One post pandemic syndrome is exercise by working-out in the gym, or going for a run, or swim, or whatever tickles your fancy. Fitness is a godsend! Consequently, proper breathing will tap into the deepest layers of your body’s physiology, including your brain and hormonal system. In fact, the power of intentional breathing can give you the ability to influence your health and well-being on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level.
Today’s blog will highlight one of the major benefits of proper breathing; a method to increase growth hormone (GH) production in your body. Growth Hormone, commonly known as GH is a small protein produced in the pituitary gland. It stimulates cellular growth, repair and rejuvenation in essentially all the tissues of the body, including bone tissue. It also can increase lean muscle mass, increase bone density and reduce fat tissue.
The benefit of naturally increasing GH during breathing means you potentially have the capacity to accelerate healing of the bodily tissues, increase youthful vitality, strength, endurance, and more. In fact, I wrote a blog about ultimate breathing several months ago which talked about deep breathing and how hyperbolic oxygen chambers can enhance outcome.
One person who you might recall is athletic extraordinaire Lance Armstrong who injected himself with GH to give himself a competitive edge as a cyclist. Later he was stripped of his medals and titles when it was discovered. It was believed that those doses gave him an unfair advantage over the competition.
Actually, it is nice to know that you can make it yourself! Proper breathing means inhaling and exhaling through your nose and not mouth as some people are inclined to do. Using this powerful breathing technique as explained in proper breathing, empowers you to influence your health and well-being, including increasing your body’s production of GH.
Each time you do a cycle of the breathing (30 full in and out breaths), you are reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the blood and increasing oxygen (O2) levels. CO2 is acidic and is what gives us the natural urge to breathe. O2 is alkaline.
While you are doing the 30 breaths in a cycle of the deep breathing, you start to get tingling, light-headed sensations. This is a sign that the blood pH is becoming more alkaline (alkalosis), which reduces the need to breathe, allowing you to hold the breath for longer. When the blood pH is alkaline, the ability to hold the breath is extended well beyond what might normally be possible for you. In this state, holding the breath until you feel a hunger for the breath (intermittent hypoxia) causes a positive stress response in the body. This response initiates many physiological effects, one of which is to increase the production of GH.
Remember, it only takes 3 rounds of deep breathing daily to start getting the benefits, like increasing GH to stimulate cellular growth and repair of all bodily tissues, including bone. And once it becomes a habit, you will have more sustained levels of energy, feel stronger, healthier and more joyful! Then you won’t want to be without it!
Another good benefit about deep breathing is it creates better nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide plays a critical role in endothelial function, promoting relaxation of vascular smooth muscle and subsequent dilation which may favorably impact blood flow and augment mechanisms contributing to skeletal muscle performance, hypertrophy, and strength adaptations.
Try it! Yes, it takes several weeks to feel the benefits, but you’ll be amazed once you’ve done it for a while because you’ll start to feel energized. This is really great news, especially when you can hold your breath for 2, 5, or even 8 minutes. No need to thank me, just do it!
I wish you well, and higher quality living!
All the best!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Godsend (n) = blessing, bonus, benefit, stroke of luck, (ant) disaster
Tickles your fancy (idiom) = to interest or attract someone. “Do you see anything on the menu that tickles your fancy?” Appeal to one, be to one's liking, as in ‘That joke, tickled my fancy’. This term uses fancy in the sense of “liking” or “taste.”
pH = stands for potential of hydrogen, since pH is effectively a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions (that is, protons) in a substance.
Blood pH = A pH of 7.0, in the middle of this scale, is neutral. Blood is normally slightly basic, with a normal pH range of about 7.35 to 7.45. Usually, the body maintains the pH of blood close to 7.40.