The Control Pause, also known as comfortable Pause or BOLT score, is a measurement to determine our tolerance to carbon dioxide in our bloodstream. Why is this important? Well the brain monitors how much carbon dioxide is in the blood and when it reaches a certain point it tells the body to breathe. Of course this happens all the time and unconsciously, it is not something that we need to think about at all. So therefore we can assume that if the if the body is sensitive to the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood then we are going to breathe more.
This of course sounds like a jolly good thing, as we straightaway think more breath means more oxygen in the blood and therefore in the cells. However it doesn’t quite work out like that.
How does it work then? Well you will know that when you breathe in oxygen goes into the blood stream and jumps onto haemoglobin, for a joyous ride around the body until it’s time to get off. The haemoglobin loves taking oxygen for a ride and is reluctant to let it go. This is where CO2 comes in handy as higher levels of CO2 in the blood cause the pH to become more acidic, i.e it lowers the pH. There’s a little bit of science behind this, which we won’t go into right now, all you need to know is that CO2 changes the pH balance in the blood and this persuades the haemoglobin to let go of the oxygen that then moves into the cells and contributes towards creating energy in the body through the process of metabolism.
The above was described by a Danish scientist in 1904, called Christian Bohr and it is has become known as the Bohr effect. From this we can deduce that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood mean higher levels of oxygen in the cells, or greater diffusion of oxygen into the tissues and cells.
So if we breathe heavily then we get rid of CO2 in our blood too quickly, so it stands to reason that we would want to be able to build up a tolerance of CO2 to in order to assist the process of cellular respiration. So if our brain is monitoring this level of carbon dioxide it is then telling us when to breathe. The Buteyko breathing exercises are all about training our brain to be more tolerant of carbon dioxide in our blood. By conscious breathing exercises we can change our unconscious breathing. (Did you know that humans are the only creatures that can consciously change their breath?)
Carbon dioxide is not just a waste gas, it is also a vasodilator, in other words it opens up the blood vessel, which is essential for a healthy heart and healthy body. Not only this, but CO2 is also a smooth muscle relaxant. Smooth muscle is found mostly in our internal organs as well as blood vessels. More CO2 therefore means more chilled internal organs.
So how do we know how tolerant we are to the levels of carbon dioxide in our blood? Well this is where the Control Pause comes in as it is a measurement of our CO2 tolerance. It is not 100% accurate, but does give us a very good indication of where we are at and as we work through the Buteyko exercises we are able to see an improvement in our Control Pause which means better tolerance of carbon dioxide in the blood and therefore better health. When consulting a Buteyko instructor you will be taught how to take the control pause, which is a very simple technique, but best learnt from an instructor as many people are not always sure they are doing it 100% correct.
Want to find out more? Why not book a 15 minute free consultation with me to see if this technique can help you.