THE BOLT SCORE

Why is the Body Oxygen Level (BOLT) Important?

Researchers have found that your BOLT score measures how sensitive your body is to carbon dioxide (CO2). Why this is important is because CO2 plays a vital role in releasing oxygen into your cells, tissues, and organs, giving your body the energy it needs. The more tolerant you are to CO2, the calmer and more efficient your breathing becomes. When tolerance is low, your brain triggers the urge to breathe faster, causing you to overbreathe without even realising it. Over time, this keeps your body in a stressed state, leaving you feeling breathless and bringing on symptoms like wheezing, coughing, or a blocked nose. It becomes a vicious cycle. But here’s the good news! Your BOLT score takes the guesswork out of it completely, giving you a clear picture of where your breathing is right now. And with the right breathing exercises taught in the Asthma Control Blueprint you can gently retrain your body to tolerate CO2 at a healthy level. As your tolerance improves, your BOLT score will rise. As your BOLT score rises, your lung capacity will become stronger, helping your breathing feel calm, effortless, supportive.

How does it relate to people with asthma?

Studies have found that in people with acute asthma, breath hold time is linked to the severity of airflow obstruction. Meaning the shorter the breath hold, the greater the breathlessness experienced at rest (Perez-Padilla et al., 1989).

Your BOLT score gives you direct feedback on how quickly breathlessness kicks in, whether that's during exercise or just from going about your day. For a person with asthma specifically, a lower BOLT score (anything below 15 seconds) means you're likely breathing more than your body needs, which can worsen asthma symptoms. If you’re someone that experiences a tight chest, wheezing, a regular blocked nose, low energy, or disrupted sleep throughout the night, it’s common for your BOLT score to be low. A higher BOLT score (anything above 25 seconds) promotes more calmer, quiet and efficient breathing. The benefits that an individual can experience are improved sleep quality, better concentration, improved mental focus, reduced anxiety and stress, increased physical endurance and recovery, and lower blood pressure.

Can the BOLT score help with performance athletes too?

Absolutely! Improving your BOLT score plays a big role in building physical endurance. As your tolerance to carbon dioxide increases, your body becomes more efficient at delivering oxygen, which means a higher VO2 max and better performance overall. This is exactly why increasing your BOLT score sits at the heart of The Asthma Control Blueprint.