How and why bad genes are triggered is one of the greatest puzzles of modern physiology and medicine. Thousands of people die every year from various conditions which have a genetic component. These conditions range from cancer and heart disease to COPD and diabetes. Why do some modern people develop gene-related health problems, but others do not? Why do almost all children, who are genetically predisposed to, for example, asthma (about 20% of all children on the West), have it these days? Why did children living a century ago not develop asthma, as well as many other disorders? We have had the same gene pool for many millennia.A large group of Russian doctors, who practice a self-oxygenation therapy known as “the Buteyko method”, assert that bad genes are revealed only in conditions of tissue hypoxia (or low body oxygenation). Why do they believe so? Their conclusions are based on their observations and practical work with their patients.It is true that cellular hypoxia is the prime cause for cancer. It is also known that low body oxygenation is the normal feature in heart disease, COPD, diabetes, chronic fatigue, arthritis, acne, insomnia, and many other chronic conditions. How to measure tissue hypoxia?Body oxygen content, as these Russians found, can be easily measured using stress-free breath holding time test. This test is so fundamental for the Buteyko self-oxygenation therapy that they use a special name “the CP” or “the Control Pause”.Try the CP test yourself: breathe normally while sitting; after your usual exhale pinch the nose (to prevent slight unconscious breathing); and measure the time only until the first distress. The most common mistake is to overdo the test. In this case, you will notice that the stress is gradually increasing. It is time to stop. If you do the test correctly, you will not gasp for air after the test.In fact, your breathing pattern must be exactly the same after the correct test as it was just before it. [Warning. Some, not all, people with heart disease, migraine headaches, and panic attacks may experience negative symptoms minutes later after this light version of the test. If this happens, they should avoid this test.]Dozens of Western studies proved that patients with numerous conditions have impaired breath holding abilities. These Russian doctors tested thousands of patients and discovered the following results for the CP.Severely sick, hospitalized, and terminally ill patients have from 1 to 10 s CP. They fight with death and symptoms. With approaching death, their breathing gets bigger, deeper, and heavier 24/7; body oxygenation is critically low, while breath holding time approaches zero: 5, 4, 3, 2, and only 1 second just before the death. This is the way over 90% of sick people die.Patients with mild forms of the disease (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, COPD, etc.) have about 10-20 s CP. These patients are usually on medication to control their symptoms.Asymptomatic asthmatics and heart patients have slightly more than 20 s of oxygen in the body.Healthy adults, according to published western results, should have about 40 s CP, but Doctor Buteyko and his colleagues found that 60 s of oxygen in the body is incompatible with about 150 chronic diseases or diseases of civilization. Hence, he established 60 s CP as a standard of ideal health. Thus, negative effects of genes (various diseases) can be reversed when the person normalizes body oxygenation by breathing retraining.Doctor Buteyko and his colleagues taught this self-oxygenation therapy to over 200,000 patients, mostly with asthma, COPD, and heart disease. The Buteyko method was approved by Russian Ministry of Health and is officially practiced in Russia only by medically educated people. These are the reasons why Russian people know or heard the name “Buteyko breathing”.Poor knowledge of English is still the main obstacle to faster information exchange and better understanding of this natural self-oxygenation therapy. Meanwhile, some websites of Russian MDs have web pages in English:http://www.buteykoclinic.com/ (Buteyko Clinic in Moscow) http://www.buteyko.ru/eng/voronezh/index.shtml (Buteyko Clinic in Voronezh)Recent clinical trails in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK brought some publicity to the Buteyko oxygenation method in these countries. There are now hundreds of breathing practitioners there who teach how to boost body oxygenation using breathing exercises and auxiliary methods (posture, exercise, cold shower, restrictive eating, raw diets, hard beds, etc.).