Frequently asked questions about HyperVen

One of the most frequently asked questions about HyperVen therapy is whether it is dangerous to hold the breath. This is stated in a number of books that deal with hyperventilation. That is why we asked this question to three independent medical panels. Below you can read the answers of those panels. The questions we asked were:

1. Is it indeed dangerous to hold the breath (as long as possible)?
2. Is this more dangerous for people who hyperventilate than for people who do not hyperventilate?
3. Are there disorders in which holding the breath entails an extra risk?

Answers from vraagdedokter.nl

The answers from www.vraagdedokter.nl were as follows:

1. The holding of the breath is not dangerous in itself, but for controlling a hyperventilation attack it is very useful. You can try it out yourself. Hold your breath for as long as possible: as a reaction, you will have to take a deep breath afterwards. Then the effect of the holding your breath disappears again. A simple trick is to exhale the breath in stages, with two counts of pause between each time.
2. No.
3. Yes, especially for people with heart problems.

The answers dokter.nl

The answers from www.dokter.nl were as follows:

1. Under certain circumstances it can be dangerous to hold the breath for a long time. This reduces the oxygen tension in the blood and increases the carbon dioxide in the blood. This allows the acid / base balance to change and this can give cardiac arrhythmias to predisposed persons. In general, these will be people who are already older and are familiar with heart disease. So certainly not the most common group of people suffering from hyperventilation.
2. The answer to question 1 is actually an answer to question 2. In principle there is no difference in danger for hyperventilating versus non hyperventilating people.
3. See here also the answer to question 1.

The answers from mijnspecialist.nl

The answers from www.mijnspecialist.nl were as follows:

Your question is rather complex and will be answered by 2 specialists:

1. Normally it is not dangerous to hold your breath for as long as possible. There is a clear breathing stimulus, which arises because the carbon dioxide in the blood rises when holding your breath. Usually the increase in the carbon dioxide level gives rise to a breathing stimulus rather than the lowering of the oxygen concentration giving rise to unconsciousness.
2. No. Although one has to be careful in the water: people can drown if they first hyperventilate prior to diving. The respiratory stimulus can then be delayed for so long that they become unconscious under water and drown.
3. A number of points that you should consider:
   • If someone hyperventilates, it can be primary (that is the disease your are dealing with). That is, without a clear physical cause. It can also be secondary. That is on the basis of another disease. This may include pulmonary embolism, heart defects etc. It is therefore important to first have excluded these types of problems before treating someone for hyperventilation. This should first be done by a doctor.
   • The category of people with severe COPD ("chronic bronchitis, emphysema, smoking") will probably not be able to hold their breath properly. There is a too low oxygen tension in the blood due to a reduced gas exchange in the lungs. There is also an increased carbon dioxide, which means that these people have to breathe a little faster than normal. Also people with hypoxemia (= low oxygen content of the blood) for other reasons (eg congenital heart defects), can get into trouble if they hold their breath long. Patients with severe lung and / or heart disease should therefore be excluded from your therapy.

Forcing is possible in various ways. Putting too much pressure is a form of forcing. The inhale must be full, but not with extreme pressure in the lungs. You can recognize this type of forcing by you trying to swallow some air while holding the breath. You then do this involuntarily to reduce the pressure. 

Another form of forcing is to hold your breath longer than is comfortable. Each trial is a period in which the respiratory center can get accustomed to an increased carbon dioxide (CO₂) value. An extreme long holding of the breath during a trial makes little difference for the therapy. It will not shorten the time the the HyperVen therapy will last. And it makes the therapy less pleasant for yourself. People who force it are more likely to drop out than people who do it in a controlled, calm manner.

Think of someone who goes diving, for example, a pearl fisherman. He will certainly not hold his breath to the limit. He will build it up slowly over time. Eventually the pearl fisherman can stay underwater for minutes while he even swims and produces extra CO₂. A slow build-up of the CO₂ tolerance of the respiratory center is most effective. And it is much easier to sustain. 

Losing weight is a difficult thing to do. If you eat too little, you have too little fuel for your body processes. The brain - as one of the biggest consumers of fuel - usually immediately notices when you start to eat less. The conclusion of the more primitive parts of the brain is that there is a scarcity of food and they will put the body in a "reduced consumption" mode. In other words, it will slow down your combustion. For people with chronic hyperventilation this usually leads to a worsening of symptoms. That is because you then have less energy to hold of the underlying stress. In addition, many processes are already impacted by the low acidity in the organism. If a reduced combustion is added to it, it usually means further worsening of symptoms. 

Can you not lose weight at all while you have chronic hyperventilation? Yes you can, but it requires a special and adapted method. What you have to do is:

1. Keep the combustion high
2. Keep the calorie intake just above the limit at which the combustion remains optimal 

That is very difficult to implement. You have to - by trying (or by deliberately counting calories) - find out how much your body needs to keep the burn level up. Make sure you eat small bits throughout the day. Every time you feel hungry, you should immediately eat something before the brain decides to put the body in a lower burning mode. If you know exactly how to balance, you will lose weight ... slowly but surely ... Also varied food is very important because the brain experiences it as being "abundant" ....

• Make sure you eat enough 
• Eat little bits 
• Eat throughout the day (no more than 2 hours between them) 
• Pay attention to the calories (fat and carbohydrates) 
• Avoid the hunger feeling

The HyperVen therapy is indeed a demanding therapy for which you have to be motivated to keep doing it 2 or 3 times a day for a period of 4 months. Yet many people make the therapy more difficult than necessary. That is because they:

• Pay too much attention to the trial scores
• Impose too much pressure on themselves. The need to achieve, is also a characteristic feature of people who develop a hyperventilation syndrome
• Often have too many other activities, which means that the therapy has to be done quickly in between these activities

There are a number of thinking patterns that you can change, making the therapy suddenly a lot easier:

a. The trial scores are not directly relevant. Even if you have a day or a number of days in a row with significantly lower scores, this is not relevant. Do not pay attention to the scores of trials but to the progress of the progress chart. Only this chart shows how the setting of the respiratory center gradually changes. 

b. The therapy should not be a compulsory thing that you should not miss out on. In fact, if the setting of the respiratory center has shifted slightly, the respiratory center will try to maintain that setting. So occasional skipping is not bad. Of course, one has to try to sustain doing the therapy 2 or 3 times a day.

c.Indeed, we are all very busy. And that means that there is not much time left for the therapy. But if you do therapy twice a day, it takes about an hour a day. That may sound like a lot, but actually that is an hour for yourself. An hour where you can really work on yourself. Many people do meditation or watch an hour of television to relax. Give yourself that hour of relaxation. The HyperVen therapy has a relaxing effect, provided you do not put yourself under pressure, of course.

+ - + - +

The following line of thought may make the therapy easier for you:

Think of a pearl fisherman. These people dive under water to find pearls. In the beginning they can swim under water for about 1 minute. After a few months that has increased to about 4 to 5 minutes ... These people actually do a similar thing as the HyperVen therapy. But they do it without any kind of pressure. The diver will never impose a time on himself or force himself to dive. They have a relaxed way of approach: "when I feel the need, I will just swim to the surface to get some air", The tolerance of their breathing center for carbon dioxide rises increases automatically. The trick is to do the therapy with this kind of attitude.

+ - + - +

It is our effort drive on the one hand and our desire to get better as soon as possible on the other hand, which makes the therapy much more difficult than it needs to be. Try to shift your thinking pattern to that of that pearl fisherman. With this approach, the therapy is much easier to sustain.

In principle, we advise everyone not to pay too much attention to the scores. It is a well-known phenomenon that during the therapy the scores can go up and down considerably. There are many factors that influence the time that you can hold your breath (this also applies to people who do not have Chronic hyperventilation). Therefore, you should not attach too much value to individual trials or sessions. As long as the average goes up slowly - which goes with ups and downs - the setting of the respiratory center is shifted and we slowly build up carbon dioxide buffers again. And that's what really matters.

However if you no longer experience any increase: the chart fluctuates around the same point and your symptoms do not decrease in any way. Then chances are the source or other causes of hyperventilation are still there. Then the scores become important because they can then be a tool and indication to determine which factors work positively and which negatively. This can then trace the source of the problem.

Conclusion

In principle, do not pay attention to the scores of the trials and the sessions, but to the progress of the progress chart. If progress stalls for a longer period of time, try to determine which factors have a positive or negative influence. You may find an indication of the causes of your chronic hyperventilation. 

with chronic hyperventilation the blood is usually alkaline. In an alkaline environment, the red blood cells can not properly release their oxygen to the muscles and other tissues. That is why the sporting performance of people with hyperventilation is usually a lot less. That gets better as the average acidity in the blood gets higher and there is more carbon dioxide buffer in the blood.

Also, people with hyperventilation AFTER doing sports often go on too long with the - through sports - accelerated breathing. As a result, people experience that they need a long time to recover after exercising. 

Conclusion

We advise light exercise in addition to the therapy. Sports is part of the important healthy lifestyle which is a prerequisite for permanently curing chronic hyperventilation. Sports is also important because you thereby reduce stress and become physically and mentally stronger. As a result, you can better deal with hyperventilation and the therapy will be better. You will see that through the therapy with HyperVen the sporting performance will eventually improve and normalize again. 

The thoracic respiration is often more a result of chronic hyperventilation than a cause. Actually, we are going to breathe like that because we want to "breathe" faster. With a thoracic breathing type, the breathing frequency can be higher than with abdominal breathing. That is why people with chronic hyperventilation unconsciously shift their breathing to the thoracic type.

Also the opposite is true. When people get less need for the rapid thoracic breathing by doing the HyperVen therapy, they often automatically shift the thoracic breathing type to the abdominal type. So the thoracic breathing is more of a symptom than a cause of the chronic hyperventilation syndrome.

This does not alter the fact that stimulating the abdominal breathing has a positive effect on getting better. But it is not enough to address only that aspect of hyperventilation. The therapy with HyperVen often automatically resets the respiration type. But sometimes people benefit from stimulating abdominal breathing. In itself that is a good addition to the therapy, although it is difficult to keep an eye on your breathing throughout the day, especially if you are busy. 

Physiotherapy or respiratory therapy is a good idea in itself. Your breathing technique can be improved (abdominal breathing instead of thoracic breathing). The problem is that you can not be involved with your breathing throughout the day. Most of the time breathing has to be left to the respiratory center. And that is precisely the problem. The respiratory center is set to react on low acidity levels. And thus regulates the breathing frequency based on that setting. The respiratory center therefore maintains the acidity in the organism based on that setting, even if you breath correctly... 

That is why we often see that people only temporarily benefit from physical therapy In the longer term the effects die out again. The reason is that these therapies have only little effect on the setting of the respiratory center. 

The HyperVen therapy forces the respiratory center into a new setting. To accept a higher level of acidity in the blood. Once the respiratory center has adopted that new setting, it will adjust the breathing frequency to that new setting. And it will then maintain the acidity associated with that new setting. And that is why the HyperVen therapy is so different from other therapies.

Another - equally important - aspect of the HyperVen therapy is that buffers are created by the changing setting of the respiratory center. These buffers compensate for hyperventilation.These buffers let you deal with exciting and stressful situations. As a result, you no longer notice any of the symptoms associated with chronic hyperventilation. And when the exciting situation is over, the buffers are replenished to the correct level.

Because in other therapies the setting of the respiratory center is not changed, no new buffers are created. That is why you remain very vulnerable. The amount of buffer is too low to compensate for any hyperventilation. So the symptoms appear immediately when you have to deal with any stress. The conclusion is that there is actually quite a significant difference between existing therapies and the HyperVen therapy.

Fears can be the cause of hyperventilation. But usually the psycho-social pressure and stress of the daily circumstances are the primary cause of hyperventilation. The fears usually come later, when the symptoms start to manifest themselves. In particular, the hypochondriacal fears (fears of diseases, heart attacks, cerebral haemorrhages, etc.) only usually occur in later stages.

Do those fears disappear with HyperVen?

The fears that have to be considered as a consequence - such as the hypochondriacal fears - will often disappear as soon as the symptoms of the hyperventilation syndrome are getting less. Confidence in one's own body increases and the circle fear =>hyperventilation => more fear is broken. If fears are the primary cause of hyperventilation, and those fears are not removed by psychotherapy and / or medication, doing HyperVen therapy can take much longer. And the risk of relapse is then certainly present. In those cases a combination of HyperVen and a form of psychotherapy is recommended. 

Perfectionism

Perfectionism is not an anxiety or phobia, but a character trait that most of the people who develop a hyperventilation syndrome have. The cause is the psychological profile of the patients. Sometimes perfectionism can be extreme. We mention this in this question because it often plays a major role in the development of hyperventilation syndrome. In itself, perfectionism is a good quality, as long as it does not lead to hyperventilation. One has to find the balance between perfectionism and being able to let go of things. Also accepting people who do not have that perfectionism is part of that. And that is sometimes the most difficult thing.

Fear of failure

Also fear of failure is a known factor in the development of hyperventilation syndrome. Doubting one's own abilities and yet having to perform is often a source of fear. And fear stimulates the respiratory center into increased activity... With the consequences we know ... It is a psychological problem that you have to deal with yourself (or with help). The fear of failure has usually arisen in childhood, when insufficient self-confidence has been learned. Parents, teachers and friends - not to mention your own character - have played a role in this.

Overcoming fear of failure is a growth process. You can convince yourself of your own abilities. As a healthy person with two hands and a brain, you can learn almost anything other people can do. Maybe not at a top level, but you can learn it. That you occasionally make mistakes is nothing special. Everyone does that, even those people without fear of failure. It is our ingrained reactions (reflexes) that always confirm that we "can not do it". Much better is a reaction such as: "oh, I made a mistake, too bad." You can learn this yourself. It takes a lot of effort, but it is possible.

Phobias

The phobias are often the most persistent in chronic hyperventilation. This is because the reactions are ingrained. They are reflexes to respond in a certain way to a particular situation. Phobias are usually developed after chronic hyperventilation begins to manifest. Confidence in one's own body decreases (we can not do everything anymore) and the symptoms seem to point to physical problems. Because the symptoms often occur in phobic situations, we will start to avoid those situations. Phobias are therefore much more consequence, while fears are often more of a cause, especially in the beginning.

If the chronic hyperventilation is physically healed with the HyperVen therapy and causes of hyperventilation are also gone (or at least recognized), the phobias can eventually disappear. But we first have to gain confidence in our own abilities again. Because phobias are such ingrained reactions, they are difficult to get rid of.

In practice, we see that it takes about a year after the start of the therapy, before people have enough confidence to face the phobic situations again. If they then start noticing that the symptoms are not forthcoming, they grow more and more trust and eventually the phobias disappear. 

The combination of asthma and chronic hyperventilation is quite common. For people with asthma the HyperVen therapy is often extra demanding. Nevertheless, we do not advise against it. However, it is important to inform the attending physician that you are or will be doing the HyperVen therapy. So the doctor knows that the HyperVen therapy has become part of the equation. It is also important not to force the therapy if you suffer from asthma. It might take a few months longer. So be extra careful if you suffer from asthma.

If you have other lung conditions, you may not be able to do the therapy. Always discuss the therapy with the physician and get approval first.

Be careful with other breathing exercises. Most of them are okay. For example as abdominal breathing exercises are a good supplement. However, there are a number of exercises in yoga that are not very good for people with chronic hyperventilation. This mainly concerns exercises that require rapid exhalation and inhalation.

In general, it is best to leave your breathing to the respiratory center, except of course during the HyperVen therapy. Any other interference with the respiratory center is usually not advisable, because the effect is unknown.

The healing process is different for everyone. Some notice a huge improvement after just a few weeks. With some it takes (much) longer. It depends on a number of factors, such as:

• How severe is your hyperventilation syndrome?
• Are the stress sources or other causes of hyperventilation still present?
• The physical condition?
• Regularity in doing the exercises
• Are you sleeping well and living a healthy lifestyle.?

A significant improvement in symptoms must have occurred within 4 months. Also the chart must - on the whole - always increase. After about 4 months of therapy the chart should flatten off. For the entire healing process - including the mental adaptation of life without symptoms of chronic hyperventilation - one must count for about 1 year.

The key to success

The following 2 factors are key to the healing process: 

1. the original (primary) causes that triggered the hyperventilation are no longer present
2. one does not fall back into the old and destructive patterns that caused the hyperventilation primarily. A healthy lifestyle is key to a permanent healing. Some people - unfortunately - return to their old destructive patterns...

HyperVen is extra demanding and a lengthy process if you have a burn-out. In case of burn-out, the stress overload is also a very important factor. For that you have to take a lot of rest. We often advise to take more rest in this situation than normal. Or to seek extra relaxation in yoga and meditation. Also light sports qualifies (physically exhausting, but mentally relaxing). 

Burnout is a difficult problem. Stress plays the biggest part in a burn-out. The stress has disrupted all kinds of body systems and chronic hyperventilation is often a consequence of this. In addition, chronic hyperventilation will also cause its own symptoms, which will push you even deeper in. By doing the HyperVen therapy you are on the right track. But the underlying cause, the deeply rooted and large chunks of stress, often does not dissolve that easily. What people often experience is that - as soon as one relaxes - the stress immediately begins to manifest. This immediately leads to the known hyperventilation symptoms.

It is the mechanism of our nervous system that we release and dissolve stress during rest (sleep or deep relaxation). That mechanism will automatically start once you are at rest. Because of this, our body cleanses our nervous system. The symptoms that one experiences are actually due to the healing process. It is important to recognize that. The stress dissolves through our consciousness when we are awake, and through dreams when we are asleep. Relaxation is therefore an important factor. But be careful not to get too much relaxation. The amount of stress that is released can then become too much to handle. 

Conclusion

You can certainly do the HyperVen therapy if you are in the burn-out situation. But the healing process of a burn-out is a lengthy process. It is usually measured in years and not in weeks. During this period people are often confronted with many ups and downs. It is important to understand that the symptoms you experience during and often after relaxation, are actually caused by the underlying stress that is released by the nervous system. People are often inclined to think that things are going worse, while actually they are being cured...

Every time you've done the HyperVen therapy, the respiratory center will try to maintain the new setting. That is a safety mechanism that (fortunately) is built into our body. The respiratory center does not easily change its setting.

So it is not a problem if you have to temporarily stop the HyperVen therapy for whatever reason. Many people are afraid to fall back and then do not stop, even while that is sometimes necessary. Flu, headaches and other causes can require you to temporarily stop. 

A stop week

In some cases we even advise people to temporarily interrupt their HyperVen therapy. We call this a stop week. In that week, the body gets time to rest and the respiratory center gets to make the necessary adjustments. In practice we often see that scores suddenly start to rise again after a stop week.

This question can not really be answered unequivocally. It depends on many factors. Most people who suffer from chronic hyperventilation are often well below 1 minute when they start. In general it can be said that people who are healthy and have no lung abnormalities can easily hold their breath for 1 minute.

But there are also people who start with more than 1 minute and still suffer from the hyperventilation syndrome. Often these are people who have done a lot of sports in their life. Especially people who have swam a lot tend to have higher start values. How long one can hold the breath is of course primarily determined by the respiratory center. But the following factors certainly play a role in this:

• lung capacity
• physique
• physical condition
• smoking
• alcohol consumption
• adequate sleep
• lifestyle

It is important not to pay attention to the scores of other people. Everybody has a different physique. Your progress becomes visible in the progress chart. As long as the chart line climbs, the healing process continues.

In practice it appears that for many people this is more difficult than it seems at first glance. Many people inhale with too much pressure on their lungs. Others force the time that they can hold their breath. The following guidelines can help you improve your technique:

• Take care of the good chair in which you can sit relaxed. Do the exercises preferably while sitting in a chair and not lying down. 
• Breathe in fully, but without putting high pressure on lungs and throat
• When holding your breath, make sure all body parts remain well relaxed. Do not pull up your shoulders but let them hang down. Relax the shoulders, arms and legs while holding the breath. And also during the trial breaks.
• Hold the breath as much as possible with the chest muscles. There should be no pressure on the throat. A good way to check this is to open your mouth while you hold your breath. No air may escape. 
• DO NOT squeeze the nose with thumb and forefinger while holding your breath. By squeezing the nose, the pressure is transferred to the inner ear via the Eustachian tube. This can lead to unpleasant ear complaints.
• Provide a quiet environment. Play quiet background music if that helps you to stay relaxed during the trials.
• Provide a glass of water so that you can drink something during the trial breaks. That lubricates the throat and prevents throat irritation.
• Make sure there are no distractions while holding the breath. Do not read a book or use the internet, but use the time to focus on holding the breath. 
• If you start to feel you must exhale, do so quietly. Do not keep holding your breath if it starts to feel uncomfortable. Some people force the therapy. They feel their diaphragm contracting while holding the breath. If this happens, the respiratory center is already triggering the inhalation while you are still holding your breath. This is a clear sign of forcing. Exhale a little earlier when you begin to notice this.

In the breaks between the trials you have to leave your breathing to the respiratory center. Some people have discovered that if they in- and exhale deeply a few times before a trial, they can hold their breath much longer. The idea that this is better for the HyperVen therapy is a big misconception. What you actually do is reduce the carbon dioxide level in the blood quickly. Yes, you can hold your breath longer. But the goal of this therapy is to raise the carbon dioxide level, not to lower it. And to get the respiratory center get used to a higher level of CO₂ in the blood. The better scores you get are contra-indicative and the effect is counter-productive. The compelling effect on the respiratory center is decreasing. The higher scores are actually a bad sign when you do this.

The HyperVen therapy is not about the scores, but to accustom the respiratory center to higher carbon dioxide levels in the blood. The scores are only a tool. So do not focus too much on these scores. Leave your breathing to the respiratory center in the trial breaks, as nature intended.

An extra warning for people who swim under water. Especially in this situation in- and exhale deeply a few times before diving under water - allowing you to hold your breath for longer and therefore stay under water for longer - is absolutely dangerous! Due to the changing pressure under water, the respiratory center can completely suppress the impulse to breathe again. In those cases, there will be no trigger to breathe anymore and this can eventually lead to drowning!

It is indeed necessary to completely fill the lungs with air, but without high pressure. By doing this, the lungs are saturated with oxygen, which will slowly be exchanged with carbon dioxide. Because the lungs are completely saturated, no shortage of oxygen can develop.

If the lungs are not completely filled, more CO ₂ can be stored in the lungs. This results in a lower saturation in the blood. This makes it possible to hold the breath a bit longer, but the compelling effect on the respiratory center decreases. The scores are of minor importance. By filling the lungs completely, you have a better effect on the breathing center.

Please note that filling the lungs completely does not mean to inhale with high pressure. The lungs consist of a very flexible material that can stretch a lot. As a result, the pressure in the lungs can be high or low. So inhale until the lungs are full and then stop. Too much pressure makes it difficult to hold the breath and can lead to annoying symptoms such as earaches or noise in the ears. If you notice that you have to swallow while you hold your breath, you have put too much pressure. (People sometimes tend to swallow some air in an attempt to reduce the pressure on the lungs and throat). 

Ear complaints can indeed occur. The most common cause is the squeezing of the nose while holding the breath. Or inhaling with too much pressure. If you do this, the pressure in the lungs can be diverted to the inner ear (via the Eustachian tube). That pressure on the ears can lead to ear complaints.

To prevent this from happening, make sure to have a good technique. Make sure that your breath is held with the chest muscles. Do not let the pressure come into the mouth, because then the pressure can divert to the ear. It can sometimes take some trail and error to find a comfortable way of practicing.

A good way to test that there is no pressure in the mouth is to open the mouth while holding the breath. No air may escape. If you do experience a problem with your ears, contact HyperVen immediately. We can then help you to improve your technique.

There must be at least a few hours between a meal and the HyperVen therapy. After the meal, the body starts to process the food. This combustion produces a lot of carbon dioxide. As a result, the therapy is negatively affected. This is reflected immediately in the scores, which are significantly lower immediately after a meal.

Moreover, putting pressure on the diaphragm with a full stomach is also not conducive to the digestive system. So it is best to do the HyperVen therapy before eating. This applies to all meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner, no matter what time you eat. 

During the exercises with the HyperVen therapy every trial starts with a maximum inhalation. This saturates the lungs and blood with oxygen. Therefore there is no danger of a shortage of oxygen. The critical limit only arises when the breath is retained for about 5 minutes. For this reason, a safety limit of 180 seconds (= 3 minutes) is built into the program. If this limit is exceeded, the HyperVen program stops and the user receives a notification to contact HyperVen. 

We strongly advise everyone who does the HyperVen therapy to adhere to this limit of the program. To deliberately exceed this limit is an immediate danger! In addition, holding the breath for 180 seconds or longer is a direct indication that the condition of chronic hyperventilation no longer exists.

The possibility to get a hyperventilation attack during the HyperVen therapy is unusual but not impossible. During the trials, the acidity of the blood is significantly increased. The respiratory center will respond to this with accelerated breathing in the attempt to return the acidity to the set level.

Particularly during the break between the trials, respiration can then escalate (sometimes even without noticing). The acidity can fluctuate quite a bit in a short time and thereby cause a reaction. All kinds of processes in the body are also influenced by the quickly changing acidity. That can also trigger a reaction. This could invoke an attack, but in our experience it happens very rarely.

The lungs only start a renewed gas exchange cycle, the moment you inhale and fresh oxygen enters the lungs. Until then, the lungs were first saturated with oxygen and then with carbon dioxide. The oxygen decreases and the carbon dioxide increases. The longer the re-inhalation can be delayed, the more the carbon dioxide accumulates in the blood (the acidification of the blood increases as a result). If this is done often enough, the respiratory center will consider the higher acidity as the new normal value and gradually adjust to this. That is the effect of the HyperVen therapy.

The amount of buffer is actually the result of the setting of the breathing center. At a certain setting, the respiratory center will try to maintain a certain amount of buffer in the blood. During acute hyperventilation, the buffer can drop rapidly, but usually the average level will be in accordance with how the breathing center is set. 

During the exercises, in contrast to what many people think, a new buffer is not immediately created. The exercises just make the blood more acidic, because more dissolved CO₂ comes into the blood by holding the breath. The breathing center will always try to compensate by triggering the breathing. Fortunately we can stop this automatic breathing impulse. As a result, the trigger for inhaling from the breathing center is gradually shifted.

Because the blood acidifies during the trials, and because that situation persists for a longer period of time, the respiratory center (gradually) assumes a different attitude to that acidity in the blood. Once the respiratory center has been 'persuaded' to adopt a new setting, a new buffer value will automatically follow and the respiratory center will maintain the buffer on the new setting.

In practice, we see that this often happens with rather sudden adjustments of the respiratory center. In the HyperVen progress chart we then see a sudden increase, after which the level remains again stable for a while. It can be frustrating for the user of The HyperVen program if the scores do not rise for a long time.

Stress is a relatively large factor in this process. Stress makes our nervous system resistant to change. That is why the respiratory center can have difficulty with making adjustments because of stored stress. The progress chart usually clearly shows this. With a relatively stress-free nervous system, the respiratory center adjusts relatively easily and the chart quickly rises to above three minutes. But because stress is often the determining factor in the development of chronic hyperventilation syndrome, it complicates changing the setting of the respiratory center. This can be a reason why the HyperVen therapy lasts longer than the standard 4 months. And it often feels a lot heavier too.

The breathing center is conservative in making adjustments. That is a protective mechanism of the body to ensure that the respiratory center - and with it the acidity and buffer in the blood - remains stable. This stability will only work against us if we hyperventilate for a longer period of time. Usually the effects of chronic hyperventilation only become apparent after about half a year or longer of hyperventilation. We will only experience the symptoms once the buffer has reached a critical value.

If the diaphragm begins to contract when holding the breath or during exhalation, it is a sign that you are trying too hard. It is caused because the respiratory center already triggers the inhalation, while the breath is still being held or exhaled. The trigger happens because the breathing center is set to a lower acidity than the acidity level in the blood.

It does indeed show the compelling effect of the HyperVen therapy. However, we advise you to exhale a little earlier. The therapy becomes uncomfortable and it does not really accelerate the therapy. The effect of a contracting diaphragm usually decreases at the later stages of the therapy. One has to find a comfortable way of doing the exercises - especially in the beginning. But one usually finds this balance automatically after a few weeks.

Everyone's scores fluctuate. There are a number of primary factors that determine how long one can hold the breath, the most important being of course the setting of the breathing center. In addition, these factors also play an important role: physique, condition, lung capacity, smoking or not and so on.

Secondary factors, however, cause constantly changing scores. The most important of these are stress, lifestyle and psycho-social situations. For example, if you go to bed late, the scores can immediately be strongly influenced. The same applies to stress. This can be stress accumulated during the day in various psycho-social situations, or stress from the past that is being released. The influence of this on the scores can be considerable.

In addition, the scores during the sessions can vary enormously. Almost everyone experiences that the first trials have a significantly lower scores than the next trials in a session. The explanation for this seems to be that the body first has to reach a certain rest level. After the first (and sometimes also the second trial) the scores go up. What we often see is a difference in scores in the morning and evening sessions. This may also be due to fatigue and stress. Some people report that the sessions are better during the morning sessions, while others do better during the evening sessions.

Contra-intuitive scores

An important aspect to understand when doing the HyperVen therapy is that the scores of trials and individual sessions are often counter-intuitive. This means that high trial scores do not immediately mean that you have a good session. If you have hyperventilated a lot during the day, the acidity in the blood will be low. The scores of the trials will be higher, which may even cause a considerable increase in the chart. Yet that day is not necessarily a good day for the therapy, because you have been hyperventilating a lot. For this reason, we always advise people not to pay too much attention to those scores of individual sessions.

Usually one can stop once the progress chart starts to level off after an initial rise. People usually do not have the opportunity to do real acidity measurements. So we have to base this on the progress chart and secondary indications. The most important of these is the extent to which the symptoms have decreased. In some cases it may therefore be advisable to continue one or more months. It is how one feels about it, because there are no other measurable guidelines to give.

Even if you have stopped doing the HyperVen therapy, the healing process will continue. The reason for this is that the altered acidity and carbon dioxide buffers, as well as the absence of the symptoms, triggers a positive feedback mechanism in the individual. The vicious circles have been broken and the patient's improved psychology (one understands the hyperventilation syndrome better) ensures that the base for developing chronic hyperventilation has disappeared.

In some people, especially at the beginning of the HyperVen therapy, we see a temporary increase in symptoms by doing the therapy. Sometimes new phenomena also occur. The causes of this can be diverse:

Forcing the therapy

Often we force - especially in the beginning - the holding of the breath. This can cause new symptoms to occur. Examples are pain in the ears (pressure on the inner ear via the Eustachian tube) or the throat. This is usually because one exerts too much pressure when holding the breath.

Hypersensitivity of the respiratory center

The respiratory center has become very sensitive to increases of the CO₂ in the organism. As a result of which our body reacts heavier to the increases of CO₂. Our body responds too quickly or too violently to the changes that we initiate through the exercises. As a result, the known symptoms can temporarily worsen. The body is a subtle mechanism. If the changes go too fast, it is difficult for the respiratory center and the organism and its processes to keep pace.

Focus on the symptoms

The patient usually focuses on the symptoms. Because people are actively getting involved with their chronic hyperventilation and the associated symptoms, one automatically has a strong(er) focus on those symptoms. And just like a pain that gets worse when you focus on it, the hyperventilation symptoms also seem to get worse when you focus on the symptoms. This is one of the most common causes of the increase in symptoms. Especially in the beginning of HyperVen therapy. 

De-stressing symptoms

Because of the high relaxation during the exercises, a phenomenon occurs that you also see in yoga and meditation: de-stressing of the nervous system. Although this de-stressing contributes to the healing process, handling the stress that is released is often difficult. Especially for people who already suffer from chronic hyperventilation.

Stress and chronic hyperventilation often go hand-in-hand. Stress is one of the most common causes of chronic hyperventilation. De-stressing brings older and deeper rooted stress to the surface. The symptoms that manifest as a result are fears and fatigue. If stress is one of the main causes, extra relaxation exercises or meditation maybe necessary. Sometimes even medication. If our body has too much stress stored, it can be a reason that the scores increase quite slowly.

Acidosis

In extremely high scores (in some people this is sometimes the case), there is a phenomenon called acidosis: a slight acidification of the organism. It is not good to make changes too quickly. The body processes need time to adjust to the changing values. Processes are changed and that produces signals from the nerves. The brain sometimes interprets these signals as new symptoms and that can lead to extra anxiety. The HyperVen therapy by definition is a slow process. The body needs time to adjust to the new acidity of the blood. 

The HyperVen therapy ensures that the setting of the respiratory center is shifted. And as a result the carbon dioxide buffers are supplemented and normalized. This means the body can hyperventilate again without producing the symptoms. So we can deal with normal psycho-social stress again.

Anticipation of the next hyperventilation attack is often enough induce a new attack. But if sufficient buffer is present, the attack will stay away and the trust of the individual in the own body will increase. That trust often increases to such an extent that the fear of hyperventilation itself also slowly disappears.

We advise to do at least two sessions per day. One session per day is actually too little to get a cumulative effect. It is best to expose the respiratory center several times a day to a higher carbon dioxide level in the blood. Then the breathing center adapts faster. If one has very little time, then two sessions of 5 trials is better than one session of 10 trials per day. One session per day will also work, but the therapy will probably take (much) longer.

We strongly advise against doing more than 10 trials per session or more than 3 sessions per day, for the following reasons: 

Physical fatigue

If you do the exercises too often, physical fatigue occurs, which negatively affects the course of the therapy.

Mental fatigue

The exercises are not only physically but also mentally quite demanding. If you do them too often and too long, mental fatigue will grow. That can get so bad, that you want to stop the therapy altogether. This therapy requires strong discipline and must be sustained for a number of months. If one does too much, one undermines the psychological determination that one has in the beginning.

Physical load

During the holding of the breath, the lungs and airways are kept under relatively great pressure. If you do the exercises too long and too often, new symptoms can arise such as a sore throat, chest pain and extreme fatigue.

It is important to realize that the healing process is a gradual process. The progress chart will gradually climb higher. There is no point in trying to force this process. Forcing generally leads to a premature discontinuation of the therapy.

A fixation on the respiration is very common in people with chronic hyperventilation. Especially if they know they are hyperventilating. They monitor their breathing throughout the day and try to influence it continuously. Trying to control your breathing is an absolute waste of time and effort. Breathing should be left entirely to the respiratory center. Except of course during exercises with HyperVen. No matter how often you are engaged in self-regulating your breath, it will not change the setting of the breathing center. This setting can only be changed by the exercises with HyperVen.

Continuously monitoring your breathing is tiring, stressful and pointless. It is possible to train yourself to stop doing this. By systematically replacing it with something else. Every time you focus on your breath, you immediately do something else. For example whistling a song. By doing that systematically and again and again, the fixation on your breathing will slowly but surely disappear. The breath focus is a reflex that must (and can!) be unlearned. That sounds easier than it is. In order to get rid of the breath focus, the above instructions must be sustained for a longer period of time. Especially in the beginning one has to invest a lot of time...