I hope this edition of "The Breathing 4.1.1" helps start your week off right.
Below you’ll find 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (think "Jeopardy"). Enjoy!
4 THOUGHTS
1. My #1 Non-Breathing Tip to Improve Your Breathing
There are non-breathing ways to improve your breathing. Here’s the easiest and most helpful one I’ve found: Add 2-4 hours between dinner and bedtime.
For example, I now eat dinner around 5:30 p.m. and go to bed around 7:45 - 8:00 p.m. (I used to eat closer to 7:00 p.m. with the same bedtime).
After one or two nights of the earlier dinner, my CO2 tolerance increased by about 20 seconds. And it’s remained that way ever since. If you’re not already, give it a shot and see how you feel after a couple of nights.
(As a side note, I also lost about 5 lbs after 1-2 weeks of doing this. So, when I saw this article on ScienceDaily, it jumped off the page at me: People who eat a late dinner may gain weight.)
2. Can This Acid Help You Digest Oxygen Better?
"Oxygen is what we breathe in. CO2 is what we internally produce in order to allow us to use that oxygen most efficiently." - David Bidler, Breathe to Perform
I love that interpretation. Rather than thinking of CO2 as a waste product, why don’t we instead view it as something our body produces to use the oxygen we breathe in.
While reading this passage, I also thought of a new analogy. It’s not technically correct, but I think it helps get the point across:
Your body produces stomach acids to digest food. It produces blood acids to digest oxygen.
3. Why Don’t We Breathe Slowly, 24/7?
I talk about the benefits of slow breathing a lot (maybe too much). With all of those benefits, it begs the question: Why didn’t we evolve to breathe slowly all the time? (Thanks, Ben!)
Rather than breathing slowly all the time, I believe we evolved something even more powerful: The ability to control our breathing.
We have been given access to our autonomic nervous system. We can choose to ramp it up or choose to slow it down. We can respond to our outer environment while being in control of our inner one.
With great power comes great responsibility. It’s up to us if we use it or not.
4. How Your Body Remembers High Altitude (1-Minute Podcast)
This episode of 60-Second Science from Scientific American explains how our red blood cells "remember" exposure to high altitude:
Red Blood Cells Remember Your Mountain Vacation
Although breath holds and high altitude exposure are not the same thing, we can elicit similar drops in blood oxygen saturation, presumably leading to similar effects. But, they’re not permanent:
"So the longer you stay at sea level before you re-climb to high altitude, then such memory will gradually disappear." - Yang Xia, UT Health Science Center
That’s why I’m also a fan of consistency over intensity to hep keep the benefits around.
1 QUOTE
"However, there is a bridge between our conscious mind and the subconscious action of the autonomic nervous system – breathing."
- Stephen Elliot with Dee Edmonson, The New Science of Breath
1 ANSWER
Answer: In 1978, two mountain climbers achieved this monumental feat for the first time.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy music.)
…
Question: What is climbing Everest without supplemental oxygen?
In good breath,
Nick