22 ms·

One hour of slow breathing changed my life

550 points by viburnum 6y ago

adamhearn 6y ago
James Nestor’s podcast episodes with Ben Greenfield and Joe Rogan both are very interesting. Obviously there is some material crossover between the two, but I found unique things from each. I really the breathwork will become the new fad, but for good reason. It’s amazingly powerful.
jagannathtech 6y ago
Pranayama
martindbp 6y ago
> We’ve become conditioned to breathe too much, just as we’ve been conditioned to eat too much. How is one conditioned to breathe too much? We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible. That has not been done to air.
- abendy 6y ago
  > people with anxieties or other fear-based conditions typically will breathe way too much. So what happens when you breathe that much is you're constantly putting yourself into a state of stress. So you're stimulating that sympathetic side of the nervous system https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/862963172/how-the-lost-art-of-breathing-can-impact-sleep-and-resilience https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/8629631... > you can over breathe when people at a gym or when people are jogging you see them really going to get the maximum amount of oxygen in that's not what is happening to your body so you are offloading the co2 by offloading too much co2 you're causing constriction in your circulation https://youtu.be/zWQxNoqKE6E?t=786 https://youtu.be/zWQxNoqKE6E?t=786
  - SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
    That first one feels very chicken and egg - if you're anxious your sympathetic nervous system is going without the breathing. Can breath be used to relax you? Absolutely, but that's as much about focusing the brain on the breathing instead of the anxious thoughts as anything else.
    - betenoire 6y ago
      Anxiety is irrational. addressing your physical symptoms in the moment is FAR superior to being introspective. Save that for your personal retrospective after the anxiety subsides.
    - jerf 6y ago
      It's a reasonably well established principle of psychology (real science, not pop-sci) that a surprising amount of what you perceive to be your emotional state is mediated through your body. That is, you experience a stressor, so the "low level" portions of your brain activate bodily reactions to that stress, and what your high-level brain perceives as stress is actually the bodily reaction rather than the original stressor. Exerting such control as you can on your body (since it is non-zero, but not total either) is a legitimate way to control your (perceived) emotional state, which then feeds back into the entire system. (This also factors in to how hard it is for some people to figure out why they are stressed; the part of the brain trying to work that out isn't necessarily as connected to the stressor as you might intuitively think.) I've been having some low-level morning sleep paralysis lately (it has come and gone my entire life, & it has never been remotely as bad as I've heard some people describe); recently I've discovered an easy way out of it is to just hold my breath (or really, just stop inhaling), which triggers just enough stress to break through the paralysis. YMMV.
      - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago
        I had sleep paralysis as a child once in a while (which isn't uncommon), but as an adult I only get it after a period where when I've consumed cannabis with some regularity, then stopped. It may or may not apply to you, but my friends that have sleep paralysis say this anecdote holds true for them as well.
- throwaway_USD 6y ago
  Probably something to do with shallow breathing so you inhale and exhale more often the one should without maximizing oxygen intake per breathe nor efficiently regulating oxygen/co2.
  - martindbp 6y ago
    But how could we be "conditioned" to breath in a certain way? It reads like a conspiracy to me but maybe that's not what they meant? To me, breathing is a highly personal thing, I doubt there is any outside force able to change how we breathe for the worse. I just don't see the attack vector. We breathe how we feel we need to breathe.
    - wolco 6y ago
      The idea is to control breathe for different affects. "We breathe how we feel we need to breathe". The key word is feel. Change your breathe change the way you feel
    - Barrin92 6y ago
      >But how could we be "conditioned" to breath in a certain way? bad posture, overweight, too little exercise, too much stress. Not much of a stretch to think that the behaviour that gives countless of people snoring, backpain, or high BP may also negatively effect how we breathe.
    - vl 6y ago
      Same way as you can walk or run in a harmful way, it maybe that the way you are breathing is sub-optimal.
- hourislate 6y ago
  Mouth breathing or chest breathing. When you breath from your chest you take more breaths and if it is through your mouth you often over oxygenate. When breathing (normal) it's important to use the nose to both inhale and exhale. It helps regulate the amount of oxygen you take in (keeps your mouth from getting dry). You should also try to breath from your abdomen/stomach instead of your chest. Abdominal breathing creates a stronger respiratory system and core where chest breathing creates a weaker one (my observations).
- glxxyz 6y ago
  It's the corporations, and big Pharma, and the Pentaverate.
  - dcj 6y ago
    Big Air
    - james_s_tayler 6y ago
      I miss the 90s and early 2000s where Big Air was just about extreme sports. Hahaha.
- chefandy 6y ago
  > We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible. People's reasons for consuming more calories than they expend are orders of magnitude more complex than that.
- tumetab1 6y ago
  Mimicing others growing up. We know that even adults mimics each others breathing patterns, I think it's safe to assume a baby/child will try to mimic parents/care takers breathing patterns.
spekcular 6y ago
Does a quick practical guide about how to do this and reap the benefits exist anyway? I'm also curious about finding references for the studies he mentions.
- markdown 6y ago
  You have to buy their book to find out.
- vl 6y ago
  In the article he says he inhales for 5.5 seconds, then exhales for 5.5 seconds.
  - controversy 6y ago
    Have to watch when applying this. I was dehydrated and in the ER. Very stressed. I hate needles and giving blood. Had to do that. Then had a sit up, stand up test. Stated to panic. Counted. Then started to pass out.
    - twox2 6y ago
      Are you saying you got dehydrated and had to go to the ER as a result of this breathing exercise?
- bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
  If you look up the method he states on YouTube there are videos. I also just described it in another comment.
- cvhashim 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/Wemm-i6XHr8 https://youtu.be/Wemm-i6XHr8
- spaceisballer 6y ago
  I read the book it was pretty good. He talks about his experience and a lot of history of breathing techniques and at the end of the books has basically a reference guide and things to look up. Might be worth looking for a digital copy to just cut right to that.
binarymax 6y ago
Isn't this meditation? What is the difference? EDIT: rereading this - yes, it is meditation. Why is it being rebranded and written about as if it is some new discovery?
- rbinv 6y ago
  Probably because this is basically an ad for the author's new book (mentioned at the bottom of the article).
- chewz 6y ago
  Mindfull breathing is not meditation it is just one and the most common of the techniques of meditation.
  - JshWright 6y ago
    That's like saying Golden Retrievers aren't dogs, they're just one of the more common breeds of dog.
    - lozf 6y ago
      It's more like saying "javascript isn't a website, it's just o common tool for making websites". Meditation doesn't depend on mindful breathing, even though it's often used. It's possible to meditate without mindfulness on the breath, and it's possible to breathe mindfully without meditating.
- moneywoes 6y ago
  To generate more clicks
- smoe 6y ago
  Although it might be done for pure marketing purposes in this case, I think sometimes calling something differently can help losing some "spiritual baggage", and open the topic up to people that would otherwise not engage with it. Also, "slow breathing" is very descriptive, just reading it I know what to do (even if I might not know how slow), whereas if I wanted to meditate I would have to read up first what I'm supposed to do and which of the many different practices I want to try out.
matsemann 6y ago
I've done a lot of breathing exercises due to freediving. I think the main benefit for me was that it's almost like meditating. While lying there and breathing up or holding my breath, my mind is completely clear. No thoughts, just staying as relaxed as possible focusing on my diaphragm. No scrolling on my phone thinking about my day, nothing. Just relaxing. Except the last minutes when the body screams at you to breathe because of the co2 buildup, heh. But not sure if there's anything more to it than that? I don't do it as often anymore, but get the same focus from working out.
wenc 6y ago
I was skeptical about breathing exercises but turns out focusing on something as trivial as breathing can and does help in relaxation and anxiety relief. (not a substitute for medication/therapy of course) This is easy for anyone to test empirically -- just YouTube "relaxation exercises". I happen to like this one from the University Health Network in Toronto, which helps me fall asleep (I've never gotten to the end awake) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9kLb5gTYg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9kLb5gTYg
- crystaln 6y ago
  This is a form of meditation, not so much a breathing exercise. The efficacy of meditation has been established for thousands of years.
konaraddi 6y ago
This article is very relevant to what I've recently experienced. I haven't experienced the sweating but I've experienced the serenity that follows controlled breathing. I'm reading an English translation of Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Sara with commentary and verses 11-14 talk about controlling the breath (pranayama). A few relevant points made in those verses: * Controlling your breath can help quieten the mind. * There are such things as harmful breathing patterns so it's important to seek the guidance of experts to avoid them. * The simplest breathing exercise that's easy to do right without an instructor is to observe the breath as it is. I've made a conscious effort to observe the breath randomly throughout the day and it has a calming effect. These past few days have felt good. Observing the breath before sleep has made it easier to fall asleep. FWIW, the verses also mention that, as far as being serene is concerned, pranayama is a short term solution to a long term problem (and the gist of Upadesa Sara is on the long term solution but I digress).
- betenoire 6y ago
  I'm prone to anxiety, and find myself hyperventilating often. Is this what you mean by "harmful breathing patterns"? I've tried the "box breathing" with little luck, but have adapted a version where the exhale is 2-3x longer than the inhale. (inhale for 2 seconds, hold it a couple seconds, exhale slowly for 4-6 second, hold again). I've also found better luck at inhaling into my belly, instead of letting my rib cage expand. It seems to release the tension/anxiety that I'm holding in my chest better.
  - PascLeRasc 6y ago
    Try Headspace guided meditations if you haven't already. Many of them focus specifically on controlled breathing using your stomach.
    - betenoire 6y ago
      thank you for the recommendation, looking at it now
  - onemoresoop 6y ago
captain_price7 6y ago
"No breathing can heal stage IV cancer" I like how this sentence is true in two very different ways...
- tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
  Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
lrnStats 6y ago
Mental health Tangent- I wonder how far the American Medical Association/physicians have set back medical discoveries. The traditional solution is Drugs. Some recommend exercise (although a friend recently couldn't get a prescription for Physical Therapy until after trying steroids for 2 weeks). Even fewer recommend diet changes. Could this breathing method be a drug free solution to various psychological disorders? (Don't get me wrong, people may need drugs, but it's something to consider before a Physician gets someone addicted to Drugs for the rest of their life.) It just seems like every industry has made huge strides in technological progress and scientific knowledge, then you have medical which is still unknown. Engineering and Medicine are both applied sciences, it seems either bizarre or corrupt that medical is far behind and has low quality outcomes, despite high costs.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  > it seems either bizarre or corrupt that medical is far behind). It’s not bizarre. It’s simply very difficult to conduct experiments with a complex subject such as human beings that can produce clean results linking actions to results.
  - lrnStats 6y ago
    But you can say the same about civil engineering. We don't know about macro effects until it's too late.
- spaceisballer 6y ago
  I mean diet and exercise can have profound effects on your health. My personal experiences have been that doctors I have been to are likely to prescribe something and then toss in “also you should exercise and lose some weight”. I herniated a disc and basically my options were steroid shots or surgery. I opted for the steroid shots just to get rid of the constant numbness and pain down my leg. But there had been no real help on what to do now. “Strengthen your core” um ok thanks. All that to say a lot of time is spent treating the symptoms and not the cause. Meanwhile I’m stuck finding the cause and then trying to remedy it.
krn 6y ago
The Science of Breath (1903)[1] by William Walker Atkinson[2] is a fundamental read on the subject. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603864180 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603864180 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_Atkinson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_Atkinson
- andai 6y ago
  Worth noting that WWA's works are now public domain and can be found for free online, eg. (same book) http://yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf http://yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf
jimnotgym 6y ago
I have often wondered if controlled breathing was actually a big part of what smokers find relaxing. When I gave up smoking I noticed sucking air through a small paper tube was also relaxing.
- Imanari 6y ago
  That makes a lot of sense! Especially the breathing out part could compound the direct effect of the drug. These long and pleasant breath-outs that you do when you got something done and can finally kick back.
impendia 6y ago
I started reading his book Breath, and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for this claim. I found a bunch of blog posts by yoga-affiliated people, and the like. I asked about this on Biology Stack Exchange, unfortunately with no answer. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/94651/ https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/94651/ I would be very curious if any HN reader knows more about this. That said, my impression of Nestor (who is a journalist, and not a scientist) was that he was perhaps a bit too eager to jump to conclusions.
- Romanulus 6y ago
  This is interesting and I'd love to hear some kind of real-science debunking (as I'm sure it would be the case)... or conversely, showing someone (via video and some kind of monitoring device) directing air in and out of one or the other nostril at will.
  - jamesakirk 6y ago
    You use your hand to clamp down one nostril. Lookup Nadi Shodhana.
    - Romanulus 6y ago
      Damn... you just took a pencil to space with that comment. :)
- jcims 6y ago
  It could be constructive application of the placebo effect. Try it.
  - glxxyz 6y ago
    The placebo effect is magnified by spending one's own cash on the treatment.
forgotmyp77 6y ago
i started this technique several years ago, and it's done wonders for both me mental state and attention and my meditation practice. whenever annoyed or waiting, several deep breaths and then continued breath awareness for as long as i remember.
jniedrauer 6y ago
I wonder every time I see things like this whether more conventional exercise will also do the same thing. I'm a recreational runner, and as I become more fit, I notice that my body is capable of entering deeper and deeper states of relaxation. When I go to sleep at night, my breathing and heart rate slow to rates that I never could have sustained before getting in shape. Being conscious and in control of my breath is important, especially at high altitude. And a long run out in nature definitely puts me in a meditative state. I wonder if this kind of conventional exercise might provide more "bang for your buck" than just controlled breathing in isolation.
- frereubu 6y ago
  There's a great book called Bird Therapy - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43804073-bird-therapy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43804073-bird-therapy - where the author talks about how birdwatching helped enormously with his mental health. He talks briefly at one point about two runners who "birdwatch" while running, and who find the same kind of meditative peace that he does from a long walk with birdwatching points along the way. I've only just started trail running, but I find the mix of nature and running definitely multiplies the benefits of exercise and meditation rather than just adding together. (That is, if there aren't too many people around - I live in a relatively crowded part of the country unfortunately, so despite being surrounded by lovely countryside there are often quite a few people about!)
- bob1029 6y ago
  Exercise will certainly accomplish similar objectives. After a few months of intense circuit training, I started to realize that I could get away with breathing a lot less frequently. Once my resting heart rate dropped below 50BPM, it was like having a mental switch I could throw on demand to enter into a state of calm. Just a few seconds of focus and I could deal with a monster of a stressful situation with ease. I really need to get back into it. The time investment is substantial, but exercise always pays really good dividends.
  - nmfisher 6y ago
    One of my pet theories is that regular exercise strengthens your core muscles and allows you to recruit those core muscles more effectively. This is what allows the diaphragm to expand more and thus facilitates deeper breathing. More oxygen per breath, and fewer heartbeats required to circulate it through the bloodstream. Could be total rubbish, but I'd be interested to see a study either way.
jb775 6y ago
Wasn't there a HN post somewhat recently about the scientific health benefits of breathing exercises? I can't find it. I made a note to read it after I saw the post but forgot about it until now.
Apocryphon 6y ago
Are there any online breathing courses or services worth taking? I've read of diaphragmatic/belly breathing before, but I think I need an actual coach to check if I'm doing it correctly.
- sg47 6y ago
  See my comment in this thread for recommendations.
sg47 6y ago
I'm a recovering thyroid cancer (good cancer) patient. My breathing and immunity had become bad due to my surgeries/treatment but also stress, occasional hookah smoking, etc. After suffering from severe bronchitis and cough for the first months of this year, I started doing the breathing exercises in this video (https://youtu.be/iUKjuni-6l8?list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohEQEI9fB5X&t=527 https://youtu.be/iUKjuni-6l8?list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohE...) regularly (4-6 times a week) based on a HNer's recommendation. All my symptoms have completely disappeared, my breathing has become slower and I have become a much calmer person. My lungs feel really clear. Highly recommend doing these breathing exercises regularly (every day for the first month if possible). This guy, Michael Bijker, also has a lot of good videos on breathing exercises. Here's an example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZInO0-ZHk&list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohEQEI9fB5X&index=2&t=765s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZInO0-ZHk&list=PLxdtWIiZAU...
givan 6y ago
All Europe has gone mad about breathing exercises. For four or five years I have made money by treating people who had ruined their breathing by such methods! Many books are written about it, everyone tries to teach others. They say: "The more you breathe, the greater the inflow of oxygen," etc., and, as a result, they come to me. I am very grateful to the authors of such books, founders of schools, and so on. If, for example, we change our breathing, we change the rhythm of our lungs; but since everything is connected, other rhythms also gradually begin to change. If we go on with this breathing for a long time it may change the rhythm of all the organs. For instance, the rhythm of the stomach will change. And the stomach has its own habits, it needs a certain time to digest food; say, for example, the food must lie there an hour. If the rhythm of the stomach changes, food may pass through more quickly and the stomach will not have time to take from it all it needs. In another place the reverse may occur. It is a thousand times better not to interfere with our machine, to leave it in bad condition rather than correct it without knowledge. To work on oneself one must know every screw, every nail of one's machine—then you will know what to do. But if you know a little and try, you may lose a great deal. The risk is great, for the machine is very complicated. It has very small screws which can be easily damaged, and if you push harder you may break them. And these screws cannot be bought in a shop. One must be very careful. When you know, it is another thing. If anyone here is experimenting with breathing, it is better to stop while there is still time. Gurdjieff G. I. - Views from the Real World (Experiments with breathing talk)
- prox 6y ago
  As someone who has done yoga, I must agree to an extent. Many yogateachers are simply not adept enough nor qualified to teach about breathing. But there are experts out there and breathing disorders are a thing, so it does pay off to learn more about it especially if you have some complaints that could be derived from breathing wrong. Problem is that few, even GPs are not often well versed in the matter. That said simply focussing on calm and being relaxed (breathing) carries little harm.
- twox2 6y ago
  So how do you recommend a layman improve their breathing without fucking themselves up? Is it so complicated that we can't do it on our own without professional help?
dmje 6y ago
No one seems to have mentioned Wim Hoff here (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ https://www.wimhofmethod.com/). He’s got some claims that verge on the suspicious but the actual method itself is worth doing purely if you’re an interested sort. Before, I can do about 40 seconds held on an out breath, after, about 2:40. That’s kinda interesting. I’d also recommend trying it if you’re a meditator. Do a WH session first, then sit. It’s really great for finding mind space: a bit buzzy, a bit like a natural high, but for me it meshes pretty well with a breath following meditation.
- mtalantikite 6y ago
  The article mentions the first class the author took taught them Sudarshan Kriya, which is a particular kriya that the Art of Living Foundation teaches. From what I understand a large part of the kriya involves bhastrika pranayama, which is pretty much what the beginning Wim Hof method is, except he adds a kumbhaka (breath retention/hold) at the end of the 30 breath cycle. I appreciate what Wim Hof is doing, but a lot of these techniques have quite a long history in yoga.
  - sn41 6y ago
    What I find nice about his technique, is that it is much simpler than yoga and pranayama. He does not, for example, emphasise inhaling or holding or exceeding for a particular count of seconds. I find that it is easier to perform the Wim Hof technique because of this. The breathing technique which is closest to Wim How is that of Tummo. You can find videos of this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQ-SV092GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQ-SV092GM
    - mtalantikite 6y ago
      I’ve never tried Wim Hof’s techniques — I’d like to — but I have practiced bhastrika a good amount and do nadi shodhana every morning before meditation. Does his technique really resemble tummo? I’ve tried to find a tummo teacher (haven’t found one), but I’ve read “The Bliss of Inner Fire” and from what I understand a fundamental part of it involves mula and uddiyana bandhas being engaged in conjunction with the “vase” breath. Does Wim teach these things? I’ve seen photos of him practicing and he’s definitely doing uddiyana bandha, but I’d be surprised if he teaches that, it requires deep transverse abdominis activation to do. I only started getting that awareness in that layer of muscle after a couple years of yoga practice. If he’s not teaching the bandhas then the technique really is just bhastrika with retentions. It’s a totally great practice, but I’d say it’s just the beginning step in the path of pranayama practice.
hkr3 6y ago
https://youtu.be/p1av5fG7sOA?t=3031 https://youtu.be/p1av5fG7sOA?t=3031 This is more ancient that many know. Breathing has a direct impact on the body and the mind.
lostmsu 6y ago
Yes, but can it charge water?
wazoox 6y ago
A friend of mine had pneumonia 30 years ago, and a physiotherapist told him to breathe with the abdomen as part of his treatment. I tried it for my asthma, and it worked pretty well. After a while, it came naturally and I mostly breathe this way all the time. Slowly, and from the belly :)
- justaguyhere 6y ago
  Babies breathe this way. Somewhere along the way to becoming an adult, we lose this ability without even realizing.
- jointpdf 6y ago
  Also known as diaphragmatic breathing: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphragmatic-breathing https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphrag... I was taught this as a way to control some very acute anxiety from hypochondria that took over my life for ~6 months before I could get treatment. Apparently it worked, since I haven’t suffered from that type of anxiety since.
vadansky 6y ago
Might as well ask it here, since goolgling this leads me down the hypochondriac nuts hole. I've noticed I yawn ALOT. Furthremore when I yawning I feel like only 1 out 5 yawns are "proper complete" yawns that actually get enough air in (that's the best way I can explain). I was thinking this might be a sign my nose is too stuffed normally and I'm not getting enough oxygen, but reading this thread I might be over oxygenating? Some extra information, I've noticed this a while but I have been exercising a lot lately, and lost about 20 pounds, so I do feel relatively healthy and active.
- JoeyJoJoJr 6y ago
  I don't yawn much at all, but sometimes (usually in bed) I do get an uncomfortable urge to have deep yawns. It is frustrating because most of the yawns feel unsatisfying, like I didn't get a deep enough breath with the yawn. It feels as if there is some tension around my lungs or diaphragm. After about 10-20 minutes of this and consciously trying to relax these muscles, I may get in a couple of big satisfying yawns, but it takes a while to get to that point.
- dolguldur 6y ago
  If your nose is stuffy regularly, search for "mewing" on youtube. Could be worth trying
nojs 6y ago
I have found breathing exercises to strengthen my diaphragm hugely helpful for acid reflux. I lie down with weights on my abdomen and breathe from the diaphragm for about 10 minutes a day. I’ve been able to stop PPIs completely by doing this regularly.
- chrome_alley 6y ago
  Where do you put the weights? Do you have any additional information about this?
- lukemccomb 6y ago
  Do you have more info on this? I’ve suffered from GERD for a long time now and have found ways to mitigate the effects but this seems like an interesting potential treatment.
  - leethomas 6y ago
    Not the same thing, but I believe the parent commenter because I’ve seen multiple studies done where it was found that breathing exercises seemed to help with reflux: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3807765/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3807765/
    - lukemccomb 6y ago
      Nice, I'll give this a read. Thanks
  - nojs 6y ago
    I can’t find the video I followed originally but what I do is pretty simple. I lie on the floor with one hand on my chest and one hand on my belly (just below the sternum). Then I breathe paying attention that only the lower hand moves, ie that I’m using my diaphragm. I put the weights (small metal plates) under the lower hand to add resistance. I recall seeing some papers explaining the mechanism being related to how the diaphragm kind of wraps around the oesophageal sphincter, so strengthening it helps it close.
elliottkember 6y ago
I'm surprised none of these comments mention "singing" or "prayer". Both are forms of breath control, and both extremely therapeutic.
tzot 6y ago
> Hindus considered breath and spirit the same thing It's funny, because I just realised that πνεύμα(pneuma)/spirit in Greek has the same root as πνεύμων(pneumon)/lung: the verb πνέω(pnéo), which means I breathe. This is not Mr Portokalos talking from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, people: πνέω is traced to the older Indo-European stem pnew- , and the whole point of my comment is that there is a lot of heritage in language through the eons from older cultures and civilizations. Trivia: the suffix -μα (like in the words pragma, dogma, trauma etc) generally means “the result or the carrier of the verb's actions”, so like pragma (“thing”, what is/has been made/done), dogma (what one believes in; the firmness of the belief is irrelevant to the ancient word), trauma (“wound”; the result of being wounded), pneuma would be what is being breathed; and there's another connection to old roots: alcohol is «οινόπνευμα» (spirit/fumes of the wine), and alcoholic drinks are called “spirits”. Fun stuff :)
- sajforbes 6y ago
  The English words "respire" and "spirit" have the same root, too.
  - asveikau 6y ago
    Latin spirare and spiritus respectively. Afaik spiritus came from the verb and literally meant breath in addition to the figurative meaning.
- r0rshrk 6y ago
  Atmen in German (breath) and Atman in Sanskrit (breath, spirit) have the same origin.
  - baxtr 6y ago
    Fascinating. Indo-European languages share many word roots. Word that remain similar tend to be numbers and family members (mum, dad, brother etc)
- thiagocsf 6y ago
  In Portuguese the root “pneu” by itself means “tire” (as in a car tire). Fun stuff indeed!
yboris 6y ago
Does anyone else find this style of writing absolutely aggravating? The first paragraph has absolutely 0 value to me as a reader. It's almost like the goal of the writer is to take up as much of your time as possible.
- emilost 6y ago
  Breath and read the next paragraph
- viburnum 6y ago
  Haha, I posted this here and I agree, it the author to get to the point.
andai 6y ago
The Guardian wants me to register to read the article. I had to use a US-based web proxy to get it to load.
daragh99 6y ago
I'm curious to read the book. I've practiced breathing techniques from yogic and meditative traditions for maybe 15 years now. Even just a minute of deeper, slower breathing has a calming effect on my mind and body, for the most part. The breathing practices/exercises are, for the most part, useful and interesting. I have to let go of a lot of the metaphysics in these traditions though, there is a certain amount of "woo" to wade through.
techload 6y ago
https://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib9.htm#4 https://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib9.htm#4
Ozzie_osman 6y ago
No science here, but anecdotally I find a lot of things that require focus on breathing to be really relaxing. Meditation, yoga, exercise, even things like scuba diving and smoking (I don't smoke regularly, maybe hookah a few times a year).
somepeepz15 6y ago
That's really neat! somepeepz15@gmail.com
dutch3000 6y ago
isn’t this just like.., uh.., sleeping?
vmurthy 6y ago
I've recently started listening to the audio book "Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life" [0] by Inna Khazan, a clinical pscyhologist[1]. For the more skeptical minded who want the data/ more exploration, she references a bunch of studies attesting to the efficacy of breathing techniques and how it impacts health etc. I won't say the book has changed my life mainly because I am still listening to it and there's a l ong way to practise these but so far the results are encouraging ( More peace of mind , great sleep (experience) plus data on my Apple Watch app and energy levels) [0] https://www.audible.in/pd/Biofeedback-and-Mindfulness-in-Everyday-Life-Audiobook/B07VCTR1CZ?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_&pf_rd_p=fbaa688e-a578-4e09-8a7e-c311598d4470&pf_rd_r=DAAYKX0CQ9H2DWF0725A https://www.audible.in/pd/Biofeedback-and-Mindfulness-in-Eve... [1] https://innakhazan.com/wp/13-about-me/ https://innakhazan.com/wp/13-about-me/
la6471 6y ago
Very timely article ... people in this country needs a calming effect that is non toxic at this time.
nilsocket 6y ago
We Hindus don't just consider it as breathing, our world view is different. Breathing techniques in India are called Pranayama which means controlling prana. This is an excerpt from chapter-3 of Raja yoga by Swami Vivekananda. Pranayama is not as may think, something about breath. Breath indeed has very little to do with it if anything. Breathing is only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Pranayama. Pranayama means the control of Prana. According to the philosophers of India the whole universe is composed of two materials, one of which they call Akasha, It is the omnipresent, all-penetrating existence. Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids; it is the Akasha that becomes the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets; it is the Akasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists. It cannot be perceived; it is so subtle that it is beyond all ordinary perception; it can only be seen when it has become gross, has taken form. At the beginning of creation there is only this Ākāsha. At the end of the cycle the solids, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the Akasha again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of this Akāsha. By what power is this Akasha manufactured into this universe? By the power of Prāna. Just as Akasha is the infinite, omnipresent material of this universe, so is this Prāna the infinite, omnipresent manifesting power of this universe. At the beginning and at the end of a cycle everything becomes Akāsha, and all the forces that are in the universe resolve back into the Prāna; in the next cycle, out of this Prāna is evolved everything that we call energy, everything that we call force. It is the Prāna that is manifesting as motion; it is the Prāna that is manifesting as gravitation, as magnetism. It is the Prāna that is manifesting as the actions of the body, as the nerve currents, as thought force. From thought down to the lowest force, everything is but the manifestation of Prāna. The sum total of all forces in the universe, mental or physical, when resolved back to their original state, is called Prana. "When there was neither aught nor naught when darkness was covering darkness, what existed then? That Akäsha existed without motion." The physical motion of the Präna was stopped, but it existed all the same. At the end of a cycle the energies now displayed in the universe quiet down and become potential. At the beginning of the next to cycle they start up, strike upon the Akäsha, and out of the Akāsha evolve these various forms, and as the Ākāsha changes, this Prana changes also into all these manifestations of energy. The knowledge and control of this Prāna is really what is meant by Pranayama.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
paulgerhardt 6y ago
Two minutes of 5.5 second inhales and 5.5 seconds exhales hyperventilates me to the point of dizziness. There’s a lot of qualifications for this number and freedivers explore most of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aXxXCXptYA&t=12m10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aXxXCXptYA&t=12m10s 6 seconds in and 12 out is my ideal breath-up. Shallower breathes for meditation. The video above has a good exercise for finding your ideal breath-up.
systematical 6y ago
3 months ago my gut reaction would be to not even click on this, but having been stressed out at work recently I started doing yoga and meditation again, which in themselves do a bit with breathing. Anecdotally I've noticed some positive changes in my amount of energy and stress. That could all be a coincidence and if nothing else I am gaining flexibility again. What I'm taking too many words up to say is, I am inclined to give this a shot.
moltar 6y ago
This author seems to be on a PR circuit. Was on Rogan podcast recently. Heard other health podcasts mention the book and that they’ll have him on soon. I’m not saying it is wrong. Just to be aware.
- tomcooks 6y ago
  Sorry aware of what? Isn't it how new material gets to people?
barrenko 6y ago
Breathing works, just as basic spirituality. But, further you get into cultish stuff and "spiritual" experiences because you're basically restricting oxygen. In Zen they even warn of it.
- bayindirh 6y ago
  I practice Zen and, after certain point you don't even watch your breathing. You just become aware of it. So, you restrict nothing. Unfortunately meditation and spirituality is a very sharp and two edged sword. You need to find the correct people alongside the correct path. In our way, there's no Spiritual Experience (TM). You just become aware of the issues in your life and with yourself, then you try to solve them. We say that "something is useless if it doesn't improve your real life in a perceivable way".
  - nprateem 6y ago
    Advanced Zen practitioners most definitely do report what many would call spiritual experiences. The difference is they let those experiences go instead of chasing them or attaching much significance to them. See for example the later chapters of "The Mind Illuminated", or the excellent "Science of Enlightenment" audio talk by Shinzen Young.
    - bayindirh 6y ago
      Your explanation is actually what I've intended to say. We don't cling to them. They're not important as-is and not to be chased. I've also got my fair share (of experiences) but, I don't remember any of them except one or two odd ones. I remember them because they've proved to be some pivotal moments which my life became better afterwards.
divan 6y ago
If anyone had a chance to read a book – is it just exploring and describing observation about breathing or it attempts to answer how different breathing actually works and effects the health? I remember watching this amazing TEDx talk which gives an on state demonstration of how breathing directly affects blood flow / pulse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xc3XdOiGGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xc3XdOiGGI There is another interesting video I've watched years ago with some hints that breathing directly influence mitochondrial activity, but it's in Russian, so not sure if it's worth sharing. Another thing indirectly mentioned was that breathing is the only "low-level" body function that we control conciously to some extent, so its effect on health is a neat byproduct and can be used for "hacking" metabolism and low-level body functions. Anyway, I'm wondering if there is something more than "conscious breathing can do amazing things to your health" in this book?
- qnsi 6y ago
  I am at the beginning of the book, but for my taste it's too much storified (if that makes sense). He talks a lot about how he found something out and his personal experience with learning about breathing. Also similar to OP here [1] I was super curious about his claim that you can influence a lot of stuff in your body by picking one nostril you breath with. I googled for confirmation and wasn't satisfied with the results. Later he also recommends oxygen deprivation (breathing very shallowly while running and warns about blackouts) He doesn't cite studies in a usual science like way. So I decided I won't read the book in full. Hope this helps. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23980094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23980094
MrYellowP 6y ago
Nice to see something like this getting upvotes. I once had a friend who was out of sync with her inner rythm ... so to speak. After identifying the problem, we've sat down for an hour and I've taught her how to breathe properly, especially - but not only - slowly. It changed her life ... with a catch. People noticed she was calmer and happier. People liked her more. She got promoted. She started earning more. Her life improved significantly, for months. And then it hit her. Her ego inflated so much, she started overworking herself. She lost her sense for her limits. Her ego couldn't handle the relative increase in energy, which got even worse due to the relative increase in self-confidence. Burnt herself out. At least one month hospital. Breathing techniques are no joke. When you're doing it "wrong" all your life, the sudden increase in energy when you begin doing it "right" can be both quite massive and very lasting.
- 2511 6y ago
  If you don't mind- could you please elaborate on "taught her how to breathe properly"
  - MrYellowP 6y ago
    That's too broad. What do you want to know?
new_guy 6y ago
If anyone wants to learn to breathe properly I can recommend this book: http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.... A lot of the stuff on Google search and even the so called 'experts' know nothing at all about this science. When you get deep into it you can even unlock psychic abilities (seriously).
vijucat 6y ago
An interesting resource that I found on the topic of breathing is https://www.normalbreathing.com/ https://www.normalbreathing.com/ Dr Artour Rakhimov claims that breath starvation (breathing slowly and less) is key to higher oxygen absorption; and definitely not deep breathing! "Take a deep breath" makes sense if you have been hyper-ventilating, but not ALL the time. I found his site via his "How to unblock a blocked nose in 1 minute" video, a technique which works even when both nostrils are clogged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhOTUBZYTEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhOTUBZYTEg
ZeljkoS 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathwork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathwork
yetanotherjosh 6y ago
Anyone interested in the topic should learn about the Buteyko technique and the work of Konstantin Buteyko. He was a Russian scientist who studied the negative effects of chronic hyperventillation, the positive effects of healthy breathing, and developed a technique to restore healthy breathing. For example, he developed a way to measure the health of someone's respiration through a simple test called the "control pause." To measure your control pause, bring your attention to your breath and without changing your breath, stop breathing at the end of your next natural exhalation. Start a timer, and see how long it takes before your body generates any minor uncomfortable signal in an urge to breathe (an urge to swallow, any kind of muscle contraction, anything subtle expressing a demand to breathe). As soon as you reach such a signal, stop the timer. People who breath healthily (according to Buteyko's research) have at least 40 seconds on the timer. (This is NOT a breath holding test, and if your regular respiration gets faster or deeper after you complete it, you did it wrong.) Most people certainly are not even close to 40 sec. And that, according to Buteyko, is because most people severely overbreathe. The consequence of this dysfunction, of being in a constant state of chronic hyperventillation, is that the blood vessels contract, and surprisingly, less oxygen is transferred to the cells because CO2 is a necessary catalyst for the transfer of oxygen to the cells, and hyperventillation drains the blood of CO2. Healthy breathing, according to Buteyko, is minute and nearly visually imperceptible.
- baxtr 6y ago
  Are there any scientific foundations underlying his techniques?
filipeisho 6y ago
I don't know if any of you would be interested in this but after reading a lot of articles like this I programmed a simple app to help you breath while you work on the computer (distraction free). If you wanna check it out: https://github.com/filipeisho/breathe https://github.com/filipeisho/breathe Any feedback is highly appreciated!

550 points by viburnum 6y ago

James Nestor’s podcast episodes with Ben Greenfield and Joe Rogan both are very interesting. Obviously there is some material crossover between the two, but I found unique things from each. I really the breathwork will become the new fad, but for good reason. It’s amazingly powerful.

jagannathtech 6y ago

Pranayama

martindbp 6y ago

> We’ve become conditioned to breathe too much, just as we’ve been conditioned to eat too much. How is one conditioned to breathe too much? We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible. That has not been done to air.

abendy 6y ago
> people with anxieties or other fear-based conditions typically will breathe way too much. So what happens when you breathe that much is you're constantly putting yourself into a state of stress. So you're stimulating that sympathetic side of the nervous system https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/862963172/how-the-lost-art-of-breathing-can-impact-sleep-and-resilience https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/8629631... > you can over breathe when people at a gym or when people are jogging you see them really going to get the maximum amount of oxygen in that's not what is happening to your body so you are offloading the co2 by offloading too much co2 you're causing constriction in your circulation https://youtu.be/zWQxNoqKE6E?t=786 https://youtu.be/zWQxNoqKE6E?t=786
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  That first one feels very chicken and egg - if you're anxious your sympathetic nervous system is going without the breathing. Can breath be used to relax you? Absolutely, but that's as much about focusing the brain on the breathing instead of the anxious thoughts as anything else.
  - betenoire 6y ago
    Anxiety is irrational. addressing your physical symptoms in the moment is FAR superior to being introspective. Save that for your personal retrospective after the anxiety subsides.
  - jerf 6y ago
    It's a reasonably well established principle of psychology (real science, not pop-sci) that a surprising amount of what you perceive to be your emotional state is mediated through your body. That is, you experience a stressor, so the "low level" portions of your brain activate bodily reactions to that stress, and what your high-level brain perceives as stress is actually the bodily reaction rather than the original stressor. Exerting such control as you can on your body (since it is non-zero, but not total either) is a legitimate way to control your (perceived) emotional state, which then feeds back into the entire system. (This also factors in to how hard it is for some people to figure out why they are stressed; the part of the brain trying to work that out isn't necessarily as connected to the stressor as you might intuitively think.) I've been having some low-level morning sleep paralysis lately (it has come and gone my entire life, & it has never been remotely as bad as I've heard some people describe); recently I've discovered an easy way out of it is to just hold my breath (or really, just stop inhaling), which triggers just enough stress to break through the paralysis. YMMV.
    - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago
      I had sleep paralysis as a child once in a while (which isn't uncommon), but as an adult I only get it after a period where when I've consumed cannabis with some regularity, then stopped. It may or may not apply to you, but my friends that have sleep paralysis say this anecdote holds true for them as well.
throwaway_USD 6y ago
Probably something to do with shallow breathing so you inhale and exhale more often the one should without maximizing oxygen intake per breathe nor efficiently regulating oxygen/co2.
- martindbp 6y ago
  But how could we be "conditioned" to breath in a certain way? It reads like a conspiracy to me but maybe that's not what they meant? To me, breathing is a highly personal thing, I doubt there is any outside force able to change how we breathe for the worse. I just don't see the attack vector. We breathe how we feel we need to breathe.
  - wolco 6y ago
    The idea is to control breathe for different affects. "We breathe how we feel we need to breathe". The key word is feel. Change your breathe change the way you feel
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    >But how could we be "conditioned" to breath in a certain way? bad posture, overweight, too little exercise, too much stress. Not much of a stretch to think that the behaviour that gives countless of people snoring, backpain, or high BP may also negatively effect how we breathe.
  - vl 6y ago
    Same way as you can walk or run in a harmful way, it maybe that the way you are breathing is sub-optimal.
hourislate 6y ago
Mouth breathing or chest breathing. When you breath from your chest you take more breaths and if it is through your mouth you often over oxygenate. When breathing (normal) it's important to use the nose to both inhale and exhale. It helps regulate the amount of oxygen you take in (keeps your mouth from getting dry). You should also try to breath from your abdomen/stomach instead of your chest. Abdominal breathing creates a stronger respiratory system and core where chest breathing creates a weaker one (my observations).
glxxyz 6y ago
It's the corporations, and big Pharma, and the Pentaverate.
- dcj 6y ago
  Big Air
  - james_s_tayler 6y ago
    I miss the 90s and early 2000s where Big Air was just about extreme sports. Hahaha.
chefandy 6y ago
> We eat too much because there is so much available to us and it's engineered (by trial and error) to be as delicious as possible. People's reasons for consuming more calories than they expend are orders of magnitude more complex than that.
tumetab1 6y ago
Mimicing others growing up. We know that even adults mimics each others breathing patterns, I think it's safe to assume a baby/child will try to mimic parents/care takers breathing patterns.

spekcular 6y ago

Does a quick practical guide about how to do this and reap the benefits exist anyway? I'm also curious about finding references for the studies he mentions.

markdown 6y ago
You have to buy their book to find out.
vl 6y ago
In the article he says he inhales for 5.5 seconds, then exhales for 5.5 seconds.
- controversy 6y ago
  Have to watch when applying this. I was dehydrated and in the ER. Very stressed. I hate needles and giving blood. Had to do that. Then had a sit up, stand up test. Stated to panic. Counted. Then started to pass out.
  - twox2 6y ago
    Are you saying you got dehydrated and had to go to the ER as a result of this breathing exercise?
bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
If you look up the method he states on YouTube there are videos. I also just described it in another comment.
cvhashim 6y ago
https://youtu.be/Wemm-i6XHr8 https://youtu.be/Wemm-i6XHr8
spaceisballer 6y ago
I read the book it was pretty good. He talks about his experience and a lot of history of breathing techniques and at the end of the books has basically a reference guide and things to look up. Might be worth looking for a digital copy to just cut right to that.

binarymax 6y ago

Isn't this meditation? What is the difference? EDIT: rereading this - yes, it is meditation. Why is it being rebranded and written about as if it is some new discovery?

rbinv 6y ago
Probably because this is basically an ad for the author's new book (mentioned at the bottom of the article).
chewz 6y ago
Mindfull breathing is not meditation it is just one and the most common of the techniques of meditation.
- JshWright 6y ago
  That's like saying Golden Retrievers aren't dogs, they're just one of the more common breeds of dog.
  - lozf 6y ago
    It's more like saying "javascript isn't a website, it's just o common tool for making websites". Meditation doesn't depend on mindful breathing, even though it's often used. It's possible to meditate without mindfulness on the breath, and it's possible to breathe mindfully without meditating.
moneywoes 6y ago
To generate more clicks
smoe 6y ago
Although it might be done for pure marketing purposes in this case, I think sometimes calling something differently can help losing some "spiritual baggage", and open the topic up to people that would otherwise not engage with it. Also, "slow breathing" is very descriptive, just reading it I know what to do (even if I might not know how slow), whereas if I wanted to meditate I would have to read up first what I'm supposed to do and which of the many different practices I want to try out.

matsemann 6y ago

I've done a lot of breathing exercises due to freediving. I think the main benefit for me was that it's almost like meditating. While lying there and breathing up or holding my breath, my mind is completely clear. No thoughts, just staying as relaxed as possible focusing on my diaphragm. No scrolling on my phone thinking about my day, nothing. Just relaxing. Except the last minutes when the body screams at you to breathe because of the co2 buildup, heh. But not sure if there's anything more to it than that? I don't do it as often anymore, but get the same focus from working out.

wenc 6y ago

I was skeptical about breathing exercises but turns out focusing on something as trivial as breathing can and does help in relaxation and anxiety relief. (not a substitute for medication/therapy of course) This is easy for anyone to test empirically -- just YouTube "relaxation exercises". I happen to like this one from the University Health Network in Toronto, which helps me fall asleep (I've never gotten to the end awake) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9kLb5gTYg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9kLb5gTYg

crystaln 6y ago
This is a form of meditation, not so much a breathing exercise. The efficacy of meditation has been established for thousands of years.

konaraddi 6y ago

This article is very relevant to what I've recently experienced. I haven't experienced the sweating but I've experienced the serenity that follows controlled breathing. I'm reading an English translation of Ramana Maharshi's Upadesa Sara with commentary and verses 11-14 talk about controlling the breath (pranayama). A few relevant points made in those verses: * Controlling your breath can help quieten the mind. * There are such things as harmful breathing patterns so it's important to seek the guidance of experts to avoid them. * The simplest breathing exercise that's easy to do right without an instructor is to observe the breath as it is. I've made a conscious effort to observe the breath randomly throughout the day and it has a calming effect. These past few days have felt good. Observing the breath before sleep has made it easier to fall asleep. FWIW, the verses also mention that, as far as being serene is concerned, pranayama is a short term solution to a long term problem (and the gist of Upadesa Sara is on the long term solution but I digress).

betenoire 6y ago
I'm prone to anxiety, and find myself hyperventilating often. Is this what you mean by "harmful breathing patterns"? I've tried the "box breathing" with little luck, but have adapted a version where the exhale is 2-3x longer than the inhale. (inhale for 2 seconds, hold it a couple seconds, exhale slowly for 4-6 second, hold again). I've also found better luck at inhaling into my belly, instead of letting my rib cage expand. It seems to release the tension/anxiety that I'm holding in my chest better.
- PascLeRasc 6y ago
  Try Headspace guided meditations if you haven't already. Many of them focus specifically on controlled breathing using your stomach.
  - betenoire 6y ago
    thank you for the recommendation, looking at it now
- onemoresoop 6y ago

captain_price7 6y ago

"No breathing can heal stage IV cancer" I like how this sentence is true in two very different ways...

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

lrnStats 6y ago

Mental health Tangent- I wonder how far the American Medical Association/physicians have set back medical discoveries. The traditional solution is Drugs. Some recommend exercise (although a friend recently couldn't get a prescription for Physical Therapy until after trying steroids for 2 weeks). Even fewer recommend diet changes. Could this breathing method be a drug free solution to various psychological disorders? (Don't get me wrong, people may need drugs, but it's something to consider before a Physician gets someone addicted to Drugs for the rest of their life.) It just seems like every industry has made huge strides in technological progress and scientific knowledge, then you have medical which is still unknown. Engineering and Medicine are both applied sciences, it seems either bizarre or corrupt that medical is far behind and has low quality outcomes, despite high costs.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
> it seems either bizarre or corrupt that medical is far behind). It’s not bizarre. It’s simply very difficult to conduct experiments with a complex subject such as human beings that can produce clean results linking actions to results.
- lrnStats 6y ago
  But you can say the same about civil engineering. We don't know about macro effects until it's too late.
spaceisballer 6y ago
I mean diet and exercise can have profound effects on your health. My personal experiences have been that doctors I have been to are likely to prescribe something and then toss in “also you should exercise and lose some weight”. I herniated a disc and basically my options were steroid shots or surgery. I opted for the steroid shots just to get rid of the constant numbness and pain down my leg. But there had been no real help on what to do now. “Strengthen your core” um ok thanks. All that to say a lot of time is spent treating the symptoms and not the cause. Meanwhile I’m stuck finding the cause and then trying to remedy it.

krn 6y ago

The Science of Breath (1903)[1] by William Walker Atkinson[2] is a fundamental read on the subject. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603864180 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603864180 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_Atkinson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_Atkinson

andai 6y ago
Worth noting that WWA's works are now public domain and can be found for free online, eg. (same book) http://yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf http://yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf

jimnotgym 6y ago

I have often wondered if controlled breathing was actually a big part of what smokers find relaxing. When I gave up smoking I noticed sucking air through a small paper tube was also relaxing.

Imanari 6y ago
That makes a lot of sense! Especially the breathing out part could compound the direct effect of the drug. These long and pleasant breath-outs that you do when you got something done and can finally kick back.

impendia 6y ago

I started reading his book Breath, and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for this claim. I found a bunch of blog posts by yoga-affiliated people, and the like. I asked about this on Biology Stack Exchange, unfortunately with no answer. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/94651/ https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/94651/ I would be very curious if any HN reader knows more about this. That said, my impression of Nestor (who is a journalist, and not a scientist) was that he was perhaps a bit too eager to jump to conclusions.

Romanulus 6y ago
This is interesting and I'd love to hear some kind of real-science debunking (as I'm sure it would be the case)... or conversely, showing someone (via video and some kind of monitoring device) directing air in and out of one or the other nostril at will.
- jamesakirk 6y ago
  You use your hand to clamp down one nostril. Lookup Nadi Shodhana.
  - Romanulus 6y ago
    Damn... you just took a pencil to space with that comment. :)
jcims 6y ago
It could be constructive application of the placebo effect. Try it.
- glxxyz 6y ago
  The placebo effect is magnified by spending one's own cash on the treatment.

forgotmyp77 6y ago

i started this technique several years ago, and it's done wonders for both me mental state and attention and my meditation practice. whenever annoyed or waiting, several deep breaths and then continued breath awareness for as long as i remember.

jniedrauer 6y ago

I wonder every time I see things like this whether more conventional exercise will also do the same thing. I'm a recreational runner, and as I become more fit, I notice that my body is capable of entering deeper and deeper states of relaxation. When I go to sleep at night, my breathing and heart rate slow to rates that I never could have sustained before getting in shape. Being conscious and in control of my breath is important, especially at high altitude. And a long run out in nature definitely puts me in a meditative state. I wonder if this kind of conventional exercise might provide more "bang for your buck" than just controlled breathing in isolation.

frereubu 6y ago
There's a great book called Bird Therapy - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43804073-bird-therapy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43804073-bird-therapy - where the author talks about how birdwatching helped enormously with his mental health. He talks briefly at one point about two runners who "birdwatch" while running, and who find the same kind of meditative peace that he does from a long walk with birdwatching points along the way. I've only just started trail running, but I find the mix of nature and running definitely multiplies the benefits of exercise and meditation rather than just adding together. (That is, if there aren't too many people around - I live in a relatively crowded part of the country unfortunately, so despite being surrounded by lovely countryside there are often quite a few people about!)
bob1029 6y ago
Exercise will certainly accomplish similar objectives. After a few months of intense circuit training, I started to realize that I could get away with breathing a lot less frequently. Once my resting heart rate dropped below 50BPM, it was like having a mental switch I could throw on demand to enter into a state of calm. Just a few seconds of focus and I could deal with a monster of a stressful situation with ease. I really need to get back into it. The time investment is substantial, but exercise always pays really good dividends.
- nmfisher 6y ago
  One of my pet theories is that regular exercise strengthens your core muscles and allows you to recruit those core muscles more effectively. This is what allows the diaphragm to expand more and thus facilitates deeper breathing. More oxygen per breath, and fewer heartbeats required to circulate it through the bloodstream. Could be total rubbish, but I'd be interested to see a study either way.

jb775 6y ago

Wasn't there a HN post somewhat recently about the scientific health benefits of breathing exercises? I can't find it. I made a note to read it after I saw the post but forgot about it until now.

Apocryphon 6y ago

Are there any online breathing courses or services worth taking? I've read of diaphragmatic/belly breathing before, but I think I need an actual coach to check if I'm doing it correctly.

sg47 6y ago
See my comment in this thread for recommendations.

sg47 6y ago

I'm a recovering thyroid cancer (good cancer) patient. My breathing and immunity had become bad due to my surgeries/treatment but also stress, occasional hookah smoking, etc. After suffering from severe bronchitis and cough for the first months of this year, I started doing the breathing exercises in this video (https://youtu.be/iUKjuni-6l8?list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohEQEI9fB5X&t=527 https://youtu.be/iUKjuni-6l8?list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohE...) regularly (4-6 times a week) based on a HNer's recommendation. All my symptoms have completely disappeared, my breathing has become slower and I have become a much calmer person. My lungs feel really clear. Highly recommend doing these breathing exercises regularly (every day for the first month if possible). This guy, Michael Bijker, also has a lot of good videos on breathing exercises. Here's an example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZInO0-ZHk&list=PLxdtWIiZAUhoD6mxvZ0gO9ohEQEI9fB5X&index=2&t=765s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZInO0-ZHk&list=PLxdtWIiZAU...

givan 6y ago

All Europe has gone mad about breathing exercises. For four or five years I have made money by treating people who had ruined their breathing by such methods! Many books are written about it, everyone tries to teach others. They say: "The more you breathe, the greater the inflow of oxygen," etc., and, as a result, they come to me. I am very grateful to the authors of such books, founders of schools, and so on. If, for example, we change our breathing, we change the rhythm of our lungs; but since everything is connected, other rhythms also gradually begin to change. If we go on with this breathing for a long time it may change the rhythm of all the organs. For instance, the rhythm of the stomach will change. And the stomach has its own habits, it needs a certain time to digest food; say, for example, the food must lie there an hour. If the rhythm of the stomach changes, food may pass through more quickly and the stomach will not have time to take from it all it needs. In another place the reverse may occur. It is a thousand times better not to interfere with our machine, to leave it in bad condition rather than correct it without knowledge. To work on oneself one must know every screw, every nail of one's machine—then you will know what to do. But if you know a little and try, you may lose a great deal. The risk is great, for the machine is very complicated. It has very small screws which can be easily damaged, and if you push harder you may break them. And these screws cannot be bought in a shop. One must be very careful. When you know, it is another thing. If anyone here is experimenting with breathing, it is better to stop while there is still time. Gurdjieff G. I. - Views from the Real World (Experiments with breathing talk)

prox 6y ago
As someone who has done yoga, I must agree to an extent. Many yogateachers are simply not adept enough nor qualified to teach about breathing. But there are experts out there and breathing disorders are a thing, so it does pay off to learn more about it especially if you have some complaints that could be derived from breathing wrong. Problem is that few, even GPs are not often well versed in the matter. That said simply focussing on calm and being relaxed (breathing) carries little harm.
twox2 6y ago
So how do you recommend a layman improve their breathing without fucking themselves up? Is it so complicated that we can't do it on our own without professional help?

dmje 6y ago

No one seems to have mentioned Wim Hoff here (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ https://www.wimhofmethod.com/). He’s got some claims that verge on the suspicious but the actual method itself is worth doing purely if you’re an interested sort. Before, I can do about 40 seconds held on an out breath, after, about 2:40. That’s kinda interesting. I’d also recommend trying it if you’re a meditator. Do a WH session first, then sit. It’s really great for finding mind space: a bit buzzy, a bit like a natural high, but for me it meshes pretty well with a breath following meditation.

mtalantikite 6y ago
The article mentions the first class the author took taught them Sudarshan Kriya, which is a particular kriya that the Art of Living Foundation teaches. From what I understand a large part of the kriya involves bhastrika pranayama, which is pretty much what the beginning Wim Hof method is, except he adds a kumbhaka (breath retention/hold) at the end of the 30 breath cycle. I appreciate what Wim Hof is doing, but a lot of these techniques have quite a long history in yoga.
- sn41 6y ago
  What I find nice about his technique, is that it is much simpler than yoga and pranayama. He does not, for example, emphasise inhaling or holding or exceeding for a particular count of seconds. I find that it is easier to perform the Wim Hof technique because of this. The breathing technique which is closest to Wim How is that of Tummo. You can find videos of this on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQ-SV092GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQ-SV092GM
  - mtalantikite 6y ago
    I’ve never tried Wim Hof’s techniques — I’d like to — but I have practiced bhastrika a good amount and do nadi shodhana every morning before meditation. Does his technique really resemble tummo? I’ve tried to find a tummo teacher (haven’t found one), but I’ve read “The Bliss of Inner Fire” and from what I understand a fundamental part of it involves mula and uddiyana bandhas being engaged in conjunction with the “vase” breath. Does Wim teach these things? I’ve seen photos of him practicing and he’s definitely doing uddiyana bandha, but I’d be surprised if he teaches that, it requires deep transverse abdominis activation to do. I only started getting that awareness in that layer of muscle after a couple years of yoga practice. If he’s not teaching the bandhas then the technique really is just bhastrika with retentions. It’s a totally great practice, but I’d say it’s just the beginning step in the path of pranayama practice.

hkr3 6y ago

https://youtu.be/p1av5fG7sOA?t=3031 https://youtu.be/p1av5fG7sOA?t=3031 This is more ancient that many know. Breathing has a direct impact on the body and the mind.

lostmsu 6y ago

Yes, but can it charge water?

wazoox 6y ago

A friend of mine had pneumonia 30 years ago, and a physiotherapist told him to breathe with the abdomen as part of his treatment. I tried it for my asthma, and it worked pretty well. After a while, it came naturally and I mostly breathe this way all the time. Slowly, and from the belly :)

justaguyhere 6y ago
Babies breathe this way. Somewhere along the way to becoming an adult, we lose this ability without even realizing.
jointpdf 6y ago
Also known as diaphragmatic breathing: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphragmatic-breathing https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphrag... I was taught this as a way to control some very acute anxiety from hypochondria that took over my life for ~6 months before I could get treatment. Apparently it worked, since I haven’t suffered from that type of anxiety since.

vadansky 6y ago

Might as well ask it here, since goolgling this leads me down the hypochondriac nuts hole. I've noticed I yawn ALOT. Furthremore when I yawning I feel like only 1 out 5 yawns are "proper complete" yawns that actually get enough air in (that's the best way I can explain). I was thinking this might be a sign my nose is too stuffed normally and I'm not getting enough oxygen, but reading this thread I might be over oxygenating? Some extra information, I've noticed this a while but I have been exercising a lot lately, and lost about 20 pounds, so I do feel relatively healthy and active.

JoeyJoJoJr 6y ago
I don't yawn much at all, but sometimes (usually in bed) I do get an uncomfortable urge to have deep yawns. It is frustrating because most of the yawns feel unsatisfying, like I didn't get a deep enough breath with the yawn. It feels as if there is some tension around my lungs or diaphragm. After about 10-20 minutes of this and consciously trying to relax these muscles, I may get in a couple of big satisfying yawns, but it takes a while to get to that point.
dolguldur 6y ago
If your nose is stuffy regularly, search for "mewing" on youtube. Could be worth trying

nojs 6y ago

I have found breathing exercises to strengthen my diaphragm hugely helpful for acid reflux. I lie down with weights on my abdomen and breathe from the diaphragm for about 10 minutes a day. I’ve been able to stop PPIs completely by doing this regularly.

chrome_alley 6y ago
Where do you put the weights? Do you have any additional information about this?
lukemccomb 6y ago
Do you have more info on this? I’ve suffered from GERD for a long time now and have found ways to mitigate the effects but this seems like an interesting potential treatment.
- leethomas 6y ago
  Not the same thing, but I believe the parent commenter because I’ve seen multiple studies done where it was found that breathing exercises seemed to help with reflux: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3807765/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3807765/
  - lukemccomb 6y ago
    Nice, I'll give this a read. Thanks
- nojs 6y ago
  I can’t find the video I followed originally but what I do is pretty simple. I lie on the floor with one hand on my chest and one hand on my belly (just below the sternum). Then I breathe paying attention that only the lower hand moves, ie that I’m using my diaphragm. I put the weights (small metal plates) under the lower hand to add resistance. I recall seeing some papers explaining the mechanism being related to how the diaphragm kind of wraps around the oesophageal sphincter, so strengthening it helps it close.

elliottkember 6y ago

I'm surprised none of these comments mention "singing" or "prayer". Both are forms of breath control, and both extremely therapeutic.

tzot 6y ago

> Hindus considered breath and spirit the same thing It's funny, because I just realised that πνεύμα(pneuma)/spirit in Greek has the same root as πνεύμων(pneumon)/lung: the verb πνέω(pnéo), which means I breathe. This is not Mr Portokalos talking from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, people: πνέω is traced to the older Indo-European stem pnew- , and the whole point of my comment is that there is a lot of heritage in language through the eons from older cultures and civilizations. Trivia: the suffix -μα (like in the words pragma, dogma, trauma etc) generally means “the result or the carrier of the verb's actions”, so like pragma (“thing”, what is/has been made/done), dogma (what one believes in; the firmness of the belief is irrelevant to the ancient word), trauma (“wound”; the result of being wounded), pneuma would be what is being breathed; and there's another connection to old roots: alcohol is «οινόπνευμα» (spirit/fumes of the wine), and alcoholic drinks are called “spirits”. Fun stuff :)

sajforbes 6y ago
The English words "respire" and "spirit" have the same root, too.
- asveikau 6y ago
  Latin spirare and spiritus respectively. Afaik spiritus came from the verb and literally meant breath in addition to the figurative meaning.
r0rshrk 6y ago
Atmen in German (breath) and Atman in Sanskrit (breath, spirit) have the same origin.
- baxtr 6y ago
  Fascinating. Indo-European languages share many word roots. Word that remain similar tend to be numbers and family members (mum, dad, brother etc)
thiagocsf 6y ago
In Portuguese the root “pneu” by itself means “tire” (as in a car tire). Fun stuff indeed!

yboris 6y ago

Does anyone else find this style of writing absolutely aggravating? The first paragraph has absolutely 0 value to me as a reader. It's almost like the goal of the writer is to take up as much of your time as possible.

emilost 6y ago
Breath and read the next paragraph
viburnum 6y ago
Haha, I posted this here and I agree, it the author to get to the point.

andai 6y ago

The Guardian wants me to register to read the article. I had to use a US-based web proxy to get it to load.

daragh99 6y ago

I'm curious to read the book. I've practiced breathing techniques from yogic and meditative traditions for maybe 15 years now. Even just a minute of deeper, slower breathing has a calming effect on my mind and body, for the most part. The breathing practices/exercises are, for the most part, useful and interesting. I have to let go of a lot of the metaphysics in these traditions though, there is a certain amount of "woo" to wade through.

techload 6y ago

https://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib9.htm#4 https://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib9.htm#4

Ozzie_osman 6y ago

No science here, but anecdotally I find a lot of things that require focus on breathing to be really relaxing. Meditation, yoga, exercise, even things like scuba diving and smoking (I don't smoke regularly, maybe hookah a few times a year).

somepeepz15 6y ago

That's really neat! somepeepz15@gmail.com

dutch3000 6y ago

isn’t this just like.., uh.., sleeping?

vmurthy 6y ago

I've recently started listening to the audio book "Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life" [0] by Inna Khazan, a clinical pscyhologist[1]. For the more skeptical minded who want the data/ more exploration, she references a bunch of studies attesting to the efficacy of breathing techniques and how it impacts health etc. I won't say the book has changed my life mainly because I am still listening to it and there's a l ong way to practise these but so far the results are encouraging ( More peace of mind , great sleep (experience) plus data on my Apple Watch app and energy levels) [0] https://www.audible.in/pd/Biofeedback-and-Mindfulness-in-Everyday-Life-Audiobook/B07VCTR1CZ?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_&pf_rd_p=fbaa688e-a578-4e09-8a7e-c311598d4470&pf_rd_r=DAAYKX0CQ9H2DWF0725A https://www.audible.in/pd/Biofeedback-and-Mindfulness-in-Eve... [1] https://innakhazan.com/wp/13-about-me/ https://innakhazan.com/wp/13-about-me/

la6471 6y ago

Very timely article ... people in this country needs a calming effect that is non toxic at this time.

nilsocket 6y ago

We Hindus don't just consider it as breathing, our world view is different. Breathing techniques in India are called Pranayama which means controlling prana. This is an excerpt from chapter-3 of Raja yoga by Swami Vivekananda. Pranayama is not as may think, something about breath. Breath indeed has very little to do with it if anything. Breathing is only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Pranayama. Pranayama means the control of Prana. According to the philosophers of India the whole universe is composed of two materials, one of which they call Akasha, It is the omnipresent, all-penetrating existence. Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of this Akasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solids; it is the Akasha that becomes the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the comets; it is the Akasha that becomes the human body, the animal body, the plants every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, everything that exists. It cannot be perceived; it is so subtle that it is beyond all ordinary perception; it can only be seen when it has become gross, has taken form. At the beginning of creation there is only this Ākāsha. At the end of the cycle the solids, the liquids, and the gases all melt into the Akasha again, and the next creation similarly proceeds out of this Akāsha. By what power is this Akasha manufactured into this universe? By the power of Prāna. Just as Akasha is the infinite, omnipresent material of this universe, so is this Prāna the infinite, omnipresent manifesting power of this universe. At the beginning and at the end of a cycle everything becomes Akāsha, and all the forces that are in the universe resolve back into the Prāna; in the next cycle, out of this Prāna is evolved everything that we call energy, everything that we call force. It is the Prāna that is manifesting as motion; it is the Prāna that is manifesting as gravitation, as magnetism. It is the Prāna that is manifesting as the actions of the body, as the nerve currents, as thought force. From thought down to the lowest force, everything is but the manifestation of Prāna. The sum total of all forces in the universe, mental or physical, when resolved back to their original state, is called Prana. "When there was neither aught nor naught when darkness was covering darkness, what existed then? That Akäsha existed without motion." The physical motion of the Präna was stopped, but it existed all the same. At the end of a cycle the energies now displayed in the universe quiet down and become potential. At the beginning of the next to cycle they start up, strike upon the Akäsha, and out of the Akāsha evolve these various forms, and as the Ākāsha changes, this Prana changes also into all these manifestations of energy. The knowledge and control of this Prāna is really what is meant by Pranayama.

deleted 6y ago

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paulgerhardt 6y ago

Two minutes of 5.5 second inhales and 5.5 seconds exhales hyperventilates me to the point of dizziness. There’s a lot of qualifications for this number and freedivers explore most of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aXxXCXptYA&t=12m10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aXxXCXptYA&t=12m10s 6 seconds in and 12 out is my ideal breath-up. Shallower breathes for meditation. The video above has a good exercise for finding your ideal breath-up.

systematical 6y ago

3 months ago my gut reaction would be to not even click on this, but having been stressed out at work recently I started doing yoga and meditation again, which in themselves do a bit with breathing. Anecdotally I've noticed some positive changes in my amount of energy and stress. That could all be a coincidence and if nothing else I am gaining flexibility again. What I'm taking too many words up to say is, I am inclined to give this a shot.

moltar 6y ago

This author seems to be on a PR circuit. Was on Rogan podcast recently. Heard other health podcasts mention the book and that they’ll have him on soon. I’m not saying it is wrong. Just to be aware.

tomcooks 6y ago
Sorry aware of what? Isn't it how new material gets to people?

barrenko 6y ago

Breathing works, just as basic spirituality. But, further you get into cultish stuff and "spiritual" experiences because you're basically restricting oxygen. In Zen they even warn of it.

bayindirh 6y ago
I practice Zen and, after certain point you don't even watch your breathing. You just become aware of it. So, you restrict nothing. Unfortunately meditation and spirituality is a very sharp and two edged sword. You need to find the correct people alongside the correct path. In our way, there's no Spiritual Experience (TM). You just become aware of the issues in your life and with yourself, then you try to solve them. We say that "something is useless if it doesn't improve your real life in a perceivable way".
- nprateem 6y ago
  Advanced Zen practitioners most definitely do report what many would call spiritual experiences. The difference is they let those experiences go instead of chasing them or attaching much significance to them. See for example the later chapters of "The Mind Illuminated", or the excellent "Science of Enlightenment" audio talk by Shinzen Young.
  - bayindirh 6y ago
    Your explanation is actually what I've intended to say. We don't cling to them. They're not important as-is and not to be chased. I've also got my fair share (of experiences) but, I don't remember any of them except one or two odd ones. I remember them because they've proved to be some pivotal moments which my life became better afterwards.

divan 6y ago

If anyone had a chance to read a book – is it just exploring and describing observation about breathing or it attempts to answer how different breathing actually works and effects the health? I remember watching this amazing TEDx talk which gives an on state demonstration of how breathing directly affects blood flow / pulse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xc3XdOiGGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xc3XdOiGGI There is another interesting video I've watched years ago with some hints that breathing directly influence mitochondrial activity, but it's in Russian, so not sure if it's worth sharing. Another thing indirectly mentioned was that breathing is the only "low-level" body function that we control conciously to some extent, so its effect on health is a neat byproduct and can be used for "hacking" metabolism and low-level body functions. Anyway, I'm wondering if there is something more than "conscious breathing can do amazing things to your health" in this book?

qnsi 6y ago
I am at the beginning of the book, but for my taste it's too much storified (if that makes sense). He talks a lot about how he found something out and his personal experience with learning about breathing. Also similar to OP here [1] I was super curious about his claim that you can influence a lot of stuff in your body by picking one nostril you breath with. I googled for confirmation and wasn't satisfied with the results. Later he also recommends oxygen deprivation (breathing very shallowly while running and warns about blackouts) He doesn't cite studies in a usual science like way. So I decided I won't read the book in full. Hope this helps. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23980094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23980094

MrYellowP 6y ago

Nice to see something like this getting upvotes. I once had a friend who was out of sync with her inner rythm ... so to speak. After identifying the problem, we've sat down for an hour and I've taught her how to breathe properly, especially - but not only - slowly. It changed her life ... with a catch. People noticed she was calmer and happier. People liked her more. She got promoted. She started earning more. Her life improved significantly, for months. And then it hit her. Her ego inflated so much, she started overworking herself. She lost her sense for her limits. Her ego couldn't handle the relative increase in energy, which got even worse due to the relative increase in self-confidence. Burnt herself out. At least one month hospital. Breathing techniques are no joke. When you're doing it "wrong" all your life, the sudden increase in energy when you begin doing it "right" can be both quite massive and very lasting.

2511 6y ago
If you don't mind- could you please elaborate on "taught her how to breathe properly"
- MrYellowP 6y ago
  That's too broad. What do you want to know?

new_guy 6y ago

If anyone wants to learn to breathe properly I can recommend this book: http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.pdf http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1903sciencebreath.... A lot of the stuff on Google search and even the so called 'experts' know nothing at all about this science. When you get deep into it you can even unlock psychic abilities (seriously).

vijucat 6y ago

An interesting resource that I found on the topic of breathing is https://www.normalbreathing.com/ https://www.normalbreathing.com/ Dr Artour Rakhimov claims that breath starvation (breathing slowly and less) is key to higher oxygen absorption; and definitely not deep breathing! "Take a deep breath" makes sense if you have been hyper-ventilating, but not ALL the time. I found his site via his "How to unblock a blocked nose in 1 minute" video, a technique which works even when both nostrils are clogged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhOTUBZYTEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhOTUBZYTEg

ZeljkoS 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathwork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathwork

yetanotherjosh 6y ago

Anyone interested in the topic should learn about the Buteyko technique and the work of Konstantin Buteyko. He was a Russian scientist who studied the negative effects of chronic hyperventillation, the positive effects of healthy breathing, and developed a technique to restore healthy breathing. For example, he developed a way to measure the health of someone's respiration through a simple test called the "control pause." To measure your control pause, bring your attention to your breath and without changing your breath, stop breathing at the end of your next natural exhalation. Start a timer, and see how long it takes before your body generates any minor uncomfortable signal in an urge to breathe (an urge to swallow, any kind of muscle contraction, anything subtle expressing a demand to breathe). As soon as you reach such a signal, stop the timer. People who breath healthily (according to Buteyko's research) have at least 40 seconds on the timer. (This is NOT a breath holding test, and if your regular respiration gets faster or deeper after you complete it, you did it wrong.) Most people certainly are not even close to 40 sec. And that, according to Buteyko, is because most people severely overbreathe. The consequence of this dysfunction, of being in a constant state of chronic hyperventillation, is that the blood vessels contract, and surprisingly, less oxygen is transferred to the cells because CO2 is a necessary catalyst for the transfer of oxygen to the cells, and hyperventillation drains the blood of CO2. Healthy breathing, according to Buteyko, is minute and nearly visually imperceptible.

baxtr 6y ago
Are there any scientific foundations underlying his techniques?

filipeisho 6y ago

I don't know if any of you would be interested in this but after reading a lot of articles like this I programmed a simple app to help you breath while you work on the computer (distraction free). If you wanna check it out: https://github.com/filipeisho/breathe https://github.com/filipeisho/breathe Any feedback is highly appreciated!