More information on the Buteyko Stop Cough exercise:
Hi i’m janet brindley and i’ve been teaching the buteyko technique for over 20 years some questions following on from the stop cough exercise do i need to cover my mouth for 30 seconds well the answer is yes if you want to break your cough habit the buteyko stop cough is different from other approaches because it brings together several techniques making it
More powerful there’s the immediate action to try to stop the cough before it even starts by bringing your hand over your mouth to prevent mouth breathing smother you say to yourself and your brain is now engaged and focused on following through the other steps swallow you can’t cough and swallow at the same time stop hold your breath for a few moments even
A small movement of air can sort of tickle your throat at this stage then for around 30 seconds take small smooth breaths as you know the idea is that you’re bathing your throat and lungs in warm moist air i see people who cough every two or three minutes but are completely unaware of it by following the steps of the stop cough exercise it focuses the mind
On the cough should i use the stop cough if i need to cough up mucus yes everyone produces mucus in their airways it helps to protect the airways from drying out and it traps dust and other particles now normally the mucus in our lungs passes unnoticed down the back of our throat but when the amount of mucus being produced increases above a certain point we
Start to develop a productive cough now coughing up mucus isn’t always a sign of infection it can be caused by allergy or cigarette smoke without any germs being present and in this case there’s no problem using the stop cough exercise to prevent further coughing in some cases clearing the mucus may be helpful to prevent further complications and your doctor or
Physiotherapist may have advised that you use a controlled coughing technique such as the acbt or huffing at set times during the day perhaps every couple of hours or perhaps twice a day now these techniques help to clear mucus from the lower lungs more effectively than normal coughing and there’s a short video on how to practice the acbt in this playlist you
Can use the stop cough exercise immediately after a controlled coughing session to prevent yourself coughing again and also use it between controlled coughing sessions and this should substantially cut down the number of times you’re coughing during the day continuous coughing is really tiring and hard on the lungs so try to only cough during your controlled
Coughing times and use the stop cough the rest of the time having used this technique myself i think one way it works is that you become so fed up of having to wait that 30 seconds that you make every possible effort not to get to that point and through practice i found i could pick up a really really early first feeling of a cough quickly swallow hold my
Breath all in a matter of seconds is there anything else that might help a cough well many patients report that sipping water or sucking menthol losses or menthol and licorice lozenges is helpful and reduces the frequency and intensity of their cough there are many causes of cough and not all of them will be completely eliminated by this stop cough exercise if
You don’t notice any improvement after a couple of days then it can be useful to keep a diary of your cough note down if the cough is usually better before or after meals whether certain foods set it off are you worse out of doors or better when you go into the office or when you’re on holiday if you’ve recently started new supplements or medications then note
This down passing this information onto your doctor may help him or her to understand where the cough is coming from i was given some blood pressure medication several years ago and after a few days developed a cough the desire to cough was very quick and impossible to resist a really tickly feeling in my lungs i couldn’t completely control it with a stop cough
Exercise and when i reported this to my doctor i was given a different formulation which didn’t cause cough okay thanks for listening i hope you found something helpful here bye now you
Transcribed from video
Part 2: The Stop Cough – Buteyko breathing technique. More on how to control or reduce coughing By Just Buteyko
