Respiration parameters for directing arousal states

Wonder if someone would be good enough to add some clarity re. AF and using this? I know George is very knowledgeable on breathing related subjects. Wonder if you could comment? Go to 18:05 for the diagram
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Joe
Wonder if someone would be good enough to add some clarity re. AF and using this? I know George is very knowledgeable on breathing related subjects. Wonder if you could comment? Go to 18:05 for the diagram
[www.youtube.com]

Basically, if you make inhale longer than exhale you'll get a sympathetic response. Do the reverse and you'll get a parasympathetic response. For great detail on this see James Nestor's book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. He's got videos of some of the techniques here.

On the CO2 tolerance, Patrick McKeown's Oxygen Advantage goes into great detail. He's got a book and here are podcasts.. BOLT score AKA CP or control pause in the Buteko world (McKeown's teacher) is a great way to measure your CO2 tolerance. VIdeo You can search on Patrick McKeown for more. Book on topic.

As I noted a few years ago, [www.afibbers.org] long breath holds during activity may have triggered an afib episode and then I used the breath holds to convert. A referenced pig study explains why. Basically there is a risk period after the long breath holds (high serum CO2 during breath holds) but during them, everything may line up to convert an episode.

The other end of the spectrum is Wim Hof's technique. Wim has an app, videos & ect. A thread here on Wim Hoff [www.afibbers.org] Wim's technique is a variation of the "breath of fire" from Nepalese Buddhists

There are many variations of the breathing method. The basic version consists of three phases as follows from [en.wikipedia.org]

Controlled breathing:

The first phase involves 30-40 cycles of breathing. Each cycle goes as follows: take a deep breath in, fully filling the lungs. Breathe out by passively releasing the breath, but not forcefully. Repeat this cycle at a steady pace thirty to forty times. Hof says that this form of hyperventilation may lead to tingling sensations or light-headedness.

Breath retention: After completion of the 30-40 cycles of controlled hyperventilation, take a final deep breath in, and let it out. Do not fully empty the lungs; instead let the air out until you would need to contract your diaphragm to expel more air. Hold the breath until you feel an urge to breathe again (1 to 3 minutes).

Recovery breath: When a strong urge to breathe occurs, take a full deep breath in. Hold the breath for around 15 to 20 seconds and let it go. The body may experience a normal head-rush sensation.

These three phases may be repeated for three or more consecutive rounds.


Box breathing is here [www.google.com] It is basically x seconds in x seconds hold x seconds out x seconds hold & repeat. X is commonly 4 seconds, but as noted depends on your CO2 tolerance.

As I've noted elsewhere, I nose breathe all the time during exercise and everything else, including taping my mouth shut at night. I also train about 10 minutes a day with a Frolov device, a Russian rebreather, to help train my CO2 tolerance. I've taken the standard device and put it inside a 2 liter bottle to increase the CO2 storage.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2020 06:15AM by GeorgeN.

I do altered breathing when i feel the heart rhythm going 'funny'. I ask all these questions because i want to understand how it exactly applies to my problem. Your resources go a long way to do that. Thank you George!

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Joe
I do altered breathing when i feel the heart rhythm going 'funny'. I ask all these questions because i want to understand how it exactly applies to my problem. Your resources go a long way to do that. Thank you George!

Hi Joe {edit - couldn't type on my phone},

For others benefit, would you share what you do, and when?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2020 09:52AM by GeorgeN.

Dr. Weil has long suggested a simple breathing technique for relaxation, sleep and general unwinding.
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I've used it for perhaps 15 years, mostly to help get back to sleep in the middle of the night but also to help reset whatever I'm doing that upsets me during the daytime.

In general, for me it helps achieve its purpose although it may take more than one cycle to continue effectiveness.

I like to do it in 9 cycles then perhaps an hour break followed by another group.. After years of Qi Gong I've adopted the Chinese love of groups of 3 and in Cantonese 9 is a very lucky number.

Weil says you can do it as often as you like. It's worth some experimenting and he doesn't mention any downside.

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ggheld
Dr. Weil has long suggested a simple breathing technique for relaxation, sleep and general unwinding.

Yes, Weil's approach would be in the "increase parasympathetic tone" category. Basically inhale through nose for count of 4, hold for 7, exhale through the mouth with a "woosh" sound for 8.

Interestingly, this article by author James Nestor (book linked above) showed up in my feed this morning. In it, Nestor says: "For me, the perfect breath is this: inhale for about 5.5 seconds, then exhale for 5.5 seconds. That’s 5.5 breaths a minute for a total of about 5.5 litres of air. You can practise this perfect breathing for a few minutes, or a few hours. " (this is not meant as a comment on Weil's approach,which I think is wonderful). Interestingly, there is a device, Resperate, that has been clinically shown to reduce blood pressure. From memory, when I looked at this device years ago - I think it senses your breath and coaches you to breathe at this 5.5 second rate for in and exhales for 15 minutes. The HeartMath devices also do this. We had discussions about this here years ago [www.afibbers.org] . Coherent Breathing is a similar approach.

Nestor's book explores many breathing techniques (including Weil's, Buteyko, Wim Hof and much more). What is clear is that the breath can do amazing things to guide the physiology. As a long time meditator, I've always known that my meditations are better if I precede them with yoga and pranayama (breath work).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2020 02:17PM by GeorgeN.

When i feel my heart rhythm go 'funny' i take a fairly deep breath in and hold it for as long as comfortable and relaxing. This usually makes my Hrythm feel normal again. Right after i sort of breath deep rhythmically but slow.