don's report archive

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Be An Easy and Deep Breather
Saturday December 9, 2000

Mark Twain wrote, "Each person is born to one possession which outlives all his others, his last breath" (Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.) You will breathe easier if you are confident that this possession is not about to be squandered anytime soon.

Those with the misfortune to have genetic problems affecting their respiratory system, a history of exposure to toxic environments (working in coal mines or living near waste dumps or smokers, for examples) or who made serious lifestyle errors (began smoking cigarettes when young and became addicted to vile nicotine, for instance) do not experience easy breathing. Sadly, breathing easy is NOT so easy if you are in terrible physical condition due to insufficient physical fitness.

In addition, "breathing easy" is hard to do if you are overly stressed, frustrated, angry, worried, bored to tears, listless and beset with anomie, in which case you are hardly breathing at all.

A self-managing principle is that anything worthwhile takes commitment, energy and a bit of time. Learning to inhale and exhale fully and deeply is no exception. The Lancet carried an article on May 2, 1998 about research done with cardiac patients in Italy. The investigators found the optimum rate of breaths per minute to be six! The average resting breath rate is estimated at 12-14 per minute.

Have you any idea how many breaths you take in a minute under conditions of little or no stress or activity? I had no idea, myself, until I began training with a master’s swim team—and was introduced to a drill wherein we were to swim 25 meters without taking a breath! Well, at least that was the objective. It took me a while to learn how to do that and it’s still a struggle.

The authors of the Italian study claimed that the six breaths per minute pace led to higher levels of blood oxygen, enabling patients to do much better on exercise routines. Breathe too rapidly (that is, when you are not swimming laps, running, biking or something like that) and you could be creating low blood oxygen. This, in turn, impairs skeletal muscle and metabolic function, which can lead to muscle atrophy -- and it's downhill fast from there. So, breathe deeply, slowing and luxuriously. The Lancet findings are consistent with other breathing studies, particularly as concerns the matter of most interest to self-managers, namely, breathing for optimal physical performance.

In summary, good breathing before Twain’s “final inhalation” is good for both prevention (meaning avoidance of sickening habits) and health enhancement. Live well -- maintain your lungs at top capacity and give them every chance to perform even better than they do now, if possible, with vigorous exercise.

Take care and please—try to look on the bright side of life while breathing deeply.

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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