CSF

How Breathing Helps the Brain: CSF and Better Retention of Motor Skills


Reading Time: 1 min 54 sec

I hope the next 23’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.


4 THOUGHTS

1. Increasing Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) Flow to the Brain

“With rigorous testing, we demonstrated that the three yogic breathing patterns (slow, deep abdominal and deep diaphragmatic) immediately increased both cranially directed instantaneous CSF velocities and power of respiratory-driven CSF motion.”

Yildiz et al. (2022)

This study found that yogic breathing increased cerebrospinal fluid flow toward the brain by 16-28%, with the most significant changes occurring during deep abdominal breathing. These findings may help explain how breathing techniques improve brain health.

Check out the study breakdown on IG.

2. Nasal Stimulation, Brain Changes, and Non-Ordinary Consciousness

“In conclusion, we found that nasal, and not mouth breathing, is able to induce a non-ordinary state of consciousness characterized at a neurophysiological level by:

1) An enhancement of power at slow frequencies (especially in the theta band) in medial prefrontal and posterior areas

2) A widespread increase of connectivity both at slow (theta) and fast (high-beta) frequencies

3) Heightened theta/high-beta coupling in medial prefrontal and posterior areas”

Zaccaro et al. (2022)

And critically, those brain changes led participants to feel less physical and psychological tension, less anxiety, more joy, and to enter a relaxed yet fully aware altered state of consciousness during slow nasal breathing vs. slow mouth breathing.

Check out the study breakdown on IG.

3. Three Science-Based Breath-Brain Quotes

“The brain, by regulating breathing, controls its own excitability.” - Journal of Physiology (1988)

"Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior." - Dr. Patricia Gerbarg and Dr. Richard Brown

“Respiration, being so closely coupled to heart activity and oxygen supply, is key in maintaining metabolic activity in all organs including the brain.” - Neuroscience Bulletin (2023)

4. Alternate Nostril Breathing & Motor Skill Retention

“Our results thus uncover for the first time the remarkable facilitatory effects of simple breathing practices on complex functions such as motor memory, and have important implications for sports training and neuromotor rehabilitation in which better retention of learned motor skills is highly desirable.”

- Yadav and Mutha (2016)

This one found that practicing alternate nostril breathing right after learning a motor skill significantly improved the short- and long-term retention of that skill. I highly recommend the study breakdown on IG, as this was a neat one!


1 Quote

Humming induces brainwave entrainment, and since the sound of a hum is long and sustained, it has a calming effect on the brain.”
— Eddie Stern

1 Answer

Category: Breath-Brain Connections

Answer: Through its direct connection to this brain region, nasal breathing can indirectly influence brain activity in other regions like the amygdala and hippocampus.

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

Question: What is the olfactory bulb?


In good breath,

Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”

Enjoy these posts? Donate to say thanks!

P.S. just know that I also cannot tell

The Breathing App for Diabetes

This is the first program specifically made for people with diabetes to help manage their stress through breathing and mindfulness practices. In addition to the amazing program inside the app, we have some really neat things coming up, so sign up now!

Learn more here.


Amazon Associate Disclosure

I’ve been recommending books for almost 6 years. Yet somehow, I just discovered that I could be an Amazon affiliate [face-palm]. In any case better late than never. Now, any Amazon link you click is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you’d like to support my work, buying books through these links is helpful : )

* An asterisk by a quote indicates that I listened to this book on Audible. Therefore, the quotation might not be correct, but is my best attempt at reproducing the punctuation based on the narrator’s pace, tone, and pauses.


 

4 Thoughts, Reaching Blissful States, and Breathing and Brain Health


Listen Instead of Reading

If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊


4 THOUGHTS


1. In my Brain: 4 Random One-Sentence Breathing Thoughts

  1. Slow breathing is air appreciation.

  2. Fast breathing is air intoxication.

  3. Breath holding is air imagination.

  4. And all breathing is air medicine.

P.S. Here are 10 more random thoughts people seemed to enjoy.

2. Reaching Blissful States

Discussing advanced yogis that reach elated states during meditation:

“Their remarkable meditation skills bespeak what’s technically known as a “state by trait interaction,” suggesting the brain changes that underlie the trait also give rise to special abilities that activate during meditative states.”

– Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. & Richard Davidson, Ph.D., Altered Traits

These findings mean: the longer you practice, the more your brain changes, and the more likely you are to be physiologically capable of having profound meditations. They’re a “state by trait” effect, and they’re available to all of us—we just have to keep practicing 🙏

3. Slow Yogic Breathing and Brain Health

“To our knowledge, our study is the first report demonstrating the impact of a mind–body approach such as yogic breathing to modulate CSF dynamics”

Immediate impact of yogic breathing on pulsatile cerebrospinal fluid dynamics

This study found that slow, deep, yogic breathing increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow toward the brain by 16-28%.

CSF plays crucial roles in cushioning the brain & spine, delivering nutrients & hormones to the brain, and removing waste from the brain.

Thus, CSF dynamics may be one way slow breathing techniques improve brain health 👏

4. The Power of Belly Breathing

The power of belly breathing is not in making your belly move with each breath. It’s in relaxing the belly, so it naturally rises & falls with the movement of the diaphragm.


1 Quote

That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.”
— Sharon Salzberg

1 Answer

Category: Respiratory Pressure Changes

Answer: During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts down and increases this pressure, which may play a role in modulating CSF flow up the spine.

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

Question: What is intra-abdominal pressure?


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In good breath,

Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”


P.S. I need to adopt this practice


* An asterisk by a quote indicates that I listened to this book on Audible. Therefore, the quotation might not be correct, but is my best attempt at reproducing the punctuation based on the narrator’s pace, tone, and pauses.