DYSFUNCTIONAL BREATHING PATTERNS AND HEALTH
Have you ever stopped to consider that you might be breathing incorrectly? It may seem surprising, but while breathing is usually an automatic function controlled by the autonomic nervous system, it can also be consciously regulated.
This raises the question: are you breathing in a way that best supports your health?
The Importance of Proper Breathing and Its Benefits
Breathing is essential for life, supplying the oxygen necessary for metabolism and removing carbon dioxide, the by-product of these reactions.
Additionally, breathing plays a significant role in regulating the body's pH levels, influencing the autonomic nervous system, circulatory system, and metabolism.
Proper, deep breathing can slow the heartbeat, stabilise blood pressure, and reduce stress—an essential aspect of overall well-being.
What is dysfunctional breathing and what are the causes?
Dysfunctional breathing (DB) is defined as chronic or abnormal changes in the breathing pattern that cannot be attributed to a specific medical diagnosis, causing respiratory and non-respiratory complaints. It is not a disease process, but rather alterations in breathing patterns such as over breathing which range from incorrect upper chest breathing to at the extreme end of the scale, hyperventilation (HVS) that interfere with normal respiratory processes.
Dysfunctional breathing can co-exist with diseases such as COPD or heart disease, and play a part in premenstrual syndrome, chronic fatigue, neck, back and pelvic pain, fibromyalgia, anxiety, depression, dizziness and heart palpitations. The scalene and sternocleidomastoid muscles in the picture on the right often become over activated during periods of stress under comprised breathing patterns which leads to muscle tension and tightness as a response. Several studies have demonstrated that in healthy individuals, common situations such as emotional stress cause predominantly thoracic breathing (chest breathing upwards and outwards) creating muscle tension, and increased respiratory muscle effort.
What can contribute to dysfunctional breathing?
Psychological aspects (Anxiety, depression, stress)
Biomechanical aspects (breathing through your chest)
Respiratory compromises (COPD, Asthma, Cystic fibrosis)
For those dealing with musculoskeletal pain, particularly in the neck, back, and pelvic regions, it might be worth exploring how these dysfunctional patterns contribute to their discomfort.
An Abingdon chiropractor might suggest that correcting these breathing patterns could help alleviate some of the muscle tension and associated pain.
The Role of Breathing in Physical Health
What happens when we breathe in and out?
When we breathe in, the diaphragm—a major respiratory muscle—contracts and flattens, pushing down on the abdomen and lifting the lower ribs.
This action decreases intrathoracic pressure, allowing the lungs to expand and fill with air. As you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes, and the lungs deflate, expelling air.
However, when breathing becomes strained, as in dysfunctional patterns, the expiratory muscles (like the abdominals) become more active, forcing the diaphragm to rise and leading to increased tension in the ribcage and upper chest.
Breath Therapy and Chiropractic Care in Abingdon
Breath therapy, which integrates body awareness, breathing, meditation, and movement, has been shown to normalise stress responses and improve autonomic nervous system function.
This form of therapy can be particularly beneficial for those suffering from stress, anxiety, insomnia, and chronic pain conditions, including low back pain—a common issue treated by chiropractors in Abingdon.
Breath therapy can be a complementary treatment to chiropractic care. Studies have shown that patients with chronic low back pain benefit from breath therapy, as it strengthens respiratory muscles and improves oxygenation and blood flow to the back muscles.
Chiropractic treatment in Abingdon, focusing on spinal health, can further support this by addressing musculoskeletal misalignments that may contribute to poor breathing patterns.
The link between chronic low back pain and altered breathing patterns
Breath therapy is one of the therapies proven to play an important role in helping those with chronic low back pain. How? Respiratory muscles of those with low back pain are more prone to fatigue, and the decrease of respiratory muscle function will lead to the decrease of oxygenation and blood volume of back muscle. Some studies have shown that the strength of respiratory muscles was increased, and the degree of low back pain was reduced. Studies have shown that those suffering from chronic low back pain improved significantly with breath therapy over six to eight weeks (12 sessions total).
Autonomic nervous system
The Parasympathetic and Sympathetic nervous system are the two arms of the autonomic nervous system that exert opposing control over the heart and overall function of our organs. Parasympathetic activity is said to be the dominant arm of the autonomic nervous system, providing a healthy healing environment and control over the heart rate under resting conditions. Studies have reported a shift towards parasympathetic balance and an increase in vagal activity in healthy humans who breathed at 8 breaths per minute, as opposed to 12 and 16 breaths per minute. It has been suggested that to achieve a long-term shift towards parasympathetic dominance, prolonged practice of slow breathing is necessary, as was observed in healthy humans who practiced slow breathing regularly for 3 months. Slow breathing improves cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic responsiveness to physical function, due to increased parasympathetic tone, and synchronisation of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems at 6 breaths per minute. Therefore, it is not to be mistaken that slow breathing practice should minimise sympathetic activity, and enhancing autonomic adaptability to physical and mental life stress.
Daily diaphragmatic breathing for health
Diaphragmatic breathing (also called "abdominal breathing" or "belly breathing") encourages full oxygen exchange that is, the trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide.
Start by lying on your back on the floor with your knees bent, or sitting up tall. Place a hand on your belly (over the belly button), and another hand on your chest. Focus on making a big belly, contracting the diaphragm when you breathe in slowly through your nose with a minimum movement of the chest, before exhaling through your mouth after a brief pause.
Breathing in a controlled manner, at a lower respiratory rate of 6 breaths per minute, is believed to be optimal to reduce sympathetic activity (stress response), optimise and facilitate gas exchange in the lungs, and mitigate the symptoms of dysfunctional breathing and promote healing.
Now practice 10 minutes each day!
Key points
•Slow breathing practices have gained popularity in the western world due to their health benefits, yet remain relatively untouched by the medical profession.
•Investigations into the physiological effects of slow breathing have uncovered significant effects on the brain, respiratory, cardiovascular, cardiorespiratory, and gastrointestinal systems of the autonomic nervous system function.
•There appears to be potential for use of controlled slow breathing techniques as a means of optimising physiological parameters that appear to be associated with health and longevity due to increased HRV.
Perhaps it is time to call upon slow, deep diagrammatic breathing during times of intense physical or mental stress or activity to reset the autonomic nervous system and help you regain control. What are your thoughts on this blog? Did you enjoy this article? Drop a comment below or email karl@focuschiropractic.co.uk
References
(1) Mehling et al. (2005). Randomized, controlled trial of breath therapy for patients with chronic low-back pain.
(2) He et al. (2020). Breath therapy for patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain.
(3) Russo et al. (2017). The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human.
(4) Vidotto et al. (2019). Dysfunctional breathing: what do we know?
(5) H, Hamasaki. (2020). Effects of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Health: A Narrative Review.