Natural Muscle Relaxant: Carbon Dioxide

Slow and light breathing increases CO2 in the body and lead to better relaxation and oxygenation of muscles. CO2 - natural muscle relaxant.

Carbon dioxide is a natural muscle relaxant. Hence, when people have normal breathing parameters during their basal or automatic breathing, they effortlessly maintain correct posture with straight spine. It is easy for them to have diaphragmatic (vs chest) breathing 24/7. There are no signs of stress in their gait.

What happens with muscles and posture in the sick? Since ordinary modern people, breathe about twice more than the medical norm (see Hyperventilation: Present in Over 90% of Normal People; 24 medical publications), they suffer from effects of chronic hyperventilation. One of them is CO2 deficiency (hypocapnia) that makes muscle cells tense and irritable.

Physiological science accumulated evidence of the adverse effects of low carbon dioxide levels on muscle cells. In his research review paper, "Physiological effects of hyperventilation" Dr. Brown from the Department of Physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center (USA) analyzed almost 300 professional studies. He stated, “Studies designed to determine the effects produced by hyperventilation on nerve and muscle have been consistent in their finding on increased irritability” (Brown, 1953). Muscles cells become irritated or abnormally sensitive and predisposed to spasms and twitching.

That was also an experimental observation of Dr. Hurlock from the Department of Physiology (University of Birmingham Medical School, UK) in his book Muscle blood flow (Hurlock, 1973). Many other published research studies found that CO2 is a natural muscle relaxant (Lamont , 1987; Gencarelli, 1983; Hoylea, 1960).

This fact, together with the properties of CO2 mentioned previously, will help us to understand the mechanism by which normal carbon dioxide concentrations can restore the harmonious work of different muscular groups (such as all smooth muscles of arteries and arterioles, the heart, respiratory muscles, muscles of the digestive tract, etc.) in order to eliminate muscular spasms (e.g., heart attacks, asthma attacks, constipation, etc.). In fact, there are separate web pages that consider how CO2 deficiency contributes or even creates chest breathing, vasoconstriction, and bronchoconstriction.

Moreover, since skeletal muscles also get irritated it is normal to expect that when people breathe too much, they are more likely to be tense, anxious, stressed, aggressive, and violent. Together with the abnormally excited state of the nervous system, this muscular effect can create conditions of tension and irritability. A slight provocation can create various problems for a hyperventilating person (and for those who are around!) since the muscles are irritated and the brain cells are abnormally excited.

Vice versa, normal carbon dioxide concentrations would result in muscular relaxation. Hence, the relief or treatment of chronic problems with muscular tension should be based on breathing exercises or breathing retraining therapies.

Which feelings and emotions can people experience because of hyperventilation?

Tension, stress, and anxiety all appear in conditions of low CO2 in muscles since carbon dioxide is a natural muscle relaxant. Studies have found that people become duller and less able to concentrate because of chronic overbreathing. In addition, because of “spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons”, people can become impulsive, moody, inconsistent, anxious, irritated, intolerant, disrespectful, depressed, hyperactive, verbally abusive, jealous, envious, greedy, and addicted to various unnatural substances and activities due to abnormal effects of CO2 deficiency on the human nerve cells. During overbreathing, it becomes more and more difficult to control irrational emotions. Confusion is another common result of overbreathing.

(Note that normal breathing does not guarantee a complete absence of irrational emotions. Upbringing and environmental factors are also important. However, for most people, destructive or self-defeating behavior is possible or more likely in conditions of hyperventilation.)

Due to tense muscles, CO2 deficient people can easily become poorly coordinated, over-active, aggressive, or even violent (see right). This often leads to destructive behavior, which requires self-justification on the part of the perpetrators. How is that possible? Physiology has proved that the nerve cells become irritable during hyperventilation or cell hypocapnia. As a result, the brain, instead of being a tool for the exploration of the world and the analysis of one’s own behavior, often becomes a tool for the invention of excuses.

In other situations hyperventilating people can suffer themselves. CO2-related physiological mechanisms (muscular spasms and abnormally excited state of the nerve cells) help us to understand and prevent (treat) epilepsy and other types of seizures; many, but not all black-outs; febrile seizures; cases of eclampsia; and twitches. In many life-threatening situations, when breathing is very heavy and people can have heart attacks, strokes, or epilepsy attacks, their body can become very stiff with decisive or significant contribution due to CO2 deficiency.

In order to relief muscular tension permanently, it is necessary to normalize one's breathing pattern 24/7. Slowing down one breathing back to the medical norm is possible by addressing lifestyle factors and those breathing techniques that make breathing lighter and slower so that we have larger carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations in body cells. Hence, the treatment should include breathing retraining exercises (e.g., Amazing DIY device, Buteyko breathing therapy, and/or Frolov respiratory device) and correction of lifestyle risk factors.

Be observant. Watching TV for example, what can you (always?) say about breathing of people who are violent or angry? Have you ever seen people expressing violent or angry behavior while having normal or light and easy breathing? Have you observed breathing of epileptics before seizures and their muscular twitching and spasms later (e.g., on YouTube)?

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
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

References and some abstracts (Carbon dioxide: Natural muscle relaxant)

Brown E, Physiological effects of hyperventilation, Physiological Reviews 1953 Oct; 33 (4): p. 445-471.

Hurlock OT, Muscle blood flow, 1973; Swets&Zeitlinger, Amsterdam.

Lamont A, Roberts M, McLeod L, Hypocarbia [CO2 deficiency] and muscle relaxant plasma levels, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 1987 Aug; 15(3): p. 354-355.

Gencarelli PJ, Swen J, Koot HW, Miller RD, The effects of hypercarbia and hypocarbia on pancuronium and vecuronium neuromuscular blockades in anesthetized humans, Anesthesiology. 1983 Nov;59(5):376-80.
Abstract
To determine the effects of hypercarbia and hypocarbia on a pancuronium or vecuronium neuromuscular blockade, 54 patients were anesthetized with halothane and 60% nitrous oxide in oxygen. In 30 patients, end-tidal PCO2 was maintained at either 25 mmHg (3.5 kPa, N = 10), 41 mmHg (5.5 kPa, N = 10), or 56 mmHg (7.5 kPa, N = 10). Five patients in each group then were given pancuronium or vecuronium 0.022 mg/kg iv. Neither maximal depressions of twitch tension nor recovery indexes (time for spontaneous recovery of twitch tension from 25 to 75% of control) were altered by hypercarbia or hypocarbia. The remaining 24 patients were divided into three equal groups. Either pancuronium (N = 8) or vecuronium (N = 8) was administered iv as continuous infusion at a rate sufficient to produce a 50% depression of twitch tension. In the remaining eight patients, no muscle relaxant was given. After twitch tension was stable, half of the patients in each group had hypercarbia induced, which depressed twitch tension in all three groups. The patients who received vecuronium had a significantly larger decrease in twitch tension than those who received pancuronium or no muscle relaxant. Conversely, in the remaining patients, hypocarbia produced a significant increase in twitch tension. There was no difference in the magnitude of the increases in twitch tension among the three groups. The authors conclude that pre-muscle relaxant administration-induced hypercarbia or hypocarbia has no effect on a subsequent neuromuscular blockade from pancuronium or vecuronium.

Hoylea G, The action of carbon dioxide gas on an insect spiracular muscle, Journal of Insect Physiology, Volume 4, Issue 1, March 1960, Pages 63-79
Zoology Department, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Abstract
Carbon dioxide gas in low concentrations causes the relaxation of the closer muscle of the spiracle of Schistocerca gregaria in the face of continued motor nervous excitation. The gas acts directly on events in the neuromuscular transmission sequence. It causes the magnitudes of the junctional potentials and of the twitch tension to fall, the extent of the fall increasing as the carbon dioxide concentration increases. It was not found possible to relate the change in tension exactly to the change in electrical potential.

* Illustrations by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

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