Just One Thing - Take A Breath Facts By Dr Michael Mosley

one two 3 4 One Two 3 4 we'd all like some quick and simple ways to improve our health but we're bombarded with often conflicting advice so if you were going to do just one thing to improve your mental and physical well-being what should it be maybe a few squats to enhance your brain or more bacteria to improve your mood or even a cold sh to boost your immune system I'm Dr Michael Mosley and this is just one thing where each episode we'll explore one thing you can start doing tomorrow to improve your health or life in ways you might not [Music] expect so here I am the sun is shining and I'm practicing breathing on the sofa 1 2 3 4 1 1 2 3 4 from your first breath as a squealing infant to your last breath some 80 years later we breathe in and out normally without thinking as an adult we inhale and exhale roughly 14 times a minute expelling carbon dioxide and breathing in to supply oxygen to the brain and body but the later sign suggest that breathing is about more than simply gas exchange by taking conscious control of your breathing you can change the way you think and feel we know that by changing how quickly and deeply you breathe you can change your heart rate lower your blood pressure reduce stress levels and combat anxiety I personally find that slowing down the rate at which I breathe is a great help when I'm struggling to get back to sleep not only that but there is evidence that changing how you breathe can reduce pain and even improve your decision making so take a few deep breaths and see if this is just one thing you'd like to fit into your day hello my name is Mark Ellis I live in Barry I'm a community investment officer and I'm looking to see if the breathing exercises can help reduce my heart rate whilst retaining a sense of calm and control cuz sometimes in work I deal with stressful situations I'm looking forward to it and I hope um it does help me we're asking Mark to try a 46 breathing technique breathing in and counting to four and breathing out to the count of six he'll try doing it for a few minutes every day for a [Music] week so what is the link between breathing and our emotional state well when you're frightened you start to breathe more rapidly which makes you feel more panicky and means you breathe even faster it's a vicious circle if you have ever seen anyone having a panic attack then you will probably have noticed they're almost hyperventilating and one way to help them calm down is to get them to slow their breathing right down so why should slowing your breathing reduce feelings of panic and anxiety I will be exploring the mechanisms with an expert in a moment for now it is enough to know there are plenty of studies which show that controlling your breathing can be a really effective way to control anxiety it's no coincidence that breathing exercises form the basis of many ancient practices from meditation to yogic breathing as well as stress controlling your breathing can also reduce the impact of chronic pain which millions of people suffer from chronic pain is Amplified by stress and both have a similar effect on your body they increase your heart rate and blood pressure making your breathing faster and shallower if you live in a state of chronic pain your nervous system stays on high alert which means you'll be more sensitive to pain signals and be much more aware of them one way to help break this is to practice deep breathing exercises performing deep breathing exercises can also apparently improve your decision making in a study done with a group of students that are French business school the students who were asked to spend a couple of minutes practicing deep breathing before taking on a challenging task not only experienced less stress but made better decisions than a control group who were simply asked to spend a couple of minutes getting ready for the task if you haven't tried it you might be surprised how quickly you start to feel the impact of deep breathing you don't have to go away and practice meditation for a few weeks you can feel the benefits right here right now while I'm talking why not try doing what I've asked Mark to do breathe in to a count of four then out to a count of six do it several times can you start to feel the difference well despite the fact you can get this immediate positive impact it is hard to get into the habit of actually doing it particularly when you're feeling stressed so how is Mark getting on so this is day one of my um breathing exercises first of all I struggle to do take the intake as the exercise continued I did feel it slightly easier actually and I did feel my breathing start to get into the routine of it I did find it easier with my feet width apart and my hands just by my side and kind of closing my eyes as I was breathing in and breathing out and in my posture as well I did find that I was a bit slouched to start off with an ni did kind of subconsciously hold my shoulders back and straighter as the exercise went on so Mark seems to be getting the hang of it but what exactly is going on neuroscientist Ian Robertson is professor emeritus at Trinity College Dublin one of the leading experts looking into the science of stress and well-being Ian how do breathing exercises work what's the mechanism um our breath is affects almost every organ in our body cause of its effects on the part of the brain called the locus culus which is um deep in the middle of the brain and it's the only source of one of our chemical Messengers in the brain called noradrenaline and noradrenaline is the brain's equivalent of adrenaline for the body so it's a general preparation for Action arousal neurotransmitter and so the way we breathe affects the carbon dioxide levels in our blood and the locus culus responds it's firing responds very very precisely to how much carbon dioxide is in the blood at any particular moment and so how we breathe affects this critical part of the fight oflight network but also the so-called rest and digest system as well and these affect almost every single organ in our body including the brain now I find that when I slow down my breathing deliberately that my heart rate also drops is that operating via the same system yes so that's the parasympathetic uh autonomic nervous system so when you slow your breathing particularly when you well I'll do it now I'll I'll I'll breathe into the count of four I'll join you and out to the count of six I I'll do once more I'll breathe into four and out to six it is very calming isn't it even in that short period of time it's calming it's the most precise pharmaceutical you could ever give yourself it's side effect free it's incredibly potent I feel myself slowing down I'm not speaking as fast I've given my brain a little reset because via the the vagus nerve which I can affect with my breathing as well as through the carbon dioxide levels in my blood I've reduced the firing of the locus culus and reduced the levels of noradrenaline in my brain and that's very very important for clarity of thought for uh controlling our emotions and many other uh faculties now you were demonstrating the um 46 technique yeah I've also heard um described a sort of 424 technique which presumably is quite similar where you breathe into count of four hold it for two and then breathe out for four um which technique do you personally um use when I remember Michael I used the 46 and here's the funny thing about it these are incredibly po potent ways of giving ourselves a perfectly safe and wonderful little mini tranquilizer um kind of reset for our brain and yet a lot of the time we just don't do it and we forget to do it so I have to consciously remember to you know do it now but when we're pressured or when we're feeling we're having to perform or when we're very busy uh unless we've made that a very well practiced habit we tend not to remember to do it and of course when we're very busy or stressed many people not everyone tends to hold their breath yeah yes or or or Brea in the way you're describing so the the critical thing of my own uh use of of the breathing is is to try and remember whenever I pause or change activity when I go from email to the report I try and remember just to take that slow breath in for four and out for six and you don't have to do it for minutes on in absolutely you can do it in a meeting and nobody need know you are doing it this is literally like you know your phone is stuck or your you know on a program you press a reset button this is a mini reset button for your for your brain uh because the noradrenaline system is critical really to the ex how how well focused we are in a task or how distractable we are or how much we feel in control of what's happening to us at the time it really is a critical neurotransmitter system I mean one things that strikes me is that um there are ancient Indian practices and yogic practices which we' have talked about the breath for at least a thousand years and yet it seems that modern science is only just beginning to catch up with it it is remarkable um how little research is has been done on this uh specifically on the breath I have to pay tribute to my former PhD student Mike melnichuk who came to me wanting to do a PhD on on on meditation because he is a very strong and you know meditator and it was I who directed them I said well that's too General let's let's look at breath let's look at breathing and he he was the one who did this research showing this rather beautiful co- oscillation of of the breath with attention and with the locus culus arousal system and what's your sort of go-to breath breathing exercise I just tend to really enjoy the the basic one of of just focusing your attention attension on your breath and we don't want people to become too conscious about how fast they're breathing because that can become a source of anxiety in itself oh I'm breathing too fast so the main thing is just to focus your attention on your breathing because the attention system and the breathing system do go together thank you that's brilliant I've been doing the breathing exercise while you were talking and I do feel remarkably calm thank you very much thank you very [Music] much so let's check in for a final time with Mark I've definitely slept a little bit better and I felt a bit calmer and my posture again just trying to concentrate my posture when I'm breathing as well so what I would like to do is kind of do it for a bit longer um and see if I can derive any kind of long-term benefits and see if it helped me over a longer term I do think it is remarkable that taking conscious control of your breathing can have such profound effects particularly on reducing stress and improving sleep so why not give it a go even doing it for just a minute a day really can make a [Music] difference so that's it it's just one thing you can incorporate into your daily routine which really could benefit your body and life if you want to 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