Episode Notes:
Conscious breathing has the power to change your life by reducing stress, maximizing your focus and memory, promoting longevity, and even contributing to facial symmetry and attractiveness. With the ability to regulate the autonomic nervous system, breathing is a gateway to controlling many of the physiological systems that govern our health and performance. Amazingly, despite having unlimited access to this tool, very few people understand how to utilize their breath to improve their lives.
In this episode, you will discover the influence breath has over your health, including regulation of the HPA axis, autonomic nervous system, and the incredible benefits of nasal breathing. I’ll share my experience with a variety of different breathing exercises and will provide you with breathing exercises and resources that you can immediately use to take control of your life.
Northeast Psych: Dr. Jason Emery
https://www.northeastpsych.com/
Topics:
[2:30] Stress and the HPA Axis
[5:14] Breathing regulates stress hormones
[6:14] How to voluntarily control autonomic nervous system
[7:19] Remarkable benefits of the Wim Hof Method
[9:45] Andrew Huberman’s technique for instant parasympathetic activation
[11:35] Nasal breathing for improved facial symmetry and sleep
[14:07] Heightened awareness and full-body tingling sensation during the Wim Hof Method
[18:03] Breathing techniques to implement today to optimize your life
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.
Teaser
In this episode… The potential benefits of this self-induced state of hypoxia and sympathetic activation are wild: increased production of red blood cells, development of new blood vessels, development of cancer-preventing protein p53, development of stem cells, and the induction of nitric oxide synthase…
Episode Intro
Learn II Perform: Practical lessons so that you can immediately learn to optimize your health, happiness, and performance.
Gratitude
As always, I like to start off each episode with an expression of gratitude to someone or something that has really improved my life. Today, I would like to give thanks to Dr. Jason Emery of Northeast Psych in West Hartford, Connecticut [1]. I was fortunate to cross paths with Dr. Emery in the summer of 2018 while training and working in Connecticut, and wanting to improve the mental aspects of my game as a pro hockey player, I began working with him. Beyond sports psychology, he introduced me to many other concepts and techniques to improve my entire life, and we built a great working relationship. I still remember sitting in his office and searching deep into my mind and soul for answers to life’s toughest questions. From color psychology and visualization to practicing different breathing techniques and progressive muscle relaxation, I grew a lot. Doc Emery has been a great resource and am thrilled to have developed a relationship with him, and for anyone interested in advancing their performance in sports and life, I highly recommend him. His website will be in the show notes.
Topic Introduction
Alright, back to breathing. Isn’t it incredible that if you stop breathing, you will die. Yet amazingly, we don’t even have to think about breathing – it happens unconsciously. This is similar to our heart beating. But unlike our heart, breathing is one of the few automated processes in the human body that we can voluntarily control whenever we choose, and doing so yields incredible power. It’s common knowledge that breathwork has benefits, but even as a professional athlete and high performer, I was always skeptical about the actual benefits of just a few minutes or even a few seconds of conscious breathing. But after diving into the science, I have come out a believer that breathwork is arguably the most powerful, efficient, and accessible tool we have to optimize our lives.
So What’s the Bottom Line
Conscious breathing has the power to change your life by reducing stress, maximizing your focus and memory, promoting longevity, and even contributing to facial symmetry and attractiveness. This is achieved through three primary channels:
1. Balancing the HPA axis
2. Nervous System regulation
3. Nasal breathing
1. Balancing the HPA axis
We need to start this section off with an explanation of what the HPA axis is, how it works, and why it matters. Up until recently, I knew very little about the HPA axis, but have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about its role in our health.
The HPA axis stands for the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis [2], and to save myself some embarrassment, I’ll just refer to it by its abbreviation from this point on. It has been given this name because it contains three primary structures that work together in the human stress response: the hypothalamus (which is part of the brain), the pituitary gland (which is just below the hypothalamus), and the adrenal glands (which are above the kidneys) [3]. Understanding each of these components is far beyond the scope of this episode, but for our purposes, they are neuronal and endocrine systems. Neuronal, of course, refers to the communication via the nervous system, and endocrine referring to communication via hormones.
In response to stress and almost any threat to homeostasis, which is the steady state for organisms, the HPA axis facilitates the secretion of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex [2, 3, 4]. Let’s quickly explain what glucocorticoids are. They are hormones that are effective at treating autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, often through genomic mechanisms [5]. As part of the natural stress response, glucocorticoids are known for being widely beneficial by regulating various processes, including metabolic, cardiovascular, immune, endocrine, neural, mood, digestion, libido, and energy levels [2, 3, 4]. As such, the activation of these hormones as regulated by the HPA axis are necessary to combat stress, fight infection, reduce anxiety, and return to a normal, steady state as quickly as possible [4, 6].
However, it has been determined that excessive activation of the HPA access, in other words, being chronically in a stressed state, may promote the development of dangerous pathologies [2]. It is largely suspected that consistently moderate to high levels of glucocorticoids actually suppress the previously mentioned mechanisms of healing, such as fighting stress and infection, and therefore may lead to immune and metabolic alterations [4, 7]. Furthermore, the HPA axis functions with a negative feedback loop. The high quantity of glucocorticoids produced by stressful events inhibit the HPA axis from properly regulating hormones, leading to further increasing levels of glucocorticoids and further complications [2, 3].
All this leads us to the not-so-revolutionary conclusion that chronic stress is bad and causes a lot of issues. Studies have linked stress to many diseases, but a 2017 study also found that HPA axis variation and activity was capable of predicting cognitive performance in subjects with varying levels of stress hormones [8, 9].
So we know that stress influences the HPA axis, an unbalanced HPA axis leads to numerous health and performance issues, and that if we can reduce stress, we can balance our HPA axis and be healthier. This finally leads us into breathwork.
It turns out, much of our stress may be a result of our mode of breathing. Research shows that shallow chest breathing can actually stimulate cortisol release, one of the stress hormones [3]. Alternatively, deep diaphragmatic breathing is capable of reducing stress levels [10]. For those confused on what exactly constitutes diaphragmatic breathing, it consists of deepened inhalation and exhales that require the contraction of the diaphragm (which is right below the lungs) and expansion of the belly [11]. This results in a slower breathing rate and increased gas absorption in the blood.
There have been numerous studies conducted on breathwork and the stress response and there is an overwhelming consensus that slow breathing is extremely effective at reducing stress. A 2007 study found that deep breathing resulted in subjective improvements in stress and mood, meanwhile a 2017 study came to similar conclusions, while also observing quantifiable improvements in salivary cortisol levels and heart rate [12, 13].
All in all, the conclusions are clear: slow, diaphragmatic breathing is capable of quickly reducing stress, which in turn, allows for proper balancing of the HPA axis, and considerable improvements in long and short term health.
2. Nervous System regulation
A 2018 study found that slow breathing techniques encouraged parasympathetic activity as observed in heart rate variability and varying levels of alpha and theta power, seen using an EEG [14]. A separate 2017 explained this by noting the how the autonomic nervous system, consisting of the sympathetic and parasympathetic, influences the cardiovascular system [15]. In essence, they determined that vagal activity associated with parasympathetic activation has a faster influence on the heart, and the best method to induce changes in heart rate is through diaphragmatic activation consisting of 6-10 breaths per minute.
In the bigger picture, is has become clear that we are capable of regulating our nervous system through breath alone. This means that we can voluntarily activate the sympathetic response, known as the “fight or flight” response, and also the parasympathetic response, known for relaxation and safety. While slow, deep, diaphragmatic breathing engages the parasympathetic response to help reduce stress, hyperventilation has been demonstrated to activate the stress response and cortisol release [3, 16, 17].
So we have talked lots about why activating the parasympathetic system to reduce stress is valuable, but why would you want to activate the stress response? Well, for this, I want to explore the science behind the Wim Hof Method. Wim Hof is everyone’s favorite Danish yogi known for absurd record-breaking talents and feats, including swimming 66 meters underneath ice, running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle with shorts, no t-shirt, and barefoot, and hanging from a single finger at an altitude of 2,000 meters [18]. Absolute insanity.
Well our good friend Wim Hof attributes his superhuman powers to two things: cold exposure and breathing. And for more on cold exposure, I highly recommend you check out last week’s episode, episode seven. Wim Hof considers breathwork to be the key to controlling the autonomic nervous system, and he has developed a breathing method that creates remarkable benefits. Essentially what you do is hyperventilate for 30-40 deep and controlled breaths, and then hold your breath on an exhale for as long as possible. When needed, you inhale and then hold your breath for 15s, or longer if desired. After you exhale, you repeat the whole round. You can do as many rounds as you want, but he typically recommends 3-4 rounds for about 20 mins of breathwork.
As you perform this breathwork, your breath holds will continually be longer and longer. And while holding your breath, you will induce a state of hypoxia, which is known for being a decreased level of oxygen. Furthermore, through the rapid and deep breathing, a sympathetic state is activated. But this is where it gets crazy. The potential benefits of this self-induced state of hypoxia and sympathetic activation are wild. And I will include all citations in the show notes to reference.
But here they are: increased production of red blood cells, development of new blood vessels, development of cancer-preventing protein p53, development of stem cells, and the induction of nitric oxide synthase (and a quick note: the discovery of nitric oxide is considered to be among the most important to cardiovascular medicine of all time, leading to a Nobel Prize in 1998 for the researchers) [3, 19-26].
One that stands out to me is the development of stem cells, so I just want to quickly touch on that. Generating stem cells are obviously a huge benefit, having received warranted attention for their ability to replace and regenerate a variety of different cell types. The evidence suggests that hypoxia induces stem cell generation and activation throughout the body, including neural networks necessary to ward off neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and that is remarkable [3, 27-31]. All the links are in the show notes and special thank you to Ben Greenfield for the wealth of information and sources he has available in his book, Boundless.
Now, on the flip side, Dr. Andrew Huberman of Stanford University, has discovered an incredibly effective breathing technique to rapidly switch from sympathetic activation to parasympathetic activation. In his fascinating work at Huberman Labs, his team has determined that the fastest way to immediately activate your parasympathetic nervous system is through back to back quick inhales through the nose, followed by a slow exhalation through the mouth [32]. Not only does he recommend doing this to rapidly calm yourself down when stressed, but he notes that it can be an effective tool for maximizing learning potential.
If you practice super-oxygenated breathing such as the Wim Hof method to activate a state of high alertness (noted for having elevated levels of neurochemicals associated with learning such as acetylcholine and noradrenaline) but then immediately proceed with a few rounds of his double nasal inhale followed by a slow exhale, your brain has a heightened capacity for learning but you are able to relax enough to be calm, low stress, and focused. For anyone interested in the aspects of neuroplasticity, growth mindset, and the neuroscience of learning, I highly recommend checking out Dr. Huberman’s work as well as episode four on growth mindset, which introduces many ideas on these principals.
3. Nasal breathing
So Huberman’s technique implements nasal breathing, but there is so much more to explore. First, nasal breathing is more effective at oxygenating tissues and organs by better managing oxygen intake and CO2 blow-off [3, 33, 34]. Nitric oxide, the highly beneficial molecule worthy of a Nobel Prize, is produced in much larger quantities in the nasal cavities [35]. The nasal cavity is also full of parasympathetic nerve receptors, in contrast to the large quantity of sympathetic nerve receptors that are found in the chest and activated during shallow, chest breathing.
Perhaps most obvious, the nose functions as a filtration system. The tiny hairs in the nose filter, humidify, and adjust the temperature of inhaled air while protecting our lungs from billions of foreign particles daily [3]. In an era of abundant pollution and toxins, this is becoming increasingly important. And while that’s all fine and dandy, there is another benefit of nasal breathing that I discovered through Ben Greenfield’s Boundless, and if you haven’t realized by now, I love this book and highly recommend it.
So it turns out, mouth-breathing can lead to asymmetry in your face, poor jaw alignment, and crooked teeth. Here’s a quick test from Boundless. Stick your chin out high and take a deep breath in through your nose. You should notice the air flow behind your jaw. Now retract your jaw, and pull your chin down towards your neck. At this time, you will likely notice your breathing is greatly restricted. This is the same effect that poorly developed facial and jaw structures have.
Nasal breathing is actually responsible for proper facial development, head posture, and symmetry. This is how it works. When breathing through your nose, the tongue rests on the roof of the mouth, exerting a constant force on the roof of the mouth that leads to the development of a U-shaped jaw with proper room for teeth to grow into [3, 36]. The alternative, mouth breathing, requires the tongue at the bottom of the mouth to make room for air flow, meanwhile the sucking in creates an inward force through the lips and cheek [37, 38]. Over time, these changes in pressures impact the formation of facial and jaw structures.
Here’s a study that is incredibly insightful. Young monkeys were taken and forced to mouth breathe by creating a nasal respiratory obstruction. The result: the monkeys with obstructed nasal pathways developed abnormalities in their jawline, facial symmetry, and had crooked teeth [39].
Why does this matter? Well, the consequences of mouth-breathing not only reduce attractiveness, which there are numerous studies concluding that facial symmetry and strong jaw lines are far more attractive in both males and females, but facial asymmetries have also been linked to lower emotional health and depression [40-42]. In addition to not looking like Jennifer Lopez or Matthew McConaughey, this cranial and musculature development comes with many other consequences, including poor posture, impaired breathing, disrupted sleep, and subpar athletic performance.
Disrupted sleep is perhaps one of the biggest concerns. For those who don’t have fully developed jaws, when the body enters deep, restorative sleep, muscles go limp and the tongue falls back, restricting breathing and preventing oxygen flow [43]. For those with fully developed jaws, there is still plenty of room for the air to pass through. However, when air is restricted, this leads to sleep interruptions, also known as sleep apnea, in which the individual can never truly achieve restorative sleep [44]. It is suggested that snoring, turning, and sleep-talking could all be signs that the body is trying to reopen the pathway. This sleep apnea is particularly concerning in kids, who require sufficient oxygen for the proper development of their brain in their youth [3].
In summary, it is clear that nasal breathing has numerous benefits, not only for activating the parasympathetic nervous system, but for overall health, appearance, and quality of life.
My Personal Experience
Now that we’ve explored some science of breathing, I can now share my personal experiences with different breathing practices. Let’s start with my favorite, the Wim Hof Method. Since discovering Wim Hof, I have been doing breathing exercises almost daily for the last seven months or so, although not exclusively the Wim Hof Method. But when doing the Wim Hof breathing, I typically do 2-4 guided rounds using his app. During the breath hold by the second or third round, I consistently experience a wonderful tingling sensation throughout my body, and every thirty seconds or so, I experience a cold rush pass through my entire body. Suddenly, I become ultra-aware of the blood pulsing through my limbs; it truly is a meditative state.
Within just a few months of practice, I was able to hold my breath for more than three and half minutes on an exhale. It really is an incredible feeling to be able to hold my breath and feel completely content and controlled for over three minutes at a time, and if I were to continue with additional rounds beyond three or four, I am certain I could soon exceed five minutes and beyond. While I often do this for the previously mentioned benefits of induced hypoxia such as red blood cell and stem cell generation, I actually really enjoy the experience. My favorite thing to do is pair up a few rounds of Wim Hof breathing with Viparita Karani, which is the yoga “legs up a wall pose,” and then immediately follow up with an unguided meditation after bringing my legs down to the floor [45].
The rapid tingling and needle-like sensations throughout my legs and feet coupled with the meditative state from the hyperventilated breathing enables me to achieve a deep meditative state in which I am completely fixated on the sensations in my body. Not only is this rather pleasurable and relaxing, it makes it easier to achieve complete focus, truly disconnecting from the rest of the world. With my ear buds in, I’ll find a YouTube video of Tibetan drums or brainwave sounds at 528 Hz or another form of meditative music and just completely zone out [46, 47].
For some variety, I also enjoy doing other breathing exercises while meditating. I find that I get the best results for relaxation and focus from either 4-7-8 or box breathing [48, 49]. For 4-7-8 breathing, you inhale to a count of four, hold for a count of seven, and then exhale slowly for a count of eight. Similarly, box breathing is a four second inhale, four second hold, four second exhale, and four second hold. I always inhale through my nose and prefer to exhale through my nose, but occasionally experiment with exhales through the mouth. I find these two forms of breathing can relax me relatively fast, within just two to three rounds, and are excellent to keep me focused and grounded during meditation, and are even effective at helping me fall asleep.
Another key point, is that while doing deep breathing, I attempt to practice diaphragmatic breathing as much as possible. This requires a more conscious effort, which is also an excellent tool for meditating. When inhaling, I focus on three sequential steps: fill my belly, expand my ribs, and then expand my chest. My exhales follow the opposite process: pushing air out from the chest, then the ribs, and then emptying the belly. With practice, it begins to feel more natural when practicing deep nasal breathing.
Another exciting breathing technique I have tried is mouth taping. In an attempt to eliminate the habit of mouth breathing, I bought SomniFix’s mouth taping strips to wear to bed at night to train myself to breathe through my nose [50. 51]. I actually never had any issues falling asleep, and felt as though my sleeps were pretty consistent as they were before. However, waking up with the mouth tape on, I was reassured that I was breathing through my nose throughout the night, and the morning dry throat from mouth breathing that I used to experience disappeared. However, after tracking my sleep on my WHOOP fitness tracker, I noticed that my average nightly sleep disturbances and sleep efficiency remained fairly constant, indicating that it may not have made a significant difference in the quality of my sleep, and that I likely wasn’t experiencing sleep apnea prior to implementing [52]. Nevertheless, it was a good experiment and I do feel that it has benefited me by forcing me to breathe through my nose the entire night.
Finally, I make a conscious effort to breathe through my nose as much as possible, and especially while working out, walking or jogging, or doing yoga. It can be extremely tough at times, which makes it an excellent practice for mindful breathing!
So What Can You Do
Just like last week, the science in this episode was dense, but thankfully, the recommendations are not. In a nutshell, the most important thing you can do is be mindful of your breathing. When you are stressed out, give yourself a few minutes to practice deep, diaphragmatic breathing, such as the 4-7-8 method or box breathing. You can also use Dr. Andrew Huberman’s double nasal inhale followed by a slow exhalation through the mouth to calm your system in seconds.
If you have more than just a few minutes, I highly recommend attempting to incorporate these breathing techniques with a meditation practice, guided or unguided. For 10-15 minutes, which really isn’t a long time, try to focus solely on your breathing and allow yourself to completely let go of everything else. If you can accomplish this, which may take some practice, I am certain that you will feel an incredible sense of relaxation and relief.
For more ambitious goals, I strongly recommend trying the Wim Hof Method. Through his app, website, and on YouTube, he has guided videos to help you safely perform the super-oxygenated hyperventilation and breath holds. I will include links to these in the show notes, but they can easily be found by searching online for ‘Wim Hof Breathing’ [53, 54]. Before proceeding, I strongly encourage you to watch the safety video first and be sure that you attempt the exercise in a safe environment as some people become very light-headed and experience different sensations [55].
And if you’re looking for a cognitive boost to trigger neuroplasticity and memory, try doing a form of sympathetic activation, such as the Wim Hof breathing method, followed immediately by Dr. Huberman’s relaxation breathing. Pairing these techniques will give you optimized mental alertness in a relaxed state.
Switching gears, if you suspect that you are a chronic mouth breather or suffer from sleep apnea, I would strongly urge you to discuss these issues with your doctor. But for a quick at-home implementation, I would recommend giving SomniFix or a comparable mouth-taping product a try. Something as simple as taping your mouth before bed has the potential to make a huge difference on sleep quality, and thus overall health and performance.
In addition, I believe that you can practice nasal breathing anywhere and anytime. While working out, walking, or just relaxing, try to be mindful of your breathing throughout the day. When walking, try holding your breath and see how many steps you can get. When working out, try to focus on controlled breathing through your nose.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, just try and take a few minutes every day to stop what you are doing and breathe.
I’ll leave you with a quote from former New York Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner. He says, “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next” [56].
Episode Outro
To discover more, the full transcript of this episode with all citations is available on the website and you can also contact me on social media with any questions or comments. If you found this episode useful or think that it may help someone else, I encourage you to pass it along.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.
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