How to fight chronic inflammation and obesity? Try to breathe less and better!
Breathing, probably one of the most important activities we perform. But at the same time, it is also an activity that we consciously neglect completely and we don't care at all how it goes and how we carry it out. We don't see it! Is it possible that the way you breathe could have a fundamental effect on health, on the development of chronic inflammation, on obesity, even on cancer? I don't know, but I'll try to make some observations here. Breathing beautifully completes the puzzle, which began to appear to me about a year ago in the post "Aging as progressive pseudohypoxia?" and since then more and more posts have been directed towards the issue of oxygen deficiency and its signaling in the cell, in the tissue, in the body. Let's sum it up.
The problem starts with free radicals, almost everyone knows about them today, they are called ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) for short and they are said to be evil, ugly and harmful molecules. So we deploy good, beautiful and healing molecules called antioxidants against them. A wonderful fairy tale about a beautiful princess and an evil dragon. Forget this primitive view of things. If everything is working as it should, these are not good and bad molecules. All are part of a complex regulatory system and all are equally important to function. The idea that you can remove one and it will be fine is completely wrong.
So can we already determine what specifically signals an excess of ROS, eg an excess of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)? I think we can, it signals a lack of oxygen and a dysfunctional regulatory loop to control the supply of oxygen to the tissue. How can I claim that? It's simple, if you don't want an explanation, you can skip the next paragraph.
When everything is working as it should, when there is a lack of oxygen, there is an accumulation of unoxidized fuel in the cell, NADH and FADH2 molecules, which want to pass the electrons on to be processed in the electron transport chain (ETC), but they can't. So they sometimes give them directly to the oxygen molecule O2 and so the so-called superoxide (O2-) is created. This is processed by the enzyme SOD into hydrogen peroxide H2O2 and this is immediately processed into water by the enzyme GPx. In the process, a molecule of reduced glutathione GSH is oxidized to GSSG. When recycling glutathione by reducing it to GSH, a molecule of NADPH is consumed and converted to NADP+. And this is signaling that the cell woud need something. E.g. it may want to use some fuel for heat, but this can only be done if there is sufficient electrical voltage on the mitochondrial membrane. If it is not, then there is a lack of oxygen. It therefore asks the enzyme IDH2 to produce carbon dioxide CO2 with the help of NADP+. The resulting CO2 will change the conditions of the nearby red blood cell and it will then more willingly transfer its cargo, i.e. oxygen, to the given tissue (Bohr effect). This oxygen can be used to start the ETC and subsequently produce heat using the NNT. Almost no free superoxide and hydrogen peroxide will be freely available anywhere, the cell is fine and self-regulates its oxygen supply according to the amount of fuel delivered to it. More fuel, more activity. Less fuel, less activity. That's the way it's supposed to be.
fuel -> NADH + FADH2 -> O2- -> H2O2 -> NADP+ -> CO2 -> O2 to burn the fuel
If we simplify it as much as possible, if there is low oxygen, hydrogen peroxide is produced, but it is "invisibly" converted to CO2 production and exchanged for oxygen in the red blood cell, and the fuel is oxidized during the generation of ATP or heat. Perfect regulation. Just add the right amount of fuel.
How does this relate to breathing? Quite fundamentally. The poisons that we consume and breathe every day disrupt this regulatory mechanism, deplete glutathione and disconnect the regulatory loop of oxygen supply. It then stops working, especially at rest, when little CO2 is produced. Cells report lack of energy and high stress (by producing cortisol). So the body supplies more fuel, but alas, the fuel cannot be burned, the signaling controlling tissue respiration is disrupted. However, the body perceives this as a lack of oxygen, so it will breathe more, after all, it is under stress. Red blood cells have been fully saturated, they contain maximum of oxygen, but the tissues that asked for fuel do not produce enough of CO2 because they did not receive the NADP+ signal from the antioxidant chain, so they cannot receive oxygen. It's a weird situation. The tissues suffocate and produce ROS, while the blood cells have no one to give oxygen to, no one asks for it via the CO2 signal. So the cells gradually start to switch to the anaerobic mechanism, although it is not very efficient, but it is fast and will allow the cell to survive. This happens through the activation of the transcription factor HIF-1α, which turns on dozens of necessary genes. It is important for us that this manifests itself in increased production of lactic acid (lactate) and an increased level of lactate in the blood. Since the pH of the blood must be constant, an increased content of lactate will cause a reduced content of dissolved CO2 (bicarbonate) and thus impair the delivery of oxygen to the tissues. The remedy is that if we reduce CO2 exhalation, we ensure more dissolved bicarbonate and easier delivery of oxygen to the tissues. They then have the opportunity to return to normal combustion and the production of heat and ATP. All you have to do is breathe a little less, especially at rest, i.e. 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, while sleeping, during sedentary work, etc.
But what does proper breathing look like? I will only describe my opinions here, I am not forcing anyone to believe that they are the only correct opinions. We can call it, for example, "Breathing into the hips".
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| Breathe into your hips, don't breathe into your belly or chest. (thanks to pixabay.com) |
The diaphragm should be included, but the abdomen should be left out. You will usually read that you can either breathe through your chest or your diaphragm. During chest breathing, the chest moves and the abdomen does not inflate. During diaphragmatic breathing, the abdomen inflates and the chest does not move. And now, be careful, both of the methods described in this way are, in my opinion, unsuitable for breathing at rest or while walking, because they do not limit the volume of inspiration! They allow over-breathing. I came to this conclusion after reading the available information and based on my own experience. There is a third way, in which neither the chest nor the abdomen moves. Only the diaphragm moves and a person perceives it as if he/she were breathing "to the sides". You can easily check your breathing with your hands. Place one hand on your breastbone and the other hand on your navel. If you're breathing correctly, you shouldn't feel any movement on either hand when you inhale. Place your hands on the lower ribs on either side in a "hands on hips" style, they will gently expand as you inhale. If you press slightly against the hands, you will perform the correct inhalation. So this "breathing into the hips" is, in my opinion, the best way for calmness and gentle movement, e.g. walking. What is this about? With this method, the volume of inhaled air is significantly smaller and, above all, it is limited, it is not possible to inhale more. This is very important because you will be trying to deny the body air and it will fight back. By the fact that you are already at the maximum inhalation volume and actually inhale quite little, the body will easily accept this as the new normal and will not force you to occasionally take a large inhalation, which will deprive you of the accumulated CO2. Try it. It is easiest to do while standing or lying down. When sitting, it depends on the way you sit, in some positions I don't think it's possible at all. Maybe the civilizational problem is also in the construction of the chairs. When walking, move just as fast as you can maintain this breathing pattern. Of course you only breathe through your nose. The mouth is only for eating or for venting useful thoughts through speech or singing. For nothing else.
Excessive air exchange in the lungs in the current population is also seen in some studies. While normal breathing, according to the sources, should take place in such a way that you breathe out about 6 l of air per minute, it can be seen that the population examined, for example, in this metabolism study breathes out about 10 l/min at rest and even 15 l/min after eating. This is almost three times more than the tables from the last century indicate. The general population is therefore already significantly metabolically shifted.
The severity of metabolic shift can be easily estimated from the value of the control pause (BOLT score). It is simply how long you can hold your breath without stress. The breath before and after the control pause should be the same and normal. No chasing records. It is evaluated as the average of three trials. This control pause should be about 40 seconds in a healthy population. Try it. I think that you usually give a little over 10 s. It is only from 20 s that you can talk about functional breathing. There are exercises to increase the control pause, but it is neither easy nor quick. It's not a race, mainly keep calm and cool, no stress. It only requires frequent practice and it works. If you are able to oxygenate the body better, the production of ROS will decrease and chronic inflammation, which is dependent on anaerobic metabolism, will be resolved. A higher CO2 level will then ensure better fat burning and weight loss. Go for it with gusto.
One more picture, slow breathing helps raise CO2 levels.
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| End-expiratory CO2 concentration, change in air volume per minute and volume of one exhalation during short-term change in breathing rate between spontaneous breathing and conscious fifteen and six breaths per minute. Performed on a sample of a healthy population (control) and on patients with systemic hypertension. |
References:
Změn svůj dech a začnou se dít věci
"Take a Deep Breath" Is Bad Advice
MEASURE YOUR BOLT SCORE AND REDUCE BREATHLESSNESS DURING EXERCISE
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