Breathing: doing it right!
If you feel like any of these issues effect you then you should contact your GP. This text is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose or outline a course of treatment for any particular individual or any particular condition. It is also not meant to contradict any existing diagnosis or treatment for any individual or condition. To avoid any health complications all exercises in this article should only be performed after consultation with an appropriate healthcare practitioner.
Contents
Three effects of incorrect breathing patterns: pain, digestive problems & anxiety.
What causes and maintains faulty breathing patterns.
Breathing exercises.
Exercise one: correct day to day breathing technique.
Exercise two: breathing exercise to work your muscles.
Exercise three: abdominal breathing for your abdominal muscles.
Three effects of incorrect breathing patterns: pain, digestive problems and anxiety
If you didn’t walk correctly you’d expect to develop symptoms from how you walk. If you didn’t breath correctly, understandably, you’d expect to develop symptoms from how you breath.
On average we take up to 23,040 breaths a day. Multiply that over the years! Imagine if you didn’t get the full health benefits from each breathe. This is how, over the years, you develop a ‘breathing pattern disorder’. However, it is important to remember our body’s are fairly robust. This robustness means that even though our body’s won’t crumble, just because we’re not breathing correctly, the correct breathing mechanics can reduce strain on the parts of our body that may possess an inherent weakness or sensitivity.
Breathing pattern disorders can give three main symptoms: pain, digestive problems and anxiety.
Pain
You use 93 muscles all over your body to breath. You use them 93 muscles up to 23,040 times a day 7 days a week. It pays to use them correctly! A study on breathing pattern disorders found a strong correlation between incorrect breathing patterns and poor posture, shoulder blade, low back, neck and jaw (TMJ) pain (Bradley & Esformes 2014).
Breathing has a role, as one of the systems, that regulates the acid-alkaline balance in our body, this is discussed under ‘Anxiety’; a tendency to maintain a more ‘acidic’ environment, whilst providing NO broader long-term health ramifications, has been associated with pain conditions and migraines (Vollmer et al 2015).
Digestive problems
The main muscle you use to breath is your diaphragm. Your diaphragm separates your chest from your stomach. When you breath in your diaphragm pushes down on your stomach to massage your organs. If you’re breathing correctly, and your diaphragm is moving up and down correctly, then the organs in your stomach are getting a daily massage! Correct breathing also regulates the nerve that goes to your bowels (Frøkjaer et al 2016). How you breath can also affect how your food passes into your stomach (Mittal et al 1995) that can effect indigestion. Correct breathing can also help bloating that is associated with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) (Barba et al 2015, 2017).
Anxiety
Respiration is one of the mechanisms that helps maintain the body’s pH at neutral. In other words it helps to stops us getting to ‘alkaliney’ or acidic which has been linked to anxiety and panic attacks (Verbraecken & McNicholas 2013, Bradley & Esformes 2014, Vollmer et al 2015, Ramirez 2014).
Some patients prone to panic attacks and anxiety can be hypersensitive to even slight changes in their body’s pH level. Whilst it’s important to remember this slight change in their body’s pH has NO broader long-term health ramifications, it can cause anxiety if someone happens to be sensitive to it. Due to their hypersensitivity this slight change to their pH level (acidosis) can trigger their body’s alarm systems causing an anxiety or panic attack (Wemmie 2011).
Correct breathing has been used as a treatment for panic attacks and Anxiety as it corrects blood gas abnormalities and restores the body’s pH levels. Interestingly patients with a history of respiratory illness, i.e. incorrect breathing, have a greater risk of panic disorders (Wemmie 2011).
What causes and maintains faulty breathing patterns
Psychological causes: depressed or anxious mood states effects our use of breathing (Verbraecken & McNicholas 2013, Vollmer et al 2015, Ramirez 2014) and sighing (Ramirez 2014).
Biochemical: Asthma suffers can find their symptoms exacerbating just before or during their period. Asthma can also start around puberty in females and around/during the menopause(1). Hormones during pregnancy (and because when the ‘bump’ develops your diaphragm, chest and stomach doesn’t move as well) compromises your breathing (LoMauro & Aliverti A 2015).
Posture: a faulty posture in standing or sitting affects how you use your breathing muscles.
Mechanical constraints: anything that impedes the chest and stomach from moving properly can affect your breathing pattern e.g. tight fitting bra’s and jeans.
Breathing exercises: correct breathing technique & breathing exercises to work your muscles
You should not follow any form of exercise, including those below, until you’ve been assessed by an appropriate healthcare practitioner. Any exercise that affects your breathing may have side effects if you have, amongst other things, any heart, blood pressure, breathing problems or prone to fainting/dizzy spells.
Read through the instructions first before following them. Some people try to perform the exercise whilst reading the instructions and end up holding their breath as they read!
Exercise one: correct breathing technique
Do not breath heavily when performing this exercise just at your normal rate and depth.
Put your left hand on your chest.
Put your right hand on your stomach.
Take a breathe in. Your right hand on your stomach should move more than your left hand on your chest.
When you breath out everything should relax so you get a natural breathe out - don’t try to blow or force the air out.
By making sure your right hand on your stomach is moving more than the left hand on your chest ensures you are using your diaphragm. If you don’t feel dizzy/faint after the exercise and you want to repeat it again breath normally for 10 seconds first so you don’t end up hyperventilating.
Exercise two: breathing exercise to work your muscles
As an exercise to really stretch and work all 93 of the muscles you use for breathing perform this exercise just once or twice sporadically throughout the day.
Put your left hand on your chest.
Put your right hand on your stomach.
Take a breathe in so the right hand on your stomach moves but not the left hand on your chest.
Before breathing out - breath in a bit more so the left hand on your chest moves to really fill up your lungs.
Now breath out.
If you don’t feel dizzy/faint after the exercise and you want to repeat it again breath normally for 10 seconds first so you don’t end up hyperventilating.
Exercise three: abdominal breathing for your abdominal muscles
This exercise concentrates on breathing using your diaphragm and abdominal muscles.
Put your left hand on your chest.
Put your right hand on your stomach.
Take a deep breathe in so your right hand moves and your left hand stays still.
To breath out just tighten your stomach muscles as tight as you can so you can feel them fully contracting under your right hand.
To increase the intensity of this exercise perform this routine lying on your back with a sterile balloon in your mouth. Perform the breath in, and as you exhale whilst tightening your stomach muscles simultaneously inflate the balloon. A similar exercise for the respiratory muscles, although performed slightly differently, but being similar in principle, is shown on the exercise page ‘transverse abdominal crunch’.
If you don’t feel dizzy/faint after the exercise and you want to repeat it again breath normally for 10 seconds first so you don’t end up hyperventilating.
References
Bradley H, Esformes J (2014). Breathing pattern disorders and functional movement (2014).
Frøkjaer JB, Bergmann S, Brock C, Madzak A, Farmer AD, Ellrich J, Drewes AM (2016). Modulation of vagal tone enhances gastroduodenal motility and reduces somatic pain sensitivity (2016).
Mittal RK, Shaffer HA, Parollisi S, Baggett L (1995). Influence of breathing pattern on the esophagogastric junction pressure and esophageal transit
Barba E, Burri E, Accarino A, Cisternas D, Quiroga S, Monclus E, Navazo I, Malagelada J, Azpiroz F (2015). Abdominothoracic mechanisms of functional abdominal distension and correction by biofeedback.
Barba E, Accarino A, Azpiroz F (2017). Correction of Abdominal Distention by Biofeedback-Guided Control of Abdominothoracic Muscular Activity in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Verbraecken J & McNicholas W (2013). Respiratory mechanics and ventilatory control in overlap syndrome and obesity hypoventilation
Vollmer LL, Strawn JR, Sah R (2015). Acid–base dysregulation and chemosensory mechanisms in panic disorder: a translational update
Ramirez JM (2014). The Integrative Role of the Sigh in Psychology, Physiology, Pathology, and Neurobiology
Wemmie J (2011). Neurobiology of panic and pH chemosensation in the brain
LoMauro A, Aliverti A (2015). Respiratory physiology of pregnancy
(1) https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/triggers/hormones/. Accessed 4.8.2016