Shallow Respiration: Causes, Effects, Solutions

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- Updated on November 10, 2021

Proofread by Samson Hui Proofreader on July **, 2019

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Shallow Respiration: Causes, Effects, Solutions 1By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Alternative Health Educator and Author

- Medically Reviewed by Naziliya Rakhimova, MD

Man with shallow respiration

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 respiration causes

Effects of shallow breathing on brain O2 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 to 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 other factors that cause hyperventilation.

Shallow respiration symptoms

Clouds and forest 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 respiration 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.

Could shallow respiration mean low 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 the Homepage). 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 an acute awareness of their bodily sensations.
– Vice versa, elderly people, even when they breathe 2 times faster and/or twice more deeply than the medical norms, often do not notice any sensations of their heavy breathing because 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 quotations on how to restrict, slow down and restrain breathing (see Yoga pages for more detail). These ideas are wise since breathing less during our automatic or unconscious breathing increases body oxygenation.

Do you know the name of the breathing method that has “shallow breathing”, as many people call it, as their main breathing exercise? This breathing technique is taught by over 1,000 health practitioners and medical professionals. The name of this system is provided below as your bonus content.

The main breathing exercise of the Buteyko method is often called “shallow breathing”, but “reduced breathing” is a more accurate term.

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For more information, visit Diaphragmatic breathing exercises and techniques.

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