Master Your Breath, Master Your Health: The Transformative Power of Controlled Breathing

 What is your doctor's breathing protocol? Doesn't have one, then you don't have a functioning stroke doctor. Run away. 

What does your doctor think? Should you be doing slow breathing as the book

'Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art' by James Nestor

says?

5 Ways To Improve Your Breathing with James Nestor

Or should you be doing fast breathing in

Creation of nitric oxide via Breath of Fire  February 2014 

And why doesn't your doctor know a damn thing about a breathing protocol?

You doctor has had years to know about this. Are you giving them a pass on being incompetent?

• Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (2 posts to April 2019)

 

The latest here:

 

Master Your Breath, Master Your Health: The Transformative Power of Controlled Breathing

Summary: Breathing, an autonomous function, also possesses a feature unique to a few bodily activities: we can control it.

According to research, controlled breathing stimulates the nervous and cardiovascular systems, potentially altering both physical and mental health states. By consciously slowing our breathing, we can stimulate the ‘rest and digest’ response managed by the parasympathetic nervous system.

Techniques such as inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) or mindful, slow breathing have shown potential in reducing stress, improving mental health, and lowering blood pressure.

Key Facts:

1. Controlled breathing doesn’t just alter the amount of oxygen intake, but also impacts how much blood is ejected from our hearts, affecting cardiovascular health.
2. Techniques like IMST can lead to significant health improvements, such as a reduction in systolic blood pressure.
3. Controlled breathing can also help manage mental health by reducing feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression, and can be used as a tool for pain control.

Source: American Heart Association

Odds are, if you are reading this, you know something about breathing. You’re probably doing it right now.

It’s an essential act that requires no thought. But thinking about it can alter your physical and mental health.

That’s because breathing isn’t just about the lungs, said Daniel Craighead, an assistant research professor in the department of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

It affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems and more. Changing how much we inhale affects more than just the amount of oxygen we get. “When we breathe, that actually impacts how much blood is ejected from our hearts.”

Breathing happens regardless of whether we pay attention, said Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang, an integrative pulmonologist in private practice in Encinitas, California. “But what’s a bit more miraculous about breathing is that, contrary to a lot of other bodily functions, we can also control our breathing.”

To understand how that can be healthy, it helps to start with knowing how breathing both affects and is affected by the nervous system.

Breathing and heart rate are regulated by the same parts of the brain, and each “talks” to the other to work in sync. When we inhale, our lungs expand, and pressure on the heart and blood vessels changes. That stimulates sensory nerves that, in return, affect how hard we breathe.

When we encounter a threat – such as an attacking tiger or an angry boss – it triggers the “fight or flight” response.

“Along with that comes the increase in heart rate, the increase in sweaty palms and the increase in muscle tension,” said Liang, who also is a voluntary assistant professor at the University of California San Diego and a mindfulness teacher. We breathe faster, and blood rushes to the muscles as the body braces for action.

That’s the work of the sympathetic nervous system.

Conversely, when we’re relaxed, we breathe more slowly. Heart rate decreases, blood vessels dilate and more blood flows to the gut to help with digestion. This “rest and digest” response is managed by the parasympathetic nervous system.

Breathing is affected by these systems, but by consciously slowing our breathing we can manipulate them. Research suggests that controlled breathing can trigger the “rest and digest” response by stimulating the vagus nerve, which controls many involuntary functions, including heart rate.

If you take a slow, deep breath to calm down, that’s actually working physiologically by affecting the nervous system, Craighead said. “It’s not just all mental.”

Craighead, a cardiovascular physiologist, led research demonstrating just how much a specific breathing activity can affect one important measure of health: blood pressure.