors. This means that, for a person without GI problems, it is possible to achieve good digestive health (with no soiling), while eating conventional foods and even drinking tap water. However, for a person with existing GI problems, the same factors produce a much stronger adverse effect and often prevent their GI recovery. Therefore, it is beneficial to review all possible causes and think which of them relate to you.

12.3 Transition to rougher foods Once you have no soiling with other symptoms of good GI health, breathing and physical exercises start to play more important roles in your further health and CP progress. In the past, GI exacerbations were keeping your CP down. Now, after you got noticeable GI improvements, you can join the majority of breathing students in the pursuit of higher body O2. As about diets, it can be a challenge to decide what to eat during these transitory times. The problem is that, even with various medical tests, we still do not have all details related to the remaining digestive problems and current abnormalities present in your GI tract. Changes in the digestive system (such as inflammation and biofilms) are very fast.

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A recovered person can create damage and biofilms in minutes. The same person can eliminate the existing biofilms in hours. Nearly all medical tests are too slow to reflect these dynamic changes. These are the reasons why you need to pay very good attention to a variety of your symptoms and signs. When someone has ulcerations in the stomach or duodenum, it may take up to 3 weeks, in the case of right recovery conditions, to repair this abnormality and safely eat nearly any raw food (with good chewing). Mechanical then chemical stimulation As we analyzed before, apart from allergic triggers, people with digestive problems also have adverse reactions to too rough fibers and many chemical substances such as substances present in spices, acids, and essential oils. During the transitory period, when new foods are introduced, it is important to reintroduce mechanical and then chemical stimulation. Somehow, during the recovery period, the digestive organs can still be not ready to process many chemical substances. But once the GI system adapts to rougher foods and fiber types, the same chemical substances do not trigger any negative reactions. In more practical terms, you should start eating rougher foods (such as cooked carrots, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts, raw spinach, and so forth) and later introduce, for example, raw onions and not-buffered vitamin C. Do not eat foods that are stronger chemically first.

12.4 Intermediate diets As we discussed before, there are different types of fibers with different effects on the digestive system. Some fibers are very soft (or can be made soft by cooking), other fibers are rougher. The considered soft anti-inflammatory diet is based on softest types of foods that allow a recovery of inflamed villi. Once the biofilms are removed and the villi are more resilient, the digestive system will benefit from having rougher types of fibers and foods. The semi-soft anti-inflammatory diet Once the gut is able to accept rougher foods, it is beneficial, for overall health, to include them in the diet. The semi-soft anti-inflammatory diet includes, in addition to soft foods, the following organic foods: - cooked green or brown lentils and beans - cooked carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, beetroots, onions - cooked (or raw) mushrooms (but some of them can be too rough due to tough strings) - cooked brown rice and buckwheat (without hulls) - cooked quinoa - walnuts and pine nuts - raw spinach, tomatoes (without skin), green lettuce, Iceberg lettuce, raw zucchini (or courgettes) - and other foods that are not crispy (when you chew them) and that can be transformed

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into a paste. The semi-rough anti-inflammatory diet The next step is to add even rougher foods such as: - raw carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, beetroots, onions - raw or roasted cashew, cooked peanuts, and roasted chestnuts - strawberries. The rough diet Finally, there are foods that are most challenging for the gut even after long chewing. The rough diet includes: - raw or roasted nuts (such as almonds and hazelnuts), pumpkin and sunflower seeds - berries with their seeds (rasberries, blackberries, blueberries). People with ulcers may need to postpone eating these foods for some weeks until healing is complete. Therefore, their better choice is to continue the semi-rough antiinflammatory diet or the semi-soft anti-inflammatory diet. Dairy and gluten products should not be used for at least some months.

12.5 Reintroduction of fruits As we previously discussed, simple sugars from fruits worsen GI health. It is better to avoid them when one is dealing with soiling and other GI symptoms and problems related to biofilms and inflammation in the small intestine. Later, when soiling disappears, with higher morning CPs (about 30 seconds) and perspiration due to physical exercise, one can gradually add fruits. However, for the transitory period, fruit consumption should be limited. During recovery and later, how much fruits can a person tolerate? For many people with around a 30 s morning CP and heavy daily perspiration (or it is even better to have 2-3 exercise sessions with sweating per day), 1-2 medium fruits per day will not cause appearance of soiling. More fruits may not cause problems for 1 or 2 days, but can cause decreased urinary volume and appearance of soiling on the third day or later. The negative effect of fruits starts from a certain amount of daily simple sugars and is accumulative. The morning CP and daily perspiration are key factors that predetermine safe amounts of fruits. If one manages to break through to having 40 s for his/her morning CP (this is very rare for people with GI problems, but possible), he or she can double fruit consumption even while still recovering from GI problems. It is often impossible to tell exact amounts of fruits that are safe to use for any specific situation. Your individual situation may require some experimentation, tests and (unavoidable) mistakes. However, once the results are clear, GI recovery is much easier. As the safest option, you can avoid fruits during the recovery period.

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12.6 Common mistakes during the transitory period During this transitory period, you need to closely monitor your symptoms and see how the body reacts to reintroduction of rougher foods and new foods. The transition (from soft to a more normal diet) should not make the gut worse. The common mistakes during this transition are: - too fast transition to rougher foods - insufficient chewing, which immediately causes inflammation and flare-up - eating by time (not when hungry) - eating too much fruit - overeating (even eating vegetables that have nearly no calories still can cause serious problems, if your GI system is not ready to accept food) - walking with food in the stomach - exercising with food in the stomach - doing wrong breathing exercises. You should not get increased frequency of urination and reduced urinary volume, ear buzzing, and many other symptoms of worsened GI health. One of the greatest danger, during the recovery period, is the following effect.

12.7 The avalanche effect Technically speaking, many people, even with IBD, are able to have a quick transition (within 2-3 days) to semi-rough raw diets without any negative immediate symptoms. A previously restricted person may start doing jogging, eating previously-forbidden foods, and do other things that were not possible or safe for a long time. However, when the gut is still in a state of partial repair, it is easy, for people with ulcers and IBD, to get a digestive flare-up and go back to the point zero due to the “ avalanche effect”. Here is an example. Inspired by own advances and with much higher CPs, a breathing student may become less careful in, for example, chewing. An appearance of a small inflamed area will be greatly amplified by raw foods (even if they are chewed very well). The same jogging that once was beneficial, instead of being a powerful recovery factor, again becomes destructive for the gut. As a result of small initial damage (during the transitory period) due to insufficient chewing, a person can quickly regress to his or her previous state of poor GI health with soiling and many other symptoms. Therefore, once you notice first negative signs of worsened GI health (meaning that some damage is done), you need to immediately return to the soft anti-inflammatory diet and make other changes in order to prevent further GI damage.

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13. Transitory and unusual effects during GI recovery When a person makes correct choices and is on the right track to better GI health (often with higher CPs), it is very common to experience various unusual symptoms and transitory effects. Let us consider these temporary signs and effects of digestive improvements.

13.1 Temporary constipation When a person implements the right digestive program, it is common to have no bowel movements for up to 2-3 days. However, it takes a much longer time for the digestive and enteric nervous system to adapt to the new control mechanisms in relation to bowel movements. This makes sense since all previous months (or years), the GI system was functioning in a state of low oxygenation and chronic emergency with trying to remove waste products from the polluted gut. Now the situation is different, and the gut becomes an integral part of the healthier organism. Therefore, during the transitory period, one of the frequent complaints of breathing students is constipation. The symptom can be particularly strong for the first bowel movement. This complaint is more common among those people who did not use fiber supplements in their diet. To ease this temporary challenge (later bowel movements becomes much easier due to adaptation of the GI system), you can apply the following techniques: - the Buteyko reduced breathing exercise for faster constipation relief - fiber supplements or psyllium husks in diet - magnesium supplementation (if you want to know more about magnesium, see the Major Nutrients Guide and 3-day test for nutritional deficiencies http://www.normalbreathing.com/l-11-major-nutrients-guide.php) - 1-2 tablespoon of raw honey per day. Note that at higher CPs (30+, and especially 40+ s), people can comfortably hold stool for many hours without negative effects on their health and CP. They just feel that they can have a bowel movement right now (if they wish), but there is no urgency since the body is in a good control. Therefore, they can easily postpone their bowel movements for many hours until their desire is stronger or there is a more suitable situation. The scenario for people with low CPs is very different. In cases of severe GI problems, many people experience fecal incontinence indicating a lack of control over the GI organs. Many of them are aware that, if they do not get into the restroom in 3-5 minutes, the results can be disastrous. Their desire to defecate can appear suddenly, while their control is very weak (or nearly absent).

13.2 Getting sleepy after meals When digestive health is improved, it is common for some people to experience sleepiness after meals (when the stomach just got empty) even when they eat only until the first signs of satiety and chew food well. In these conditions, the main cause of 107

sleepiness after the meal is their low CP. In a sense, the body craves higher CP and more oxygen in cells since they habitually continue to hyperventilate after meals. Therefore, the solution to this challenge is simple. They need to do the Buteyko Emergency Procedure or a short session (about 3-5 minutes only) with breathing devices.

Note that it is also common for ordinary people to get sleepy after meals while they still have food in the stomach. While the effect (or symptom) is the same (sleepiness after meal), the cause of this problem is overeating that was likely caused by insufficient chewing and habitual compulsive eating.

13.3 A blocked pyloric valve (due to a peptic or duodenal ulcer) When they start to recover, people with gastric or duodenal ulcers can experience a spasm of the pyloric valve (it is also called pyloric stenosis, which is more common in infants, but also occurs in adults). The stomach digests and propels a part of a meal, but keeps the remaining part of the same meal inside, for some hours. The effect may not cause any pain, but there is a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. Breathing remains heavy for these hours and the person cannot do breathing and physical exercises. The possible explanation for this effect is the built-in mechanism that provides the stomach and duodenum with rest to recover. (This symptom is likely to appear only during recovery). The solution to this challenge is to chew your food well and to be very sensitive to the slightest sensation of satiety (to stop eating). If you eat 1-2 extra mouthfuls, they can remain in the stomach for many hours and will cause this big problem.

13.4 Mild heartburn Another unusual and temporary symptom is a light heartburn that can occur only for 1-2 days after meals. Later, this symptom disappears. There is no need to do anything special. This reaction probably signifies a transition to a different regulation of work of GI organs. Note that not all people necessarily get this or some other symptom during GI recovery. This is true for temporary heartburn as well. The appearance of a certain temporary abnormal symptom usually relates either to a new state of the GI system (the digestive system reset its work and control mechanisms in new conditions) or to the signs of the cleansing reaction when some digestive organ experiences detoxification.

13.5 Intestinal gas due to separation of colonic fecal impaction Temporary intestinal gas (present for no more than 2 days) can be a sign of separation of colonic fecal impactions from the walls of the gut. This sign appears either due to raw or rougher diets or intensive vibrations of the body due to exercise. Let us first consider the mechanism of formation of colonic fecal impactions. 108

Colonic fecal impaction can appear in people who have sedentary lifestyle with a diet that is based on junk foods with nearly no fiber and no vegetables (or these vegetables are very soft as for the soft anti-inflammatory diet considered above). When the soft anti-inflammatory diet is already unnecessary, but the person continues to eat only soft foods, then he or she can accumulate fecal impaction on surfaces of the intestines. To rephrase the same observation, when the gut is partially restored and villi are stronger and more resilient, soft diets have a tendency to clog the villi and folds of the gut with residues and mucus, often causing the formation of fecal impactions on the walls of both colons. There are several solutions to this challenge. When a person starts eating raw or rougher foods, these rougher foods wipe away this fecal impaction. Therefore, if it is safe to eat rougher foods, then you should do it. The considered semi-soft anti-inflammatory diet is effective for this purpose. Eating raw papaya or pineapple is another effective method to get rid of debris formed in the small intestine due to the soft anti-inflammatory diet. (These fruits contain papain and bromelain, which help to do the job.) Psyllium husk powder (but not fine powders) produces about the same positive stimulating effect on food residues. As we discussed, psyllium husks can be a part of the soft anti-inflammatory diet. Mechanical vibrations of the whole body (as during jogging or due to massaging devices or vehicle riding) also help to mechanically separate fecal impactions from the walls of the gut. The effects depend on the intensity and duration of stimulation.

13.5 Foam in the mouth or frothy saliva When the body starts to repair inflammation in the stomach, it is common to experience white foam in the mouth (or frothy saliva). This symptom can be strong during physical exercise or breathing sessions. Higher CO2 favors easier removal of this foam from the stomach. If there is no further damage to the stomach, this symptom also quickly disappears. Apart from higher CPs, eating when hungry and other steps that have been described above help to speed up disappearance of this symptom.

13.6 Vomiting old bile If a person had serious problems with his or her liver, and the composition of bile in the gallbladder does not fit his or her improved health (with higher CP), then the old bile and possibly other toxic and unwanted chemicals can be removed through the stomach. This is manifested in vomiting of old bile.

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13.7 Feeling cold all the time (chill) As it was previously discussed, some people with digestive problems are not able to safely run due to ulcers and other abnormalities in their digestive organs. As a result, in order to restore their health, they often do focus on gentle types of exercise, such as cycling, using exercise bikes and safe types of weight lifting. When these people have partially recovered their GI health and can safely start running, they can experience chill, a sensation of coldness, which is often accompanied by shivering and pallor of the skin. This chill is a sign that the body is ready and even requires running to normalize metabolism, digestive health, circulation and other vital functions after long time of physical “semi-hibernation”. Therefore, if you get this se nsation, start running (on a soft surface) and later gradually increase duration and intensity.

14. Questions and answers Q: I always have bowel movements in the morning with greasy stool. Why is this? A: It is most likely that there is some GI trigger that causes a flare-up between your last daily meal and early morning hours. You need to review all factors and see what can be wrong in your lifestyle or diet. It may relate to your last meal, tooth brushing, and numerous factors related to sleep. Q: Can people with GI problems use alcohol? A: If alcohol does not cause a GI exacerbation, then, according to Buteyko, it should be limited by the morning CP number in milliliters. For example, if you have 20 s MCP, you can safely have 20 ml of pure alcohol for this day. If you morning CP is 40 s, you can use 40 ml of pure alcohol per day. Otherwise, if you exceed this amount, alcohol can have a negative accumulative effect and gradually destroy your liver. Q: Would having 50% percent of daily calorie intake (total of about 2,200 calories) come from one of three meals be an OK idea? Since I have time first thing in the morning, I'm thinking that I can use it to chew, getting a whole hour and a half to eat breakfast. A: Some people indeed, have more hunger and can eat a lot for their breakfast. It is their normal lifestyle. Most importantly, eat when hungry and stop in time. You can even have only 2 meals per day. Q: Even mild walking creates lack of saliva. Saliva becomes frothier than anything. Is it wrong? A: Lack of saliva may indicate more inflammation in the colons, while frothy saliva is a likely sign of stomach detoxification. You can also have both at the same time. In order to be certain, monitor your urinary output, soiling, flatulence. Would long walking create more burping, and offensive intestinal gas? If yes, then walking causes problems. You can also try an exercise bike and see the difference. Q: Do I ask the doctor for test to assess for ulcer or is there another way to diagnose? Is healing done through rest? A: Endoscopy is the common way to diagnose ulcers. Rest will not help with biofilms and better GI flora. Healing is done through perfect chewing, right diet, right exercise, high CP, and other factors. Enough sleep and rest matter too, but this is not enough for success. Q: Is there some guideline on how long to wait to do the Reduced Breathing after a given amount of food? A: It is impossible to be 100% accurate. For an ordinary modern person, who has 3 large meals per day (breakfast, lunch and supper), an ordinary lunch or supper requires about 2.5-3 hours to pass through the stomach. However, if you have normal weight and do heavy labor all day (some people do this without breakfast and lunch), by supper time

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you will be super hungry and can digest an ordinary lunch or supper in about 20-30 minutes! Someone obese, on the other hand, with low CP, may need longer than the average time. As a result, there are many people who have food in the stomach all day long. You need to develop a sense related to physical emptiness of your stomach. Pay attention to changes in your breathing, desire to exercise, and other physiological signs.

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15. Conclusions and final remarks As you may notice, this book suggests that the science of digestion does not exist yet. Existing books on digestion do not have clear criteria of good (or normal) digestive health and do not provide clear and effective plans to deal with digestive problems.

This book is probably one of the first attempts (or maybe the first attempt) to explore this area. Feel free to leave your questions and comments on web pages devoted to digestive health: http://www.normalbreathing.com/digestive-health.php http://www.normalbreathing.com/how-to/how-to-improve-digestion.php

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About the author: Dr. Artour Rakhimov

* High School Honor student (Grade “A” for all exams) * Moscow University Honor student (Grade “A” for all exa ms) * Moscow University PhD (Math/Physics), accepted in Canada and the UK * Winner of many regional competitions in mathematics, chess and sport orienteering (during teenage and University years) * Good classical piano-player: Chopin, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Strauss (up to now) * Joined Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 2001 * Former captain of the ski-O varsity team and member of the cross-country skiing varsity team of the Moscow State University, best student teams of the USSR * Former individual coach of world-elite athletes from Soviet (Russian) and Finnish national teams who took gold and silver medals during World Championships * Total distance covered by running, cross country skiing, and swimming: over 100,000 km or over 2.5 loops around the Earth * Author of the publication which won Russian National 1998 Contest of scientific and methodological sport papers * Author of the most comprehensive book in English (“Norm al breathing: the key to vital health”) about the Buteyko breathing method and one of the largest world’s website devoted to breathing training (www.NormalBreathing.com) * Buteyko breathing teacher (since 2002 up to now) and trainer * Health writer and health educator

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