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BREATH This book will change your life (100%, "overnight")
Thank you for giving us this book to read! As you said it has changed my life! I'm making a conscious effort to breath through my nose during the day and doing mouth taping at night. I'm even trying to hum for a few minutes each day to increase nitric oxide. My nose is clearer and I feel generally better. I can now sleep through the night and my IBS is improving, so I've been able to add a few more foods to my limited diet. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
MaryAnn
@maryann That's good news; very happy for you. Thanks for the feedback and don't hesitate to ask if you need practical "tips".
Know that as your tissues get more and more oxygenated you may at some point get "flu-like symptoms" or similar things as the body "cleans the region" so to speak (you will usually know not only that it is so but actually feel the "thing" at the specific region of the body where is happens). Nothing to be worried about but your breathing can suddenly become more difficult and you will have the impression to "regress" for 1-2 days or a bit longer - just continue and you will go through it and come to higher and higher levels of well-being over time. Some people have these episodes while others go through it without ever noticing them.
One thing I have noticed is that during those periods it is actually good to go on an almost 100% starch diet and avoid EMFs as much as you can if that is possible. Those two things will help your body go through it much more rapidly.
Also, when you arrive at around 55 seconds BCP (Buteyko's "control pause"), it can be good to add Wim Hof methods to go faster.
Wish you well.
Dear Dino,
Thank you for the efforts to help people correct their bad breathing patterns.
Is there any difference between your recommendations posted here in July 2019. and Buteyko methods? As I can notice, most advices are common – nasal (in and out), mainly diaphragmatic, slow (in frequency) and imperceptible breathing. The difference is – where the pause takes place. If I understand well, Buteyko method recommends that pause goes after exhalation, you recommended pause after inhalation.
Is this the only difference and if yes, how that difference influences our bodies and breathing patterns?
Do you still recommend what you did in July 2019. and what methods do you think are better for correction of full or partial mouth breathing?
BR,
Dejan
Hi Dejan thank you for the good question. Im actually at job and very busy these days - I'll try to take time this week-end to answer thoroughly because we need to go much more in depth about this one but basically yes I absolutely still recommend. There are a few differences but the main one being the goal - in one we train the lungs musculature and total capacity and harmonize the organs system while in the other we retrain subconscious breathing patterns through the brain. I'll come back on this as soon as I find time with more in-depth explanation but you can practice both they are equally good, just never "force" with any of them. For mouth breathing specifically Buteyko is a "classic" but the complete breath and even Wim Hof will do it too.
Thank you Ourania and Dino.
Dino, we are awaiting for your expertise on the matter. 🙂
BR,
Dejan
Ok sorry for the delay in answer but we had a « cluster » of Covid-19 at my job so basically I am working for 3 people since last week because they are all very ill and cannot work and moreover I also tested « positive » with basically no symptoms so I didn’t stop working but I have to do it from home because of the « quarantaine » and above that 3 out of 4 of our assistants got it as well and are also out of the game so the whole thing is messy to say the least… Add to that that my wife tested positive as well (she’s fine, had only extremely minor symptoms, but still has also to be at home) and that I have children etc. and you understand a bit the « complete chaos » and lack of time these days…
Anyway, I’ll try to briefly answer what you asked and will come back once everything clears a bit to complete the answer with further details and much more « in-depth » analysis of the whole thing. I’ll probably « miss » a lot of things but hope you understand the situation and I’ll come to rectify if I see errors later on - I’ll try to be as precise and exhaustive and exact as possible but have really no time now to delve deeply in the subject and read and re-read to make sure everything is « perfect ».
You want ideally to breathe only through the nose, calmly and slowly. You want to breathe with the full lungs and diaphragm, to have strong and flexible lungs and to basically have very low volume of air throughout the day.
It can actually be good to see this video:
Try to sing as the « singer » does. If you can do it, fine. If you can’t, your breathing is not optimal. If you observe closely, you will see that he breathes very easily and in a very relaxed way yet his voice is powerful and he « exhales » much much much longer than he inhales. His exhalations are powerful and very long while inhalations are quite short and ridiculously « small » compared to exhalations. This means he is adjusted to high CO2 levels and his whole body is very oxygenated with very good lungs and diaphragm. Actually I have visited a few of those tribes and have took Ayahuasca a few years ago in the Peruvian jungle with shamans - every single man I’ve heard singing there had that breathing pattern and that « trumpet-like » voice. This is normal for healthy people with normal breathing. You can use that as a « model » for what you aim to achieve.
Take also notice that this is just « normal » breathing - I’ve met yogis and tibetan lamas that have much much better breathing patterns and some of them actually seem to not breathe at all (you have to go very close and observe very acutely to actually see them breathing). Their oxygenation is exceptional with very high CO2 levels in blood. Hope this will make you wonder.
So, first a few remarks before we go further:
When you inhale slowly and consciously, you activate the sympathetic « part » of the nervous system
When you exhale slowly and consciously, you activate the parasympathetic one.
When you inhale slowly and longer than you exhale and repeat it a few times you are playing with the sympathetic side, while doing the opposite (exhaling slowly and longer than inhaling) makes you play with the parasympathetic. When you breathy rhythmically (slow, long inhalation and slow, long exhalation of same duration, you are basically equilibrating both side of your nervous system). The speed of breathing, the depth, etc. all impact differently the nervous system but this is it for the basics.
When you breathe « at the belly » you are training the diaphragm and playing with different parts of the body than when you breath at the thorax and same for chest-breathing. The whole indian system of so-called "chakras" is simply anatomical locations with "nerves nodes" where many nerves meet and you can actually "breathe in" these "centers" with various effects because you oxygenate various parts/systems through the nerves you reach (it is more complicated and subtle than that but this is the "quite gross explanation" if we can say so - try to breathe in different places and see by yourself the effects on "quality" of concsiousness).
Now, when you retain breath once you have « filled yourself up » with air (you inhale as much as you can, then a bit more), you are actually training the flexibility of your lungs and their musculature while also charging blood with oxygen and increasing slightly CO2 within the blood. When you retain breath outside of the body (i.e. you exhale as much as possible, completely emptying the lungs, then retaining breath), you are training mainly the diaphragm and you start increasing the CO2 in your blood.
If you draw air softly through the nose, you are increasing nitric oxide. If you « hum » you are increasing nitric oxide even more (you have receptors on the upper side of your nasal cavity which does that; nitric oxide is released because of the vibration of the hum ).
Hyperventilation will contract your vessels, activate your sympathetic part of nervous system and make blood go faster but the oxygen delivery will be lower (because for oxygen to be released in organs, etc. you need a certain level of CO2).
Hypoventilation will do the opposite, meaning it will dilate your blood vessels, activate your parasympathetic and make blood go « slower » but the oxygen delivery to organs will increase because CO2 will go up.
Also, there are « subtle channels » of nerves that are used in acupuncture basically and each kind of breathing has different effects on these channels but this will be for another time. One important thing about this is that randomly throughout the day you breathe either « more » with the left side of the nose either with the right side. Sometimes with both equally. You can do a simple yet powerful thing which is called « alternate nose breathing » which has many variantes but make it simple: inhale slowly through the left nostril and exhale powerfully through the right - do it 5 times - then inhale slowly through the right nostril and exhale powerful through the left - do it 5 times - repeat this process a few times. This will equilibrate your nervous system and « purify » the nerves.
Breathing through the nose has also another benefit: it filters the air you inhale, adjusts the temperature of the air inhaled and since the nose is much smaller than the mouth, it naturally lowers the volume of air inhaled. Mouth breathing doesn't filter the air, doesn't make it "at good temperature" and makes you inhale and exhale way too much air per minute.
Now these are the very basics and once again I will repeat that practice is a must because as you try these things and « play » with your breath you will develop an « inner feeling » of what’s happening within your body and you will basically know what action does what. At the beginning you have to do it « mechanically » but as you progress you develop like a « sixth sense » which is a different kind of « feeling » and you will actually exactly know what is happening where (i.e. if you increase CO2 you will know it, and if oxygen rushes in parts of your body you will know it too, etc.). So when tim « jokes » about the fact that in meditation we « see the CO2 etc. » it was only half a joke actually because you cannot « see » these things (at least I have never seen them) but you can indeed feel them (and very precisely so) and know what exactly is happening within. You will easily know when your vessels dilate or contract, which part of your nervous system is dominant, etc.
If you take Buteyko, what you do is you basically exhale and retain breath outside (not only that but that’s the basic idea). With that you train the diaphragm and you increase CO2. The goal with Buteyko is to create a light « lack of air », i.e. to come to your « CO2 limit » and maintain yourself there. Why? Because the brain, after approx 15-20minutes, will adjust to slightly higher CO2 levels. Overtime, it will adjust more and more and so your « average CO2 levels » in blood will be higher and higher and your organs and tissues and brain will be more and more oxygenated with numerous benefits and healing. It is actually a slow process but you are training your « subconscious » to accept more and more CO2. Buteyko is very good but in my opinion it is not optimal alone on long term and should be used for what it is - it is nothing more and nothing less than brain retraining to get higher CO2 levels. Buteyko will not (at least never directly) make your lungs « expand » or stronger or more flexible and will not purify directly your blood or organs - it is not intended for that. However, over time it will lead to more and more oxygenation and it will clean your system indeed.
Now, the complete yogic breath. Here we inhale slowly, we fill ourselves with air as much as possible, and again a bit more. We basically load our lungs and blood with air and retain it there. Basically what we do is we will ourselves with oxygen and then by retaining the air we increase slightly the CO2 which leads to the oxygen we just took going to the various tissues and organs, but just a bit. With time we extend the capacity of the lungs and their strength and flexibility more and more and we are able to retain longer and longer the air within - which means we basically inhale more and more oxygen and we increase more and more our CO2 at the same time, which oxygenates the whole body more and more. Here, the main goal is to purify the blood (so it carries nutrients and takes up toxins and expels them through lungs), to train the lungs, and to slowly, very slowly increase the CO2 capacity. So in the end we also finish with retraining the brain to handle more CO2, but not as fast or as directly as with Buteyko. The difference is subtle but very important.
Basically, if your only goal is to retrain your subconscious breathing pattern, go for Buteyko. You will also achieve more quickly nose breathing (and stop mouth breathing). If your goal is to achieve « perfect » health, the complete yogic breath is better because it trains many things at the same time and is quite gentle (if you don’t force too much on your lungs, especially at the beginning).
Now, for people which are really bad with breathing, the complete yogic breath can be hard to start with and too « tiring » so it can be good to start with Buteyko. Some people cannot even start correctly with Buteyko because their breathing is really poor and their CO2-capacity is really low. For them it is good to start simply by closing the mouth as much as possible during the day and « taping the mouth » at night. Because this will increase their nitric oxide and their CO2 levels on a regular basis, make them « fitter » for higher breathing methods and allow them to then go with Buteyko or complete yogic breath.
So there is not one technique that is better than another for everyone. They are all good but if you had to take them in order from « easiest » to more complex, you would first go by taping your mouth at night, then with Buteyko then go for complete yogic breath or Wim Hof.
One thing I’ve noticed is that Buteyko is not good if you are calcium deficient or claustrophobic (I don’t know why claustrophobic people tend to do poorly on Buteyko - for the complete yogic breath is better).
Wim Hof is very good but more advanced, more difficult and in my opinion requires a decent level of breathing to start with.
Here we first do a controlled hyperventilation. This decreases drastically the CO2. It increases slightly oxygen in the blood but starves the tissues of oxygen (but only for very short period of time). Then the 2nd part is the « genius » of the method. You actually exhale and make a big retention outside of body. Since you have saturated blood with oxygen, the fact that you retain air outside will increase CO2 a lot (it will actually cheat with the brain because of the controlled hyperventilation you’ve just done). The huge increase in CO2 will actually « force » the accumulated oxygen throughout the body in organs and even « pockets » where the body for some reason had no more oxygen for long time - these pockets usually carry infections and forcing oxygen there will actually « expose » these infections in a rapid manner. At the same, you have cheated with the brain and the CO2 levels are much higher than usually. By repeating 3-4 series, you do basically the same as with Buteyko and you « retrain » the subconscious part to handle more and more CO2. Finally, the last part « reequilibrates » everything.
In the first part (hyperventilation), you activate sympathetic part, in second part (exhalation and retention), you activate parasympathetic, in the last part you let the body equilibrate both.
Of course there are also hormones at play and many other things but I try to keep it simple here.
Wim Hof comes from Tibetan Tummo. Breathing is only one part of the method and you have also cold exposure and the « meditative » part which goes together. It is a quite advanced method, very powerful but you have to do it really well. I don’t think it is good to start with but after practicing Buteyko and the complete yogic breath for some time it is good to add Wim Hof.
Ok, I think I have briefly exposed the subject. I hope this helps you see a bit clearly the various methods. It is really impossible to « summarize » breathing because it is way too vast and you would need books and books so hope you « get it ». Once again please try and practice, practice, practice you will rapidly see results which will give you motivation to practice more and like already mentioned you will develop a highly refined « internal feeling » and then be able to know what’s happening where and when and actually mix all the various breathing patterns in a way that is the best specifically for you. Everybody is unique in some way and one breathing method can be « the » method for one people and be dangerous for the next one. However, if you go « lightly » on Buteyko, Wim Hof and the complete yogic breath you should do fine. I wouldn’t advise you to go for « Kriya Yoga » methods without a very decent teacher or more extreme methods like « holotropic breath work » etc. As long as you tape your mouth, do the complete yogic breath or buteyko, you basically have no risk of harming yourself (except if you « force » your way through it).
I hope this helps. Don’t hesitate to put questions and when the « actual chaos » settles a bit I will come back and go much more in depth about all these things.
Good luck and all the best for you all.
Hi Dino,
Thank you so much for your efforts to educate us on the matter!
And you really don't have to apologize, we can easily understand your situation. Similar here, both my wife and me working from home, children attending elementary school (online) and training seriously their sports require a lot of attention and support. As we would say here - we don't know where our heads and where our asses are, crazy times really.
What you presented here is serious material and needs to be studied up very carefully. And needs to be supported with a lot of self-experimentation. So, it will require some time to be understood as it should be. In the meantime, some new questions might arise, sorry for this in advance. 🙂
Thank you once again,
All the best to you, your family and all readers here,
Dejan
Thank you very much @dino for your post, which I find very enlightening. I wish you and your family an easy Covid time.
All this comparison of benefits of the different methods is extremely interesting, and I am very grateful for your effort in putting this together.
Apart from the oxygen/CO2 balance, the role of nitric oxide seems to be crucial, because this is the mechanism by which the correction of the balance is achieved.
This happens after the outside retention. When breathing stops, nitric oxide keeps being produced in the head and accumulates. If breathing has stopped with full lungs, this nitric oxide is expelled with the outgoing breath.
But if the lungs are empty, the nitric oxide stored in the head gets distributed deeply in the body together with the incoming breath.
This is I think an important point to differentiate the several breathing methods.
I think you are completely right in what you say. Practice is the way to understand better what is good for you.
A point that I have found helpful in my practice is to notice when salivation suddenly starts. This is for me the sign that a hormonal redistribution has been triggered.
Thank you again @dino!