Bronchospasm is defined as constriction of bronchi and bronchioles. It can generally happen due to 3 factors:
- a spasm in the smooth muscles of bronchi and bronchioles
- an inflammation of the airways
- excessive production of sputum (mucus) due to an allergic reaction or possible irritation caused by mechanical friction of air (due to shear stress), overcooling or drying of airways (i.e., during exercise induced asthma).
Bronchospasm can be induced by many chemicals that can cause either bronchospasm or bronchodilation, but CO2 plays the key role due to two factors: its vasodilatory potency (see links with medical studies below) and additional negative effects caused by alveolar hypocapnia (lack of CO2).
What else influences bronchospasm?
Chronic hyperventilation (breathing more air than the medical norm) also leads to cell hypoxia and immunosuppression regardless of ventilation-perfusion ratio and arterial CO2 levels (it can get too high for many lung pathologies). As a result of alveolar hyperventilation, there are additional effects, such as frequent respiratory infections, excessive production of sputum (mucus) and chronic inflammation. Allergic triggers (dust, pollen, and many others) cause additional problems due to the hypersensitive immune system caused by systemic body hypoxia. All these factors narrow airways and worsen their conductivity, triggering bronchospasm.
Symptoms of Bronchospasm
Bronchospasm symptoms include difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, and dyspnea (shortness of breath). Increased respiratory ventilation drastically amplifies the effects of bronchospasm.
Causes and mechanism of Bronchospasm
Bronchospasm mechanism follows from the above Table, which shows that these groups of people are heavy breathers. They all have low CO2 levels in their lungs. As a result of low alveolar CO2, they also have low body-oxygen levels due to effects of alveolar hypocapnia, which either destroys lungs (causing arterial hypercapnia and hypoxemia as for people with COPD) or causes arterial hypocapnia with reduced oxygen transport, as an additional factor that is present during bronchospasm.
Bronchospasm, therefore, due to its effects on oxygen transport, leads to low oxygen levels in tissues and favors chronic inflammation (see links below). As a result, people with lung conditions (asthma, bronchitis, bronchiestasis, bronchiolitis, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, and many others), experience chronic bronchospasm in the smooth muscles of airways due to chronic alveolar hypocapnia.
Treatment of Bronchospasm
Bronchospasm can be successfully treated, as over 180 Russian medical doctors, found. The effective way to deal with Bronchospasm is the Buteyko breathing medical therapy that is approved by the Russian Ministry of Health. It has been applied on more than 200,000 people with health problems (such as asthma, bronchiestasis, bronchiolitis, bronchitis, COPD, and many others) that involve bronchospasm.
Bronchospasm cure (clinical remission), according to these Russian medical doctors, as well as my experience with 100s of my breathing students, has simple criterion and goals for a person to achieve.
Physical exercise with nose breathing is a very beneficial lifestyle factor that assists breathing retraining and gradual increase in body oxygen stores. Nose breathing at exercise prevents exercise-induced asthma and bronchospasm.
Bronchospasm symptoms can be effectively eliminated with breathing exercises that involve those breathing devices that trap exhaled CO2 (such as the Amazing DIY breathing device, Frolov breathing device, and Samozdrav). These devices help to increase body-oxygen levels and reduce bronchospasm in a matter of minutes.
