4 ms·

There's a product out, Freespira, that does breath work training monitored by a nasal cannula, to help people who experience panic attacks. The theory is that s

by smeej 2y ago

There's a product out, Freespira, that does breath work training monitored by a nasal cannula, to help people who experience panic attacks. The theory is that such people are chronic hyperventilators, so their blood CO2 is too low for the parasympathetic nervous system to operate correctly. It didn't end up being a good fit for me, but if a person's PTSD comes from discrete events rather than a continually unsafe environment in early childhood, I think they'd have a better experience. (My parasympathetic nervous system never learned how to operate correctly, but if someone else's did and its function got interrupted later, I think their experience would be different.)

rendx 2y ago
Interesting! Thanks for the pointer.
plaguuuuuu 2y ago
Strange side note. I've tried n-acetylcysteine as a supplement/medication, the weirdest thing about it is that I felt like I needed to breathe less often. And like I was breathing manually - which you are also doing now, ha. I wonder if it helps with panic attacks.
- AnthonBerg 2y ago
  This makes immediate sense to me after having stumbled upon some of the academic literature on N-acetylcysteine. There are results on it being anti-anxiety, yes. Tons and tons of results; Wide scope. Pulmonary and neurobiological. The wildest paper imo: “N-acetyl cysteine reverses bio-behavioural changes induced by prenatal inflammation, adolescent methamphetamine exposure and combined challenges” – https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4776-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4776-5 It’s just an… :exploding-head: paper. There are also studies that check if humans fall into or out of various psychiatric disorder diagnostic criteria. Yes, NAC is anti-anxiety. And! NAC is clearly and obviously mucolytic. Slime-dissolving. Its use as prescription and OTC medicine in my country is—I think, so far—exclusively as a lung-slime dissolver to help people breathe better.
  - ajb 2y ago
    It's a very interesting paper. However, it's in rats, so among other things the timescale is very compressed compared to humans: we are taking about three NAC reversing changes 1-2 months later
    - AnthonBerg 2y ago
      Ah, indeed, I would like to add that I’d never expect anything fully “the same” to happen in us. Nonetheless, it does work!, tons of more studies out there. It’s wild to me that this substance—sold OTC as a mucolytic!—can have an impact like that in an animal model, and the molecular biology mechanisms of how it happens that the study shows are… well, yes, :exploding-head:

by smeej 2y ago

rendx 2y ago

Interesting! Thanks for the pointer.

plaguuuuuu 2y ago

Strange side note. I've tried n-acetylcysteine as a supplement/medication, the weirdest thing about it is that I felt like I needed to breathe less often. And like I was breathing manually - which you are also doing now, ha. I wonder if it helps with panic attacks.

AnthonBerg 2y ago
This makes immediate sense to me after having stumbled upon some of the academic literature on N-acetylcysteine. There are results on it being anti-anxiety, yes. Tons and tons of results; Wide scope. Pulmonary and neurobiological. The wildest paper imo: “N-acetyl cysteine reverses bio-behavioural changes induced by prenatal inflammation, adolescent methamphetamine exposure and combined challenges” – https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4776-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4776-5 It’s just an… :exploding-head: paper. There are also studies that check if humans fall into or out of various psychiatric disorder diagnostic criteria. Yes, NAC is anti-anxiety. And! NAC is clearly and obviously mucolytic. Slime-dissolving. Its use as prescription and OTC medicine in my country is—I think, so far—exclusively as a lung-slime dissolver to help people breathe better.
- ajb 2y ago
  It's a very interesting paper. However, it's in rats, so among other things the timescale is very compressed compared to humans: we are taking about three NAC reversing changes 1-2 months later
  - AnthonBerg 2y ago
    Ah, indeed, I would like to add that I’d never expect anything fully “the same” to happen in us. Nonetheless, it does work!, tons of more studies out there. It’s wild to me that this substance—sold OTC as a mucolytic!—can have an impact like that in an animal model, and the molecular biology mechanisms of how it happens that the study shows are… well, yes, :exploding-head: