Breath: Highlights, part 2

Slow

The amount of carbon dioxide in our body is usually too low. Olson (the partner in nose vs. mouth breathing research) claimed: “Regardless of the breathing rate, the body will always have enough oxygen; what the body needs to function properly is not faster or deeper breaths, but sufficient carbon dioxide.”

Henderson, a researcher at Yale, found that “carbon dioxide is the main hormone in the entire body; it is the only one produced in every tissue in the body and is likely to act on every organ…carbon dioxide is a more fundamental component of living matter than oxygen.”

When we breathe at a normal rate, our lungs only absorb a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. When we take longer, slower breaths, we receive more oxygen in fewer breaths.

A 2001 study on people practicing mantras found that their average number of breaths was 5.5 breaths per minute. When they breathed in this slow pattern, blood flow to the brain increased, and the functions of the heart, blood circulation, and the nervous system were synchronized for maximum efficiency. Another study concluded that the most efficient breathing rate was inhales of 5.5 seconds and exhales of the same length.

Hold It

The need to breathe is activated based on the level of CO2 detected by chemoreceptors. Chemoreceptors can be trained to increase their range. Breath-holding practice raises the levels of carbon dioxide, increasing the range of chemoreceptors.

People suffering from anorexia, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder have consistently low levels of carbon dioxide. Extra-slow exhalation raises carbon dioxide levels, and can thus prevent or stop anxiety attacks.

Less

Yogis train themselves to reduce the amount of air they consume at rest. Chinese physicians from two thousand years ago advised limiting breathing to about 10 breaths per minute.

Adult lungs can typically hold an average of 4-6 liters of air. Even breathing at a rate of 5 breaths per minute, we may easily inhale twice the amount of air needed. The key to optimal breathing, and the health benefits, endurance, and longevity it brings, is to inhale and exhale a smaller number of times with a smaller volume of air.

A Ukrainian, Konstantin Buteyko, found that patients suffering from asthma, high blood pressure, and other diseases consistently breathed too much; he developed the Buteyko method.

In a 2014 study by Dr. Morte, the respiratory functions of 120 asthma patients were measured. For four weeks, they maintained the levels of carbon dioxide in their bodies at a healthy rate of 5.5%. When the CO2 level dropped, they breathed less until it rose again. After a month of this practice, asthma symptoms disappeared or significantly decreased.

Researcher Packman stated that when we breathe too much, we expel more carbon dioxide, causing the blood pH level to become too alkaline. Breathing slower and holding more carbon dioxide internally lowers the pH, making the blood more acidic. Most cell functions in the body occur at a pH of 7.4, the optimal point between alkalinity and acidity.

Chew

People with sleep apnea frequently are given CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). This device (invented by a respiratory therapist I knew at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital) delivers bursts of air through obstructed airways to the lungs to keep them open.

A researcher named Price compared the dental health, airways, and overall health of populations worldwide. He found that when the traditional diet of hunter-gatherers, including roots and wild meat, was replaced by a processed modern diet, there was more than a tenfold increase in dental problems, crooked teeth, and obstructed airways, with generally poorer health.

The modern diet lacks the pressure generated by chewing. Our ancestors used to chew for hours every day. More bone density of the jaw helps prevent sleep apnea. There are stem cells that can become any cells according to the body’s needs. The more one chews, the more stem cells are released, thus producing more bone for the jaw. The author successfully increased his jaw bone mass, thus helping his sleep apnea.

More on Occasion

The Tibetan breathing technique called Tummo (Inner Fire) was developed by a monk to survive the freezing cold of the Himalayas. Researchers who traveled to the Himalayas saw monks wearing scant clothing, warming themselves in freezing stone monasteries or outdoors. In the 2000s, Wim Hof used this technique to achieve amazing feats. He stayed in an ice-filled bath for almost two hours and has broken 26 world records.

Holotropic Breathwork was developed by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof. A period of deep, rapid breathing may reduce blood flow to the brain by 40%, inducing an altered state of consciousness. Grof successfully treated patients with anxiety, depression, and even schizophrenia.

Note: Grof developed this drug-free method after his successful treatments of mental patients with LSD in the 1960s and 1970s were forced to stop.

My own experience with Holotropic Breathwork in California around 1990, led by a graduate of Grof’s program, was rather profound. In a day-long workshop, each person was assigned a partner and we took turns being each other’s “sitter,” just being attentive to the partner lying down and doing the breathwork in case a need should arise. The room was filled with evocative music that moved from powerful rhythmic drumming to intense – discordant to uplifting and ethereal. Some people wept, moaned or writhed as strong emotions emerged. I felt some uncomfortable cramping in my legs caused by the hyperventilation, but beautiful insights also came to me. At the end of our sessions, we were given paper and pastels and invited to draw mandalas.