Breathing and the body
Why do we breathe?
Most people will say that we inhale to bring in oxygen and exhale to remove carbon dioxide. It’s commonly believed that only oxygen is required for our health and that carbon dioxide is just a waste gas.
The truth is that carbon dioxide is just as important for our health as oxygen is. We don’t exhale to get rid of carbon dioxide; we exhale to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in our bodies. There is an optimal level of carbon dioxide that our body tries to achieve. Too much or too little can be a problem.
One of the many things that carbon dioxide does is help oxygen get release into the cells. Without enough carbon dioxide we actually become oxygen deficient as well. So, the harder we breathe the less oxygen we get. When we take a breath of air, oxygen enters our lungs, where it gets attached to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells. This oxygen rich blood is then pumped by the heart to the rest of the body.
How does the oxygen gets out of the blood and into the tissues? If oxygen is so attracted to the red blood cells in the first place, why would it ever let go?
The answer is carbon dioxide. The blood can not just drop the oxygen off; it has to exchange the oxygen for carbon dioxide. When there is not enough carbon dioxide for the oxygen to exchange, the oxygen is forced to stay in the blood. It never releases into the tissues. So we end up with healthy red blood full of oxygen that never gets released into the tissues, which is useless.
Carbon dioxide deficiency causes oxygen deficiency.
Carbon dioxide also affects immune system: Every day we are exposed to viruses and bacteria. With the advent of jet travel an infection from one side of the globe can be on the other side within 24 hours. Our first line of defense is our white blood cells. When a white blood cell finds an infection in the body its job is to attack the infection and then to make antibodies to let other white cells know about the infection so they can get involved too. Carbon dioxide not only helps white blood cells move faster and attack better, it also helps them make more antibodies. In other words, carbon dioxide makes our immune system stronger, faster and better able to recognize infections.
Carbon dioxide helps keep all the proteins in the body in balance: Almost every protein in the body has an amin group attached to it. This amin group is very sticky and supposed to be attached to carbon dioxide and so they are protected. In the absence of carbon dioxide these sticky proteins attach to the sugar in our blood stream. When sugar attached to protein it is toxic. Not only are these proteins no longer functional – they are now waste products and must be removed from the body.
There are thousand of different proteins in the body, each with their own special job to do. Here is some information about five groups of proteins: the structural proteins, hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes, and antibodies.
Structural proteins: These are the proteins that we use to grow and repair ourselves, skin for example - without enough carbon dioxide to keep the structural proteins available the skin will not be able to repair itself properly. Instead of making healthy new skin when the old skin wears out, the skin will get filled with toxin protein-sugar complexes. We can see this happen as we get older: “age spots”, also known as “liver spots”, are examples of these toxic accumulations. They do not just show up in the skin, they accumulate all over the body, in places like the heart, the brain and other internal organs. When we can see them on the skin - they are on the inside of our body as well.
Hormones: These are chemical messengers that help the body communicate with itself, Insulin for example - Insulin is made in the pancreas and tells the cells of the body to open up and let in glucose in so they can make energy. If the insulin gets a molecule of sugar stuck to it, instead of carbon dioxide, the insulin can not work properly. Without insulin the cells can not get the fuel they need, so the pancreas makes more insulin, and the liver releases more sugar into the blood stream. This additional insulin only gets more stuck with the additional sugar just released. All the while the cells are starving and losing energy. If this goes on long enough there is a clinical name for it - Diabetes.
There are thousand of hormones in the body that helps keep things organized. Diabetes is what happens when just one hormone does not work properly.
Some people try to fight the aging process by taking additional hormones. But this does not solve the problem since without the carbon dioxide to protect the additional hormones they just get stuck to sugar, losing their effectiveness and making more toxins.
Neurotransmitters: These are the chemicals that the brain uses to think and to feel. Dopamine gives us drive and ambition, Serotonin gives us happiness and peace of mind, Melatonin helps us sleep and keeps our brain healthy, these are just a few examples. When these neurotransmitters attached to sugar instead of to carbon dioxide they not only keep us from being as smart and as happy as we can be, they also end up forming deposits in the brain itself. Having adequate levels of carbon dioxide allows us to better use our neurotransmitters and keeps our brains healthier, longer.
Enzymes: There are thousands of different enzymes in our body with more being discovered every day. One group of enzymes are the digestive enzymes – without enough carbon dioxide to protect these digestive enzymes the ability to digest food weakens, so we only absorb a fraction of the nutrition we actually eat. We want more and more food, but absorb less and less of it. Without proper digestion we can have neither the energy nor the row materials to function properly. By protecting our enzymes with carbon dioxide our digestion is well maintained.
Antibodies: These are special proteins that our immune system uses to identify infections. When white blood cells find an infection they immediately destroy it. The immune system knows that while it might have killed this one bug here, there are probably more of the same of this bug elsewhere in the body, so it makes special proteins called antibodies, to let the other white blood cells know what to look for. Now rather than having to wait to bump into an infection at random the white blood cells have a head-start, they are on alert. If we have enough carbon dioxide to keep our antibodies protected then our immune system can often destroy an infection without us even knowing it is there. If on the other hand, our antibodies get stuck to sugar instead of to carbon dioxide, the antibodies will not be able to do their job as well, and infection that might have taken hours to clear up now can take days or weeks.
Carbon dioxide is also involved with the removal of used proteins: When a protein reaches the end of its useful life it turns into ammonia. When there is enough carbon dioxide available it combines with the ammonia to form urea which is harmlessly removed from the body. But when the carbon dioxide is in short supply the ammonia can build up. Some of the symptoms of ammonia toxicity include tremors, fatigue and aversion to high protein foods. High ammonia levels can damage brain cells. We make ammonia every day. It is only carbon dioxide that stands between us and this chemical’s damaging affect.
Carbon dioxide is a natural tranquilizer: When there is enough carbon dioxide all of the muscles of the body relax. On the other hand, when there is not enough carbon dioxide in the body – muscles contract. There are two separate muscles systems in the body:
The voluntary muscles systems: These are the ones that we have control over like those found in our arms and our legs. When they get overly contracted – it is obvious, they hurt.
The involuntary muscles systems: These are in our internal organs; we have no direct control over them. When they get overly contract - all kind of symptoms can occur that we never associate with muscle cramps. Here are some examples:
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When the muscles in the arteries of our brain cramp: blood flow to the brain diminishes, this can results in symptoms ranging from headaches and poor memory, to fatigue, poor eyesight, poor hearing, depression and even stroke.
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When the muscles in the throat cramp: we can have difficulty with speech, swallowing food, snoring and sleep apnea.
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When the muscles in the bronchioles cramp: we can get asthma and breathing problems.
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The heart is an involuntary muscle too. When the heart muscle cramps it causes angina, and if the cramp is bad enough it can cause a heart attack.
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The length of the digestive tract is lined with involuntary muscle tissue. If the stomach cramps we can get stomach reflex.
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If the colon cramps we can get constipation and spastic colon.
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Involuntary muscles also line the bladder. A cramp here can cause incontinence.
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When the involuntary muscles of the uterus cramp we can get menstrual cramps.
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If the muscles that controls reproductive organs cramp - we get impotence.
Many of the conditions that we medicate ourselves for are really nothing more complicated than muscle cramps.
In addition to relaxing our muscles, carbon dioxide also helps us relax our mind as well. Our minds are constantly active, wondering, thinking and remembering. Even when we are asleep our brains are active in our dreams. It is almost impossible for us not to think for more than a second of two. It is our capacity for thought that makes us human, but too much thinking can drive us crazy, just like when we try to sleep but fail to stop thinking about one thing or another. This is one example of what happens when the brain can not turn of. The problem starts when we run low on carbon dioxide. It is carbon dioxide that lets the cells of our brain turn off when they are not needed. When carbon dioxide begins to run low – these brain cells can not turn themselves off, so they stay on whether we want them to or not. This causes two problems: First, brain cells are not design for non-stop use; they need to rest and recuperate. When they stay on too long from luck of carbon dioxide, they wear out quicker. This causes our brain to age faster than it normally would. Secondly, hyperactive brain activity can cause physical and psychological problems, such as difficulties in concentrating, chronic fear and anxiety, muscles twitches and insomnia.
The secret to a more peaceful and relax mind is not hidden away in some distant mountain sanctuary; it is in the very air we breathe.
Carbon dioxide is also one of the body’s most powerful antioxidants.
It is the main way that our body maintains its important acid/alkaline balance, along with the kidneys.
It helps stimulate fat loss and muscle gain.
it decreases allergies and reduces inflammation.
Why do we develop wrong breathing pattern?
Due to stress: Every time we get stressed we breathe more. If our lives were mostly calm and peaceful, a few stresses could come and go without causing much harm. But in today’s world, hardly a day goes by without several stressful moments: Traffic jams, bills, arguments at work and at home, the six o’clock news. These continual stresses keep our breathing too intensified, and over time our brains reset themselves to this pattern of breathing, so even without the stress our breathing stays so.
How do we correct our breathing?
The secret to correcting our breathing is in elevating the carbon dioxide in our body. We can actually reset our body’s natural breathing pattern. Where a stress causes us to intensify our breathing, carbon dioxide calms us down. It actually resets the body towards its natural breathing.
In addition to the long term benefits of raising carbon dioxide level, we also get certain immediate pleasant affects such as more relaxed muscles and a calmer mind.
Adapted from: www.aetherin.com