20 Fun Facts You Might Not Know
It's good to be back
Happy New Year!
I hope January is treating you well so far. It’s been a mixed bag for me. It’s summer where I live in South Africa so there have been lots of sunny days spent at the beach. I also started back with my men’s work again last night which always feels nourishing. So, there have been many high points.
The low point came when I sprained my wrist playing football with the guys.
But we keep on moving. So here is this week’s installment of The Joy of Breathing.
It’s good to be back :)
James Clear wrote:
“Bad things are always happening loudly: the injury, the flat tire, the mistake that gets you criticized. Everybody talks about the moments that make things a hassle.
Good things are always happening quietly: the completed workout, the healthy meal, the ten minutes of writing. Nobody talks about the little moments that add up.
What good things have you done quietly today?”
The breath is one of those quiet things that goes mostly undetected. My passion is to make it known.
So, to kick off the year, here are twenty fun facts you might not know about breathing.
The breath removes 70% of the body’s toxins.
As infants, we only develop the reflex to breathe in through the mouth around 3-4 months of age. Before that, our tiny newborn mouths latch to our mother’s breasts for milk while our tiny noses breathe. We only learn to breathe through the mouth so we can eat solid foods, talk, and laugh. Nature has designed us in such a way that nasal breathing is the way to go.
The breath influences the pH of our blood - if we’re breathing too often carbon dioxide levels build up and the body becomes acidic. If we’re breathing too little, carbon dioxide levels are reduced and the body becomes alkaline. The sweet spot is to have a balanced in-breath with a balanced out-breath.
The breath activates both our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) every time that we breathe. Which one gets activated more depends on how we breathe.
The breath directly communicates with the heart, brain, kidneys, spleen, and stomach via the vagus nerve. If it’s fast, they all speed up. If it’s slow, they will all slow down.
The diaphragm not only inflates and deflates our lungs but its pumping action helps to massage internal organs and increase blood circulation.
A build up of carbon dioxide and not a lack of oxygen creates the first impulse to breathe.
Carbon dioxide helps to reduce inflammation, infection, illness, and disease, along with boosting the immune system, balancing the nervous system, supporting the body to heal, aiding neuroplasticity (the growth of neural networks in the brain), and strengthening muscle tissue.
On average, we breathe between 15,000–20,000 times a day. Those on the lower end tend to live healthier, happier, and longer lives.
Overbreathing (or too much oxygen) can result in many damaging side effects such as inflammation, hypertension, chronic fatigue, poor digestion, and heart problems.
Nose breathing releases a wonderful little gas called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide improves blood circulation and blood flow, lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation and tension, improves heart health, enhances memory and cognitive function, improves endurance and performance, increases nutrient uptake, reverses ageing, and enhances the flow of oxygen. (Note: No nitric oxide is released through mouth breathing.)
Humming releases nitric oxide 15x more!
Nose breathing filters out toxins and airborne particles from the atmosphere which prevents them from entering the lungs. This helps to fight infection, disease, and illness.
Each side of the nose has a natural rhythm that changes every 90 minutes or so. Each side of the nose connects to each hemisphere of the brain so when the left nostril is more open, the right side of the brain will be more active. This will make us feel more creative and/or imaginative. When the right nostril is more open, the left side of the brain will be more active so we’re more likely to feel detail-oriented and/or logical. Pay attention to the flow of air coming in through your nose as it indicates what’s happening inside your brain.
Posture is key in how much air enters the lungs.
Breathing in a rhythm creates a phenomenon known as heart coherence.“Heart coherence is the state when the heart, mind, and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation. It is a state where there is increased synchronization and harmony between the cognitive, emotional and physiological systems, resulting in the efficient and harmonious functioning of the whole” — HeartMath Institute
Intermittent hypoxic training (holding no air in the lungs to become more oxygen efficient and more tolerant to carbon dioxide) has been proven to boost the immune system, support growth and healing, and strengthen muscle tissue. (Check out my favourite intermittent hypoxic training technique here)
Breathing boosts and promotes healthy cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
Scientists have discovered that around the age of 30–35 years old, our lung capacity starts to decrease and it only goes downhill from there. This is due to the muscles in the diaphragm becoming weaker and our lung tissue losing some of its elasticity. This means our airways become smaller and our rib cage bones change shape, leaving less room for them to expand into.
Our lungs are like every other muscle in the body in that regard. If they’re used often and efficiently, they can begin to gain strength, elasticity, and volume, even as we age. However, if they’re not, everything in and around them (tendons, ligaments, muscle tissue, bone density, etc…) will naturally start to weaken. So, even though our lungs do shrink over time - up to 40% by the time we reach 80 years old - they can also expand. Breathing exercises help to keep them nice and elastic.
There are thousands and thousands of ways to breathe. Yogis as far back as 7,000 years ago developed pranayama exercises and they have been travelling through time ever since. So there are almost as many ways to breathe as there are foods to eat.
Which of these fun facts surprised you the most?
Thanks for reading!
I hope you have a beautiful week!