The Incredible Impact of Breathing Consciously on Health
Breathing is one of the most natural
actions we do every day. We literally all breathe, all day long, without
giving it a second thought. But it’s only when the most obvious things
are taken away that we realize how valuable and important they are. This
is what happened to journalist James Nestor, who developed a keen
interest in the respiratory system after taking a breathing class,
recommended by his doctor, to help with his recurring pneumonia and
bronchitis.
The issue of breathing is especially
relevant now in the time of Covid-19. In an interview Nestor gave
FreshAir he talked about his new book Breath: The New Science of a Lost
Art in which he shares insights on how we can be more conscious of our
breathing, use it as a tool and train ourselves to breathe in ways that
can improve health, quality of sleep and decrease anxiety.
The nervous system has two sides to it, the
sympathetic and the parasympathetic. Put simply, the sympathetic
nervous system triggers fight or flight reactions. It switches on when
we sense danger and floods the body with stress hormones which aid us to
fight harder or run faster. The parasympathetic system does the exact
opposite. It’s the side of the nervous system that triggers a ‘rest and
relax’ response. This is the state we want to be in most of the day. By
learning how breathing works and learning to control it, we can take
command of these systems, and elicit their properties to our advantage.
The advantage of nose breathing over mouth breathing
As part of his research, Nestor
participated in a study in which his nose was completely plugged for 10
days, forcing him to breathe solely through his mouth. He described the
experience as extremely unpleasant. "I went from snoring a couple of
minutes a night to, within three days, I was snoring four hours a night,
I developed sleep apnea. My stress levels were off the charts. My
nervous system was a mess... I felt awful." It turns out that the way
the body actively wants to take in the air is through the nose, for a
number of reasons.
The nose filters heat and treats raw air. Inhaling through the nose can
trigger different hormones to flood our bodies that lower our blood
pressure, monitor heart rate, and orchestrate innumerable functions in
our body to keep us balanced. “It lowers the burden of the heart if we
breathe properly and if we really engage the diaphragm," said Nestor.
The effect of breathing on anxiety
Taking deep breaths when you experience
stress is not just a mantra and is scientifically proven, as Nestor
demonstrates. People who suffer from anxiety or other fear-based
conditions tend to breathe too much. When we take shallow and frequent
breaths we stimulate the sympathetic side of the nervous system and only
perpetuate the state of stress. The way to stop that cycle is to simply
breathe deeply. Slow breathing is automatically associated with
relaxation by the brain. The diaphragm lowers, you're allowing more air
into your lungs and your body immediately switches to a relaxed state.
Breathing at a rate of 5.5 seconds in and 5.5 seconds out is the ratio
that enables you to get the perfect amount of air into your body, allows
it to function with the least amount of effort, and thus relax. This
breathing pattern is thought by psychiatrists to help patients with
anxiety and depression and even survivors of 9/11.
Nestor explains that the action of
exhaling, which is a parasympathetic response, can have a greater
calming effect on the body than inhaling. Therefore, prolonging the
exhale can be beneficial in certain situations. If you put your hand
over your heart and inhale deeply, you will feel your heart rate speed
up. As you exhale the air out, the heart slows down, and the body is
“tricked” so to speak, into relaxing. In regular day to day activities,
the body wants to be balanced, so extending the exhale would be
beneficial before going to bed, but not before an important meeting or
work task. In those cases, you can rather prolong the inhale to give
yourself a little boost of energy.
What we tend to get wrong when breathing
The average human takes about 25,000
breaths a day. Bearing that in mind, we want to make access to air as
easy as possible for our bodies. When we take shallow breaths, our body
constantly feels overworked. So, by just extending those inhales and
exhales, by moving that diaphragm up and down a little more, you can
have a profound effect on your blood pressure, on your mental state, and
even longevity.
There is great comfort in the knowledge that our quality of life can be
improved so greatly, just by taking control of a ‘simple’ act like
breathing. In a time when many are stressed about health, finances, and
world turmoil that information can really make a difference.