Waiting to Exhale": Breathing and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) By Cort Johnson
More than half of our patients with FMS
or CFS develop a disordered pattern of breathing. They take
very small rapid breaths using the small muscles of their chest instead of slow,
deep breathing with the large muscles of the abdomen. Shallow chest breathing
makes people feel tense” Dr Richard Podell
Breathing - How we breathe effects our energy production, our mental alertness,
our ability to cleanse the body of toxins, our digestion, our mood and feelings of
relaxation and/or tension in our body. Some studies suggest some chronic fatigue
syndrome (ME/CFS) patients have shallow, rapid
breathing patterns and/or are ‘breath holders’. This could result from an autonomic
dysfunction and is certainly exacerbated by stressful situations.
My personal experience is my body overreacts to even small negative
stimuli, causing me to hold my breath - possibly to unconsciously gird myself
for whatever ‘blow’ is next to follow. Some researchers believe that
entering into these shortened breathing patterns
results in further sympathetic nervous system arousal (‘fight or flight’) thus
setting the stage - in some people ( some CFS patients?) - for perhaps permanent
system overactivation.
Suboptimal breathing patterns don’t cause CFS and taking on better
breathing patterns won’t make you well but it but they can help your body to
relax and heal, cleanse toxins and possibly improve your immune functioning. If
you feel as if you belong to the ‘wired and tired’ subset of ME/CFS patients
they may be particularly effective for you.
The idea that changing your breathing pattern can have beneficial effects
on your health, emotions and mental outlook is not new. In fact it’s the basis
of meditative techniques used around the world for thousands of years. In a
Prohealth article, Shakta Kaur, a Kundalini yoga teacher in Chicago
who leads “breathwalk” classes, said “Conscious breathing breaks up the habit
patterns coded in the body and emotions. You end up transforming yourself,
actually changing your body chemistry.”
Altering How You Breathe May Be
Beneficial in ME/CFS Because
No one knows why people with CFS might enter into unhealthy breathing patterns.
One possibility is that nervous system impulses to the diagphragm are not
functioning properly. Another focuses on autonomic problems that result in
increased CO2 levels in the body. Others revolve around problems in the stress
response.
While breathing exercises do not cure ME/CFS they can help to readjust
autonomic nervous system functioning, leading to better health and a
higher-quality of life. The autonomic nervous system, which controls our heart
rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, etc. and which regulates immune
functioning, is one of the systems of the body that can be retrained to some
extent; i.e. it’s possible to turn stressful breathing patterns that have
negative effects into healthier, relaxing breathing patterns.
- Dr. Natelson recommends a variety of breathing
retraining techniques including biofeedback and Kundalini yoga exercises.
"The PTs (physical therapists) pointed out to us that virtually all
of our patients breathe from the chest.” Dr. Charles Lapp Dr. Cheney has long advocated the use
of breathing exercises. Dr. Podell
makes proper breathing a key aspect of his treatment protocol.
Dr. Vallings reports that re-instituting proper breathing patterns can have
excellent results in ME/CFS.
- Breathing properly can help turn down the ‘fight or
flight’ response and turn on the ‘relaxation’ or ‘rest and digest’ response.
- The meditative affects of deep breathing are well known
to reduce stress and thus may combat the sense of ‘nervous tension’ or ‘arousal’
that some ME/CFS
patients report is present.
- Watching the breath is the easiest way to tell (a) when one begins to enter
into problematic breathing patterns and (b)the triggers that cause one's body to
do that.
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The Importance of Breathing Properly by Karen Richards