Stay calm and breathe long

Breathing is perhaps the most taken-for-granted activity. Have you observed how you breathe when you're anxious, in a foul mood, depressed, at leisure, watching TV or eating? Maybe it's time you do, and here's why.

Dr (AM) Sukanya Reddy, founder of The Indian School of Breathing, Chennai, explains that one round of inhalation plus exhalation is 'one unit'. Above 20 units per minute is shallow breathing or tachypnea, 14-15 units is the average count. But those who breathe 12, 8 or six units per minute are supposedly at the epitome of health and mental well-being. "Lesser the number of units, longer the life span," Reddy reasons. It's not just about breathing long. "Men use their diaphragm and women, intercostal muscles (in the chest and ribs), for breathing. But irrespective of how you breathe, expiration (exhalation) must be longer than inspiration (inhalation)," educates Dr Manaan Gandhi, ayurvedic consultant and nadi-parisha (pulse-diagnosis) expert at The Integral Ayurveda, Mumbai. But when does breathing, so innate and voluntary, go awry and needs a dummy's guide to fix it? It's around the time the child has to master umpteen motor-skills, says Dr Gandhi, that breath-control goes wonky. "The child's taught to sit, walk, grasp objects with hand. But not how to breathe. And later, stress plays a major role."

Well-being derailed

Improper breathing has dire repercussions: decrease in performance, alertness, memory and cognitive impairment, stress, obesity, diabetes and glucose intolerance, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, anxiety, depression and impaired immunity.

Also, possible implications between the heart and lungs given their close proximity, says Dr Lekha Phatak, director of cardiology, Nanavati Super Hospital. "If you don't breathe properly, the lungs become susceptible to viral infections because enough oxygenation doesn't take place in the lungs."

Shallow breathers can graduate to overeating because they don't chew food, says Dr Reddy. "It starts with defective pancreas, then diabetes, then high blood pressure. Indigestion and constipation make the stomach bloat and puts pressure on the diaphragm."

It can alter any organ in the body as oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood go erratic. Even the skin's texture can corrode. "Pores can clog and prevent release of toxins," says Dr Reddy.

Benefits of yoga

Yoga is a sanyog (blend) of asanam (exercise) and pranayama (breathing). The goal of pranayama (prana – breath, yama – elongate) is reduce the breaths-per-minute ratio. However, wrong breathing techniques have lasting consequences.

Yoga preaches eight pranayamas to stir the dosha, or type of biological energy – vatha (space and air), pitha (fire and water) and kapha (water and earth). So, for instance, surya bhedana pranayama (breathing technique to activate heat in the body) if overdone causes hairfall, acidity and headache and internal injury too. "If you exhale before time in trikonasana or triangle pose, the air gets blocked and nerves bulge in the neck region. This may lead to spondylitis," warns Reddy.

Kapalbhati (fast, quick breaths), Gandhi adds, is not a pranayama, but shuddhi-kriya, a detoxification process. It is beneficial, but like kaada (stomach cleaning agents), must not be indulged in every day. "It shoots up oxygen and energy levels instantly, but takes off minutes from your life," Gandhi says."A dog breathes fast (40-50 units per minute), literally 'panting' through life and lives for just 12-16 years. But a turtle lives for 150-200 years, because it breathes slow (four units per minute)." Smokers and those residing in polluted areas are more prone to abnormalities in the lungs and breathing patterns. "I tell people not to do pranayamas in Mumbai, unless in a garden, because you inhale pollutants and circulate them through the body," Dr Gandhi chuckles.

Sleep well

Dr Harshad Limaye, consultant physician at Nanavati Super Hospital, warns obese patients to sleep on their side and reduce weight. "The obese have floppy airways, making it difficult for air to reach their lungs. At an extreme stage, it becomes obstructive or excessive sleep apnea. The heart can just stop in the sleep."

Those who practice deep breathing, breathe well when asleep. But loud snoring, intermittent breathing, heavy-headed and headache on waking up should ring alarm bells, says Dr Preeti Devnani, clinical director, Sleep Disorder Clinic in Mumbai. "These are signs the brain is not receiving adequate oxygen. Significant periods of difficult breathing at night can cause high blood pressure, nocturia, fragmented and broken sleep."

On the other hand, shallow breathing can be indicative of a larger issue, not considering times we're battling cold or sinus, Dr Phatak cautions. "Weak pumping of the heart makes it difficult to walk, lie down, sit, even breathe because of fluid retention in the lungs."

Breathe easy

We can easily manipulate our breathing on understanding the anatomy of the nose. Every 55 minutes, we breathe more through one nostril and then switch over to the other reveals Gandhi. Also, breathing from the right nostril, surya nadi, reflects there's more heat in the body, while the left, chandra nadi, reflects calmness. When angry, the breath is stronger from the right nostril; when lethargic, artistic or romantic, it is prominent on the left nostril. "Check which nostril you're breathing more from and wedge a pillow underneath the opposite arm. Within five minutes, you'll start breathing from the other nostril."

An ideal warm-up to pranayamas, which Dr Manaan Gandhi says can be practised all day, is anulom vilom or nadi-shuddi kriya technique: deep breathing from alternate nostrils in the ratio 1:2:2 (inhalation, holding of the breath, exhalation), and later, graduate to 1:4:2.

Dr Devnani suggests oral myofunctional therapy (OMT) exercises that target muscles used to chew and swallow. "Weak oropharyngeal muscles disrupt the air flow, which in turn causes snoring."