This table summarizes available western data regarding breath holding times for people with various health states. Note that the first study was conducted almost a century ago.
 

There are many versions of breath holding time test used by medical doctors. For most accurate results, as Russian and Western researchers found, we should compare stress-free versions of the breath-holding time test. The most thorough analysis of breath holding abilities was done by Doctor Buteyko, who invented the Buteyko breathing method. For his system, the stress-free version of the breath holding time test is the main measuring tool that reflects personal health. He and his colleagues even suggested the special name “the CP” (Control Pause).
 
How the CP test is done

Sit down and rest for 5-7 minutes. Completely relax all your muscles, including the breathing muscles. This relaxation produces natural spontaneous exhalation (breathing out). Pinch your nose closed at the end of this exhalation and count your BHT (breath holding time) in seconds. Keep nose pinched until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, “Enough!”) If you release the nose and start breathing at this time, you can resume your usual breathing pattern (in the same way as you were breathing prior to the test).
Do not extend breath holding too long. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth when you release your nose. The test should be easy and not cause you any stress. The BHT test does not interfere with your breathing.

[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.]
         
Some western doctors call such a BHT test “a period of no respiratory sensations” because when the time is voluntarily extended there is a stress that increases with each further second of breath holding.

 

 

Look at the diagram above: after the test you can comfortably breathe as before the test. If you stop the test and resume breathing at your first desire to breathe, you will be able to breathe as before: no stress, an easy comfortable procedure.

If you hold the breath for too long, the first inhalations will be deeper, as shown here:

 

This video clip explains in detail how to do the test: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=P2OdshyS95M

What about usual CP numbers, CP norms
and CP of sick and healthy people?

“If a person breath-holds after a normal exhalation,
it takes about 40 seconds before breathing commences”
From the textbook “Essentials of exercise physiology”
McArdle W.D., Katch F.I., Katch V.L. (2-nd edition);
Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, London 2000, p.252.

Doctor Buteyko and his medical colleagues tested hundred thousands patients and found that the following relationships generally hold true:
1-10 s - severely sick, critically and terminally ill patients, usually hospitalized.
10-20 s - sick patients with numerous complaints and, often, on daily medication.
20-40 s - people with poor health, but often without serious organic problems.
40-60 s - good health.
Over 60 s - ideal health, when many modern diseases are virtually impossible.

For the first time in the history of medicine, a group of doctors, after studying and curing thousands of patients, suggested the standard for ideal health that provide guarantee from such chronic conditions as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, COPD, arthritis, and many others.