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How to Warm up Your Hands and Feet (Breathe-Easy Exercise)

Young woman tries to keep hands warmThis breathing exercise to keep feet and hands warm was used by over two hundred Soviet and Russian MDs who practiced the Buteyko breathing method. They taught this breathing exercise to thousands of patients. The exercise shows how to warm up cold hands or cold feet naturally in about 2-3 min and quickly improve poor blood circulation. Other people require more changes in their automatic breathing patterns to improve body-oxygen content and have warm hands and feet 24/7.

Breathing exercise "How to warm up hands and feet"

Effects of overbreathing on brain O2Sit down at a table with your spine straight. Relax all your body muscles. Next, instead of taking your usual inhalation, take a slightly smaller inhalation (about 10% less) and then immediately relax all body muscles, especially the upper chest and other breathing muscles. Take another (smaller) inhale and again completely relax.

With each breath, continue to take a small or reduced inhalation and then completely relax. You will soon experience light but comfortable air hunger. Your goal is to maintain this light air hunger for 2-3 minutes. For faster results, if you do not suffer from heart disease, hypertension, migraine, and panic attacks, you can make air hunger stronger and stronger. Your breathing (it is called reduced breathing) can be frequent during this exercise but this is normal. If you do this exercise correctly (you indeed breathe less), your hands and feet will be warm in less than 3 minutes.

For patients with advanced Raynaud disease, it may take longer time, up to 1-2 weeks, and more breath work, so that to improve circulation and body oxygenation, in order to normalize their automatic breathing pattern and have warm feet and hands all the time.

How to keep or make cold feet or cold hands warm during sleep or at night

Woman sleeping at nightLie on your left side or on chest and relax all your body muscles. Breathe only through the nose. Follow the previous instructions for reduced breathing to get a quick relief for cold feet or hands at night or during sleep.

Body-oxygen levels and cold feet/hands effect

People with cold hands and feet have less than 20 s of oxygen in body cells. In severe cases, breath holding time results are less than 10 seconds. The normal result is from 40 to 60 s. If you normalize your breath and you can keep your breath (after exhalation and with no stress) for more than 30 s 24/7, your chronic problems with poor circulation and cold hands/feet will naturally disappear. Here is more resources about Cold hands and feet causes.

Study web pages of this site and follow practical instructions provided in Section Learn here.

Reference pages: Breathing norms and medical facts:
- Breathing norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
- 6 breathing myths: Myths and superstitions about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
- Hyperventilation: Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
- Hyperventilation syndrome: Western scientific evidence about prevalence of chronic hyperventilation in patients with chronic conditions (37 medical studies)
- Normal minute ventilation: Small and slow breathing at rest is enjoyed by healthy subjects (14 studies)
- Hyperventilation prevalence: Present in over 90% of normal people (24 medical studies)
- HV and hypoxia: How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
- Body-oxygen test (CP test) : How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
- Body oxygen in healthy: Results for the body-oxygen test for healthy people (27 medical studies)
- Body oxygen in sick : Results for the body-oxygen test for sick people (14 medical studies)
- Buteyko Table of Health Zones: Clinical description and ranges for breathing zones: from the critically ill (severely sick) up to super healthy people with maximum possible body oxygenation
- Morning hyperventilation: Why people feel worse and critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: pages about CO2 effect:
- 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: How alveolar CO2 influences oxygen transport
- Oxygen transport: O2 transport is controlled by vasoconstriction-vasodilation and the Bohr effects, both of which rely on CO2
- Free radical generation: Reactive oxygen species are produced within cells due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia
- Inflammatory response: Chronic inflammation in fueled by the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces and eliminates inflammation
- Nerve stabilization: People remain calm due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
- Muscle relaxation: Relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
- Bronchodilation: Dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) is caused by carbon dioxide, and their constriction by hypocapnia (low CO2)
- Blood pH: Regulation of blood pH due to breathing and regulation of other bodily fluids
- CO2: lung damage: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents lung injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
- CO2: Topical carbon dioxide can heal skin and tissues
- Synthesis of glutamine in the brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
- Deep breathing myth: Ignorant and naive people promote the idea that deep breathing and breathing more air at rest is beneficial for health
- Breathing control: How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven, irregular and erratic.



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