For most people, breathing happens without much thought about technique or strategy.However, a study published in Nature Communications1 It might get you thinking about your breathing when trying to learn new ideas. Someone looking for clues about your mood or stress levels might study the way you breathe because of its intricate relationship with your entire body.
When a person feels anxious or stressed, it is almost instinctive to tell them to “take a deep breath.” But deep breathing and abdominal breathing may actually do more harm than good. Fortunately, unlike many other involuntary body functions, breathing operates automatically but allows for voluntary modification.
For example, you can adjust the rate and depth of your breathing, and you can choose to breathe through your mouth or nose. These decisions can lead to physical and cognitive changes, both good and bad. Many people also don’t realize that abnormal breathing habits are often the result of emotional trauma.
Your breathing patterns and frequency will naturally change when you’re stressed, but it’s important to be aware of how such triggers can alter your breathing habits and how to address them. Now researchers have found that the way you breathe can even affect how you remember facts.2
How you breathe may affect your memory
In the Nature Communications study, researchers controlled the activation of the brain’s main inspiratory generator, the PreBötzinger complex (PreBötC), a small group of cells in the medulla oblongata.3 Although this is known to be the respiratory control center in the brain, the details of the neural control remain unclear.
The study involved genetically modified mice to assess how breathing affects the formation of important memories during tests of object recognition and fear conditioning. Optogenetic manipulation—a method that uses light to control the activity of genetically modified neurons in mice—was used to control breathing.
When the mice encoded new information, the researchers induced apnea, which impaired detection of new objects. Apnea affects the hippocampal region, which is important for memory storage. Memory improved when the researchers forced irregular breathing patterns, but worsened when breathing slowed.
The same team published a 2018 study4 Research shows that the transition from exhalation to inspiration at the beginning or in the middle of a memory task makes people less accurate when recalling information. Next, the researchers used human participants and brain scans to link poor memory to deactivation of the temporoparietal junction area of the brain that handles information processing.5
The next step is to feature animal studies, where researchers believe breathing exercises may help lower stress levels beyond therapeutic modalities. Neuroscientist Nozomu Nakamura from Hyogo Medical University in Japan and a member of the research team commented:6
“Breathing is a basic action for mammalian life maintenance. Although the details of the impact of respiratory function on brain states are unclear, recent research suggests that breathing may play an important role in online brain states.
Determining the detailed role of respiratory and molecular mechanisms in the brain is a topic for future research to understand the impact of stress tolerance. Modalities of breath manipulation and the application of breathing exercises are crucial in the treatment and treatment of depression and neuropsychiatric disorders. “
However, the problem with most breathing exercises or techniques is that they do not address the habits that lead to respiratory dysfunction. Your body knows how to breathe, but when you unconsciously override it with learned breathing habits, your body gets stuck, causing your system to go haywire.
Hyperbreathing is a common cause of poor memory and brain fog
Research shows breathing patterns can affect memory, which is not surprising since cognitive changes, including attention deficit, learning difficulties, poor memory and brain fog, are common symptoms of low carbon dioxide2 – Also called hypocapnia – caused by excessive breathing. But not only does the way you breathe affect the way you think, but vice versa, the way you think affects the way you breathe.
In my discussion with respiratory expert Dr. Peter Litchfield, who has a deep understanding of respiratory physiology and its impact on health, he explained that your CO2 The level is adjusted by automatic reflex.7
There are CO-sensitive receptors in your brain and arterial system2 Concentration and pH of various extracellular fluids, such as plasma and interstitial fluid (surrounding cells). Receptor sites sensitive to oxygen concentration exist in the arterial system but, surprisingly, not in the brain.
This system is not designed to stress you out. If you don’t develop bad breathing habits, your breathing will be optimized regardless of most situations (such as when speaking).However, hyperventilation is the production of carbon monoxide when breathing2 Deficits can trigger a variety of physical and psychological changes, including:
- loss of blood to the brain
- Oxygen loss
- Glucose loss
- Electrolyte changes in the brain set the stage for neuronal lactic acidosis
In turn, these brain changes often trigger disinhibition and the release of emotion (usually anger or fear). This emotional release can help you cope with challenging situations or circumstances. In this way, hyperventilation is reinforced because it serves you by acting as a “solution” to a perceived problem. Many people then begin to use hyperventilation as a coping mechanism.
Quite simply, Litchfield says, you won’t develop a habit unless it serves you or your physiology in some way. That’s why it’s so important to develop a partnership with your body and explore your habits – and how or why you learned them in the first place. Fortunately, this pattern can be reversed by implementing breathing behavior analysis learning techniques.
Poor breathing habits are the number one cause of low carbon dioxide levels2
The number one cause of hypocapnia is poor breathing habits in response to habitual triggers such as stress. This is why learning a specific set of breathing techniques isn’t a long-term solution, as they don’t address habits and habit triggers. To solve this problem, you need to understand the causes of breathing disorders and how to develop new habits.In addition to cognitive changes, low carbon dioxide2 Caused by excessive breathing, it can also cause:8
|
Headache |
nausea and vomiting |
|
Abdominal symptoms and bloating |
fatigue |
|
Muscle pain and weakness, tetany, hyperreflexia, cramps, tingling of hands and lips, numbness, tremors, and difficulty swallowing |
Cardiovascular changes, such as palpitations, tachycardia, arrhythmias, angina, and abnormal electrocardiograms |
|
Symptoms involving consciousness, such as dissociation, disconnection from environment, disconnection from people, fainting, and hallucinations |
Mood changes associated with reduced blood flow to the brain |
|
Changes in personality and self-esteem |
While you can accurately measure CO2 Using a capnometer to measure the concentration is a good test to determine if your symptoms are caused by carbon monoxide2 The flaw is breathing into the paper bag. If the symptoms go away, you know the problem is hypocapnia and therefore hyperventilation.
Never use plastic bags as they can cause suffocation. Always use paper bags approximately 6″ x 15″. If it’s too small or too big, it won’t work. Place the paper bag over your nose and mouth and hold it in place with your hands as you inhale.carbon dioxide2 will accumulate in the bag, increasing your CO22 level during inhalation.
However, in order to get to the root of the problem, respiratory behavior analysis learning techniques are often necessary. Litchfield explained:9
“We interact around people’s physiology and they see what happens when they behave in their own way. So, we explore that together. Then we do various tests together based on who is and what what is the problem.
A good example might be that we would intentionally let them hyperventilate. Now, this is not as simple as it sounds. You need to do it the right way. There is a truly right way and a wrong way. We have people who are deliberately hyperventilating. What happens when you do that, they start to develop symptoms, they start to develop deficits, and they’re just there, focused on their experience.
They didn’t speak. I’m the one talking. I ask them questions to think about the answers, not to interact with me, but to think about the answers to the questions.
I ask questions like: “Are there any emotions coming up right now?” Are there any memories being triggered right now? Does this remind you of your current life situation? Does this remind you of something that happened to you in the past?
I had a lot of information before I did this. I have this form. So they’re not just random questions. They’re really specific. They are about that person, their life, and the things we discovered together. And then what often happens is, they get stuck. They can’t get out.This is how they breathe, carbon dioxide2 No matter what they do, the level is simply not up to par. This is what happens when they get trapped in real life…
When I work with them, I use certain empirical paradigms that I implement so that they can improve CO2 grade. They were surprised when the symptoms disappeared. “
Simple ways to increase carbon dioxide2 grade
While it’s important to be aware of incorrect breathing habits as it can unknowingly harm your health, breathing through your mouth can also lower your carbon dioxide levels2 levels and negatively affects oxygen utilization at the cellular level. Even during exercise, breathing through your nose can help keep you healthy.
It may be tempting to breathe through your mouth when engaging in physical activity, but try to avoid this tendency. Limit your energy to the extent that you continue breathing through your nose most of the time.
This is only temporary as your body adjusts to the slightly increased carbon dioxide2 You find that you can increase your exertion level and still breathe through your nose. The following steps will help you breathe lighter so your nose hairs barely move.
This light breathing can help you enter and stay in a calm, meditative state while lowering blood pressure and reducing nasal congestion, making breathing easier. You may feel a slight lack of air at first, but this should be bearable. If it feels uncomfortable, rest for 15 seconds and continue.
- Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen; feel your abdomen move in and out slightly with each breath, while your chest remains still.
- Close your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose. Focus on the cool air entering your nose and the slightly warmer air exhaling.
- Slowly reduce the volume of each breath until it feels like you are barely breathing at all (you will notice that your breathing becomes very quiet at this point). The most important thing here is to cultivate a slight feeling of air hunger. This simply means you have a small amount of carbon dioxide building up in your blood, which signals your brain to breathe.
After three or four minutes of air starvation, you will begin to experience the beneficial effects of carbon dioxide2 Accumulation, such as increased body temperature and increased salivation. The first is a sign that blood circulation has improved, and the second is a sign that the parasympathetic nervous system has been activated, which is important for reducing stress.