Listen to this post:
Greetings,
Here are 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer for this week. Enjoy!
4 Thoughts
1. The 4 Best Ways to Keep Your Breathing Practice Interesting
Try New Methods
Example: Trying a new method or breathing rate each week.
Make it Harder
Example: Gradually increasing the sides of your box breath.
Use it in Harder Situations
Example: Using nasal-only breathing during a run or workout.
Focus on Compounding (my favorite)
Example: Using the same method with ridiculous consistency.
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P.S. Any #1-3 can actually be applied in #4 too.
2. How Slow Breathing Helps Lower Your Blood Sugar, Diabetes or Not
Slow deep breathing activates the calming parasympathetic nervous system. This might increase insulin sensitivity and, in people without type-1 diabetes, stimulate insulin production. The immediate result is lower blood sugar.
So, diabetes or not, these blood-sugar-balancing effects are pretty phenomenal. But if you have diabetes, the compounded benefits get even more impressive.
In one long-term study, type-2 diabetics who practiced slow deep breathing for 15 min twice a day for one year improved their HbA1c by as much as 2%.
To put that in perspective, every 1% reduction in HbA1c reduces the risk of heart attack by 14%, the risk of death by 21%, and the risk of microvascular complications by 37% in people with type-2 diabetes.
With results like these and no adverse side effects, slow breathing just seems like a no-brainer for helping manage blood sugars.
3. A Breathing Grab Bag
Here’s a hodgepodge of interesting articles to browse this week:
No Joke: Pigs and Rodents Can Breathe Through Their Butts (Yes, insane, lol. Thanks, Eva, for sending me the original NYT article!)
Evolutionary Biologists Just Discovered How Some Lizards Are Able to Breathe Underwater
Breathe Easy: How Breathing Through Your Nose Can Actually Help You Relax
Practicing 'mindfulness' in summer camp benefits campers and counselors alike
4. To Understand the Benefits of Breathing, Do This
“Understanding is not conceptual, and therefore cannot be passed on. It is an immediate experience, and immediate experience can only be talked about (very inadequately), never shared.”
My attempts to convey the benefits of breathing are “very inadequate,” at best.
I can share how breathing lowers blood sugar or increases HRV, which is fun and exciting stuff. But to understand it requires that you experience it.
So pick a method that resonates with you and go experience it for yourself. It’s too simple not to.
“We must always remember that knowledge of understanding is not the same thing as the understanding, which is the raw material of that knowledge.”
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P.S. I found these passages in the Brain Pickings Sunday Newsletter.
1 Quote
“The lungs are a mysterious and even mystical organ. They are our connection to the atmosphere, the organ that extracts the life force we need to exist.”
- Michael J Stephen, MD, Breath Taking
1 Answer
Answer: Your “mysterious and even mystical” lungs breathe approximately this many gallons of air each day.
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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
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Question: What is 2,000?
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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.