I just finished my morning Wim-Hof breathing exercises and I feel clear headed and energized. I do this daily, and it’s become my favorite part of the day. To me, it’s like yoga for the lungs – learning to breathe in a healthy way that supports all body systems.
Breathing is something that we all do, most of the time without even thinking about it. It has been on my mind a lot over the past 18 months, ever since unexpectedly losing my sister to a sudden, acute breathing-related ailment. Since then I have become a student of breathing. I have solidified a morning practice grounded in breathing practices. They began as a a grief practice – a way to ground myself for each coming day. And also to do what I can to strengthen my autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular system.
The benefits of breathing became even more clear to me after fracturing some ribs and puncturing a lung from an auto accident earlier this summer. This breath work proved a powerful ally on my way back towards optimal function, and back to my being able to again play my tenor saxophone again!
I feel that perhaps I spent the whole last year developing a Wim-Hof breathing practice just for the moment when my lungs would really need to be strong. I used this nifty little gadget called a Triflo that I was told to inhale into and try to lift three consecutive balls. Then I graduated to using “The Breather,” a respiratory muscle training (RMT) device. Moving generally sucked, and you could forget rolling over to get up. That was ninja-level pain.
Leading up to this accident I was just finishing a book by James Nestor called “Breath.” Nestor is a best selling author and investigator who set out to understand the importance of breathing to health, and ways to improve it. I learned that breathing through your nose is generally good, and through your mouth is not. I rediscovered that I am mostly a mouth breather. Did you know that most snoring and apnea problems stem from mouth breathing? It turns out that mouth breathing changes the physical body and worsens your airways, and breathing through the nose has the opposite effect. Additionally, we lose 40% more water by mouth breathing. We don’t sleep as deeply when mouth breathing. And consequently, the pituitary gland won’t release as much of the hormone Vasopressin that keeps us from having to pee – so mouth breathing means more late-night pee trips.
Then there’s the nose. I learned that its interior is lined with erectile tissue – yes that’s right. One benefit of nose breathing is the release of Nitric Oxide, which heavily effects immune function weight, circulation, mood and sexual function. Viagra works by releasing – you guessed it – Nitric Oxide! Nose breathing alone increases oxygen absorption by 18% and boosts nitric oxide sixfold.
Another hormone released more through nasal breathing is Vasopressin, which helps you sleep deeper. So what if you’re a mouth sleeper when sleeping? Nester found that putting a small square of cloth surgical tape over the lips just below the nose can do the trick!
The Diaphragm muscle is key to lung health. It is the primary driver of breath, and most adults engage as little as 10% of its capacity, and learning to increase breath exhalation by as much as 70% will significantly ease cardiovascular stress. Nestor explains that ss we inhale, blood is drawn into the heart via negative pressure, and we exhale, blood returns to recirculate in the body and lungs. This process is similar to how the ocean floods the shore, then ebbs out. In this way, the diaphragm is known as the second heart because it affects the rate and strength of the heartbeat.
Breathing slowly (also known as coherent breathing or resonant breathing) is important too. Longer slower breaths allows our lungs to soak up more O2 in less breaths, giving the body time for CO2 / O2 exchange. Slow breathing also corresponds to a slower heart rate, which correlates with living longer.
Breathing less is actually a good thing, with optimal being 5.5 breaths per minute on average. Nestor describes the practice of fewer inhales and exhales in smaller volumes. Breathing less actually increases VO2 max (highest oxygen consumption). I was surprised to learn that we too often suffer from too much oxygen, not too little! Nestor explains that if we can get the body comfortable with higher levels of carbon dioxide, this actually allows the body to capture and utilize the oxygen in our blood.
Nestor goes deep into the affects of the changed shape of both the teeth and cranium in modern man. Much of this is due to diet – softer industrialized foods over the past 300 years have caused havoc on these areas, leading to obstructed breathing, crooked teeth and poorer health. The first step to correcting this, he says, is to learn to maintain correct “oral posture:” hold the lips togetherteeth lightly touching, tongue on the roof of the mouth. Hold the head up, straight neck. Local Physical Therapist Liz Gillem of Body Temple PT describes this as an “umbrella breath.” I
nterestingly, in CPR we are taught to tilt the head to open the airway before performing mouth to mouth. Interestingly, Nestor points out that’s the position people take in order to get air – by “sloping our shoulders, craning our necks forward, and tilting our heads up.” With this “S-Posture” of hunched shoulders, extended neck and an S-shaped spine, this is our body’s best attempt to get more oxygen!
The last section of Nestor’s book discusses the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems of the body. Think of the sympathetic as the “fight or flight” or gas pedal, and the parasympathetic as the “rest & digest” (or the “feed & breed”) or break pedal. He goes into detail about how breathing techniques can stimulate the Vagal nerve, known as the master nerve since it connects the brain to all the major systems in the body, much like a master circuit breaker for stress.
This is also where he introduces the Wim-Hof method, which I have written about in a previous blog. There is a lot of good, interesting information here about CO2 receptors, oxygen levels, the different parts of the brain affected, etc. In short, breathing techniques “are best suited to serve as preventative maintenance (and) retain balance in the body…should we lose that balance…breathing can often bring it back.”
Genes can be turned on or off baced on our environmental inputs. Improving diet and exercise and removing toxins and stressors are very important to our health improvement. And also breathing is a key component to health, a “missing pillar.”
The Appendix of this book is worth the cost of the pages, as it describes the many technqiues discussed in the book. As with any medical conditions, consult your physician, and then start breathing.