Breath
“The way you breathe, controls your life, your look, your energy, your emotions and your resistance to diseases. It controls your very life span”
Disease runs in families because bad habits run in families. To be healthy is to be a rebel. It is the ultimate rebellion in a diseased, sick and dysfunctional society. Most people would think that to be healthy it is important to eat healthy.
There is more to health than just what you eat. Being healthy is when you take care of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual body. You can go to the gym, drink water, take vitamins all you want but if your head and heart are disturbed with muddy thoughts, you will still be unhealthy.
You are much more than just your physical body. In this first part we will focus on physical health.
Breathing is the most underrated health necessity. Humans take it for granted. I am talking about deep breathing and not shallow irregular one where most humans are accustomed to. There are at least two types of breathing: 1- Cleansing (exhalation) 2- Energizing (inhalation).
Energizing breath collects and stores vital energy and focuses more on inhalation. Cleansing breath detoxifies the body and stresses exhalation. The act of breathing not only extracts Chi from air, but it also drives and distributes Chi through the body’s invisible network of energy channels, called meridians. In Asia breathing is regarded as a science.
China has its Nei-Gong/Tai-Chi, India has pranayama. The western world lacks a specific term for breath control. Western physicians fail to innerstand how atmospheric energy serves as a vital nutrient for human health.
The essential element in air that carries the vital charge of Chi (life-force energy), is neither oxygen nor nitrogen but rather the negative ion, a tiny, highly active molecular fragment that carries a negative electrical charge equivalent to that of one electron.
In nature air is naturally ionized by the action of shortwave electromagnetic radiation from the sun and by the other cosmic rays, which bombard air molecules and impart vital energy to the fragments. Breathing therapy is an established homeopathic medical procedure in Chinese tradition. And the western world slowly but surely is picking up on it.
Deep breathing massages internal organs and glands, purges tissues of toxins, purifies the bloodstream, stimulates hormone secretions, and enhances resistance and immunity. Dr. Sun Ssu-mo wrote about therapeutic deep breathing in Precious Recipes:
When correct breathing is practiced, the myriad ailments will not occur. When breathing is depressed or strained, all sorts of diseases will arise. Those who wish to nurture their lives must first learn the correct methods of controlling breath and balancing energy. These breathing methods can cure all ailments great and small.
The majority of humans take short and shallow breaths into the upper chest area. They receive a small amount of their lung’s air capacity. Unfortunately, short, and shallow breaths also stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight response to stress. Because of this, cortisol the stress hormone is released into the bloodstream.
This taxes our adrenal glands, and it negatively impacts the whole body. If this is your unconscious/automatic breathing, then you need to retrain yourself to naturally breathe in a deep and relaxed way. To breathe is to live, to not breathe is to die. Do you know there is a quick pause between breaths? You can think of that as little death.
To not breathe is to die, in this case it is about not breathing deeply. Your body is designed to breathe deeply with the diaphragm. Not using the diaphragm means that your body is not functioning the way it is supposed to. Try to drive the car without having changed the oil when it is required to or if you drive the car as soon as you turn it on without waiting for it to first warm up. What do you think will happen?
At the beginning you might not see a difference but if you continue doing this then the car will start to break down. Now, do you see what can happen if you don’t feed the body with prana/Chi (life force energy) the way it is supposed to? It will break down.
CELLUAR RESPIRATION
In his book The Illuminated Breath, Dylan Werner stated that we breathe primarily for the purpose of taking in oxygen through inhalation and eliminating waste gases through exhalation. Both sides of the breath cycle support cellular respiration – the process cells undergo to create energy. The complicated chemistry behind this process can be difficult to understand, but the basic idea is simple.
The food we eat is broken down through digestion to make fuel for our cells .[the cleaner the food (raw food) the cleaner the fuel for our cells]. The primary fuel is glucose. Glucose and oxygen combine inside little organelles in the cells called mitochondria. The mitochondria then convert glucose and oxygen to carbon dioxide, water, and energy.
The energy comes in the form of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, which the body is able to use for fuel. And this gives the lungs their main job, which is to bring in oxygen to facilitate cellular respiration and breathe out carbon dioxide and water. Typically, we don’t think we are expelling water, but if you exhale into your hand, you can feel the humidity.
A more tangible illustration of this phenomenon involves fogging up a cold piece of glass by breathing on it. The fog is nothing more than water and heat from your breath. Breathing also plays a considerable role in regulating the pH levels of our blood.
Normal blood pH is 7.4, but it varies from 7.35 to 7.45. As we breathe faster, our pH levels rise, and we become more alkaline. As we slow the breath down, our pH levels drop, and we become more acidic. Our bodies continuously monitor and regulate our blood pH by varying the rate and depth of our breathing as needed.
If we’re at rest, our breath is slow and shallow, but if we go for a run, we breathe faster and deeper. That more rapid breathing reflects the body’s increase in both energy use and production of carbon dioxide, which lowers blood pH (making it more acidic). So, to regulate that, we need to exhale all that extra carbon dioxide.
THE CARBONIC-BICARBONATE BUFFER SYSTEM
Through its normal metabolic process, the body releases hydrogen ions (H+), which make the blood more acidic. If there are too many hydrogen ions in the blood, the body combines them with bicarbonate (HCO3 -) to form carbonic acid (H2CO3). It is able to break down the carbonic acid into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), which are then exhaled, resulting in a rise in alkalinity.
But if we become too alkaline, carbon dioxide combines the water in the blood to make carbonic acid, and the blood becomes more acidic to neutralize the excessive alkalinity. Breathing is controlled by our autonomic nervous system and our central nervous system, meaning that it is generally an involuntary process that we can override to a certain extent.
Therefore, we can voluntarily hyperventilate and raise our blood pH levels unit we feel dizzy and light-headed, have tingling sensations in the face and body, and have muscle spasms in the hands and feet. If we are breathing hard and fast for a long time, we might eventually pass out.
We can also try to hold our breath for a long time until our diaphragm starts to spasm and we experience an intense sensation known as air hunger. If we are trained and disciplined, we might be able to fight the urge to breathe until we pass out. Usually, though, the autonomic nervous system takes control before we lose consciousness and restores our natural breathing.
In most cases, we don’t want to bring ourselves to such extremes willingly, but our ability to consciously change the rate, rhythm, and depth of the breath gives us the power to use the breath as an effective too for bettering our health, emotional state, and well-being.
We think we need to breathe more to get more oxygen into our cells, but it is actually carbon dioxide that plays an essential role in making this exchange happen. Also, we can’t get more oxygen into our cells just by taking in more air. The main reason is that our blood is already fully saturated with oxygen.
Normal blood oxygen saturation for a healthy person is between 95 and 99 percent; this means that the hemoglobin on the red blood cells is already carrying as much oxygen as it can handle.
Trying to squeeze in more oxygen doesn’t result in any improvement, just as trying to squeeze one or two more passengers into a packed subway car wouldn’t result in any improvement to the mode of transportation or the harmony of those being transported.
(A common myth is that if we breathe more, we get more oxygen. Normal blood oxygen saturation for a healthy person is between 95 and 99 percent. The circulatory system acts like a series of subway lines, and our oxygen-carrying red blood cells are like subway cars, delivering oxygen to the body. If the cars are full, trying to cram in more people isn’t going to help. Instead, we need to increase the number of cars (red blood cells) and the efficiency of getting people on and off the train.)
CARBON DIOXIDE AND THE BOHR EFFECT
Why do we feel dizzy when we breathe too fast? To answer this question, we need to understand the role of carbon dioxide. First, carbon dioxide plays a significant role in every breath we take. It’s a common misconception that we breathe because we are running low on oxygen.
We are stimulated to breathe based on how much carbon dioxide is in our blood. (The exception is people who have chronic respiratory problems, such as emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, who live with abnormally high levels of carbon dioxide and breathe based on low oxygen).
As we hold our breath, chemoreceptors sense the decrease in pH (more acidic) and the increase in carbon dioxide; this stimulates us to take the next breath. The higher the carbon dioxide levels, the stronger the desire is to breathe.
This urge is why it gets harder and harder to hold our breath for a long time. Generally, when we experience that strong urge to breathe, we still have plenty of oxygen in our blood.
Dylan states, when he measures his blood oxygen levels while holding his breath, he don’t see a drop in oxygen saturation until around three minutes of retention, and this is long after he has an urge to breathe.
The time it takes for SPO2 (peripheral capillary oxygen saturation) levels to drop varies from person to person and depends on a variety of factors, the main one being how many red blood cells are in the body.
As we breath, the hemoglobin in the red blood cells bind to oxygen as it passes through the lungs, creating oxyhemoglobin. The red blood cells then go out to the body to supply our cells with oxygen.
The only problem is that for the red blood cells to release oxygen, oxyhemoglobin needs carbon dioxide to increase blood acidity to facilitate the cellular exchange. This physiological event is called the Bohr effect, named after Nobel Prize – winning Danish physician Christian Bohr.
The Bohr effect states, “Hemoglobin’s oxygen binding affinity is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide.”
Hemoglobin is an iron-rich oxygen-carrying protein inside red blood cells. There are about 270 million hemoglobin molecules per red blood cell, and each hemoglobin molecule can carry oxygen molecules.
That means each red blood cell can hold over a billion oxygen molecules. As carbon dioxide levels rise due to cellular respiration, blood pH becomes more acidic, and the bond between the oxygen and hemoglobin is loosened so that oxygen can be released into the cells.
If carbon dioxide levels are low and blood pH is high, the red blood cells can’t release oxygen to the cells. The body is the ultimate “use it or lose it” system. Whatever we do, our bodies work to support us. If we run, our bodies will work in a way to help us become better at running.
Our leg muscles will get stronger, our tendons will become more bouncy and elastic, and our endurance will increase. If we practice sitting on the couch, our bodies are going to get really good at sitting on the couch.
The body’s main concern is survival, and our survival is dependent on having the energy to fuel the body as well as store reserves to get more energy when fuel starts to run low.
Muscles take a lot of energy, which is why our muscles atrophy when we stop exercising. Fat is the body’s way to store energy, which is why it stores an excess it receives as adipose tissue.
Every second, approximately 2 to 2.5 million of our red blood cells die, and about the same number are created in our bone marrow to replace them. Those red blood cells will live for three to four months before they are replaced with new ones based on the body’s current demands.
“Current demands” are important to understand. Our bodies respond to what we’ve been doing; it doesn’t know what we are going to need to do. If we are breathing too much, our carbon dioxide levels stay low, and the red blood cells can’t release oxygen.
As a result, the body thinks it has too many red blood cells, so it doesn’t replace them when they die. We are then left with the bare minimum number of red blood cells we need to survive. In this state, if we decided to go for a run, we would become winded rather quickly.
Chronic over-breathers also can’t hold their breath very long. When they do, their SPO2 levels drop quickly because they don’t have extra red blood cells circulating to meet the new demand.
So carbon dioxide stimulates us to breathe and allows oxygen to be released from the red blood cells so that it can be used by muscles, organs, and every other cell in the body. Carbon dioxide also opens our airways, which is called bronchodilation, so we can breathe better.
It expands our blood vessels, called vasodilation, which lowers blood pressure and allows the blood to perfuse our extremities with less effort by the heart. The opposite happens when carbon dioxide levels are low (a state known as hypocapnia).
Our airways get smaller and our blood vessels going to the brain constrict. In turn, the brain receives significantly less blood and oxygen, which is why we feel light-headed and dizzy when we hyperventilate. This familiar response is not from too much oxygen; it’s from too little.
Bringing more oxygen into the brain makes us feel clear, aware, and focused. Increasing carbon dioxide levels through breathing less offers many amazing benefits, which is why so many of the practices we will post on the breath in are weekly blog articles are focused on holding the breath, slowing components of the breath, or simply creating good habits of breathing less.
The majority of people who over-breathe are not aware that they do it. When you go out in public, notice how many people are breathing through their mouths. Anyone who is mouth breathing is over-breathing. The nose creates about 50 percent more airflow restriction than the mouth.
In other words, if we are breathing through our mouths, we are breathing twice as much as we should, and it’s a downward spiral from there. Mouth breathing leads to lower levels of carbon dioxide, which means the red blood cells can’t release oxygen into our tissues, and our cells aren’t adequately perfused.
The red blood cells return to the lungs still carrying their full oxygen load. The body recognizes this as a waste of energy, and since making new red blood cells takes energy, it doesn’t replace those returning cells because it doesn’t think it needs to.
This means less oxygen carrying hemoglobin, which means anytime we do anything, we’ll need to breathe faster and deeper, which again lowers carbon dioxide level. And, unfortunately, this cycle continues.
THE UPPER RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
The mouth is made for talking, eating and drinking, and the nose is designed for breathing. There are breathing exercises that involve inhaling through the mouth and exercises where purposefully exhale as much carbon dioxide as possible.
Otherwise, nasal breathing is the proper way to breathe. Respiration starts with the nose. Generally, one nostril is restricted, while the other is mostly clear. About every four hours, the inside of nostril becomes swollen, and the other opens up.
This phenomenon is called the nasal cycle, and about 80 percent of people experience this switching of one nostril or the other being closed to some degree. The nasal cycle works to alternate the workload of breathing so that the mucous membranes inside the nose don’t dry out, and it also helps improve our sense of smell by allowing air to enter both fast and slowly through the clear and partially restricted nostrils.
Beyond smelling and down-regulating air intake, the nose has many other functions. It is responsible for warming, humidifying, and filtering the air we breathe in, moving air along the respiratory mucosa inside the nasal cavity.
The lungs require warm moist air, regardless of how cold it might be outside or how high the air-conditioning is cranked. But one of the most amazing functions of the nose is its ability to increase levels of nitric oxide through inspiration, which is something we don’t get from mouth breathing.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NITRIC OXIDE
Nitric Oxide is a signaling molecule that is made in the lining of the blood vessels, in the nasal cavity, and in the paranasal sinus. As we inhale through the nose, nitric oxide is carried into our lungs and through the rest of the body. Nitric oxide has a long list of health benefits:
(1) It works alongside carbon dioxide to assist with oxygen binding and release and increase cellular oxygen uptake by 10 to 20 percent.
(2) It is smooth muscle relaxer and vasodilator, working to regulate and lower blood pressure and improve circulation and control vascular tone.
(3) It increases the health and elasticity of blood vessels, lowers cholesterol, and decreases plaque buildup, which has a significant impact on cardiovascular health.
People with low levels of nitric oxide are more likely to have cardiac problems such as high blood pressure and heart attacks, as well as an increased risk of strokes. As we get older, nitric oxide production naturally decreases, so working to increase nitric oxide levels through proper breathing as well as diet is vital for our overall health.
Along with general cardiovascular health, nitric oxide is one of the miracle molecules for increasing strength and fitness and decreasing recovery time. Because it’s a vasodilator, having higher levels of nitric oxide means that more blood and oxygen can perfuse our muscles; increased circulation also helps reduce lactic acid buildup, delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and fatigue.
Nitric oxide promotes cell proliferation, which is the growth and reproduction of cells. It also helps increase oxygen delivery the mitochondria, which gives us much more energy to be active. Nitric oxide works to decrease inflammation, increase the production of antioxidants, and improves immune system function.
In addition to these physical benefits, nitric oxide is a powerful neurotransmitter that aids in the rapid communication between brain cells, which increases learning capacity, concentration, and memory.
Because nitric oxide isn’t produced during mouth breathing, mouth breathers experience a massive decrease in levels of nitric oxide. Multiple studies have shown that children who mouth breathe are more likely to have learning disabilities than children who nasal breathe. Ultimately, the importance of both nitric oxide and nasal breathing with regard to learning is incontrovertible.
When we breathe in slowly through the nose, we take in more nitric oxide than when we breathe fast. Slow nasal breathing has a profound calming and relaxing effect, with impacts on the brain that are similar to those of dopamine and serotonin, two other types of neurotransmitters.
Nitric oxide also works to regulate the sympathetic nervous system, which governs our cardiovascular system and our fight-or-flight response, as you’ll learn about later. Its ability to help control our reaction to perceived danger lessens the effect we feel when we are afraid, stressed, or nervous.
This is why our bodies and minds are best served by taking slow, calm breaths when we find ourselves in stressful or scary situations. Because nitric oxide both is a vasodilator and positively influences the autonomic nervous system, it helps increase libido and sexual function.
Sex drive and sexual function are highly emotionally based. Our automatic nervous system has a significant impact on sexual function in both men and women. Stress is the leading cause of sexual and erectile dysfunction, because when we are stressed, the sympathetic nervous system overrides the parasympathetic nervous system.
There needs to be sufficient parasympathetic tone for a man to have an erection and for woman to produce vaginal lubrication. Nitric oxide helps calm the mind, alleviate stress, and reestablish healthy function of the parasympathetic nervous system.
The other chief function of nitric oxide, vasodilation, acts to increase blood flow to the genitalia. Men get a harder erection, and women get more blood flow to the clitoris, creating more pressure, more sensitivity, and more intense orgasms.
Drugs like Viagra and Cialis work by enhancing nitric oxide-mediated vasodilation in the erectile tissues, and studies have shown that they are effective in both men and women.
THE LUNGS
Returning to the anatomy of the upper respiratory system as we descend from the mouth and nose, we arrive at the trachea, or windpipe. The trachea is a rigid tube held open by C-shaped rings made of hard cartilage.
This rigidity is essential; without it, the trachea would collapse every time we took a breath. The trachea divides into two bronchi, which split into the right and left lungs. The bronchi continue to divide into bronchioles, and this division happens twenty-five more times, creating an airway system that looks similar to the roots of a tree.
The bronchioles end in daclike structures called alveoli, where the majority of gas exchange takes place. Men’s lungs hold about 6 liters of air, while the average woman’s lungs hold about 4,5 liters. Women’s lungs are usually 20 to 25 percent smaller than men’s.
These values are general, and different textbooks might have different numbers, so please don’t get caught up in these values; your lung volume might be completely different.
Total lung capacity also depends on a person’s age, height, history of smoking, athletic training/conditioning habits, and numerous other factors. Despite these general numbers, we have the ability to change our vital lung capacity – in other words, how much air we can inhale and how deeply we can exhale.
Whether it is possible to stretch lung tissue is a point of contention among researchers, but either way, we can stretch the thoracic cavity that contains the lungs. Think about blowing up a balloon inside a glass jar. The size of the balloon is limited to the size of the jar.
Our chest and lungs share a similar relationship. World-record-holding freediver Stig Severinsen’s lungs can hold 14 liters, which he attributes to the breathing exercises he does to increase his ability to hold his breath for extended periods.
The amount of air we displace during normal breathing, or the unconscious breathing we do while at rest, is called tidal volume, and it’s usually about one-tenth of total lung capacity, or around 0,5 liter/500 milliliters (mL), which is the average for both men and women. (Men’s tidal volume is typically between 550 and 650 mL; for women, it’s 450 to 550 mL.)
When breathing normally, we breathe from the middle range of our lungs. From the upper limit of our tidal volume to our maximum inhalation is called the inspiratory reserve volume, and this about 3 liters (3000 mL).
From the lower limit of our tidal volume, where the diaphragm is relaxed, to the maximum forced exhalation is called the expiratory reserve volume, which is about 1,5 liters (1500mL).
Even after we exhale as much as we can, we still have about 1 liter (1000mL) of air left in our lungs; this is called the residual volume. The residual volume keeps the alveolar sacs from collapsing and keeps enough air in the lungs so that the oxygen exchange can happen even after we exhale or while we hold our breath after exhaling.
When we start at the bottom limit of our maximum exhalation and inhale until we reach the top limit of our maximum inhalation, that’s called vital lung capacity. Our vital capacity is essentially the total amount of air we can forcefully move in one breath.
Vital capacity significantly impacts health. Having a low capacity puts us at a higher risk of respiratory disease, and it’s directly related to the mortality rate. Our vital capacity decreases with age, but increasing vital capacity has been shown to help slow the aging process.
VO2 MAX
Another marker to gauge fitness, health, and risk of mortality is VO2 max, which stands for volume oxygen maximum. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can intake and deliver to the muscles during maximum effort.
The higher our VO2 max, the better our cardiorespiratory fitness. Having a higher VO2 max makes us better at activities like running, swimming, and biking, and it is an accurate marker for health and mortality.
While most cardio exercises focus on increasing the heart rate, we can improve our VO2 max just through breathing exercises and essentially become better at cardio without doing traditional cardio exercises.
Werner is not suggesting that you give up cardio exercise and focus only on breathing, but if you also work on respiratory side of cardiorespiratory fitness, you will increase your endurance, fitness level, and overall health and well-being.
THE MUSCLES OF RESPIRATION
The diaphragm, a thin, dome-shaped muscle that separates the thoracic or chest cavity from the abdominal cavity, is the primary muscle of inhalation and exhalation. The basic mechanics of breathing involve nothing more than simple pressure differentials.
To inhale, we reduce the pressure inside our body so that it is less than the atmospheric pressure. The air outside our body rushes into our lungs to equalize the pressures.
To exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and returns to its dome shape, which makes the thoracic cavity smaller, increasing the internal pressure and forcing the air out.
We find it harder to breathe when we hike in the mountains because the atmospheric pressure is lower at higher altitudes, so we have to work harder to lower our internal pressure.
The diaphragm lowers internal pressure by pulling or flattening out and expanding the space inside the chest. Through normal tidal volume breathing, the diaphragm does almost all the work, and exhalation is completely passive.
The diaphragm relaxes, and the natural tension in the thoracic cavity plus the outside atmospheric pressure aids in an effortless exhale. We we breathe more than our normal tidal volume, we need to recruit our accessory breathing muscles.
Increasing the effort to breathe is called forced inhalation or exhalation because inhaling and exhaling requires more force than normal. While the diaphragm still does the majority of the work for inhalation, the external intercostals, serratus anterior, sternocleidomastoid muscle, and scalene muscles assist in lifting the ribs and further expands the chest. The more we open and expand the chest, the lower our inner pressure becomes, and therefore the deeper in inhalation.
For forced exhalation, we need to increase the inner pressure in our chest. The diaphragm can aid in exhalation only until it returns to its relaxed dome shape. The intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles do most of the work by pulling the ribs down and making the chest cavity smaller.
Really, the abdominis rectus (our six-pack muscles) are the main muscles working. Many people breathe poorly and insufficiently due to constant engagement of the abdominal muscles, which are our muscles of exhalation.
The main reason is that people don’t want to let their bellies hang out. Even beyond forced respiration, walking around with our core muscles continuously engaged limits our ability to breathe fully and effortlessly.
The core muscles hold the bottom ribs down and belly in, which impedes the diaphragm, in turn forcing the accessory inhale – centric muscles to work harder in order to lift the upper chest and collarbones because we can’t expand the bottom ribs or breathe down into the abdominal region.
This is known as chest breathing, and it is a tremendous waste of energy, resulting in insufficient shallow breathing. Breathing with the core consistently engaged can also move us into a chronic state of tension and stress that negatively impacts the health and balance of our autonomic nervous system.
You might have heard of diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing, which refers to breathing with a relaxed core, allowing the stomach to expand. It’s a common misconception that when we belly breathe, we are using only our diaphragm, and when we chest breathe, we are using only our accessory chest muscles.
Chest breathing doesn’t mean that the diaphragm is not functioning. The diaphragm is working in every type of breathing we do.
If you’ve ever had the wind knocked out of you, either from falling flat on your back or being hit in the stomach or solar plexus, you’ve experienced a temporary paralysis of the diaphragm, and it can feel like you can’t breathe without using your diaphragm.
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unties your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again” – Thich Nhat Hanh
CLINICAL VALUES VS BASELINE VALUES
Werner states, there is always going to be high variability between what medical textbooks say our normal vital signs should be and the actual numbers in healthy and unhealthy people For example, a regular pulse rate should be between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm).
Below 60 bpm is considered bradycardia, or too slow to circulate the blood and deliver oxygen to the cells adequately. Most athletes and healthy people have a lower-than-average resting heart rate.
Clinical standards are supposed to be based on the average person. Unfortunately, with the majority of Americans being overweight or obese and sedentary, normal standards don’t represent the health-conscious, active population.
Clinical baselines give us a starting point, but knowing your baseline vitals and how changes in your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and other baselines make you feel is better than any set of numbers you will find in a book.
However, if your pulse rate, breathing rate, or blood pressure is higher than the clinical average, then it should raise significant concern. I’ve never met a healthy person whose resting heart rate was over 100 bpm.
Things like health and wellness, which should be our responsibility, are not. Instead, we pass our health to other people, like doctors, to “fix”. Usually, the fixes do not actually heal us.
We mask problems, using pharmaceutical interventions to manipulate conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and tachycardia (rapid heart rate) into “normal” limits, but we never address the real problems, which are easily fixed or prevented by eating better, breathing better, and moving more.
Consider the “normal” clinical numbers as tools, not goals. Your goals should be based on where you are now and working to improve upon that. The clinical values for a normal breathing rate are twelve to twenty breaths per minute, although the upper limit of twenty breaths per minute is probably over-breathing for a healthy person.
Generally, people who are overweight and have a larger body mass have faster and more labored breathing. Most fit, healthy people, especially those with good breathing habits, like nasal breathing with a relaxed belly, breathe between ten and sixteen times per minute.
Measuring our breathing rate can be tricky, because as soon as we start thinking about it, we change the way we breathe. Werner states that when he would take a patient’s vital signs, he would pretend to take their pulse while counting the rise and fall of their chest so that he could get an accurate respiration rate.
Again, we move about 500 mL of air during one breath cycle. If we are taking ten breaths per minute, that is the equivalent of breathing 5 liters of air per minute.
If our total lung capacity is 6 liters, then our vital capacity, or how much air we can move in one full breath, is around 5 liters, with 1 liter remaining as our residual volume.
So why is it important to know how much air we’re breathing? I’ve mentioned some of the disadvantages of over-breathing, but we haven’t looked at the many advantages that come from breathing less.
“There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity” – Rumi
THE BENEFITS OF UNDER-BREATHING
Werner states that almost all health professionals preach the value of being more alkaline. Drinking alkaline water and eating a more alkaline diet have been shown to have many health benefits, like lowering inflammation, chronic pain, and the risk of illness and disease.
Changing the pH of the blood for any length of time is difficult because of the body’s amazing buffering system. Our bodies regulate our blood to remain around a constant pH of 7.4. A sustained change in blood pH is usually the result of a more serious health problem.
Although we can mildly change the pH quickly just by breathing fast or slowly, it returns to baseline almost immediately after we resume normal breathing. But the pH of the rest of our bodies’ fluids varies a lot more and is significantly affected by the foods we eat.
The body is also always looking for homeostasis, which is a state of physiological equilibrium. Over-breathing temporarily increases blood pH and makes us more alkaline.
It also makes us feel hungrier and crave acid-forming foods, like sugars, fats, complex carbohydrates, and processed foods. Generally, over-breathing makes us want the foods that we should limit.
The next time you do something that causes you to breathe fast, like sprinting or burpees, notice how hungry you feel afterward and which types of foods you crave.
Werner notices that when he teaches all day, he usually is starving later. It’s hard to talk for longer periods without over-breathing. Under-breathing (aka hypoventilation) has the opposite effect.
When we breathe less, our blood pH decreases and we become more acidic, which has the effect of suppressing appetite and leads to cravings for more alkaline-forming foods, like fruits and vegetables.
HIGH-ALTITUDE TRAINING EFFECTS FROM BREATHING EXERCISES
Werner stated that his high school was 5,600 feet (1,700 meters) above sea level. Although it was a small school, his wrestling team usually dominated the much larger schools.
When teams from other schools would come up the mountain to compete against his school, most of his opponents would run out of breath and struggle to keep up because they weren’t used to the thinner air.
When he wrestled at schools that were closer to sea level, he felt like he had so much more energy and endurance. Training at high elevation boosted his team’s red blood cell count, so they had more oxygen-carrying hemoglobin to supply their muscles, which increased his team’s cardio fitness (VO2 max) and endurance.
They would often win because the other teams were too tired to keep up. What gave them the advantage over other schools is known as high-altitude training, although most people who do high-altitude training train at much higher elevations, and some endurance athletes even train at elevations higher than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters).
Because the air is thinner at higher altitudes and it is harder for the body to deliver oxygen to the cells than it is at sea level, the body makes more red blood cells to keep up with metabolic demands.
Many Olympic training centers are located at high elevation to give athletes an advantage. Lance Armstrong is known as one of the greatest cyclists ever, and he is the only person to have won the Tour de France seven times. However, he was stripped of all his victories after being accused of blood doping.
Blood doping involves artificially increasing the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream to boost athletic performance, and some of the methods used can be very dangerous. Most sports have deemed blood doping illegal.
Whether we are training at high altitude or (preferably not) blood doping, having more oxygen-carrying red blood cells increases our athletic performance. As discussed earlier, the body works off of demand.
Whatever the body needs, it generates more of; if there is an excess or a lack of need, the body makes less. Chronic over-breathing results in fewer red blood cells, but under-breathing produces more.
Breathing less, particularly long breath-holds and breath retention while performing strenuous activities, can simulate high-altitude training and has the same physiological effect.
Creating an oxygen-deficient environment and increasing carbon dioxide prompts the body to make more red blood cells to meet our needs, which results in increased cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance levels.
Have you ever been running and felt a “second wind”— a boost of energy and endurance? The spleen filters the blood, recycles old red blood cells, and holds a significant reserve of red blood cells in case of a sudden drop in blood pressure or inadequate circulation.
If we are engaged in strenuous activity, the spleen contracts and releases a large number of red blood cells into our system, resulting in that second wind.
Breath retention exercises can also be used to stimulate splenic contraction. When we do multiple rounds of long breath-holds, the spleen releases more and more red blood cells into circulation, which is why holding the breath usually gets easier the more rounds we do.
We can also get this extra boost of red blood cells before doing an activity for which we are going to want extra endurance by practicing several rounds of breath retention first so that we don’t have to wait for the second wind.
Breathing less also decreases pain perception, improves mood, stabilizing emotions, brings about deep states of relaxation, and helps us feel more at peace.
“Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health” – Dr. Andrew Well
OVER-BREATHING IN YOGA
Werner who is a renowned international yoga instructor, stated that he initially came to understand the breath and breathing practices through yoga. The ironic thing he stated is that it took him years of practicing and studying the breath to realize how much he was over-breathing in yoga.
He started with power yoga, which, as the name suggests, is a very physical practice. Much like ashtanga vinyasa, another prevalent form of yoga, it has a strong focus on a loud and forceful kind of breath called ujjayi pranayama.
He’s not implying that ujjayi breathing is always loud and forceful, but all the power yoga teachers from whom he learned taught it this way. Ujjayi is an audible breath, where the practitioner constricts their throat the way they would if they were trying to whisper with their mouth closed.
This constriction of the glottis creates a hissing sound as the practitioner inhales and exhales through the nose. When this breath is practiced in power yoga, ashtanga vinyasa, and many other strong forms of yoga, the practitioner also needs to activate all the accessory breathing muscles, like the core and intercostals, to make the breath audible.
Most teachers encourage making the breath as loud as possible, which increases the force and energy exertion. The breath is also much deeper and fuller than it would normally be at rest, and although it is slow, the natural pauses at the top and bottom of the breath are usually shortened or skipped.
Ujjayi is an excellent breath for building heat in the body and focusing the mind on the breath. Still, it can be a massive waste of energy and a form of unnecessary over-breathing if not used appropriately, especially if we are practicing yoga for ninety minutes or longer in mostly static postures.
When the yoga practice is physically intense, our increased metabolic rate can make up for the excess carbon dioxide that we are losing from the increased breathing. But breathing more than needed comes with a physiological price.
He’s not suggesting you stop your ujjayi breath practice during yoga; he just wants to bring awareness to what is happening physiologically and offer ways to modify the practice to serve you better and help clarify your intention.
Ujjayi is a powerful tool when used right! Even if you are not doing ujjayi, are you aware of the intensity of your breath, and are you breathing more than you need to? Could you breathe less?
If we do ujjayi breath while holding triangle pose and breathe very slowly at ten times per minute, but also breathe very deeply at 3 liters per breath (which isn’t a full breath, but about two-thirds of our vital capacity), we are breathing 30 liters of air per minute.
With our normal breath, we breathe 5 liters per minute; however, our deep ujjayi breath delivers six times as much air as we would need to breathe while holding this pose! We all need to breathe deeper and faster as we exercise.
This doesn’t mean we are over-breathing; it means we are breathing to meet our bodies’ increased metabolic demand. Adverse or harmful effects can occur when we continuously breathe more than is needed. We want to work on breathing less in almost everything we do.
Even if we engaged in a practice that centers on breathing faster, we balance the increased pace with breath-holds so that overall, we are breathing less. We can compare over-breathing to over-eating.
If we chronically over-eat, we become accustomed to the increased caloric intake, even though our bodies don’t need more food. Too much food means that we can become overweight or obese, and our health will decline.
When we go on a diet, our bodies initially feel like they’re starving from the lack of unnecessary calories that they were used to getting. After continuously eating less, the body eventually adjusts to the new diet, and the cravings to over-eat diminish, ultimately leading to weight loss and improved health.
Similarly, when we start breathing less, initially our bodies feel like they’re not getting enough air because they’re used to the excess oxygen they receive from over-breathing.
In the beginning, the body also has fewer red blood cells to support breathing less, as well as a lower tolerance to carbon dioxide. Just like beginning a diet, training the body to accept a new norm takes time. Also like a diet, it is easy to relapse into old habits. Learning to breathe less takes time and consistency.
LEARNING TO BREATHE LESS
To breathe less Werner states, we need to understand how much air we are breathing in one minute while at rest and during exercise. Once we know our baseline, we can work on reducing those numbers.
There are several ways to do so, and all of them involve changing either the depth of each breath (not breathing as deeply) or the number of breaths taken in a minute. We start by figuring out our average respiration rate and tidal volume.
Let’s stick with the example of breathing 500 mL of air per breath at ten breaths per minute, or 5 liters per minute. To breathe less, we need to breathe slower than ten breaths per minute.
If we take one full breath from empty lungs, this would also be 5 liters, and we would need to hold this breath for one minute to meet our baseline of 5 liters per minute. To breathe less, we would need to hold our breath longer than one minute.
Ultimately, trying to calculate what is less than normal can be difficult. The results are often inaccurate because measuring how much you’re breathing requires a spirometer, a tool used by respiratory therapists.
Let’s move away from numbers being the goal, but keep in mind what your average feels like. Since the advantages of breathing less really come from increasing carbon dioxide levels, let’s focus on this goal.
Sensation and stimulation to breathe comes from increased carbon dioxide in the blood, called hypercapnia. We will use our drive to breathe to understand how much we are breathing.
At rest, we usually don’t notice the need to take a breath; the body breathes automatically. But if we hold our breath for a few moments, we will quickly feel the need to breathe, a sensation known as breath hunger.
Building up our carbon dioxide levels and increasing our tolerance to carbon dioxide, which decreases the feeling of breath hunger, is the best way to start training to breathe less.
People who chronically over-breathe develop a lower tolerance to carbon dioxide, so they are driven to breathe much faster than needed. Increasing carbon dioxide tolerance through practicing breath retention creates a new baseline that restores normal respiratory rates.
If you are an over-breather, a mouth breather, a chest breather, or all three, then establishing good breathing habits is your number one priority. Luckily, it is easy to change the way you breathe by creating some new patterns and breaking some old ones.
It just takes a little time, awareness, and consistency. Breathing naturally and correctly is simple and takes only a minute to learn, but implementing the habit can take weeks or months. Even while retraining how to breathe correctly, you can work on breathing less.
“It was long ago realized that understanding and working with our breathing was the most effective way to build a bridge between the physical and energetic realms” – Damo Mitchell
POSTURE AND THE BREATH
Take a breath. If you feel that you are growing taller or your shoulders and collarbones are lifting, then you are likely chest breathing. A natural breath shouldn’t be forced states Werner; it should be effortless, with little or no noticeable assistance from the accessory breathing muscles, like the intercostals or neck muscles.
Even if you take a deep breath, your shoulders and collarbones shouldn’t rise; instead, you should feel your rib cage expand outward. Healthy and effective breathing starts with good posture.
One reason poor posture is so bad for us is that it significantly impairs the diaphragm’s ability to function properly. Think of a drum head (the part you strike to make noise).
It sounds best when it is pulled uniformly taut. If you squeeze the opening of the drum, then you will warp the drum head, and the drumming will sound awful.
The diaphragm is similar; it works best when it is equally taut, as it naturally is when we have good posture. When we slouch forward and roll our shoulders in, the chest compresses and the sternum and rib cage have trouble expanding.
The diaphragm isn’t able to contract properly and pull down to expand our chest as we inhale. Poor posture leads to compensatory breathing patterns, like lifting the shoulders and collarbones, which can lead to chronic back pain.
These types of compensatory breathing patterns also stimulate the nervous system’s stress responses that can create feelings of anxiety and depression. For proper posture, whether sitting or standing, the spine should maintain its natural curves.
The lower lumbar spine should have a mild lordotic or inward-curving shape. The upper thoracic spine should have a mild kyphotic or outward-curving shape, and the neck should have a natural lordotic curve where the head is not extending forward.
The shoulders should be slightly forward in a neutral position and not pulled back like a soldier’s when standing at attention. The pelvis should be tilted slightly forward while sitting and neutral while standing.
With good posture, completely relax and soften your stomach states Werner. Did you notice how much you were holding it in and how much it expanded? If you didn’t notice any change, good job—one less thing to fix.
To fully relax the stomach can be very challenging for most people, especially athletes, because we tend to hold in our bellies the most. Werner works with many athletic people, and when he trains them to relax the stomach completely, most of them physically can’t, not because the core is so strong but because they’ve been subconsciously holding it in for so many years that they don’t know how to fully relax their core muscles.
You know your stomach is relaxed if it is soft and you can push four fingers into your abs, toward your spine, with relatively little resistance. Your belly should also bounce back to the resting position without delay.
If it doesn’t immediately spring back, you are still engaging your core muscles. When you’re able to master relaxing your core, you’ll be able to breathe more effectively, and you’ll also increase your vital capacity.
When you assume good posture and relax your belly, proper, efficient breathing should happen naturally. To put it all together, stand or sit upright so that your spine maintains its natural curvature.
Relax your shoulders and release all muscle engagement of your core, especially the rectus abdominis muscles. Relax your jaw and face. Slowly inhale through your nose. Allow the breath to move down toward your belly and the rib cage to expand outward.
It should feel like your chest has expanded 360 degrees into your back as well. When the rib cage lifts, your shoulders and collarbones should remain in place. The intercostal muscles that elevate the ribs pull upward toward your collarbones but shouldn’t lift them.
The exhalation should be totally passive, meaning without effort or muscular engagement, as the diaphragm returns to its neutral position. Pause at the top of the inhalation and at the bottom of the exhalation.
A great way to slow your breathing is to practice lengthening these pauses. Also, a slower inhalation brings in more nitric oxide. The exhalation should be slightly longer than the inhalation. Count your respiration cycle and aim to slow it to ten to twelve breaths per minute.
If breathing that slowly feels natural, then work on slowing it down even more. If twelve breaths per minute is a struggle to maintain, breathe slightly slower than what feels comfortable.
Consciously breathe like this for fifteen to thirty minutes a day or whenever you think about it, until you have created a new habit of breathing properly. Breathing is life; if we want to be healthy, we need to learn how to breathe well.
“Each time you breathe out, breathe out all the things in you that keep you from knowing your true self; breathe out all the separteness, all the feelings of unworthiness, all the self pity, all the attachment to your pain. Breathe out anger and doubt and freed and lust and confusion” – Ram Dass
THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM AND THE POLYVAGAL THEORY
The human nervous system consists of two main parts: The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system comprises the nerves that leave or return to the brain or spinal cord.
The central nervous system is responsible for analyzing all incoming information and stimulation from the body. After deciphering those messages, it sends a response along the peripheral nervous system to the appropriate area in the body.
Most of the information we take in goes directly to the brain for decoding via afferent (incoming) sensory neurons. Then the brain sends out an action signal via the efferent (outgoing) motor neurons.
If the stimulus requires an immediate response, like stepping on a nail or touching a hot pan, the response is dealt with at the spinal cord, and the signal never reaches the brain.
The spinal cord senses information like “hot” or “sharp” and sends a message via the motor neurons, creating an instant reflex loop that tells the appropriate body part to move.
This reaction is known as the reflex arc. The peripheral nervous system branches again into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.
The somatic nervous system has two main functions. The first is sensory. It communicates along the afferent pathways, bringing information back to the central nervous system from our sense organs using various types of sensory receptors.
Mechanoreceptors detect changes in pressure, thermoreceptors gauge changes in temperature, and nociceptors sense pain. The somatic nervous system also brings information from our senses of sight, taste, smell, hearing, and equilibrium and then sends the brain a message that paints a picture of our outer and inner worlds.
The second function is to carry signals from the central nervous system along efferent neural pathways to our skeletal muscles for controlled movement.
The autonomic nervous system communicates with our organs and glands. It is responsible for regulating all involuntary and unconscious functions of the body, like digestion, maintaining blood pressure, regulating heart rate, and incognizant breathing.
An easy way to think of it is, the somatic nervous system relays all thinking actions, whereas the autonomic nervous system is for nonthinking functions. The autonomic nervous system divides again into the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways.
Although these two pathways are mostly antagonistic, they are meant to function concertedly to maintain the regularity of involuntary functions. Changes in our physical, mental, or emotional condition dictate which pathway is dominant.
The sympathetic nervous system is known as the fight-or-flight response, meaning it is more active in response to stressful situations.
The parasympathetic nervous system, also known as “rest and digest,” is more engaged when we are in relaxed states such as sleeping and eating. It is also vital for sexual organ function.
With terms like “fight or flight” and “rest and digest,” it’s easy to think that these two pathways oppose each other, as though one is always fighting for dominance. But in reality, they mostly work with each other in contrast to maintain homeostasis throughout our bodily functions.
What Werner means by working “in contrast” is that the difference between the two helps bring out the aspects of the opposing pathway—like adding black to a painting brings out the brightness of white and the vibrancy of colors.
The autonomic nervous system, through contrasting stimulation or regression of the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system, helps increase the opposing effects to maintain homeostasis.
The acute sympathetic response is there for times of extreme danger, but most of the time, we are neither fighting nor running for our lives. Neither are we sleeping or digesting.
We are most often somewhere between these two states. Werner stated that he heard and read many explanations that the two systems function like a switch: when one is on, the other is off.
When we are in a highly stressed state, this might be true, but the body is much more intelligent and complicated than “one is on, and the other is off.” In activities such as sexual arousal and ejaculation, the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and somatic nervous systems are all active.
If the primary function of these two systems is to regulate the balance of life-providing functions like pumping blood, controlling blood pressure, regulating hormone secretion, and digesting food, then the on/off analogy doesn’t make sense.
A better way of understanding the cooperative roles between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is to think of them as hot and cold faucets. When both systems are functioning correctly and one isn’t overstimulated, the water is nice and warm.
This balance of the two functioning systems is called autonomic tone. As the situation dictates, more hot or cold water can be added, and when needed, the water can be all hot or all cold.
In reality, though, there is no switch or faucet. Both systems are functioning, releasing hormones and neurotransmitters, titrated as needed throughout the body to handle whatever situation we are experiencing dynamically.
Because so many people deal with chronic stress and, therefore, are in chronic sympathetic activation, the sympathetic nervous system is discussed in a negative way, and probably for good reason. Most people need to learn how to decrease chronic stress and increase parasympathetic tone to bring balance.
But there is another way to look at the sympathetic nervous system, and that is activation and mobilization. When we wake from sleep, sympathetic tone increases. The shift in tone is minor, but we need this activation to get going.
Often we try to aid it by drinking coffee because we are not getting enough rest to restore our baseline. The more activity we do, the more the sympathetic nervous system works to give us the energy we need.
When we start to slow down, the parasympathetic nervous system slowly applies the brakes, and this harmonious relationship continues to support our lifestyle and needs. The sympathetic nervous system originates in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine.
Preganglionic nerves exit the spine and connect to the sympathetic chain of ganglion, which are located near the spine. From here, postganglionic nerve fibers travel to organs, blood vessels, and glands.
The postganglionic fibers are myelinated, which enables them to send the signal much faster than unmyelinated preganglionic fibers; this allows the signal to travel to the organs much quicker than it does in the parasympathetic nervous system, where the unmyelinated preganglionic nerves are much longer because the parasympathetic ganglia are located near or within the target organs.
This myelination allows for a quicker sympathetic response. The sympathetic nervous system functions primarily to react quickly to perceived danger or potential threats—i.e., fight or flight. So the bodily response is to mobilize immediately.
The pupils dilate so we can see more, the heart beats faster, and the blood vessels constrict to increase muscle perfusion. The bronchi in the lungs open up so we can breathe better, the adrenal glands release adrenaline, giving us a rush of energy, and urinary and digestive functions are inhibited.
The parasympathetic nervous system (para meaning “around”) originates above and below the sympathetic nervous system, in the skull and sacrum. From the brain stem, cranial nerves III, VII, and IX travel to the eyes, face, and mouth, controlling constriction of the pupils, salivation, and lacrimation (the flow of tears).
Cranial nerve X, known as the vagus nerve, travels to the majority of the abdominal organs and viscera. The vagus nerve is the most significant component of the sympathetic nervous system.
It’s responsible for slowing the heart rate and contractility, tightening the airways in the lungs, moving food down the digestive tract, limiting inflammation, and helping the immune system.
From the sacrum, parasympathetic fibers connect to the kidneys, bladder, and sexual organs. The parasympathetic nervous system physically functions to aid in rest and recovery, digestion and excretion, and reproduction. The autonomic nervous system’s function and influence are significant when it comes to social engagement, mood, and outlook on life.
Dr. Stephen Porges developed the polyvagal theory based on the two branches of the vagus nerve that control most of the parasympathetic nervous system: the ventral vagal complex and the dorsal vagal complex.
His approach divides the autonomic nervous system into a three-part system consisting of the ventral vagal complex, sympathetic nervous system, and dorsal vagal complex.
Although the ventral vagal and dorsal vagal complexes both stem from the vagus nerve, they function and respond very differently.
The dorsal vagal complex is responsible for most digestive functions and regulates the organs below the diaphragm. It is the older primal evolutionary branch and is responsible for our earliest stress response, also known as the “freeze” response.
In situations involving a high degree of fear, overstimulation of the dorsal vagal complex can lock us up, rendering us unable to move or act, as we see in many reptiles and some mammals reacting to extreme danger.
When the dorsal vagal complex is in dysfunction, we become withdrawn and antisocial. Increasing the dorsal vagal complex tone calmly and peacefully—i.e., not under danger or stress—brings us into a state of deep relaxation, as we experience in meditation.
The ventral vagal complex regulates the functions of the heart and the respiratory system. It is associated with social engagement and is most dominant when we are healthy and happy.
The polyvagal theory expresses the reactive relationship of the autonomic nervous system in a hierarchical order of safety or danger. The ventral vagal complex, at the top of the system, is related to how we conduct ourselves in a positive manner around others; interact with our friends, family, and strangers; and present ourselves in social situations.
If we sense danger or a threat, then the sympathetic nervous system reacts with the fight-or-flight response. If the situation is perceived as life-threatening, then the dorsal vagal complex reacts with immobilization, dissociation, and shock.
If we are in a place where we feel safe, then stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system moves us toward a healthy state of mobilization where we can work, dance, play, do sports, and physically interact.
The dorsal vagal complex adds balance by bringing us into a state of rest, rejuvenation, and deep relaxation.
In this model, we see the mutable interactions of the autonomic nervous system and the importance of each part’s function concerning a healthy and safe state versus reacting to a threat or danger.
The polyvagal theory maps out the response of the ANS when stimulated while feeling safe or feeling stress or danger. In a healthy state of balance, we are primarily stimulating the VVC.
When we experience changes from external or internal stimuli, we can quickly shift from safe to unsafe or vice versa and switch branches of the ANS. We can also get “stuck” in the SNS or DVC if we remain in a chronic state of stress.
HEART RATE VARIABILITY
So how do you know that your nervous system is balanced and regulated? Probably the best way is just to observe yourself:
Do you usually feel stressed or overwhelmed?
How many hours do you sleep each night?
How would you rate the quality of your sleep?
Do you get sick easily or often?
When you are sick, how long does it typically take you to recover?
Do you exercise regularly?
It’s easy to know that your nervous system is out of balance if your answers to these questions are not what you’d like them to be. But you can have a low-stress life, sleep well, and rarely get sick and still not have a healthy regulation of your nervous system.
One of the tools used to understand the health of the nervous system is heart rate variability, or HRV. Heart rate variability is a measurement of the distance between heartbeats in milliseconds.
If your heart beats sixty times per minute, it isn’t necessarily beating once every second; it is beating an average of once per second. As we breathe in and out, the duration of each heartbeat changes.
This fluctuation exists because inhalations stimulate our sympathetic nervous system; in turn, the sympathetic nervous system speeds up our heart and makes it beat at a more regular and consistent tempo.
However, our exhalations stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes our heart rate to slow down and our heart rhythm to become more irregular, as though to “breathe” with our respirations, which again is a positive sign of a healthy autonomic nervous system and increased parasympathetic tone.
HRV is a marker of the health of the autonomic nervous system, revealing the relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The lower the HRV number (the more regular and consistent the heartbeat), the more dominant the sympathetic tone is.
The higher the HRV number, the less sympathetic tone. Essentially, our heart breathes along with our breath, which directly affects the nervous system. The higher the variability, the healthier the state of your nervous system.
Because we can make our autonomic nervous system respond by speeding up, slowing down, or changing the depth of our inhales and exhales, our HRV score is only a reliable measurement of the health of our nervous system when it’s taken while we’re asleep.
However, it is good to monitor how our breath practices are increasing our HRV in real time. Doing breath practices that increase HRV has long-lasting effects, and, in addition to good sleep and low stress, breathing is one of the best ways to regulate nervous system function.
High HRV shows more than just the balance of the autonomic nervous system. It’s also an excellent indication of cardiovascular health, the ability to handle stress and exercise, and a high fitness level.
People with high HRV also generally have strong willpower, a calm demeanor, good social engagement, and self-control. Low HRV is related to chronic stress, pain, inflammation, depression, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and death.
THE POLYVAGAL THEORY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELING SAFE
The autonomic nervous system reacts directly to emotion, stress, and how we are breathing. When our perception of our environment switches from feeling safe to feeling scared or anxious, the stress response generates changes in our breathing pattern.
If we reverse the reaction by changing our breathing patterns, we can also change the response of our autonomic nervous system, our associated emotions, and possibly our perception of the environment.
Hopefully, we are not living in a continuous state of stress and fear and do not find ourselves often needing to use the breath to bring us back to a relaxed state.
The polyvagal theory emphasizes the importance of how the autonomic nervous system is stimulated. It makes a clear distinction between how the nervous system reacts if we are feeling safe and how it reacts if we are feeling afraid or threatened.
Feeling unsafe stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and triggers the fight-or-flight response. If the fear is overly intense or the situation seems life-threatening, then the freeze response that is associated with the dorsal vagal complex of the parasympathetic nervous system is triggered.
In contrast, when we feel safe in our environment and activate the sympathetic nervous system, we move toward a mobilization response, where energy to be active, work, play, and socialize is increased.
Even though it is still the sympathetic nervous system being activated, its effect on our emotions and physiology is very different. The same is true when we feel safe in a relaxed state and move into the dorsal vagal complex: we enter into a state where we can rest, repair, digest, meditate, and sleep, as discussed earlier.
The third part of the autonomic nervous system and the other branch of the vagus nerve that is a part of the parasympathetic nervous system is the ventral vagal complex.
Each component of the breath has a direct physiological effect on the autonomic nervous system. The inhalation activates the sympathetic nervous system, which manifests as an increased heart rate. Making the breath quicker and deeper also stimulates a more sympathetic tone.
In turn, exhaling stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, as evidenced by a decreased heart rate. Slowing the breath down, especially on the exhale, stimulates an even more parasympathetic tone.
“When a practitioner through yogic practices merges the inspired and expired breaths (Prana and Apana Vayus respectively), which are usually out of balance, they neutralize each other. When both airs are neutralized, a single air known as Samana emerges in the abdominal region around the navel area. This energy/air is imperative for awakening and rising the Kundalini. – Santata Gamana
BREATH EXERCISES FOR STIMULATING THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
These next six breathing exercises explore how changing the breath, either by speeding it up, slowing it down, or breathing deeper or shallower, has an immediate effect on our nervous system and, in turn, our energy levels and emotional state.
Each component of the breath is linked to our nervous system; therefore, we can stimulate or balance the autonomic nervous system as we see from the direct influence on our heart rate variability.
These exercises can be used to quickly change our mood and energy levels as needed. Each breathing technique is simple and can be done at any time, anywhere.
EXERCISE 1: INCREASING SYMPATHETIC TONE
Take a few moments to breathe naturally and notice your energy level. When you feel ready, inhale fully and quickly through your nose for three to four seconds. After you fill your lungs, open your mouth and sigh to release the breath.
Make sure the exhalation is quicker than the inhalation. Continue for thirty seconds to a minute. Afterward, let your breath return to normal and take a few moments to notice if your energy levels have changed. You should feel a little more energized.
If you practice this breath longer, you’ll feel a more significant response.
EXERCISE 2: INCREASING PARASYMPATHETIC TONE
Take a few moments to breathe naturally and notice your energy level; it’s okay if you are still feeling energized from the first exercise. Take a slow, moderate inhale through your nose for five to seven seconds.
Slowly exhale through your nose for ten to fourteen seconds. Continue for thirty seconds to a minute. Take a few moments to notice any differences. You should feel more relaxed.
Doubling the length of the exhalation and slowing the breath stimulates a more parasympathetic tone, which slows the heart rate and lowers blood pressure.
EXERCISE 3: BALANCING THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Take a few moments to breathe naturally and notice your energy level. If you are feeling low on energy, do exercise 1 until you start to feel your energy levels rise. If you feel very energetic or anxious, do exercise 2 until you begin to feel your nervous energy diminish.
Once you approach your baseline, inhale through your nose for eight to ten seconds, take a comfortable pause at the top of the inhalation, and then exhale through your nose for eight to ten seconds.
Repeat for one to two minutes to feel the desired effect. Matching the in-breath and the out-breath while also slowing the breath helps regulate the autonomic nervous system and bring us into more balanced state, stimulating the ventral vagal complex.
Breath retention stimulates the autonomic nervous system in different ways depending on the intensity of the breath-hold, our level of training, and how comfortable we feel while holding our breath.
Adding breath retention after an inhalation or exhalation increases carbon dioxide levels, which stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. Increasing carbon dioxide levels also facilitates increased oxygen delivery to the cells, and improved cellular respiration increases energy levels.
Breath retention after an inhalation brings us into the ventral vagal complex, leaving us feeling more balanced, and, if paired with breathing that focuses on inhalations, results in more balanced energy.
Holding our breath after an exhalation brings us into the dorsal vagal tone, and we generally feel much more relaxed in ways akin to rest-and-digest.
Breath retention with empty lungs is much more challenging because we have only 1,000 to 1,200 mL of residual air in our lungs for gas exchange, making the need to breathe feel much more urgent.
This urgency can quickly evoke panic and activate the sympathetic nervous system, stimulating the fight-or-flight response, which is never the response we want when doing any type of breathing exercise.
EXERCISE 4: INCREASING BALANCED SYMPATHETIC TONE WITH BREATH RETENTION
Take a moment to establish your baseline. Take a full, deep breath through your nose over three to four seconds. Hold your breath at the top of the inhalation for fifteen seconds.
Open your mouth and exhale quickly with a sigh. Repeat for one to two minutes. Pause for a moment to feel the effects of the practice. This exercise should leave you feeling more balanced and energized with less of an anxious sensation than you might have experienced in exercise 1.
This is because both the sympathetic nervous system and the ventral vagal complex are being stimulated. Try doing exercise 1 and exercise 4 back-to-back to see how the two slightly different practices affect you.
EXERCISE 5: INCREASING PARASYMPATHETIC TONE WITH BREATH RETENTION
Breathe calmly for a few moments. Inhale slowly for five to seven seconds. Exhale for ten to fourteen seconds, and then hold your breath after the exhalation for another ten to fourteen seconds.
Repeat for thirty seconds to a minute. Allow your breath to return to normal and notice the effects of the practice. You may have had two very different responses.
If the breath retention was easy for you, the effect might be a deep sense of calm; if it was challenging, it might result in anxiety or agitation.
With practice, you can maintain a relaxed state and parasympathetic tone, even adding breath retention after the exhalation where you feel extremely challenged.
EXERCISE 6: BOX BREATHING
This exercise focuses on creating equal lengths through all four parts of the breath. Inhale for a count of five. Hold your breath after the inhalation for a count of five. Exhale for a count of five.
Hold your breath after the exhalation for a count of five. Repeat for five to ten rounds. This exercise is great for balancing the autonomic nervous system and stimulating ventral vagal tone, resulting in a balanced, equanimous state.
“When the breath is unsteady, all is unsteady; when the breath is still; all is still. Control the breath carefully. Inhalation gives strength and a controlled body; retention gives steadiness of mind and longevity; exhalation purifies body and spirit” – Goraksasatakam
ASTHMA AND TOXIC ALLERGY TRIGGERS.
Those with Asthma (or anyone else thinking they are heathy) should be wise and cautious of the triggers that cause attacks. Some triggers are food additives, aspirin (Tylenol, Advil etc.) MSG and sulfites. In your home mold grows on shower curtains, bathtubs, tiles etc. Dust mites favorite areas are blankets, pillows, carpets, stuffed toys etc.
Asthma can be triggered by smoke from the burning end of the cigarette or second hand smoke. Do not smoke at home and do not allow others to smoke in your home either. Your health is very important. Do not care to be a people pleaser by allowing someone to smoke in your home or in your presence anywhere else. Your life is your own responsibility.
Cockroach body parts and droppings may trigger asthma attacks. Cats and dogs dander are triggers. Nitrogen Dioxide gas can irritate eyes, nose, throat and may cause shortness of breath. This gas comes from appliances that burn gas, wood and kerosene, such as BBQ’s, fireplaces and car exhausts.
Chemical irritants and fragrances (buy only odor-free) can also be triggers! These are found in soaps, detergents, fabric softeners, cleaners, perfumes, aftershaves, colognes, deodorants, hairsprays, mothballs, candles, air fresheners etc. The lung’s enemy is found in most people’s homes.
Go to the gym all you want, eat salads every day all you want, your overall health will still not be optimal if you are breathing daily the dangerous substances that are found in your home, which are deemed normal in our modern day society. Blood is the river of life, if you keep breathing toxic and dangerous substances your blood will be polluted which means every part of your body will be polluted.
THE CORRECT WAY OF BREATHING
This is one of the many breathing methods, we cover various breathing exercises in our blog articles. Put one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. The diaphragm is located in your belly. If you want to know exactly where it is located, put one hand in front of your mouth, a few cm/inches away from it. While the other hand is placed on your belly.
Now, pretend that the hand that is in front of your mouth is a candle and try to push the breath out as if you were trying to blow out a candle. When you do that, you will feel a contraction in your belly, and it’s where the diaphragm is. Okay, since now you know the exact location of the diaphragm, keep the hand where you felt the diaphragm and the other on your chest.
First inhale deep with your belly/diaphragm until your belly swells/becomes bigger where you cannot put any more oxygen in your belly. But don’t exhale yet. Continue breathing with your chest until you cannot breathe anymore and then exhale slowly until your lungs empty completely. So, by performing a full inhale and exhale you are performing a full breathing (and exhaling) cycle.
Filling up both the diaphragm and chest with oxygen is the correct full breathing that you should perform constantly. At first you might forget to do this on a regular basis, so to remind yourself write a few little notes and stick them on your fridge, room door, car’s dashboard, on your phone etc.
Be in the moment, and to achieve that, you should practice DEEP CONSCIOUS BREATHING as explained previously. It is not difficult at all to perform it as you were born with that basic ability, you just forgot it in the early years of your life.
“Anything you think that is away from the moment, it will turn you into a prisoner of memories (past) and imagination (future).”
We could live hundreds of years if we breathed properly, ate properly, think properly, behaved, and felt properly. Every single breath not taken correctly damages you. The damage is accumulative.
Breathing is automatic, and most people take it for granted. You brush your teeth, you walk, you run, you drive a car, or you create art (the process of it, not the actual creativity that requires thinking) or many other things you do in your life. When you learn something of doing it without thinking, that is an automatic habit.
The way you breathe, controls your life, your look, your energy, your emotions and your resistance to diseases. It controls your very life span.
– Sourced from –
SUPER POWER BREATHING – https://amzn.to/49WiwRe
THE TAO OF HEALTH, SEX AND LONGEVITY – https://amzn.to/49DJbTf
BODY MIND SOUL: AS YOU BELIEVE SO SHALL IT BE – https://amzn.to/3UZoYTn
THE ILLUMINATED BREATH – https://amzn.to/49Ih6dh
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