Breathing Assessment

Did you know that the BREATH helps balance our body’s chemistry?

Allocation of CO2, through breathing, directly regulates pH, electrolyte balance, blood distribution, and hemoglobin chemistry. Unlike most physiologic processes, however, breathing can be consciously controlled, meaning that learned breathing behaviors can trigger, exacerbate, perpetuate, or cause a wide variety of symptoms and deficits including chronic pain, muscle tension, and headaches.

Every day, we see symptoms associated with poor breathing habits, including:

  • Shortness of breath, chest tightness/pressure, chest pain

  • Sweaty palms, temperature changes, tingling of hands or feet

  • Numbness, heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat

  • Anxiety, panic

  • Stress, fatigue, weakness, exhaustion

  • Dry mouth, nausea, lightheadedness/dizziness, fainting

  • Blurred vision, confusion, disorientation

  • Attention deficit, poor memory or concentration, reduced pain threshold, impaired coordination and reaction time

  • Headache, muscle tension, spasms, stiffness, and abdominal cramps

Over-breathing behaviors (resulting in CO2 deficit) is extremely common and may also exacerbate acute and chronic conditions in predisposed individuals including: Migraines, hypertension, asthma attacks, angina, heart attacks, panic attacks, hypoglycemia, ischemia, depression, seizures, sleep disturbances, IBS, repetitive strain injuries, and chronic fatigue

At KNOSIS, we use the CapnoTrainer® GO device to measure alveolar CO2 in real time.

Through capnography, we can:

  • Identify faulty breathing behaviors and their effect on symptoms

  • Pinpoint optimal breathing mechanics for acid-base balance

  • Discover triggers for good and bad breathing patterns

  • Examine how pain, injury, and discomfort may be linked with breathing

  • Learn how mental and physical performance is altered by breathing

  • Evaluate the effects of breathing on learning, memory, and attention

  • See how thoughts, moods, and emotions are related to breathing

  • Test for anaerobic threshold during fitness training by monitoring CO2

  • Help people overcome their fears about breathing

  • Learn to breathe intuitively, from the inside-out rather than from outside-in

It is a teaching and learning tool for:

· Peak performance training, relaxation training, meditation, patient education, stress and anxiety management, public speaking, performance challenges, athletic training, and breathing training of all kinds.