Other Biochemical and Physiological Benefits and some interesting facts
Breathing techniques also promote
- Better quality sleep and less fatigue
- Reduction in racing thoughts
- Improved immune function
- Strengthening of lung function
- Improved pain tolerance
- Improved heart rate variability (HRV)
- Release of toxins from the body
- Stimulation of brain activity
- Greater exercise performance
- Better recovery from exercise and injury
- Improved digestion
- Increase in the body’s production of EPO
- Conscious control over our nervous system
- Vasodilation, increasing blood flow
- Balanced blood pressure
- Greater absorption of Oxygen into the tissues
- Higher tolerance to Cardon Dioxide
- Effective and elevated use of nitric oxide
Interesting facts:
- You will take around 18,000 breaths today
- Your left lung is smaller than your right lung, to accommodate for your heart
- 70% of waste is eliminated through your lungs just by breathing. You lose weight through breathing
- Can you live without one lung? Yes you can, many people around the world live with just one lung
- No matter how hard we exhale, our lungs will always retain 1 litre of air in the airways. This makes the lungs the only human organs that can float on water.
- Oxygen only plays a small part in our breathing. The air we breathe contains 21% oxygen, but our bodies only use 5%, the rest is exhaled
- Children and women are faster breathers than men because their breathing rate is higher.
- We all have nasal cycles meaning at any one moment in time, we have one nostril that is outperforming the other and this changes every 2.5 hours
- The current breathhold world record is 24 minutes and 37 seconds.
- Each nostril is linked to the opposite hemisphere of the brain – i.e. left nostril breathing increases blood flow to the right side of the brain (stimulating creative thinking and relaxation) whilst right nostril breathing increases blood flow to the left side (stimulating analytical thinking etc.)
- Nitric Oxide aka ‘the magic molecule’ is the found in the nasal cavity and is the unsung hero in the body