Author James Nestor's recent book points out the numerous benefits of proper breathing.
There are two things a human being can do consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or involuntarily. The first is blinking your eyes. There have been medical practices to this, such as EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The other is breathing. The practice of conscious breathing goes back thousands of years.
The benefits of consciously breathing are still relatively new to western medicine. It’s being used in psychology to treat patients with depression, anxiety, insomnia, digestive issues, improving cognitive brain functioning, improved focus and concentration, improving the health of the skin, reduction of inflammation in the body, reduction of Sinusitis symptoms, strengthening joints and muscles, and improving the health of lung function.
Author James Nestor published a book last year titled, “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art”. The irony in that the book was released only 2 months after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“More CO2 will allow oxygen to disassociate from red blood cells more easily,” says James Nestor. “To be clear, people with emphysema, people with covid-19 don’t need any more CO2. An Increase of CO2, including for asthmatics and panic sufferers has been found to be profoundly beneficial because most of us breathe too much, we offload too much CO2, and without that CO2, our bodies have to work harder to get oxygen.”
These techniques have been taught to members of special forces, athletes, and those with medical conditions associated with improper breathing. One of the major elements to a lot of breathing practices is breathing through the nose. The increase of oxygen can increase as much as 20% when breathing through the nose.
The anatomical changes that have taken place in human beings due to several factors have been evident in the causes of several health concerns in society. A lot of this goes back to not breathing through the nose. Some of it is environmental, such as pollution, allergens, stress, working in offices that involve sitting in a chair with bad posture. The consequences have affected the human body by manipulating the Body Mass Indexes, and causing conditions such as asthma and COPD.
The factors that change the way a human being properly breathes is staggering. For instance, approximately 95% of the modern diet, which includes healthy foods like yogurt, oatmeal, and avocados don’t provide the proper exercise to the mouth. There is a new form of medicine called myofunctional therapy, which is essentially physical therapy for the mouth, tongue, and face. The end goal is to improve the process of a person’s breathing, chewing, swallowing, and speaking.
When the tongue is not properly used, a very common condition evolves into a person’s life. That condition is sleep apnea. When the tongue muscle is properly utilized and exercised, it can help reduce the conditions involved in sleep apnea.
Nestor points out that there are plenty of individuals who experience chronic sinus congestion. The causes can come from a long list of reasons. Some need surgical interventions, but a lot of conditions that interfere with breathing can be corrected with proper breathing and bypass the process of any surgery.
Another subject James Nestor discusses is the subject of anxiety and panic attacks in relation to breathing. The most important pathway to gaining better control over these conditions is by slowing your breathing down. NIH did a study within the past 12 years , which gathered a wide range of individuals who suffer from panic. In the study, the subjects were instructed on slowing their breathing down, which increases their CO2 levels. Approximately 96% of the participants 1 year after the study concluded stated they were much improved or very much improved, with a majority of them having cessation to panic attacks.
It is quite normal for people who suffer from these conditions to have the mind cause the symptoms with the breathing, as well as the breathing that causes the mind to start the fight or flight experience. Nestor notes what you’re thinking is going to affect how you are breathing, and sometimes you can’t take control of your thoughts, but you can take control of your breathing. And by taking control of your breathing, the body is giving the mind the opportunity to bring to rest the thoughts that bring about the panic.
Approximately 80% of the messages from the body go to the brain, not from the brain to the body. Just by slowing down the breathing process, the body will send the relaxation messages over to the brain to provide the individual that opportunity to relax the thoughts.
From the ages of 30 to 50, a person loses about 15-16% of lung capacity. After 50, the lung capacity goes down rapidly. The ribs or intercostal region of the body gets less flexible, but the damage being done during these years of life can be reversed. The best pathway to reversing this process is practicing something like yoga. This practice over time can increase lung capacity by about 30%, which is substantial. In some cases, the percentages can be even higher.
By breathing slower and deeper, the heart can work so much more softly because it’s not being overworked. This is obviously important for those with any cardiovascular conditions.
Having a healthy foundation of breathing is akin to the value of having a healthy foundation with the diet. Habitual breathing that takes place during the majority of the day can have a profound improvement on a person’s health if they adhere to a proper practice of breathing. The science, the studies and the data has really proven this to be the case.
Good read. It’s amazing how much we rely on breathing.
Great read. Everyone should practice breath work.