FUNCTIONAL BREATHING
Breathing is the power of life; Vitality is the power of life minus Obstructions, which are blockages, toxins, stress, drugs, toxic food. To enhance your vitality, you must reduce obstructions and optimize your power with functional breathing techniques.
If you do not breathe for 3 minutes, you are going to die! If you are incorrectly breathing, soon you will become sick! Our body is an air engine, with the lungs being the pumping system and the heart the valving mechanism for the blood flow.
Our life is possible only if some parameters are in the right range: thus, the blood pH must stay strictly in the range 7.35-7.45; if your blood pH is going down to 6.8 or up to 7.8, your cells are going to die, and you will shortly follow up. In our brain, there is a sensor controlling the blood pH; if the pH is getting too acidic, it will alkalinize the blood using bicarbonate (we produce bicarbonate in our body), and if the blood pH gets too alkaline, it will acidify the blood using Carbonic acid; to balance the pH between carbonic acid and sodium bicarbonate the blood needs one more component: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which is available in the atmosphere and is produced in our lungs (exhalation).
There is 0.03% Carbon dioxide; the rest of the CO2 is being consumed by the plants. We need 40 mm Hg pressure equivalent to 6.5% Carbon dioxide in the blood to buffer the blood pH. The gas we exhale is 3.7% carbon dioxide. Thus the main source of CO2 is for humans, the exhaled air enriched with CO2. To achieve 6.5% CO2 in the blood, we need to manufacture CO2 and store it in the lungs.
The human body requirement for Oxygen (O2) is only 5% mmHg; in the atmosphere, there is 21% Oxygen, so four times more as needed by our body; this means so far you are breathing you will always get enough oxygen, your lungs are always saturated with oxygen.
The lungs enable breathing using their surface of about the size of a tennis court. To secure 40 mm Hg (6.5%) CO2 in the lungs, the level of CO2 must always be above 35 mm Hg. The brain is set to trigger new breathing once the CO2 reached the level of 35 mm. If you breathe functionally, you will secure the necessary CO2 level of 40 mm Hg (6.5% in the blood). Below 30 mm Hg, the body is dysfunctional, and you get sick.
When you are stressed the breathing, patterns are different from those in a relaxed state: fast breathing, sigh more often and irregular, mouth breathing, upper chest breathing, panting, the eventual ventilating, mouth gets dry, limbs extremities get colder, blood circulation is impaired, anxiety and panic attacks because the body does not get enough oxygen (hypoxia).
When you are relaxed, breathing patterns are you breathe slower (6-8 breaths per minute), soft breathing (silent), nasal inhalation only, diaphragm breathing, the mouth is moist, limbs extremities are warm, the whole body is pleasantly warmer, blood pressure is well regulated, the mind is calm, no anxiety or panic attacks, cells are well oxygenated.
Functional correct breathing:
- Breath regularly 6-8 times per minute, not more.
- Breathing must be driven by the diaphragm, not by the upper chest.
- Inhalation is always through the nose.
- Exhalation is always through the mouth.
- Inhalation must always be silent, no noises
- During the inhalation, the air must be pushed from the upper chest to the belly with the diaphragm muscle located underneath the ribcage.
- Inhalation feels like your thorax/ribs are sidewise, expanding to the left and right, making you wider, “ballooning” you.
- The exhalation must occur up to the level of emptying the lungs using the diaphragm and sucking/pushing up the belly; this feels like you are getting longer, ribs and thorax are moving up.
- Breathe relaxed
- Breathe rhythmically
- Breathe silently
We must learn how to control the number and the depth of our breaths using the diaphragm muscle. If you changed your breath patterns, then the brain will change its settings. We breathe 28000 – 30000 times per day; what is happening if all 30000 breaths are put off balance and run at CO2 at only 28-30 mm Hg? Symptoms start occurring; you are getting sicker and sicker.