Cystic Fibrosis Life Expectancy: 30, 50, 70… (Health, Fitness and Dieting: Children's Health: Cystic Fibrosis Book 1)

Do not expect your medical doctor to know or teach you about lifestyle factors and how to change automatic breathing (the way we breathe 24/7). Medical schools teach nothing (zero) information about breathing retraining and nearly nothing about lifestyle (how to eat, sleep, exercise, etc.).

It is true that cystic fibrosis life expectancy has been steadily growing for many decades. In the late 1930s, most babies with cystic fibrosis died before their first birthday. Later, in the 1950s, cystic fibrosis life expectancy was less than 10 years. Soon after, due to use of various therapies, it increased from 14 years (in the 1980s) up to current 35-37 years. Some researchers predict that babies born with cystic fibrosis during this century can live up to their 50s.

However, very few Westerners are aware that there are many Russian people with cystic fibrosis who are over 50 and even 60 years old due to their adherence to one medical therapy that was developed and practiced by over 150 Soviet and Russian doctors. Since the 1960s, these MDs have applied the Buteyko breathing therapy to increase body oxygen levels, and these doctors claim that people with cystic fibrosis can have at least normal (or average) life expectancy.

My own experience, in successful elimination of major symptoms of cystic fibrosis in our students, also suggests the same conclusions. The book offers a detailed description of main lifestyle modules from our course. This increases body oxygen naturally and significantly reduce many symptoms of cystic fibrosis (e.g., coughing, too much mucus, wheezing, and various digestive concerns) within days. How and why can these therapies work?

Western medical studies clearly proved that tissue hypoxia (low oxygen in cells) creates problems in the work of tiny ionic pumps that transport chemicals (sodium, chlorine, and water) across the epithelial layers. This negative effect of hypoxia is present even in healthy people, but more expressed in people with cystic fibrosis due to the presence of the defective CFTR gene.

Each and every study that measured respiratory parameters in people with cystic fibrosis found too fast and deep breathing (hyperventilation) in comparison with the medical norm (that is tiny).

Low cellular oxygen causes the formation of too thick and viscous mucus. Cell hypoxia also suppresses the immune system. Both factors promote the growth of pathogens in people with cystic fibrosis in the respiratory and digestive systems, while other organs and body parts are also under physiological and biochemical stress due to low oxygen in cells. Other factors, such as chronic mouth breathing and chest breathing, also reduce body oxygen and make any treatment for cystic fibrosis less effective.

Therefore, the suggested medical therapy, in order to increase cystic fibrosis life expectancy, is to slow down automatic breathing back to the medical norm and increase body oxygen naturally.

Clinical experience of Buteyko breathing MDs in Russia suggests that results of a simple body oxygen test predict cystic fibrosis life expectancy. People with the moderate degree of cystic fibrosis usually have only about 15-20 seconds or less for their body oxygen test, while the medical norm is 40 seconds. In terminally ill people (with cystic fibrosis and many other disorders) body oxygen is less than 10 seconds. With over 40 seconds for the body-oxygen test, a person with cystic fibrosis can eliminate all symptoms and have an average life expectancy.