Intro

• Breathing = powerful mechanism of healing in Tao, Hindu, Buddhist traditions, but only recently being studied in Western medicine

Part 1: The Experiment

1: The Worst Breathers in the Animal Kingdom

• Humans = only mammal to have evolved face pattern of chin behind forehead, jaws slumped back, shrunken sinuses— why?
• Innovation of mashing and cooking food → space of front of face no longer required → unique feature among primates of protruding nose
  • Allowed for larger brain, but less efficient air filtering
• Development of speech → larynx continued to drop; more flexible lips abs tongue, shifting facial conformation
  • Obviously all advantageous at the time, but now some of these changes pose risks of choking, while snoring…

2: Mouthbreathing

• Breathing nasally vs through mouth → much slower respiration rate and perceived effort in exercise tests
• Start of workout is so painful because body begins using anaerobic respiration (system is quicker to respond but less capacity); gets easier once switch over to aerobic

Part 2: The Lost Art and Science of Breathing

3: Nose

• Nasal cycles: inhaling through right nostril → activates sympathetic NS; through left nostril → parasympathetic
• Assorted benefits of nasal breathing:
  • Can utilize mucous membranes as immune defense against pollutants and particles
  • Boosts nitric oxide → absorb about 18% more O2
• Train yourself to breathe through nose while sleeping just by taping your mouth shut!

4: Exhale

• Lung size correlates with longevity → we lose lung capacity as we age, but can maintain/increase with simple stretches

5: Slow

• Slower inhales/exhales → better balances oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in your bloodstream (problem is often too little of the latter!), allows for full exchange of gases
  • Vs breathing faster or pure oxygen leads to lower oxygenation of tissues
• Optimal rate = 5.5 breaths per minute (about 6 seconds inhale, 6 seconds exhale), which is also the rate of prayers in many religions!

6: Less

• Not just breathing slower, but also shallower → less capacity overall has benefits
  • Training body to breathe less → increases VO2max → longer, healthier lives…
  • Do it by aiming to inhale less deeply abs frequently, and extending length of exhales
• Improves performance of athletes, and also very helpful for patients with asthma!

7: Chew

• Lack of chewing in modern, industrialized diet → mouth, face, bones all weaken compared to ancestors → many respiratory issues
• Best for obstructions in the mouth = increasing size, through orthodontics as a kid
  • If it’s too late, can work on oral posture— hold neck in J-shape vs S— and other tongue exercises
• Even as adults, increasing chewing (with special retainers, or just gum!) → dramatic results in gaining bone, jaw alignment, widening airways

Part 3: Breathing +

• Set of more intensive breathing practices, many from ancient traditions
• Can help us access full range of biological functions, and also feel really awful

8: More, on Occasion

• Structures of the of the lungs connected with nerves of autonomic nervous system— lower down, with PNS (feed and breed, rest and digest, where we are meant to spend most time); higher up, with SNS
• Tummo breathing
  • Goal = stimulate vagus nerve, which can shut down blood flow to many organs (→ fainting)
  • Allows us to control this part of autonomic NS and train it to be more resilient to stressors— extreme temps, pain, infection
  • Involves rounds of very deep and intense breathing to stimulate vagus nerve, then return to baseline, building flexibility
  • Physically heats up the body significantly— how?
• Even more extreme = holotropic breathing, supposedly induces hallucinating state by limiting oxygen (or increasing CO2?) to certain parts of the brain— unclear effects of set/setting vs actual physiological factors

9: Hold It

• Need to breathe = controlled by central chemoreceptors at base of brain stem
  • Monitor levels of CO2
  • Flexibility and adaptability of these receptors to diff environments/conditions → range in athletic ability, etc.
  • Circuit of fear independent of amygdalae
• Ancient arts of breathholding → harness this to address anxiety, depression, spiritual things
• Breathholding “hacks,” AKA carbon dioxide therapies → don’t have to literally hold your breath = soaking in thermal baths, inhaling from concentrated source
  • While unconscious breathholding (sleep and “email” apnea) are harmful, willful apnea is transformative
  • Interrupts spiraling loops of anxiety, may help “reset” chemoreceptors

10: Fast, Slow, and Not at All

• Yoga (the original practice) = technology of breathing and thinking
• Can ancient cultures explain how/why some of the tools of breathwork, work, where Western science has failed?
  • Concept in many cultures of a life force: India → prana, China → ch’i, Japan → ki, Greeks → pneuma, Hebrews → ruah, Iroquois → orrenda
  • Developed thousands of methods to maintain steady flow of this force, through diet, activity, etc., and esp breathing techniques

A Last Gasp

• Not trying to say that modern medicine can’t do anything, or that breathing is a cure-all!
  • Breathing best suited as preventative maintenance, rebalancing mild problems
  • Currently a missing pillar of health