Homepage: Norms, rates, CP and body oxygenation
6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Myth #1. My breathing is OK and I know how to breathe.
Less than 10% of people have normal breathing parameters and body oxygen stores these days. We are going to consider 24 medical and physiological respiratory studies done on ordinary subjects during last 80 years. It is a fact that the medical norm established about a century ago is not a norm anymore. Modern people breathe about 2 times more air than we did 100 years ago. Hyperventilation results in tissue hypoxia and many other biochemical abnormalities (read Myth #3 below). Your breathing is normal, if and only if you have normal body oxygenation. How can you check it? You should be able to easily hold your breath for at least 40 s after your usual exhalation and with no stress at the end of the test. This test is described in detail later.
Myth #2. More breathing (deeper and/or greater volume) means better body oxygenation.
There is zero scientific evidence about this deep breathing myth, but hundreds of published studies have clearly shown that hyperventilation (or breathing more than the tiny medical norm) reduces oxygen supply to the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and all other vital organs. Nevertheless, on TV, radio, and in everyday life situations, people who have little knowledge of physiology say, “Take a deep breath, get more oxygen”, or “Breathe deeper for better oxygenation”, etc.
Myth #3. Breathing is regulated by want for oxygen.
If you open any medical or physiological textbook with the description of the control of respiration, you will find that in normal conditions, breathing is regulated by the CO2 concentration in the arterial blood and the brain. Whatever we do (sit, walk, eat, run, sleep, etc.), CO2 concentration is kept within a narrow range (0.1% accuracy) by the breathing centre located in the medulla oblongata of the brain.
Myth #4. CO2 is a poisonous or toxic gas and a waste product to get rid off.
When a healthy person tries to hyperventilate or is forced to breathe deeply and fast, they experience “hypocapnia” (CO2 deficiency) in the blood and other fluids, tissues, and cells. The immediate effects are: constriction of blood vessels (CO2 is a powerful vasodilator) and reduced blood and oxygen supply to the brain, heart and all other vital organs. This is the reason why it is so easy to faint or pass out after 2-3 minutes of forceful hyperventilation. Horses and dogs died in 15-20 minutes, when they were forced to hyperventilate by a suction and exhaust pump. Another CO2 effect is the suppressed Bohr law or diminished release of oxygen by the blood in the tissues due to the same hypocapnia. Apart from these phenomena, there are many other vital functions of CO2 in the human body. Meanwhile, reduced tissue oxygenation is sufficient to promote cancer, heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic conditions in case of overbreathing.
Myth #5. When a person is healthy, they can feel how they breathe.
If people with normal breathing are asked what they feel about their breathing, they will say that they feel nothing at all (as if they are barely breathing). “The perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing” Lao-Tzu, circa 4th century BC. Indeed, if you have any healthy people around you and observe their breathing for 20-30 seconds, you will see and hear nothing. The medical norm for breathing (6 L/min) is tiny.
Myth #6. Sick people notice when their breathing becomes abnormal.
100% prevalence of hyperventilation at rest for the sick people at rest is confirmed by over 20 published western studies on heart disease, cancer, asthma, COPD, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, panic attacks, chronic fatigue, and many other conditions. These sick patients breathe about 2-3 times more than the norm, and usually do not complain or even notice that their breathing is heavy or too deep. Why? Because air is weightless and the main breathing muscles (diaphragm and chest) are very powerful: we can pump 25 times more air during maximum exercise (or about 150 litres of air in one minute), than we require for normal breathing at rest (only about 6 L/min). People may notice that their breathing is heavy during heart attacks, stroke, asthma attacks, or morning hyperventilation (between 4 and 7 am), when chronically sick people are most likely to die from acute episodes triggered by hyperventilation.