The Oxygen Advantage: A Book Review for Those with Type-1 Diabetes

I’ve long been waiting for a book to recommend that explains the science, theory and application of the breathing retraining methods of the late Ukrainian scientist, Konstantin Buteyko. It needed to be easy-to-read,  written in well edited English and go far beyond the treatment of mere breathing disorders. Patrick McKeown has created such a book. It’s called the Oxygen Advantage.

I just published an in-depth (and slightly critical) review of McKeown’s book. In this full-length article, I share many useful highlights from The Oxygen Advantage, including…

  • Why most breathing exercises actually reduce oxygen absorption into the cells of your body.
  • The healing effects of (temporary) oxygen deprivation.
  • Why intense exercise may not help prevent diabetic neuropathy.
  •  How carbon-dioxide can prevent diabetic amputations.
  • Why an underused gland in the nose can slow down or reverse kidney failure.
  • How Amazonian hunters can run for hours without a break.
  • Why mouths are for eating and noses are for breathing.
  • A simple approach to exercise which will reduce oxidative stress.
  • The reason water polo players don’t suffer from breathing problems and basketball players do.
  • Why I disagree with the author’s advice regarding nasal breathing during intense exercise.
  • How sighing can cause rapid heart rates in those with T1D.
  • Why we need to learn to “run without a head.”
  • How to shrink (literally) the part of your brain that produces feelings of fear.
  • Why Steve Jobs wouldn’t let his kids have an iPad.
  • A little controversy over whether animal foods make us breathe worse.
  • Why breathing too much can make you eat too much.

You can read about all this and more here.

Thinking outside the T1D Matrix,
– John C. A. Manley