4 ms·

Okay hold on... Did you take the time to actually read any of the links I posted? Or any of what I wrote? Did you read the quote I shared from the last link? I

Okay hold on... Did you take the time to actually read any of the links I posted? Or any of what I wrote? Did you read the quote I shared from the last link? It gave a compelling reason for doing alkalizing breath exercises... Chronically or acutely disrupted respiration from CNS depression related to trauma or anything. This is quite a common kind of situation and the article is saying "people can have acidosis because they aren't breathing well." In that case, according to science and folks traditions alike it's necessary for them to retrain their habits of breath to be more oxygenizing. And there's a spectrum here. You can do alkalizing breath exercises without inducing tetany. I mentioned the tetany exercise because you were asking me to hook up a pH meter to my bloodstream to "objectively prove" that voluntarily changing respiration can lead to significant pH shifts in the blood. I've shared links to non-controversial scientific articles and book exerpts, including peer reviewed ones, corroborating this. Involuntary, chronic shallow breathing or hyperventilation are respectively dangerous because they can cause acidosis or alkalosis that an individual is unable to recover from without some intervention. Just because there also happen to be numerous folk traditions around this, notably pranayama, doesn't nullify the objective, scientific basis for what I'm talking about! If you'd genuinely like to understand my perspective from a scientific point of view, check out this peer reviewer article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17432979.2011.574505 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17432979.2011.57...

logfromblammo 8y ago
That article is on psychotherapy. I am not disputing that breathing exercises can make one feel better. I am disputing that the sense of wellness is causally linked to any changes in blood pH. It is perfectly acceptable to claim that breathing exercises are useful for mental health. You are making additional claims that are not supported, regarding health benefits for people that do not have a diagnosis that requires therapy. The folk remedies do not automatically invalidate the claims. They do surround the relevant questions with a cloud of woo, which makes objective study more difficult. This is especially relevant when scammers adopt pseudoscientific terminology that mimics genuine science for the purpose of selling their products and services. It becomes difficult to sort the fact from the fiction, because the fictions are explicitly designed to look like related facts.
- macawfish 8y ago
  > This paper provides an overview of the physiology of breathing, a review of the literature on breathwork. I don't see any indication that you read the paper or the abstract. The article isn't "about psychotherapy", it's about bodywork, and draws from scientific literature on physical aspects of respiration. This article gives a pretty clear picture picture of how breath, pH and wellness are intertwined. --------------- You wrote: > It is perfectly acceptable to claim that breathing exercises are useful for mental health. You are making additional claims that are not supported, regarding health benefits for people that do not have a diagnosis that requires therapy. From the article: > Unfortunately, very little research has been done on the psychological effects of acidosis and alkalosis, though it may be possible to make some inferences via research done on the stress response. Also from the article: > To put breath physiology into more gaseous detail, if body activity stays the same, an increase in breathing will increase the rate of CO2 diffusing from the blood into the lungs. This can cause the CO2 concentration in the blood to fall, which will cause the acid level of the blood to drop, and its pH will become alkalotic (too alkaline). Alkalosis often leads to muscle spasm, tetany, anxiety, and panic (Fried, 1987; Lowry, 1967; Nakamura, 1981; Rhinewine & Williams, 2007), with Nakamura noting that when the pH exceeds 7.60, hyperventilation tetany takes place. If breathing is depressed, CO2 concentrations in the blood will rise, causing the acid level to rise, and the pH of the blood will become more acidic. As was noted before, chronic alkalosis or acidosis can both cause long-term harm to physical well-being. Farhi (1996) states that relaxed breathing enhances the immune system, assists in the absorption of nutrients and proteins, supports bone growth, and boosts overall cellular health in the body. In addition, it is believed that balanced breathing sustains circulation, maintains mental clarity, strengthens organ function, and provides pain relief (Boerstler & Kornfeld, 1995). Balanced breathing in this sense is defined as a relationship between the inhale and the exhale such that an appropriate blood pH is maintained. Farhi (1996) also emphasises that good breathing increases physical energy and mental concentration via the oxygenation of all our cells, and asserts that using specific breathing practices in conscious ways has been shown to ease migraines, lessen chronic pain, assuage panic attacks, and lower symptoms of asthma. Perri and Halford (2004) found that conscious breathing reduces chronic pain.
  - 8y ago

logfromblammo 8y ago

That article is on psychotherapy. I am not disputing that breathing exercises can make one feel better. I am disputing that the sense of wellness is causally linked to any changes in blood pH. It is perfectly acceptable to claim that breathing exercises are useful for mental health. You are making additional claims that are not supported, regarding health benefits for people that do not have a diagnosis that requires therapy. The folk remedies do not automatically invalidate the claims. They do surround the relevant questions with a cloud of woo, which makes objective study more difficult. This is especially relevant when scammers adopt pseudoscientific terminology that mimics genuine science for the purpose of selling their products and services. It becomes difficult to sort the fact from the fiction, because the fictions are explicitly designed to look like related facts.

macawfish 8y ago
> This paper provides an overview of the physiology of breathing, a review of the literature on breathwork. I don't see any indication that you read the paper or the abstract. The article isn't "about psychotherapy", it's about bodywork, and draws from scientific literature on physical aspects of respiration. This article gives a pretty clear picture picture of how breath, pH and wellness are intertwined. --------------- You wrote: > It is perfectly acceptable to claim that breathing exercises are useful for mental health. You are making additional claims that are not supported, regarding health benefits for people that do not have a diagnosis that requires therapy. From the article: > Unfortunately, very little research has been done on the psychological effects of acidosis and alkalosis, though it may be possible to make some inferences via research done on the stress response. Also from the article: > To put breath physiology into more gaseous detail, if body activity stays the same, an increase in breathing will increase the rate of CO2 diffusing from the blood into the lungs. This can cause the CO2 concentration in the blood to fall, which will cause the acid level of the blood to drop, and its pH will become alkalotic (too alkaline). Alkalosis often leads to muscle spasm, tetany, anxiety, and panic (Fried, 1987; Lowry, 1967; Nakamura, 1981; Rhinewine & Williams, 2007), with Nakamura noting that when the pH exceeds 7.60, hyperventilation tetany takes place. If breathing is depressed, CO2 concentrations in the blood will rise, causing the acid level to rise, and the pH of the blood will become more acidic. As was noted before, chronic alkalosis or acidosis can both cause long-term harm to physical well-being. Farhi (1996) states that relaxed breathing enhances the immune system, assists in the absorption of nutrients and proteins, supports bone growth, and boosts overall cellular health in the body. In addition, it is believed that balanced breathing sustains circulation, maintains mental clarity, strengthens organ function, and provides pain relief (Boerstler & Kornfeld, 1995). Balanced breathing in this sense is defined as a relationship between the inhale and the exhale such that an appropriate blood pH is maintained. Farhi (1996) also emphasises that good breathing increases physical energy and mental concentration via the oxygenation of all our cells, and asserts that using specific breathing practices in conscious ways has been shown to ease migraines, lessen chronic pain, assuage panic attacks, and lower symptoms of asthma. Perri and Halford (2004) found that conscious breathing reduces chronic pain.
- 8y ago