Breathing for stress, anxiety and panic.

Anxiety, panic and a racing mind are classed as psychological problems but there is a strong biochemical link. These feelings can be triggered by chemical changes, as well as cause chemical changes. Breathing is connected to our nervous system and we influence our biochemistry with how we breathe. So if we train the breath, we can start to intentionally influence our nervous system through beneficial biochemistry, created with good breathing practices.

Stress of all kinds causes tension in the body. When we are stressed the body responds by tensing up.  Tension on the outside means tension on the inside so everything contracts including muscles, tissues, blood vessels and our airways. This constriction impedes the way our body functions and over time this tension affects how we breathe on a day-to-day basis. This is because we build neural pathways for breathing so poor breathing can become the habitual default pattern.

We can train the breath to calm the mind and oxygenate the brain so that we can think clearly. When you bring your attention to your breath this helps to quiet the mind and reduce over thinking. This brings us into the present moment which is usually fine. Anxiety and over thinking is usually about the future (worry) or about the past, perhaps regret or depression over something that has happened.  When we quiet the mind we create space between our thoughts so we can question their validity and allow new ideas to surface.

We may not always be able to control sources of stress in our life. We can however work with our breath to interrupt our emotional and mental reaction to the stress.  These reactions will otherwise continue to stimulate our stress response and restrict how our body functions.

Remember there are many sources of stress but they all generate the same type of reaction in the body. It doesn’t matter if it’s from toxins, poor food quality, negative emotions and feelings or illness and injury. The body’s physiological response is the same regardless of the cause.

The human body has a great response mechanism called the fight or flight response. This serves us well for acute short bursts of stress.  You may have heard of the book ‘why zebra’s don’t get ulcers’. If they survive a predator attack they shiver and shake to process the stress and then return to their baseline parasympathetic state (rest and digest). Unfortunately the pace of modern life tends to generate chronic, low grade persistent stress on a daily basis.  Without any kind of stress management our baseline will often reset to a far higher baseline and a constant pervading sense of anxiety.  This means our reaction times get shorter and shorter and our fuse trips faster and more frequently. We weren’t built to withstand this continual, chronic stress but nature always has a solution.

The exercises I teach work on your daily functional breathing pattern.  I teach you to breathe lightly, slowly and deeply.  This increases your tolerance to the build up of carbon dioxide and nitric oxide.  These molecules cause your airways and blood vessels to relax and dilate and make the oxygen you breathe in, accessible to the body.  This means all of your automatic functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and digestion can function better.

You can rewire your breath and the neural pathways for breathing to:

When you work with the breath to relax the body you stimulate your vagus nerve. This one nerve controls whether you are in fight or flight or rest and digest. Rest and digest is the parasympathetic nervous system which controls all those automatic functions of the body which keep you alive, the autonomic nervous system (ANS). When you rewire your breathing you can begin to work with your ANS rather than hampering it with poor breathing patterns. Enhance and stimulate your health, rather than inadvertently damaging it.

For more information please do drop me an email or give me a call. I offer private breath training but I also have a new course coming soon. Please get in touch as soon as possible if you are interested.

Do you breathe correctly?

This blog explains how to identify if your breathing might be disordered and why you might consider doing breathwork to improve your health.

There are some very common signs and symptoms that your breathing could be improved which include:

  1. Cold hands and feet
  2. Stressed or tense during the day
  3. Yawning, sighing, and taking big breaths
  4. Mouth breathing especially at night
  5. A low BOLT score
  6. Fast breathing

If you notice any of these being relevant to you, it's best to get in touch with me, or your physio or health practitioner for assistance. I discuss each aspect below in more detail.

Cold hands and feet

This is usually attributed to poor circulation.  The organs of circulation are the heart and your blood vessels.  To allow more blood to circulate the blood vessels need to dilate.  CO2  in the smooth muscle cells lining the blood vessels acts as a vasodilator. When we increase our tolerance to the build-up of CO2  this enhances vascular function so how you breathe ultimately influences your body temperature.

Stressed or tense?

This can be triggered by all kinds of issues and seems to be the theme of modern life.  When we are stressed the body responds by tensing up.  Tension on the outside means tension on the inside so everything contracts including muscles, tissues, blood vessels and our airways. This constriction impedes the way our body functions and over time this tension affects how we breathe on a day-to-day basis. This is because we build neural pathways for breathing so poor breathing can become the default pattern.

We may not always be able to control sources of stress in our life. We can however work with our breath to interrupt our emotional and mental reaction to the stress.  These reactions will otherwise continue to stimulate our stress response and restrict how our body functions.

When you work with the breath to relax the body you stimulate your vagus nerve. This one nerve controls whether you are in fight or flight or rest and digest. When you are in fight or flight this is “emergency mode” and not a time for your autonomic nervous system (ANS)to stimulate growth and repair.    You don’t start long term building projects when your life is being threatened. By switching the body to rest and digest your automatic functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and digestion can begin to function properly. When you work on your breath you rewire these neural pathways to something more optimal for the body.

Yawning, sighing, big breaths

These can all be signs that your body is trying to adjust its’ chemical balance.   Unfortunately they can become habits with associated neural pathways which can be difficult to break. Over time this can alter the gas exchange taking place and affect our breathing chemistry namely oxygen, nitric oxide and CO2.  This in turn changes your body’s pH balance, forcing the body to make adjustments to facilitate homeostasis.

Mouth breathing

This is detrimental for several reasons:

Low BOLT score

This is indicative of disordered breathing see here and here for how to take your BOLT score. A minimum of 25 is preferable.

Fast breathing

How fast we breathe affects how quickly we off load CO2.  We need to have some tolerance to CO2  build-up because oxygen is released from haemoglobin in the blood, in the presence of CO2. If you breathe too fast the oxygen often doesn’t reach the lower lungs where most of the alveoli are. This reduces the opportunity for oxygen to enter our blood stream and to reach our cells and tissues.

Health issues and poor breathing

The health issues associated with poor breathing are numerous and include the following: asthma; exercise performance; hormonal issues; covid; blood pressure; pain and fibromyalgia; diabetes; insomnia; snoring and sleep apnoea; anxiety and panic disorders.

Physiological benefits of Oxygen Advantage

It’s one technique with many powerful benefits:

Open airways  Increases vagal tone  
Opens blood vessels  Improves your ANS function  
Increases oxygen to tissues  Increases your heart rate variability  
Helps support blood pressure levelsExpands lung function

If you are worried about your breathing or just interested in finding out more you can take the breathing quiz on my website or simply give me a call on 07740 876233 or drop me an email to find out more.

Fed up with snoring?

Nighttime snoring can range from being a mild embarrassment and nuisance to a more serious chronic problem. It can sometimes be a potential indicator of more serious health issues such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). There are essentially two reasons snoring can happen, either breathing is too forceful or the upper airway is too narrow.

During sleep the tissues of the throat relax which can partially block the airway. This tissue vibrates as air flows past it and it is this vibration and turbulence in the airway which leads to snoring. The more this airway narrows the more forceful the airflow becomes increasing vibration and therefore the snoring volume. There are two types of snoring mouth snoring and nasal snoring.

 

Mouth snoring

If you wake with a dry mouth then you are probably mouth breathing during the night and this won’t refresh you properly. If you mouth breath during the day you will build neural pathways regarding this behaviour pattern which will continue during sleep. This can often be a habitual pattern rather than an anatomical requirement especially where children are concerned. To re-establish full-time nasal breathing Patrick McKeown founder of The Oxygen Advantage breathing programme and author of the book by the same name recommends using lip tape. You can use any tape suitable for skin contact such as Mircropore but if the idea of covering your mouth with tape is stressful you can use MYOTAPE. This tape uses elastic tension to bring the lips together without covering the lips completely. You can purchase this tape here https://myotape.com. It may seem rather alien but a new 2020 study revealed that even full-time mouth breathers could often lip-tape providing there wasn’t any nasal obstruction. They also concluded that in children full-time nasal breathing is critical for craniofacial and airway development.

Nasal snoring

If you are nasal breathing during sleep but still snoring then this can be due to a number of different reasons summarised below.

Conventional treatments such as nasal dilators are usually designed to increase space in the upper airway. What these don’t do is address any fast or hard breathing patterns which may also be contributing to the problem.   Imagine sucking air through a straw. If you do this slowly and gently the air will pass through but if you breathe in fast the sides of the straw will stick together cutting off the air supply. Depending on which factors are relevant the Oxygen Advantage Breathing © programme may be able to improve or help to alleviate symptoms.

The way we breathe during the day affects the way we breathe at night which affects how we sleep and whether or not we snore. The lower and upper airways are mechanically connected. Diaphragmatic breathing tones and opens the throat area minimising the risk of collapse to cause snoring. The exercises I teach look to reset the day to day breathing pattern. When we breathe light and well during the day we can also breathe light during the night.

The exercises

The breathing exercises correct dysfunctional breathing patterns and help to:

Insomnia

There is a lot of crossover between snoring and insomnia. Insomnia affects between 25 and 30% of the general population and for about 10% this is a chronic complaint requiring medical help. Insomnia is linked to many health complaints such as hyper arousal of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), stress, irritability, daytime fatigue, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, difficulty concentrating, depression and even high blood pressure.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)

If OSA is present or if chronic snoring progresses to OSA this can lead to more serious health consequences. If you suspect OSA you should consult your GP who will probably recommend a sleep study to identify if OSA is present and if so which type.

For help with any of these issues or if you have any questions regarding the Oxygen Advantage breathing programme please get in touch today. I may be teaching or consulting but will return your call as soon as possible. I always do my best to fit clients in if they are ready to invest in their health.

For help with any of these issues or if you have any questions regarding the Oxygen Advantage breathing programme please get in touch today. I may be teaching or consulting but will return your call as soon as possible. I always do my best to fit clients in if they are ready to invest in their health.

References

McKeown, P. (2015) The Oxygen Advantage; Harper Collins, New York.

McKeown, P. (2021) The Breathing Cure; Amazon, GB.

Zaghi, et al. (2020) Assessment of nasal breathing using lip taping, a simple and effective screening tool; International Journal of Otorhinolaryngology; 6(1), 10.

Acid or Alkaline?

There are so many controversies in nutrition and one of these is the theory around the acid-alkaline balance of the diet.  This blog explores the science and debate around this topic.

If you want to calculate the acid/alkaline of your meal ‘The PRAL’ (Potential Renal Acid Load) scale calculates how acid or alkaline a food is per 100g consumed. This scale is determined by measuring the pH of the ash remaining once the food has been burnt. It is however the subject of debate as the high temperatures used far exceed those of digestion and also burn off the sugar which is thought to cause acidity in the body itself.

The simple way to understand this topic is that alkaline forming foods include all vegetables especially spinach, all herbs and most fruit.  Acid forming foods include all grains, cheese, meat, fish and peanuts as well as processed foods.  Pure fats, sugars, and starches are neutral, because they don’t contain protein, sulphur, or minerals. A source of confusion is that some foods such as lemons and citrus taste acidic but have an alkalising effect on the body.  Examples of highly alkaline vegetables are spinach, broccoli, kale, cucumber and parsley.

When we digest protein acids are produced however these are buffered by bicarbonate ions in the blood.  This reaction produces carbon dioxide which is exhaled and also salts which are excreted by the kidneys. The kidneys produce ‘new’ bicarbonate ions which are returned to the blood.  So as with most things in the body a cycle is created which enables the body to maintain blood pH within a range of 7.35 to 7.45. So whilst food is linked to acidosis through the potential to place a more acid or alkaline ‘load’ on your body, this is quickly resolved to maintain a stable blood pH.

It is important to keep in mind that sufficient protein intake is important for health generation as well as facilitating acid excretion.  So a very low protein diet can in fact increase acidosis and have adverse health effects. 

However if our body’s are in a constant acid-base disequilibrium this is a type of systemic stress. If compensatory mechanism’s diminish a persistent acidogenic diet may increase the likelihood of an H + surplus and lower levels of serum bicarbonate.  The scientific term ‘acidosis’ refers to a process, a dynamic compensatory response not just a change in blood pH.  Many health conditions such as osteoporosis, kidney disease and muscle wasting are associated with a chronic low-grade level of metabolic acidosis.  Although the mechanisms are not fully understood it is thought that there is a trade-off for constantly countering the effect of acid foods. Over time this may deplete buffering reserves of alkaline minerals especially in bones and tax muscle, kidneys and endocrine systems.

Some researchers suggest our contemporary Western diet has a higher acid load relative to that of our ancestors. Minich and Bland (2007) suggest that the root of this may lie in the agricultural revolution, processed food and grain products and more recently popular diets such as Atkins and Paleo.  The latter are high protein diets which increase our net dietary acid load. They are often accompanied by a decrease in the micronutrient and phytochemical intake from fresh fruits and vegetables.

However other researchers dispute these claims. For example the famous researcher and dentist Weston Price found the diet of primitive Eskimos to contain an acid/alkaline balance of 707:382. He was specifically interested in dental caries which in the modern Eskimo diet have increased from 0.9 to 130 per 1000 teeth, whilst the acid/alkaline diet balance reduced to 382:227.

What is clear is that our bodies strive to maintain homeostasis including normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar and normal blood pH. 

If pH falls to below 7.35 then the body regulates acid-alkaline balance via the following:

Patrick McKeown author of ‘The Oxygen Advantage’, points out that acid forming foods stimulate breathing to off load carbon dioxide via the breath.  Metabolic bicarbonate buffering processes occur over several days whereas adjustment via the breath can occur within minutes to hours.  However this stimulus can cause people to resort to mouth breathing rather than nasal in order to restore homeostasis within the body. This aspect of pH adjustment is often ignored in nutrition articles but it’s one of the key reasons I trained in the Oxygen Advantage technique.  Unfortunately mouth breathing or over breathing via hyperventilation can quickly become habitual which can then result in pH moving in the opposite direction causing respiratory alkalosis (Brinkman and Sharma, 2021). Symptoms are wide and varied and can include: shortness of breath (dyspnea); fever; chills; peripheral edema; weakness; confusion; light headedness; dizziness; anxiety; chest pain; asthma; abdominal pain; nausea; vomiting or weight loss.

Similar to most things in life it seems to be about balance. Indeed Sagen Ishizuka (1851-1910, founder of the macrobiotic diet, linked the equilibrium of acid and alkaline foods with the Chinese ideas of Yin and Yang.  Natural balance not radical consumption of either or.

For help with nutrition or breathing advice and training please call me on 07740 876233.

References

Brinkman, J.E. and Sharma, S. (2021) Respiratory Alkalosis; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482117/

Cam Magazine (October, 2014); https://www.scientificwellness.com/blog-view/the-alkaline-diet-science--health-benefits-425

Minich, D.M. and Bland, J.S. (2007) Acid-alkaline balance: role in chronic disease and detoxification; Alternative therapies; 13(4).

McKeown, P. (2015) The Oxygen Advantage. Harper Collins, New York.

Robey, I.F. (2012) Examining the relationship between diet-induced acidosis and cancer; Nutrition and metabolism; 9(72).

Weston Price (1934) Acid alkaline balance by Dr, Weston A. Price; https://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/acidalkaline-balance-by-dr-weston-a-price

Helen Maxwell

07740 876233

Helen@helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

www.helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

Breathing for runners

Running Breath coach Oxygen Advantage

Maximise your performance through

BREATHING

Learn how to

Functional breath training and simulation of high altitude training with

 Helen Maxwell certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor

Contact Helen on 07740 876233

Breathing-pattern - could it be the missing link?

The way we breathe is intricately linked to the way our body functions on both a physical and psychological level. When we breathe correctly we oxygenate our organs to maximise their function.

Between 50-80% of the general population have some level of breathing-pattern disorder

The researcher and professor of physical therapy, Kiesel (2017), has found that between 50-80% of the general population have some level of breathing-pattern disorder.  The Oxygen Advantage® programme is designed to reset and optimise your breathing-pattern to improve your overall health and well-being.  It also works specifically on performance for sports and exercise.

Signs and symptoms that your breathing is disordered

Signs that your breathing may be disordered or that you need to improve your breathing include.

Why consider learning to breathe correctly?

Correcting how you breathe may be the missing link in your health journey.  For example if you wake up tired or struggle to focus in the morning this may because of how you breathe during the night. 

When we learn how to breathe properly we can impact all kinds of health issues such as:

DigestionImmune function
Weight lossEnergy levels
AnxietyChronic fatigue
AsthmaExercise induced breathlessness
ConcentrationFocus
Sleep problemsSnoring
Sports performanceCOPD

How is breathing connected to weight loss, energy levels, chronic fatigue and anxiety?

There is a close link between breathing and metabolism which is connected to energy and weight. There seems to be a relationship between the amount we eat and over breathing. Exercises designed to stimulate the para sympathetic nervous (PNS) system seem to bring the body back into balance. This PNS stimulation helps to lower anxiety levels, reduce emotional eating and appetite as well as improve the basal metabolic rate. This is through complex interactions between respiratory rate, heart rate, and the increased capacity of the blood to carry oxygen.

What about asthma and breathing difficulties?

This is one of the key reasons people undertake the programme.  The mechanics and depth of how we breathe affects the amount of air and blood in our lungs. If we breathe well our lungs will protect us against pulmonary infections and we will generate an important molecule called nitric oxide. This molecule is generated in the nasal passages and is our first line of defence against foreign particles. Nitric oxide is anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-viral and it dilates our airways and blood vessels to enhance delivery of oxygen and micronutrients to the tissues. Generating nitric oxide has been found to have significant health benefits especially with regard to chronic and age related disease.

By learning to breathe correctly, improving oxygen uptake and controlling the amount of air you breathe asthma symptoms may reduce or resolve and the need for medication can diminish.

Why does our breathing affect our digestion and our immune function?

Our gut membrane is the barrier between our internal and external world. It is the vital link between what we eat and the nutrients our body digests and absorbs. It’s surface area is as big as two tennis courts but it is delicate, only one cell thick and half the width of a human hair. Most of our immune system is situated just behind this membrane which starts in the sinuses and runs all the way down our throat to the stomach and intestines. It works to protect us from any unwanted substances we may ingest.

Many of us eat on the run, in a rush or whilst feeling stressed.  When we learn to breathe correctly we oxygenate our gut so it can relax, digest and function optimally which in turn supports our immunity.

How can changing how we breathe improve our exercise performance?

Many of us gas-out too soon when we exercise.  This breathlessness can actually put us off exercising.  We instinctively think this is because we can’t get enough oxygen. It has much more to do with being unable to tolerate the build up of carbon dioxide and lactic acid in the body combined with weak respiratory muscles. This chemical oversensitivity can be retrained and reset so the body can do more with less.  We can also retrain the mechanics of breathing to improve the strength of our diaphragm, and the inspiratory and expiratory muscles.

What is the Oxygen Advantage® programme ?

The Oxygen Advantage® programme teaches you the science and the practice of breathing right.  You learn the science of breathing and the ‘how to’ practical part which has two stages. The first stage is to assess your breathing and then learn how to retrain and repattern this for optimal function.  The second stage of the programme uses exercises which simulate high altitude training.  This teaches the body to do more with less, improving athletic performance for both recreational and professional sports people. 

Once you have learnt the exercises and reset your breathing receptors you simply incorporate it into your daily activities.

Benefits

The physiological benefits will depend on how your body responds to the core benefits of:

We pay little attention to the way we breathe because it’s such an automatic process. The Eastern philosophies such as yoga and Tai Chi have always taught that it is a key component of health.  We have never been taught to address it but with the Oxygen Advantage® programme you will learn the science and the practice from a fully qualified instructor.

You can read more about the Oxygen Advantage® programme here.

Helen Maxwell

www.helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

Helen@helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

07740 876233

References

Kiesel, P.T. et al (2017) Development of a screening protocol to identify individuals with dysfunctional breathing. The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy 12(51), DOI: 10.16603/ijspt20170774

Djupesland, P.G. et al. (1999) Nitric oxide in the nose and paranasal sinuses – respiratory tract physiology in a new perspective; Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 119(27); pp.4070-4072.

Bryan NS, et al. (2017) Oral microbiome and nitric oxide: the missing link in the management of blood Pressure. Current Hypertension Reports:19(4):33.

Stephan BCM, et al. (2017) Cardiovascular disease, the nitric oxide pathway and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia; Current Cardiology Reports: 11;19(9):87.

Weight loss: What’s breath got to do with it?

Excess weight is often thought to be the result of an imbalance between energy from food consumed less energy spent throughout the day. However, well known researchers such as Zoe Harcombe, have pointed out that weight is not simply the end product of calories in less calories utilised for metabolism and exercise. Weight loss is more complicated than adjusting food intake, nutrients and exercise levels although this is usually part of the picture. Apart from the emotional and mental aspects of eating there is also a close link between breathing and metabolism. 

Metabolism is the biochemical process by which your body combines food and drink with oxygen to convert it into energy. Your basal or resting metabolic rate (BMR) rate is how much energy you burn at rest to perform autonomic functions breathing; heart rate; digestion etc. determined by your: age; sex; body size and composition (muscle uses more energy). This rate is generally fairly consistent although physical activity and exercise can have an impact. However our respiration rate (speed, volume), our breathing mechanics (upper/lower chest, lung capacity) and the cadence (rhythm) of our breath affect this metabolic equation and ultimately tissue and organ function.

I first came across Butekyo breathing when I studied at Westminster University, whilst learning about the pathophysiology of asthma and nutritional support strategies.  Dr. Konstantin Butekyo was a Russian Doctor, who taught breathing techniques to his asthma patients.  This method is now taught by Patrick McKeown. He has combined Butekyo with other exercises to improve breathing for both sport and health into the Oxygen Advantage® technique in which I am trained.

Through over a decade of working with thousands of people to improve their breathing Patrick has observed that there seems to be a relationship between breathing volume and food consumption. Many of his clients would be using the techniques to resolve asthma, anxiety, stress or snoring but report a secondary benefits such as reduced appetite, weight loss, increased water intake and less craving for processed or unhealthy food choices.

When we eat less our energy expenditure often reduces in tandem. Carrying extra weight can also make exercise more challenging.  This is partly because of the extra pounds but often being overweight leads to the development of poor breathing habits such as hyperventilation, sighing, upper chest breathing and mouth breathing.  This means breathing increases during rest and quickly becomes erratic during exercise.

Poor breathing habits are common. One study estimates as many as 50-80% of the general population have some element of dysfunctional breathing.  The drivers are believed to be: pollution; poor quality food; central heating; lack of physical exercise and so much time spent sitting down. In addition many holistic practitioners and some forms of exercise such as yoga and pilates promote the idea of big, deep breaths. If the breath is taken into the upper chest it will activate our sympathetic nervous system or stress response. This way of breathing can become a habit. If we regularly take even occasional large upper chest breaths throughout the day this can upset pH balance, blood oxygen saturation and even food digestion and absorption can suffer. It is not a time to digest food if the body is primed to run away from a predator.

Using the Oxygen Advantage® breathing techniques to reduce and normalise breathing helps to bring the body back into balance. Reducing and softening the breath helps to normalise blood pH which is often too acidic. The resulting stimulation of the para-sympathetic nervous system can help to reduce emotional eating.  Some of the exercises simulate high altitude training and we have known for many years that animals and people lose weight at high altitudes. At altitude blood oxygen saturation reduces which seems to diminish appetite. Reduced breathing and breath holding temporarily lowers oxygen saturation in the blood inducing an anaerobic state which forces the body to burn fat stores.  The body adapts by releasing hormones to raise the concentration of red blood cells in the blood to increase oxygenation levels and aerobic capacity.

In 2018, researchers Yong, et al., found a significant increase in VO2 max and the BMR of healthy subjects when they tested them pre and post diaphragmatic breathing exercises.  This is important because 70% of our energy supports our BMR and as lean tissue requires more energy than adipose tissue (fat) to maintain itself, lean tissue may be preferentially lost when we try to lose weight. So raising BMR may be another way the technique supports healthy weight loss.  

Our blood vessels, airways and organs including our digestion system are lined with a hundred thousand miles of smooth muscle.  If we over breathe and don’t move much our tissues receive less oxygen and constrict, impairing function and sensitising our sympathetic nervous system.  When we correct how we breathe tissues dilate and function improves, stimulating our metabolism to self-regulate and correcting issues such as breathlessness, constipation and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Breathing is first on the list when it comes to survival, before food and water but often it’s last on the list of our health priorities. We pay little attention to getting it right. It is a very overlooked aspect of health and can be a key component to achieve weight loss and better health with less effort and less focus on food intake.

Get in touch to see how the Oxygen Advantage® training can help you to lose weight, address dysfunctional breathing, breathe better during exercise or just to improve your overall health.

Signs that you may have sub-optimal or dysfunctional breathing: feeling tense; cold hands and feet; a low body oxygen level test score; frequent sighing or yawning; mouth breathing at night; exercise induced asthma; snoring.

Helen Maxwell

www.helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

Helen@helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

07740 876233

REFS

Harcombe, Z. (2010) The obesity epidemic, Columbus Publishing.

Kiesel, et al. (2017) Development of a screening protocol to identify individuals with dysfunctional breathing’, International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy’, 12 (5), pp.774-786.

Mayo clinic staff (1998-2020); ‘Metabolism and weight loss: how you burn calories’; [available at]: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508.

McKeown, P. (2015) The Oxygen Advantage, Harper Collins Publishers: New York.

Parkes, M.J. (2017) Reappraisal of systemic venous chemoreceptors: might they explain the matching of breathing to metabolic rate in humans? Experimental Physiology https://doi.org/10.1113/EP086561

Rothenberg, R.L., (2020) Restoring Prana, Singing Dragon, London and Philadelphia.

Yong, M-S. et al., (2018) Effects of breathing exercises on resting metabolic rate and maximal oxygen uptake, Journal of Physical Therapy Science; 30(9), pp.1173-1175.

Enter 'The zone'

An air of mystery surrounds ‘The Zone’, a near mythical state of mind-body alignment which athletes seek but few master. Rupert Sheldrake (author and biologist) suggests that sport may be one of the few remaining ways for people to experience an altered state of consciousness.  Sport requires: total concentration on the ‘present’; dedication; discipline and a will to explore and stretch beyond normal physical and mental capabilities. These qualities are all elements of committed spiritual practice potentially leading to similar experiences.

HeartMath® research suggests that this flow state is about heart-brain synchronisation achieved by connection with your intuitive heart.  When we do this over and over, with intention, it gradually becomes easier. We begin to understand it’s not a one-shot experience but a place we can train ourselves to enter at will.  There is a formula to get there to become physically, mentally and emotionally coherent. When we are coherent we are present, we think clearly, react intuitively and can play great sports.

The biofeedback from HeartMath® technology helps to build awareness of how our different emotional states affect the rhythmic pattern of heart activity.  It gives real time information on your heart rate variability (HRV) which is a measurement of the time intervals between consecutive heartbeats. 

Physically active individuals tend to have a higher HRV and this is associated with better health status. Athletes (recreational and professional) with a high HRV can respond, flex and adapt to the demands of their training and sport more easily.  But like most things in life it’s about balance and sport has a positive and negative relationship with HRV.  Your heart-beat is affected by your respiratory/cardiac cycle known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA. The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated to cope with the demands of sport or exercise. If this exceeds available resources then vagus nerve function will diminish, negatively affecting our RSA and HRV. 

Teaching people to sustain positive emotions facilitates emotional and psychological coherence, enhancing mind-body co-ordination and shortening reaction time.  Tiger Woods was once asked during a championship game if there was a specific area players should look out for.  His response “No, not really.  I think the guys who are really controlling their emotions are going to win”.  I remember some years ago watching my son play football and thinking how much time and energy the players were wasting on emotions like frustration and anger at referee’s decisions or missed goals.  At the height of competition the ability to manage emotional reactions, make clear decisions and trust your intuition is often the difference between winning and losing.

Studies have shown that coherence can spread through entrainment, so team chemistry may result from a kind of collective team coherence or resonance. Perhaps a shared sense of energy, rhythm and intuitive knowing occurs to generate interaction and a successful team outcome. High school teacher and basketball coach Beth McHamee included HeartMath®  techniques in their training.  Before each game the team did a Heart Lock -in® and they used Quick coherence® on court and at half time. They ended the season with a record 15 wins compared to the previous six.

In Sweden hockey players trained in HeartMath® have used the techniques to switch from a chaotic to coherent emotional state when they are in the box watching the game.  This has improved their game observation ability but in addition they improved their physical stamina. Master Kelly (World Martial Arts Champion) also found benefits outside of his sport.  He used

HeartMath® techniques to maintain his edge to fight whilst competing in a younger competition category. He also used them to relax and handle stress from competition and travelling as well as to overcome injury setbacks and spark creativity and focus when writing his book.

HRV training and biofeedback have also been shown to play a useful role in the psychological response to injury and the rehabilitation process. The techniques can help them to deal with their roller coaster of emotions and the inevitable pain catastrophising which can become predictive. Compared to controls the HRV trained subjects lowered their respiration rates and improved on all psychological outcomes.  Their perceived level of control increased with the opportunity to become an active participant in their treatment.

Get in touch to learn how to use the Heartmath® biofeedback technology and techniques to tackle those situations where you react emotionally rather than respond intelligently. 

Experience science-based technology and coaching for taking charge of your life.

Proven to help you reduce stress and anxiety by increasing your inner balance and self-security.

Learn to access your heart’s intuition to become the best version of yourself more often.

“The brain thinks, but the heart knows” Joe Dispenza (neuroscientist) 

Helen Maxwell

HeartMath® certified coach

www.helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

Helen@helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

REFS

Perry, J., et al. (2018) Effectiveness of athletes’ mental strategies in maintaining high heart rate variability: Utility of a brief athlete-specific stress assessment protocol, ‘Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology’, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2017-0016

Ravi, S., et al. (2018) Heart rate variability: biofeedback and controlled breathing, competitive and recreation sport athletes, 2nd International conference on lifelong education and leadership for all, Latvian Academy of Sport Education, pp.413-418.

Rollo, S., et al. (2017) Effects of a heart rate variability biofeedback intervention on athletes psychological responses following injury: A pilot study; International Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine, 3(6) DOI: 10.23937/2469-5718/1510081.

Sheldrake, R., (2019), Ways to go beyond and why they work: 7 spiritual practices for a scientific age, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.

Connect to your heart to be your best self

There is a physical as well as a mental component to fear and anxiety.  We know this: our hearts race, we sweat, our stomach churns, eyes dilate. Dr Bessel Van der Kolk, eminent psychiatrist and a world expert on traumatic stress, explains in his book ‘The body keeps the score’, how the body records and stores our emotional experiences.

I once experienced this first hand.  Many years after a traumatic hospital experience, I took my son to a GP surgery.  Within seconds, I could feel my body going into a panic attack, something I hadn’t experienced for over 5 years. I couldn’t understand why this would be happening until I looked around and saw a doctor who reminded me of the event.  What amazed me was that my body reacted before I actually saw him.

Sarah Garfinkel of the University of Sussex, UK, also discovered this when she was working with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to understand the brain circuitry involved with trauma. She realised it was their bodies which were influencing their minds and, no matter how safe they were in reality, their body continued to express fear until it became their way of being. So she set out to discover the ‘mind-body’.

Incredibly Garfinkel found that “ signals from the heart can really drive and override conditioned fear responses”.  This is the ‘scientific principle’ behind the success of Heartmath®  techniques. They have been used for over 30 years to teach people to listen to their heart and to intercept the body’s messages to the brain in order to improve autonomic nervous system function.

Our internal organs, including our heart, generate electrical activity which is conveyed to the brain by our neurons.  Science now knows that the electromagnetic field of the heart is sixty times more than that of the brain, whilst it’s magnetic field is an enormous 5000 times more.  Incredibly the field of the heart extends outside the body and can be measured across the room so people around you feel, and respond to, your ‘heart waves’.  The number of signals travelling from the heart to the brain vastly outstrips those going in the other direction and their effect on brain function is significant: cognition, memory, perception, emotion, problem solving.

Back in 1991, Doc Childre, after setting out to understand both the physical and the metaphorical heart, founded Heartmath®. He did this by testing, measuring, researching and analysing data to provide scientifically validated tools to access the heart’s intelligence. Doc Childre combined forces with Deborah Rozman, who, whilst studying ‘attitude change theory’ at University, discovered that people would receive different answers about the same issue, depending on whether they listened to their heart or their head. Together they researched and developed the powerful HeartMath® tools and techniques.  They used their deep understanding of heart-brain dynamics to teach people to take back their power over their emotional well being. Over 300 peer reviewed papers show that when you live, work and play from the heart, you influence your physiology on many levels (nervous, immune, hormonal), to transform stress, raise your energy and improve well-being.

Get in touch to learn how to use the Heartmath® biofeedback technology and techniques to tackle those situations where you react emotionally rather than respond intelligently.  

Experience science-based technology and coaching for taking charge of your life.

Proven to help you reduce stress and anxiety by increasing your inner balance and self-security.

Learn to access your heart’s intuition to become the best version of yourself more often.

“The brain thinks, but the heart knows” Joe Dispenza (neuroscientist) 

Helen Maxwell

HeartMath® certified coach

www.helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

helen@helenmaxwellnutrition.co.uk

Refs:

Spinney, L., (2020), Body Consciousness, New Scientist pp.29:32;

Childre, D & Rozman, D. (2005) Transforming stress: The Heartmath solution for relieving worry, fatigue and tension; NewHarbinger Publications Inc; Oakland;

Van der Kolk, B. (2014) The body keeps the score, Penguin.

Dispenza, J. (2017) Accessing the heart’s intelligence, www.joedispenza.com.