March 6, 2023

Why Breath Control Matters, -148°F, and Engaging Fully in Life

March 6, 2023

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. A Remarkable Fact About the Upper Airways (-148°F)

“…the upper respiratory tract is able to warm and saturate inspired air so that in climates as cold as minus 100°C [-148°F] air entering the alveoli has attained body temperature and is saturated with water vapor.”
- Walker and Wells (1961)

My brain can’t fully grasp how remarkable that is over such a short distance…

Our airways are incredible.

2. Oral Posture and Nasal Breathing

“Try it for yourself: Open your mouth and place your tongue on your upper palate. Now try to breathe through your mouth. While it is possible to draw a wisp of air into the lungs, it will not feel right. It follows therefore that the tongue of a mouth breather will tend to rest on the floor of the mouth or suspended midway.”
– Patrick McKeown, The Oxygen Advantage

Patrick’s explanation here is perhaps the most commonsense reason for maintaining optimal oral posture: It promotes nasal breathing simply because breathing through your mouth is awkward when the tongue is against the roof of the mouth. 👏

3. Why Voluntary Breath Control Matters

“We can hold our breath, or breathe faster, or breathe slower, at any time, by choice. Why does this control matter? It matters because breathing is the link between our inner and outer experiences … It is also the link between the physical and emotional reactions we have to those experiences. In other words, what is happening within our bodies and minds is channeled through our breathing.”
- Anyen Rinpoche & Allison Choying Zangmo, The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

I have nothing to add except a few of these 🤯 🤯 🤯

4. A Neat Study on Slow Yogic Breathing and Vagal Stimulation

“These findings raise the possibility that mind-body techniques that use slow breathing at rest exert their breathing-related relaxation effects through vagal mechanisms.”
- Vagal Mediation of Low-Frequency Heart Rate Variability During Slow Yogic Breathing

This ingenious study separately blocked the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems and then measured HRV during slow yogic breathing. By doing this, they conclusively found that increases in HRV were primarily due to increased vagal activity.

In other words, slow breathing is vagus nerve stimulation 👏

***

P.S. You get the full Science 411 on this paper when you sign up for the Breath is Life Learning Center.

Breath is Life Learning Center

The Largest Collection of Breathing Wisdom and Science on the Web

Join Today.

1 Quote

“Mindful Breathing is a useful practice in its own right. … However, I’d like you to think of it as a versatile training tool to help you engage fully in every meaningful task in your life.””

— Russ Harris

1 Answer

Category: Diagnostic Breath Exercise

Answer: This physiological exercise is basically a forced exhale against a closed glottis, mouth, and nose.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the Valsalva maneuver?

In good breath,

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

P.S. literally me every time

* 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.

Nicholas Heath

May 16, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Beating Biases, a Simple Truth, and How to Engage in Meaningful Tasks

Nicholas Heath

May 16, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

🎧 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. Use Breathing to Help You Engage Fully with Life

“Mindful Breathing is a useful practice in its own right. It allows us to take some time out from our busy daily routines, and often creates a restful state that allows us to recharge our batteries and find some inner peace. However, I’d like you to think of it as a versatile training tool to help you engage fully in every meaningful task in your life.”
- Dr. Russ Harris, The Confidence Gap

This is the perfect way to approach any type of breath practice. We use it to find inner peace and build resiliency in a controlled environment. But, ultimately, we use that training to help us “engage fully in every meaningful task in [our] life.”

2. Beating Our Negative Biases with Slow Breathing

“We need to deal with real dangers. But much of the time we overestimate threats, which is an aspect of the negativity bias, and don't feel as safe as we actually are. This makes us feel bad, and it wears down physical and mental health over time.”*
- Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Neurodharma

Evolution wired us to notice the negative about 9x more than the positive. Although that’s good for survival, it’s not so great for our everyday health.

Enter slow breathing exercises. By activating the calming parasympathetic nervous system, they teach our bodies to feel safe. This dampens the negativity bias, helping us engage fully in things that matter (see thought #1).

3. Try it and See What Happens

“So, at the beginning, you might want to stay with the breath, or use it as an anchor to bring you back when you are carried away. Try it for a few years and see what happens.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are

I have nothing useful to add, except that this is the best advice I’ve read for all this breathing stuff: “Try it for a few years and see what happens.” <— Count me in 😂 I hope you will join me, too.

4. Breathwalking in its Simplest Form

“Breathwalk at its very simplest means putting breathing patterns and walking together into a carefully and beautifully timed single, synchronized movement. It is walking harmonized with breathing.”
- Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D., and Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.
Breathwalk

Breathwalking is a terrific way to combine 3 ancient wellness techniques: walking, breathing, and meditation. Here’s a good one to get started.

Inhale 8 steps, exhale 8 steps
Do this for 3 min
Walk normally for 2 min
Repeat as needed

It’s simple yet surprisingly powerful. Give it a shot and see how you feel.

1 QUOTE

“These ancient techniques are a reminder of a simple truth that any of us can choose to harness right now: Oxygen is life.”
- Tony Robbins, Life Force

1 ANSWER

Category: Lungs & Gas Transfer

Answer: This is the distance oxygen has to travel to get from the alveoli into the blood vessels, where it can start its journey around the body.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is 1/3 of a micron?

P.S. Michael J Stephen, MD, says that this distance is so small that it “could double without any noticeable shortness of breath at rest.”

Extra: Slow Breathing is a Natural Antioxidant

I wrote a guest blog for ResBiotic titled: Want a Natural and Effective Antioxidant? It's Right Under Your Nose. Enjoy the 3-min read!

In good breath,

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

P.S. Optimist vs. Pessimist vs. …

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

May 9, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Better Attention, Lasting Joy, and How to Age Successfully (in 5 min)

Nicholas Heath

May 9, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

🎧 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. How to Age Successfully, in Just 5 Minutes

“As such, DSB [deep and slow breathing] represents a practical, low-cost exercise that can be performed anywhere in order to promote successful aging.” <—sounds good to me 😊
- Nature Scientific Reports 2021

This study found that just 5 minutes of slow breathing at 6 bpm (4 in/6 out) increased HRV and reduced anxiety in younger and older adults.

The conclusion: Breathe slower, age better.

2. Why Slowing Down Leads to Better Attention

“But when you practice moving at a speed that is compatible with human nature—and you build that into your daily life—you begin to train your attention and focus. ‘That’s why those disciplines make you smarter. It’s not about humming or wearing orange robes.’ Slowness, he explained, nurtures attention, and speed shatters it.”
- Johann Hari, (inset quote Guy Claxton), Stolen Focus

A broad range of studies shows that when we do any practice that slows us down—whether it’s breathing, yoga, or tai chi—our attention improves.

Here we learn why: we’re moving at a pace “compatible with human nature.”

Slowness nurtures attention. Speed shatters it.

3. The Confidence Cycle: How to Get Good at Breathing

In The Confidence Gap, Russ Harris provides 4 steps to “get good at doing anything” <— 🙏 Here they are, with my wording to apply them to breathing:

Practice the skills: Consistently practice the breathing techniques that interest you. You have to practice to get good—no way around it.
Apply them effectively: Test them out in real life. Apply them when you’re stressed at work, before a presentation, or before sleep.
Assess the results: Did they actually help? Did they make things worse? (I can’t tell you how many times breathing didn’t do anything for me, or how many times it was a life-saver. Find what works for you.)
Modify as needed: Make changes based on what worked well and what didn’t.

Then, of course, repeat the cycle—but only for the rest of your life : )

4. A Secret to Finding Lasting Joy with Your Breathwork Practice

One day, we’ll think we’ve found the answer to our problems with slow breathing. Then, we might become obsessed with Wim Hof. Until, of course, we discover that alternate nostril breathing is what we’ve been missing 😂

But here’s the secret: that’s actually the point. It’s the endless ways we can use our breath that make it so special.

So let’s celebrate how wonderful it is that there’s a breath for everything. That our practice can change as we change. And let’s use it in our lives in whatever way is right in this moment, happily knowing that it won’t last forever.

1 QUOTE

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”
- Abraham Maslow

1 ANSWER

Category: Heart Rate Variability

Answer: The discovery that pulse rate varies with the breathing cycle was first reported by Stephen Hales in this year.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is 1733?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Most people don’t realize this

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

May 2, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Diverse Tactics (part 2), Less Relaxation, and How to Feel Confident

Nicholas Heath

May 2, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

🎧 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. Less Relaxation, More Self-Regulation

“Many people believe that biofeedback is a way to learn to relax. While it is true that you can learn to relax using biofeedback, relaxation is not the main goal. The main goal is self-regulation, which means being able to activate your nervous system most optimally for action and being able to relax and recover after the action is complete.”
- Inna Khazan, Ph.D.
Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life

The same is true for breathing without biofeedback. Of course, there are methods for relaxing (those are some of my favorites).

But, we’re ultimately learning to regulate our nervous systems so they work optimally for action, for real life. Then, we relax and recover afterward : )

2. “Rule 1: The actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come later.”

“This is a key point. If we want to do anything with confidence—speak, paint, make love, play tennis, or socialize—then we have to do the work. We have to practice the necessary skills over and over, until they come naturally. If we don’t have adequate skills to do the things we want to do, we can’t expect to feel confident.”
- Dr. Russ Harris, The Confidence Gap

And if we want to feel confident we can breathe to self-regulate in any situation, we have to practice these skills over and over. Until they come naturally.

We could say: The action of breathing comes first; the good feelings and self-regulation come later.

***

P.S. We can also apply this concept to being consistent. There are plenty of days when I don’t feel like doing my breathing practice (yes, even The Breathing Diabetic has days where he doesn’t want to breathe 😂). But, I always just start. The action comes first; the motivation comes later.

3. Diverse Tactics Part 2: Breathing Hammers and Nails

“The integration of a wide variety of perspectives is necessary for a more complete understanding of the full depths of human potential, as too much focus on a single perspective runs the risk of giving a distorted view of human nature. As Maslow said, ‘I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.’”
- Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., Transcend

Building off last week, here’s another excellent reminder that we need a wide range of methods, in breathing and life, to become the best version of ourselves.

But specifically for the breath, if we only have one breathing hammer, we’ll assume every problem is a nail. Let’s be mixed-breathing artists instead : )

4. Our Lungs and the Possibilities of the World

“Our lungs developed to utilize oxygen and efficiently drive our metabolic reactions. We are aerobic creatures, and if the lungs are our most important organ, then oxygen is the most important gas in the atmosphere. […] With oxygen, the possibilities of the world opened up.”
- Michael J Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

Just an elegant reminder of how vital our lungs and oxygen are—they literally open the possibilities of the world to us 🙏

1 QUOTE

“The lung changes the breath…into food for the vital spirit.”
- Alessandro Benedetti (1497)

1 ANSWER

Category: Energy Production

Answer: Oxygen is vital because of its ability to generate ~18x more of these “energy molecules” than anaerobic fermentation.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules?

In good breath,

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

P.S how self-help authors get ideas for their next book

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

April 25, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Values and Goals, Diverse Tactics, and 3 Shared Benefits of 15 Studies

Nicholas Heath

April 25, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

🎧 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. Presto, Instant Success: Breathing (and life) Values vs. Goals

“Values are ‘desired qualities of ongoing action.’ In other words, your values describe how you want to behave as a human being: how you want to act on an ongoing basis,
[…]
Goals are ‘desired outcomes.’ In other words, goals are what you want to get, complete, possess, or achieve. Goals are not ongoing. The moment you achieve a goal, you can tick it off the list;”
- Russ Harris, The Confidence Gap

This is a beautiful distinction between values and goals. And it highlights why we should focus on breathing values (nasal, quiet, deep, etc.) over goals.

Goals come and go, but values are always there. As Harris says, “in any moment, we can act on our values—yes, even if we’ve neglected them for years. Presto, instant success!”

Thus, anytime we act on our breathing values, no matter how long we’ve neglected them, we are instantly successful. So let’s do that, right now : )

2. Slow Breathing and Better Psychological Outcomes: 3 Shared Benefits of 15 Studies

After analyzing 15 studies, this systematic review found 3 common effects of slow breathing that were associated with positive mental outcomes:

Improved heart rate variability
Increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia
Enhanced alpha and decreased theta brainwave activity

The Take-Home Message: Breathe slowly, enhance HRV & RSA, modify brainwave activity, and feel better.

3. Diverse Tactics: The Benefits of Learning Many Methods

“So why learn to breathe other ways? Well, imagine just strolling. You can get most places and enjoy the outdoors with that stroll. But what if you want to cover ground quickly? Then you run. Or you want to reach a high tree branch. Then you jump. … For special purposes we need to learn special patterns of breathing…that fit the challenge of the moment.” (my emphasis)
- Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D., and Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.,
Breathwalk

We don’t need any fancy breathing to optimize our health (quiet & nasal will do most of the work). But, as we’re reminded here, there are many ways we can use our breath for various tasks and to reach different states.

Remember, “For special purposes we need to learn special patterns of breathing…that fit the challenge of the moment.”

So here’s to keeping an open mind and learning a diverse set of methods so we can always match our breath to our challenge, mixed-breathing artist style.

4. Two More Tiny (but hopefully useful) Thoughts on Methods

If you know only one breathing method, then you really know none; if you understand one breathing method, then you really know them all.
Every method works when used correctly, but no method works for everybody.

1 QUOTE

“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. … There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

1 ANSWER

Category: Evolution

Answer: These are our most recent structure evolutionarily, developing roughly 350-400 million years ago.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are the lungs?

In good breath,

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

P.S. & I think that’s where my anxiety started