immune function

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Nose versus Mouth, 800000 and 73 days, and Our Best Weapon for Stress

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4 Thoughts



1. A Simple Quip for Nose versus Mouth

Most of the time:

  • The nose is part of the respiratory system.

  • The mouth is part of the digestive system.

2. The True Power of the Breath: 800,000 and 73 Days

“With eight hundred thousand new medical articles being published every year, by 2020 medical knowledge is estimated to double every seventy-three days.”

Michael J Stephen, Breath Taking

Those numbers are insane. It’s basically impossible to keep up with science.

Fortunately, though, we know breathing (and sleep, exercise, meditation, etc.) has been used for millennia to improve mental and physical health.

Maybe we don’t know all the science, but that’s ok. We can just try it out, find what works for us, and enjoy the timeless (and timely) wisdom of the breath.

3. Two Steps to Get the Most of Your Breathwork

In The Art of Possibility, they have two steps for their practice of “giving way to passion.” I think they apply perfectly to breathing (or basketball, yoga, etc.):

“1. The first step is to notice where you are holding back, and let go. Release those barriers of self that keep you separate and in control, and let the vital energy of passion surge through you, connecting you to all beyond.

2. The second step is to participate wholly. Allow yourself to be a channel to shape the stream of passion into a new expression for the world.”

They sound a little idealistic and new-age, but that’s the point : )

4. Our Greatest Weapon Against Stress

Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one breath over another.

***

P.S. This is a play on a William James quote I saw on Insight Timer: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”



1 QUOTE

““Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.””
— Marie Forleo

1 ANSWER

Category: Stress and Health

Answer: Counterintuitively, this (also referred to as “nature’s fundamental survival mechanism”) can be therapeutically harnessed to boost immune function.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is short-term psychophysiological stress?

In good breath,

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

P.S. same girl

Now Available:

THE BREATHING FOR DIABETES SELF-PACED WORKSHOP

If you enjoy my work, or just like geeking out on breathing, I’m confident you’ll love the workshop (diabetes or not).

It’s packed with practical and helpful information, including:

  • 11 bite-sized key concepts on all things breathing

  • A 40-min Wim Hof and Diabetes Mini Masterclass (if you’re interested in WHM, I think you’ll find a lot of information in here you’ve probably never seen before, unrelated to diabetes)

  • A PDF of 100 inspiring breathing quotes

  • A Breath Matching worksheet to grow your practice

  • A simple plan for implementing what you learn (that actually works)

And if you don't like it, it’s 100% refundable, so you have nothing to lose.

P.S. If you purchased the live workshop back in March, you’ll see the updated presentations when you log in now.

 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Each Monday, I curate and synthesize information from scientific journals, books, articles, and podcasts to share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like "Jeopardy!") related to breathing. It’s a fun way to learn something new each week.

 
 

On Recovering Better and Setting A Breathing Budget

 

Welcome back to another issue of The Breathing 411. Here are 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer to end November with.

 
 
 
 

4 THOUGHTS

1. You Already Work Hard Enough—Recover Harder

"The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery."

- Tal Ben-Shahar

We all work hard enough. That’s likely not the problem. In fact, it’s probably the opposite: We need to be focusing on recovery so we can continue to work hard.

One excellent way to do this is with diaphragmatic breathing.

For example, imagine taking a group of 16 endurance cyclists and having them see how far they can go in 8 hours. Then, you split them into two groups. One group performs 1 hour of diaphragmatic breathing post-event. The other group reads quietly. That’s what a study published back in 2011 did.

The outcome: The diaphragmatic breathing group showed reduced oxidative stress, reduced cortisol, increased antioxidant potential, and increased melatonin.

That is, they recovered better.

If diaphragmatic breathing reduces these stress markers in this extreme case, it seems like it would be even more useful for recovering from chronic, everyday work stress. Recover better, work better.

2. How Do You Budget Your Breathing?

"Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are."

- James W. Frick

The same can be said for your breathing. Where you spend your breath, and thus your energy, shows what your physiological priorities are. But, like money, you can set your own priorities by setting a breathing budget.

For example, suppose you would like to try out a new method that involves mouth breathing, but you also recognize the hazards of chronic mouth breathing. In that case, you might budget a small portion of breaths for that activity. Then, save the rest (especially sleep) for nasal breathing.

You can apply this idea to any technique. Make light nasal breathing the foundation of your budget (like paying your rent or mortgage) and spend your leftover "disposable breathing income" on new methods that interest you.

3. How Deep Breathing Opens Up the ADHD Brain

"So Ethan’s mother, who had used coherent breathing to calm her own anxiety, taught him how to do it. His overall behavior improved in four or five weeks, and he fell asleep without difficulty." - ADDitude Magazine

This topic is way outside my jurisdiction. But, reading this article was both inspiring and humbling as I reflected on how important this "breathing" stuff is.

I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to great friend, and new 411 reader, S.S. for sending me this article.

4. Intermittent Hypoxia Improves Immune System Function

"These responses…may serve to augment the body’s immune defenses without exacerbating inflammation."

Serebrovskaya et al. 2011, High Altitude Medicine and Biology

This paper published in 2011 found that intermittent hypoxia (IH) enhances the body’s innate immune system, increases its ability to fight infection, and had a net anti-inflammatory effect.

Although IH and breath holds are not technically the same, we can experience IH using breath holds. Thus, research like this suggests, but doesn’t prove, that breath holds might help us fight illnesses (when done safely, of course).

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."

- James Thurber

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Answer: The Earth has ~3.1 trillion of these organisms (or ~400 per person) that help us breathe.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are trees?

That link has a neat video of the Earth "breathing," if you’re interested.

In good breath,
Nick

P.S. "omg GO ON"

 
 

Staying healthy on vacations and “party weekends”

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” – Zen Proverb

Hi everyone,

I am a pretty structured person. I go to bed at 8 PM and wake up at 4 AM, even on the weekends. And I am consistent with my breathing routine:

Although I’m pretty crazy about all this breathing stuff, I try to maintain a decent balance of “normal life” as well.

I recently went to a Bachelor Party weekend and stayed in a house with about 10 other people. My sleep routine was out. But getting in some “breathing” wasn’t.

I didn’t have to look weird or do anything special. I taped up once I got into bed so very few would see. When I woke up, I put my headphones in and did 15 minutes of box breathing (in bed) using the iBreathe app. Finally, I laid there and did 5 static breath holds:

Hold 45 sec after exhale —> Rest 1 min
Hold 45 sec after exhale —> Rest 45 sec
Hold 45 sec after exhale —> Rest 30 sec
Hold 45 sec after exhale —> Rest 15 sec
Hold 45 sec after exhale —> End

The point of all of this is to show you that incorporating breathing exercises into your day is fairly easy, regardless of your situation. And the benefits are many.

Just a few minutes of slow breathing can increase heart rate variability, improve autonomic function, and reduce stress and anxiety.

And a few breath holds can improve immune function, improve insulin sensitivity, and increase O2 carrying capacity.

Breathing is not only one of the easiest self-care practices to perform, but it also provides the greatest return on investment.

While on vacation or during a “party weekend,” it might be easy to ignore our normal self-care routines. But, this is precisely when we need them the most.

In good breath,
Nick

———————————————————————————————————————

* My current Principle 1 practice is 15 minutes of box breathing. After 2 months, I’m up to a 10-10-10-10 box: 10 sec inhale, 10 sec hold, 10 sec exhale, 10 sec hold. (I started at 5-5-5-5)

** My current Principle 3 practice is 3-5 walking breath holds of at least 45 sec each. Then, I perform 2 minutes of Advanced Simulation of Altitude from the Oxygen Advantage®