Chest (Shallow) Breathing: Causes, Effects, Solutions

Man with shallow breathing The term "shallow breathing" can refer to 2 different processes:
- breathing mechanics (problems with thoracic or chest breathing);
- breathing volume (too small tidal volume or amount of air per inhalation). Bear in mind that ideal or healthy automatic breathing at rest is very small in amount, but mainly abdominal.

Shallow Breathing (Chest Breathing) Causes

Shallow breathing is generally caused by one factor only: hyperventilation (or breathing more air than the medical norm). In normal conditions, hyperventilation cannot improve blood oxygenation in any significant degree: normal breathing provides arterial blood with 98-99% oxygen saturation. Hence, overbreathing reduces CO2 levels in the arterial blood. This causes decreased oxygen delivery to cells leading. Cell hypoxia and hypocapnia can cause a spasm in all muscles of the human body: airways, colon, arteries, arterioles, and the diaphragm.

Shallow breathing can be triggered by anxiety, stress, night sleep (or being in a horizontal position), fatigue, mouth breathing, and all other factors that cause hyperventilation.

Chest Breathing Effects

Clouds and forest Medical evidence related to the main immediate physiological effects of shallow breathing (reduced body oxygen levels and lymphatic stagnation) is analyzed in more detail here: Diaphragm Function & Diaphragmatic Breathing Benefits.

Shallow Breathing Symptoms

The symptoms of chest breathing are very individual and can range from dyspnea (or shortness of breath, which is common during terminal cancer, HIV-AIDS, cystic fibrosis, COPD, emphysema, and many other conditions) and angina pain (a sign of low heart oxygenation) to blocked nose, sleep apnea, anxiety, fatigue and constipation. All these symptoms are analyzed on the web page Symptoms of Hyperventilation.

Shallow Breathing Treatment

Doctors and patients Since hyperventilation causes chest breathing, the solution is simple: normalization of breathing. However, it is not easy to implement in practice because it is necessary to correct the automatic (unconscious) breathing pattern that is going on day and night. For more information, visit Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises, Techniques and Instructions.

Could Shallow Breathing Mean Small Tidal Volume?

However, when we speak about tidal volumes (a single volume of inhaled air), normal healthy breathing and ideal breathing for maximum body oxygen levels are shallow (a tiny air volume inhaled in during one breath). Hence, it is sensible that healthy people are usually unable to sense their respiratory movements.

Sick people have heavy and deep (often noisy) breathing because they breathe too much (see this Table with 34 medical studies). They often feel movements of air in the nasal passages, chest movements (due to chest breathing or shallow breathing), and other effects related to their hyperventilation, which is the main problem.

There are, however, exceptions to these observations. Some groups of people can feel their breath, even though they have easy and light normal breathing:
- Healthy children (e.g., 6-10 years old) with normal breathing patterns are able to feel their breathing (even though it is tiny in amounts) due to acute awareness of their bodily sensations.
- Vice versa, elderly people, even when they breathe 2 times twice faster and/or twice more deeply than the medical norms, often do not notice any sensations of their heavy breathing because of they have not paid enough attention to their breath for many decades.
Man practicing yoga asana - People who have been learning and practicing breathing retraining methods and techniques (the Buteyko method, Hatha Yoga, etc.), often have acute perceptions of their breath - even if they breathe less and slower than the physiological norms or have shallow (small in volume) automatic breathing.

This is possible because of their deliberate focus on breath sensations during their training sessions, including Buteyko shallow breathing exercise*.

Old Hatha Yoga manuscripts are full of ideas and quotes on to how to restrict, slow down and restrain breathing (see Yoga Benefits for details). These ideas are wise since breathing less during our automatic or unconscious breathing increases body oxygenation.

*Note. The main Buteyko method exercise is sometimes called "shallow breathing", but "reduced breathing" is a more accurate term.

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?

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