Watch her demonstrate a breathing exercise/audrabear
It seems that since time immemorial humans have connected the breath with the soul.
In Hebrew we see this connection, among other things, in the word "soul", which is derived from the same root as the act of breathing.
Similarly, the ancient Greek word pneuma, meaning "air in motion," links in Christian scriptures the act of breathing with the spiritual idea of a soul or holy spirit.
So it is evident that humans value their breathing very much and see it as something that goes beyond the routine action of their bodies.
Breathing is a necessary process for life, designed to allow efficient gas exchange: we supply the body's cells with oxygen to produce energy during the act of inhalation, and remove carbon dioxide during exhalation.
You can breathe in all kinds of patterns: inhale air into the chest or abdominal cavity, use your mouth or nose, breathe in different rhythms and more.
Even before the development of modern medicine, ancient cultures used breathing as a tool to treat the body and mind.
Today, with the advancement of science and the in-depth understanding we have gained about the human body, researchers have provided reliable evidence that breathing can be used as an effective and important tool for improving health.
Breathing exercises are currently used to clean the lungs, to increase the amount of oxygen that reaches the tissues and to strengthen the muscles of the respiratory system.
In addition, studies show that breathing exercises also have a positive effect on the digestive system, improve blood circulation and even relieve stress.
Even before the development of modern medicine, ancient cultures used breathing as a tool to treat the body and mind/ShutterStock
Breathing: It just seems simple
The respiratory system consists of several organs and muscles that work together in impressive synchronization to allow gas exchange in our body.
The cells of the body need oxygen to produce the energy necessary for their function, and therefore for the function of the entire body.
To produce energy, the cell uses sugar, which comes from the food we eat, and the oxygen found in the air we breathe.
In this process, waste is also created: molecules of carbon dioxide that the body does not need and that may even harm it beyond a certain threshold.
With each breath we meet two needs of the body: when we inhale air we supply it with oxygen, and when we exhale we emit carbon dioxide.
The lungs, which are located in the chest and protected within the rib cage, are the organ where the gas exchange itself takes place.
The lungs can be likened to two bags that fill with air and deflate over and over again.
For this, muscles are needed to do the hard work: to expand the chest and make room for the incoming air.
Stop reading the article for a moment and take a slow, deep breath of air.
Try to feel all the movement that takes place in the chest and abdomen when the air enters, the rib cage stretches and expands in all directions, the abdomen rises.
Notice how many muscles are working here.
Among them are muscles that are between the ribs, and even neck muscles that connect to the ribs help us expand the rib cage up, to the sides and back.
But the main respiratory muscle is the diaphragm.
This is a large sheet of muscle that is just below the lungs and is attached to the spine at the back and the bottom of the rib cage at the front.
In a relaxed state, it looks like a convex surface upwards, a kind of dome that separates the chest area from the abdominal cavity.
When we inhale air, the diaphragm contracts and flattens downward, compressing the abdominal organs in the process.
Since it is attached to the rib cage, it pulls it down as well.
Thus the volume of the chest increases at the expense of the space of the abdominal organs.
At the same time, the rib cage expands backwards, sideways and upwards with the help of the other respiratory muscles.
Thus, in a multidirectional movement, the chest expands and the lungs can fill with air.
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Studies show a direct relationship between the movement of the diaphragm and the amount of air that enters the lungs during inhalation/ShutterStock
What do the Nadias do?
Air enters through the trachea, which splits and carries air to both lungs.
In the lungs, the air passes through branched tubes, which split into thinner and thinner tubes.
In the end, the thinnest tubes lead the air to the lung's alveoli - small bubbles that are wrapped in tiny blood vessels.
There the gas exchange takes place: the oxygen that has just arrived passes from the air in the lungs to the blood, and the carbon dioxide passes from the blood to the air in the lungs and is expelled from there in the process of exhalation.
During exhalation the contracted diaphragm relaxes and rises again to its rounded shape.
The muscles that expanded the rib cage also relax.
There is less space in the chest, the pressure in it increases and the air in the lungs, which is now saturated with carbon dioxide, is pushed up and expelled out.
To breathe properly we need a functioning diaphragm.
People who suffer from complete paralysis of the diaphragm have difficulty breathing.
Some of them will be able to breathe as long as they are at rest with the help of the other respiratory muscles, but any physical effort that will increase their body's demand for energy and oxygen may lead to respiratory failure.
In severe cases, people with diaphragmatic paralysis are unable to breathe on their own and need artificial respiration.
But in healthy people, even if the diaphragm does not function properly, the situation is not lost.
Many times you can train her.
Voluntary breathing
The diaphragm is a voluntary muscle, that is, a muscle that we can knowingly contract and relax.
This feature allows us to train and strengthen the diaphragm to improve its function.
However, normally when we breathe we do not need to think and plan our diaphragm movements.
They happen automatically.
Here the reality becomes a little more complex: the basic breathing pattern is determined in the brain stem - an area responsible for basic and necessary functions for life, such as the heartbeat rate.
No matter how hard we try, we can't send a command that stops the heart's activity, and that's a good thing.
With breathing it works a little differently: the brain stem does indeed control the basic breathing rate, but we can also voluntarily change the rate or character of our breathing.
This combination, between an involuntary system that works without us thinking about it and a voluntary system that we consciously activate, allows us to increase or slow down the rate of breathing, take deep breaths and even stop breathing completely, for example to dive in a pool.
chest during inhalation and exhalation.
On the left is inhalation, where air enters the lungs and the diaphragm descends.
On the right is exhalation, in which air leaves the lungs and the diaphragm rises
Designua, Shutterstock
Is it more effective to breathe through the nose?/ShutterStock
effective breathing
Studies show a direct relationship between the movement of the diaphragm and the amount of air entering the lungs during inhalation: the more it contracts and descends lower, the more air enters the lungs.
Such inhalation, which activates the diaphragm with more force than usual and causes it to move more, although it also takes longer, but its benefit is great.
The more we contract the diaphragm, we will take in more air in each breathing cycle and breathe deeper and more efficiently.
Therefore, in situations where our body requires an increased amount of oxygen, for example during physical activity, instead of breathing faster and tiring the body, we can focus on the diaphragm and take breaths as full as possible.
This strategy will allow us to reduce the rate of breaths per minute and thus lower the load imposed on the respiratory system.
A study from the 1990s followed the breathing rate of people suffering from heart failure.
In such a situation, the heart does not function properly and has difficulty pumping oxygen-saturated blood to the body's cells.
As a result, the patients suffer from a continuous lack of oxygen in the blood and are unable to persist in physical activity, since it increases the demand of the body's cells for oxygen.
During the study, we trained for a month a group of heart patients to take effective breaths, using the diaphragm voluntarily, at a slow rate of about six breaths per minute.
We then tested their ability to withstand physical activity and compared it to a group of subjects with heart failure who did not undergo similar breathing training.
The findings revealed that not only did the basic oxygen level in the blood of the subjects who underwent respiratory training improve, but also their ability to meet the increasing demand for oxygen during aerobic exercise increased.
Deep and slow breaths that include a significant contraction of the diaphragm, optimize the breathing process and save energy.
In addition, they improve blood flow from the distant organs to the heart, and contribute to lowering blood pressure and slowing the heart rate
The remaining efficiency of diaphragmatic breathing is not limited only to the amount of air that enters the lungs.
Another advantage lies in the anatomical structure of the lungs.
As mentioned, the air begins its journey in the lungs in thick tubes that branch out and become thinner and thinner until the thin tubes with the nadia where gas exchange takes place.
The thick tubes are rigid like plastic straws, while the tubes with the nadia are flexible like rubber balloons.
And since the thick pipes do not have nadia, no gas exchange takes place in them - these are "non-breathing" pipes.
With each normal inhalation, part of the air that fills the lungs remains in the non-breathing tubes and does not reach the nadia at all.
Eventually this air goes back out, contributing nothing to the breathing process.
wasted air.
When we inhale deeply and put a lot of air into the lungs, the extra air we inhaled cannot stay in the thick and hard tubes, because their volume is limited, so it reaches the nadia and inflates them like a balloon.
Therefore, when we take deep breaths, we increase the amount of air that goes through gas exchange in the lungs, and reduce the amount of unused air in each breath.
When the body requires more oxygen, deep breaths will be more beneficial than frequent, short breaths.
So, from the health point of view: deep and slow breaths that include a significant contraction of the diaphragm, optimize the breathing process and save energy.
In addition, they improve blood flow from the distant organs to the heart, and contribute to lowering blood pressure and slowing the heart rate.
What kind of peace
The respiratory system is closely related to the autonomic nervous system - which, as its name implies, works independently to regulate the activity of the body's internal organs, such as the heart, glands, intestines and, of course, the respiratory organs.
The activity of the autonomic nervous system is divided into two subsystems.
The first is the sympathetic system, which is responsible for adapting the body's systems to states of vigorous activity or alertness to danger.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic system is in charge of regulating the body's systems in normal and relaxed states: it slows down the rate of breathing and heartbeat, directs resources to non-urgent functions such as digestion, and more.
Although these two systems encourage opposite biological processes, they work side by side and are influenced by each other: usually when one works more strongly, the other slows down.
How does all this relate to breathing?
It turns out that this is a two-way street: not only does the autonomic system lower the breathing rate when we are relaxed, but the breathing rate in turn affects the rest of the autonomic system as well.
Studies have shown that when you take slow breaths voluntarily, the activity of the parasympathetic system is stimulated.
This is how it is sometimes possible, through breathing alone, to calm the body.
Practice deep breathing
To examine the effect of breathing on the level of mental stress and anxiety, it is customary to measure the level of the hormone cortisol in saliva.
Cortisol, also known as the "stress hormone", is secreted in the body as part of the activity of the sympathetic system, in dangerous situations that require vigilance and hyper vigilance.
Among other things, cortisol raises blood pressure and suppresses the activity of the immune system.
Mental stress and anxiety situations, in which there is a prolonged secretion of cortisol, have a negative effect on health.
In 2017, a study was published that tested the effect of diaphragmatic breathing on the mental health of twenty healthy subjects who worked long hours in an office and their work involved a lot of mental stress.
For eight weeks they underwent breathing exercises that focused on deep and slow diaphragmatic breathing.
During the breathing exercises, the subjects received continuous real-time feedback on the quality of their breaths, using a monitoring device that followed their breaths and measured their volume.
The researchers found that the practice resulted in a decrease in cortisol levels, improved the participants' achievements in concentration tests and manifested in reports of a better mood in questionnaires compared to a similar group of subjects who did not practice deep breathing.
Similar findings were also recorded in another study, where some of the subjects participated in ten weekly sessions of guided breathing exercises, and the rest used the time of the sessions for rest only.
Questionnaires to assess the level of mental stress of the participants indicated significant improvements in the group that experienced breathing exercises, the cortisol level in saliva decreased, and the heart rate decreased.
In other words, practicing deep breathing for an hour and a half once a week had a positive effect on the subjects' personal experience and mood, and also improved their physical health.
Other indicators also strengthen the hypothesis about the relaxing potential of deep breathing.
An article from 2015 reviewed the findings of 56 previous studies that examined using an electroencephalogram (EEG) - a device that measures with electrodes the electrical activity in different areas of the brain - what was happening in the brains of subjects who performed mindfulness exercises (listening in Hebrew) that include slow breathing.
It was found that during the training, the brains of the participants tended to operate at frequencies associated with peace, relaxation and positive thinking.
The way to calm
Although we know that breathing can stimulate the parasympathetic system, it is not entirely clear how exactly this happens.
One of the main hypotheses today is that the instruction to activate it in response to the slow diaphragmatic breathing goes through the vagus nerve (vagus nerve).
The vagus nerve is the main nerve through which the parasympathetic system transmits instructions from the brain to the body's organs.
It begins its journey in the brain stem, and branches from there down almost throughout the body, including the internal organs and glands.
Its activity can, among other things, slow down the heart rate, encourage the activity of the digestive system and affect the secretion of sweat and saliva.
On its way to the abdominal organs, the vagus nerve passes through an opening in the center of the diaphragm.
This is the anatomical fact on which the hypothesis is based that explains the calming effect of the breaths.
Researchers claim that even when the brain itself is not sending proactive instructions, mechanical stimulation of the vagus nerve may cause it to activate the target organs of the parasympathetic system.
According to this hypothesis, the contraction of the diaphragm during deep inhalation exerts mechanical pressure on the vagus nerve.
Pressure-sensitive receptors on the nerve activate the parasympathetic system.
This may be the way the slow diaphragmatic breathing brings the body into relaxation.
How should you breathe?
So should you breathe through your nose or mouth?
How many deep breaths should you take in a row?
Despite the agreement on the very contribution of deep breathing to health and peace of mind, not all studies agree on the best way to breathe deeply.
The issue of dosage is particularly problematic: how long should you practice deep breathing and how often?
The range in the scientific literature ranges from short exercises of five minutes several times a day to an hour and a half practice once a week.
In the absence of a winning recipe, it is recommended to start small and progress gradually.
Choose a fixed time of the day that you can dedicate regularly to a short breathing practice.
Find a comfortable position in a quiet environment and breathe slowly and deeply for a minute or two.
Later you can extend the duration of the practice and add more practices on the same day.
In addition to a regular practice routine that will benefit you over time, you should of course also apply the method to real events: when you feel mental distress, before a stressful event such as an important job interview and even just when you want to calm yourself down, for example before going to bed.
In a recent review of articles, the researchers compiled a short series of recommendations that are easy to implement even during a busy workday.
First, it is important to make sure that the breaths are deep, so that the air inhaled fills at least 80 percent of the maximum capacity of the lungs.
The breathing rate should be slow, especially the exhalation phase.
Try to exhale through pursed lips and count in your head about six breaths per minute.
Pay attention - deep breaths at too high a rate can cause dizziness and other symptoms, so it is better to keep a slow and even rate.
Slow diaphragmatic breathing is an effective tool for improving general function and relieving mental stress.
You can practice them anytime, anywhere, for free and without any risk.
Even so, we breathe all the time - so what do we have to lose?
For more articles - Davidson Institute for Science Education website
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