Your Control Pause Is a Crystal Ball for Your Future Health

There’s a moment I’ve come to expect in nearly every private session I teach. A person, often pale and tired, sits in front of me, sometimes over Zoom, sometimes in my studio, and tells me their story. “I’ve seen the specialists,” they say. “I eat clean. I exercise. I even meditate. But I still feel exhausted. My immune system is a mess. Why can’t I get better?”

And so, I ask them to do something deceptively simple. I say, “Take a small, natural breath in through your nose. Exhale gently. Now, pinch your nose and hold your breath. When you feel the first desire to inhale, not when you’re gasping, just the first urge, let go and resume breathing quietly.”

This is their Control Pause, or CP. And the number of seconds they can hold their breath without strain tells me more about their internal state than all the lab results they’ve just spent thousands of dollars collecting.

What’s fascinating, and tragic, is that most people have never heard of this measurement. The Control Pause is not taught in medical schools. It doesn’t appear on blood work. And yet, it is often the most accurate predictor of health I have ever encountered.

Let me explain.

Why Breathe Less to Live More?

We live in a culture that sees oxygen as the ultimate medicine and breathing more as the obvious path to better health. Deep breathing, big breathing, dramatic breathing… it’s everywhere. Fitness instructors scream it. Yoga teachers cue it. And anxious minds obey it.

But here’s the catch: oxygen is not the limiting factor in most people’s physiology. We are not running low on oxygen. What we’re lacking is carbon dioxide, the gas most of us have been taught to fear.

The Control Pause is not just a test of how long you can hold your breath. It’s a test of your CO2 tolerance. And that matters more than most people realize.

Let’s unpack why.

The Oxygen Paradox

Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, the brilliant Soviet physiologist whose method I teach, made a discovery that changed the course of respiratory science. He found that chronic illnesses (from asthma to anxiety to high blood pressure) were linked not to oxygen deprivation per se, but to chronic hyperventilation: over-breathing that flushes out CO2 from the lungs.

Now, why does this matter?

Because of a phenomenon called the Bohr effect, a natural law in human physiology. The Bohr effect tells us that oxygen is released from red blood cells only in the presence of carbon dioxide. In other words, without enough CO2, your cells can’t access the oxygen that’s already in your bloodstream.

So when someone breathes too much (even if they’re inhaling deeply), they’re actually robbing their body of oxygen at the cellular level. The result? Fatigue. Brain fog. Weak immunity. Sleep dysfunction. Irritability. Chronic inflammation.

And yes, disease.

Why the Control Pause Reveals It All

The Control Pause is not about willpower. It’s not a “breath hold challenge.” It’s a non-invasive, moment-to-moment reflection of how stable your breathing system is, and how well your body tolerates CO2.

Let me give you a rough framework:

• CP < 10 Seconds: Severe breathing dysfunction. Most people here experience chronic symptoms: fatigue, asthma, panic attacks, hypertension, etc.
• CP 10–20 Seconds: This is unfortunately the average in most Western countries. People at this level often report anxiety, poor immunity, sleep issues, and general low vitality.
• CP 20–40 Seconds: Symptoms begin to drop off here. The body stabilizes. Inflammation reduces. Energy returns.
• CP > 40 Seconds: This is the territory of health. Strong immunity. Emotional stability. High energy. Clear thinking.
• PMP > 60 Seconds: The “Olympic level” of breathing. Disease becomes highly unlikely. Aging slows. You feel light, yet strong — like your body is breathing you, not the other way around.

Your Control Pause is your mirror. It doesn’t lie, and it doesn’t change because you wish it would. It simply reflects what’s happening inside your lungs, and thus, inside your cells.

Why Doctors Miss the Mark

When clients first measure their CP and realize it’s far lower than they’d expect, they often say, “Why didn’t my doctor ever mention this?”

The answer is simple: modern medicine does not yet recognize the breathing system as central to health. Doctors look at symptoms (wheezing, fatigue, high blood pressure) and assign labels and medications. But they rarely ask the question, “What is the state of this person’s breathing baseline?”

A low CP often comes before symptoms appear. It is a crystal ball that can warn of imbalances long before lab work catches up. That’s why I teach all my students: track your CP. When your CP rises, your health rises. When it drops, your system is under stress.

Let me tell you a story that illustrates this power.

From Risk to Resilience: David’s Story

David Wiebe, a man I had the privilege of working with at the Buteyko Breathing Center, came to us with a terrifying prognosis. His asthma was “serious and poorly controlled.” Due to a rare condition that made him react negatively to steroid inhalers, he had no reliable medical options left. His health was declining. His hope was vanishing.

But David stumbled upon the Buteyko Method. He contacted us, and my colleague Thomas Drakon Fredricksen enrolled him in our Breathing Normalization Training.

When David began, his Control Pause was dangerously low. But in just 13 days, through guided sessions and committed practice, his CP increased five-fold. That’s not a typo. Five times. His breath became quieter. His anxiety dropped. His nighttime breathing stabilized. He needed his inhaler far less frequently.

As David himself wrote:

“The Buteyko Method offers a qualitative way of measuring progress which is called the ‘Control Pause’… In less than two weeks, my breathing capacity, as measured by the Control Pause, has increased 5 times over my initial number. I already noticed a distinct improvement in my daily and nightly breathing, as well as a reduced need for my inhaler.”

For David, the CP wasn’t a number on a chart. It was the evidence the proof that he was healing. His progress is not unusual for someone who embraces the Buteyko Method. In fact, it’s what I’ve come to expect after guiding hundreds of students through this training. 

What Your CP Is Telling You (That Labs Cannot)

We often measure our health with external data: cholesterol levels, blood pressure, BMI, lab markers. But these are snapshots, and they’re easy to manipulate. Fasting before a blood test can improve your numbers. Walking into the clinic stressed can raise your blood pressure.

But the Control Pause doesn’t lie. It reflects your day-to-day, minute-to-minute breathing pattern. And that breathing pattern is intimately linked to every major function in your body: cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, digestive, emotional, and neurological.

That’s why I often say: your CP is the simplest, most powerful diagnostic tool you’re not using.

Why “Solutions” Aren’t Enough

At this point, you might expect me to offer a list of tips, a menu of techniques to raise your CP.

But I won’t do that. Not here.

Why? Because the Buteyko Method is not a hack. It’s not a quick fix or a breathwork trend. It is a retraining, a full-body, full-mind reset of your respiratory system, developed by a scientist who understood the complexity of the human body far better than most modern practitioners.

That’s why most of our students at the Buteyko Breathing Center don’t just read blogs and try exercises on YouTube. They enroll in our 2–4 month-long Breathing Normalization Training, which provides the structure, feedback, and support they need to succeed.

This method requires practice, awareness, and guidance. But the rewards? They’re extraordinary.

The Rewards of a Rising Control Pause

So what happens when someone dedicates themselves to the Buteyko Method and steadily raises their CP?

They get their life back.

The asthmatic no longer carries an inhaler.

The anxious teen begins to sleep through the night.

The exhausted parent finds their energy returning.

The aging adult slows the degeneration and regains vitality.

They stop surviving and start thriving.

What Parents, Practitioners, and Professionals Need to Know

I’ve had doctors, psychologists, speech therapists, and even fitness coaches come through our training. Every single one of them, without exception, ends up saying something like this: “Why wasn’t I taught this? Why doesn’t every medical professional know about the Control Pause?”

My answer: they will.

As more people discover the Buteyko Method, as more testimonials like David’s continue to emerge, and as more parents, teachers, and caregivers begin to understand the relationship between breathing and health, the Control Pause will become a standard part of wellness protocols everywhere.

When I first learned about the Control Pause from Russian doctors decades ago, I felt as if I’d been given a magic key. A way to see, in real time, how my internal systems were functioning. A way to predict illness before it arrived and prevent it.

That key is now in your hands.

And the beautiful part? You don’t need a lab. You don’t need a prescription. You don’t need perfect genetics or willpower.

All you need is awareness, consistency, and a willingness to breathe a little less, a little more gently, and to trust that the body, given the right conditions, always knows how to heal.

So the next time you’re wondering how your health is doing, don’t just reach for your vitamin bottle or check your pulse. Measure your Control Pause.

The number you see might change everything.