Thousands of patients with bronchial asthma learned how to be cough-free using one breathing technique. The Buteyko respiration technique is officially approved by the Ministry of Health in Russia for treatment of bronchial asthma. It has been practiced by over 150 medical doctors to help their patients with reduction of symptoms and medication.

The Buteyko technique has been able to reduce warning signs of asthma in all six Western medical trials, and chronic cough is the primary characteristic for asthma. Thus, components of the Buteyko method can benefit other cough-sufferers to decrease their coughing. The key purpose of the Buteyko respiration technique is to make one's unconscious breath pattern slower and easier and improve oxygen level in the body tissues.

Does this breathing technique do the job for asthma? Here are the focal conclusions of all six published western randomized controlled medical trials of the Buteyko method:
- reliever medication intake decreased 4-10 times;
- steroidal medication use decreased about 2 times;
- less asthma symptoms (wheezing, dyspnea, etc.) and better life quality after practicing some months of breathwork to get rid of their overbreathing.

Millions of contemporary individuals promote a silly myth that carbon dioxide is a toxic and waste chemical. These people also claim that deep involuntary breathing pattern (or chronic hyperventilation that is breathing more and/or faster than the normal breathing) improves tissue O2 content.

Hundreds of published research papers have established that hyperventilation DECREASES oxygen content in the body cells. Besides, the chemical we exhale, CO2 performs countless necessary processes for the human organism, which include the following: stability of the nerve cells, regulation of blood pH, regulation of pulse, repair of alveoli in lungs, relaxation of muscle cells, synthesis of hormones, proteins, immune cells and other chemicals, control of smoothness, intensity and regularity of respiration, blood pressure maintenance, normal immunity, bronchodilation (dilation of airways), release of O2 in capillaries (the Bohr effect) and dozens of other vital effects.

How chronic coughing damages your health

During our normal breathing while resting the air moves though the breathing passages at a rate of around 8 km/h. During your cough, the air dash out through the mouth at over 70 miles per hour. Coughing through the mouth generates an air pressure change that is adequate to damage alveoli. Coughing is in particular unsafe for people with bronchiectasis, bronchopneumonia, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, COPD, asthma and other respiratory conditions with existing damage to the lungs. Next, during constant coughing, you breath frequency is over 35 exhalations in 1 min instead of normal 10-12. Your tidal volume for one cough is about 1 liter of air instead of 500-600 ml. Perform some calculations to ensure that your pulmonary ventilation is many times more than the tiny medical norm (6 L/min). Bouts of coughing lead to cellular hypoxia; irritable state of cough-receptors in the tracheobronchial tree/larynx due to hypocapnia (lack of CO2 ); possible over-production of mucus; irritation of the constricted airways due to excessive mechanical friction; cell hypoxia in all vital organs; chronic respiratory infections and inflammation due to suppression of the immune system; constriction of airways due to hypocapnia (CO2 is a bronchodilator) and other pathological outcomes due to hyperventilation.

Calculate the level of oxygen in the cells using a straightforward test

Immediately following your breath out, close your nostrils and measure your discomfort-free breath holding time. Observe that the respiratory pattern immediately after the test should always be exactly like your breath pattern just before the check: no strain at all following the test.

This trial measures a couple of parameters at one time. Firstly, the final result quantifies O2 content in the body cells. Secondly, it signifies how deep the individual or personal respiration pattern is.

As long as the automatic breathing pattern is currently normal, he or she ought to be capable to maintain the breath hold for up to 40 sec. If he or she has about 20 sec, the individual breathes nearly twice the  clinical norm (and this is 6 liters of air in one particular minute). As for the sick patients, their result is smaller:  typically about fifteen seconds or less caused by chronic hyperventilation.

Permanent answer to persistent trouble with cough

When your automatic breath pattern is so slow-moving that your tissue O2 content is above 25 s, you will not have troubles with persistent coughing. You should slow down your bulky breathing in order to accomplish this goal.

Breath retraining technique involves 24/7 control of breath including:
- constant nose breathing (hence, it is necessary then to seal your mouth with a surgical tape, if your mouth is usually dry in the morning
- prevention of sleeping on your back (we breathe almost twice more air, when we sleep on our backs at night)
- physical exercise for (at least 2 hours daily with strictly nasal breathing, in and out, otherwise exercise is more or less a waste of time for most, especially sick patients)
- and various other lifestyle-related parameters so that your basal breathing pattern is restored back to the medical norm.

Resources

Stop Coughing At Night - A breathing technique and exercise to reduce duration and severity of night coughing. A similar exercise is used for insomnia problems
Get Rid of Cough - Similar breathing exercise to stop coughing