@djf This thread over on Peatarian is pretty interesting:
http://peatarian.com/24318/whats-your-control-pause-%26-buteyko-health-zones’show=24318
“High blood CO2 is supposed to increase one’s desire to breathe so I don’t understand how this test would be accurate. Hyperventilating, for example, lowers CO2 which is why divers are warned against it; you reduce your desire to breath, allowing you to remain underwater longer comfortably, but the lack of CO2 compromises your ability to oxygenate your brain. So you’re much more likely to pass out.
A similar thing happens when restricting versus eating carbohydrates: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17406888”
“I think this is pretty pointless. If you can hold your breath for extended periods of time, it just means that your cellular respiration slowed down and and your body consumed less oxygen than normal – even if you factor in the Bohr effect. I’m not suprised that Buteyko followers may be able to hold their breath for more than a minute, since it is one of the recommendations in the buteyko method to eat a plant based diet with lots of raw vegetables. If you fucked up your metabolism, you don’t need as much oxygen anymore. I would guess that people with very high CPs also have quite a low pulse and body temperature. This is not to say that a very low CP would be healthy either. This may very well point to low CO2 levels.”
