This is the third part of the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey Zinatulin on the subject of breathing and breath-training. In the first part of the interview, Dr Zinatulin explained the ways our breathing can affect our health in general, while in the second part, he described a series of simple tests we can use in order to assess how well we are breathing. In this installment he discusses matters related to breath training as treatment to diseases, the ways that our diet can affect our breathing and offers his opinion on some breath-training methods used in psychotherapy and sports.
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| Dr Sergey Zinatulin teaching the use of the Frolov Respiratory Training Device to members of the Russian army special forces |
When we talk about cancer treatment, we are usually referring to special methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, etc. However, we should remember that the success of cancer treatment depends not only on the treatment done, but also on the overall state of the patient’s health. Further rehabilitation of the patient is very important, since surgery does not equal recovery. While a lot is said about the importance of a proper diet on the overall health, almost nothing is mentioned on the role of breathing exercises in treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients.
Breathing exercises are a valuable tool for the successful rehabilitation of oncological patients, as part of a health-improving physical training program. Experience from oncological patients treatment shows that they need rehabilitation even after successful surgery. These people are in a state of stress, their physiological reserves are reduced, and their immunity is weakened. Properly chosen breathing exercises, combined with the oncologists’ recommendations, help restore the nervous and immune systems to their normal state and provide for effective prevention of recurrence.
My personal experience in working with cancer patients is not extensive, but my observations are the same as those of the specialists in the field. For example, Johnny Suskevitch, consultant of the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, has taught breathing exercises to most of his patients since 1999 and about half of them suffer from cancer. Japanese professor Muraki Hirosama who studied different breathing methods says: “…few people know that great results can be achieved just by breathing properly. The most impressive effect of correct stomach-breathing is an increased ability of the body to heal itself. Many diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, liver and stomach conditions are treated better if the patient combines treatment with breathing exercises. Moreover, medications intake decreases greatly”. Finally, my colleague doctor S. N. Paschenko reports good results on using the Buteyko method in women with breast cancer: special treatment led to increased three-year survival rate, better quality of life, including reduced fear of unfavorable outcomes of the treatment, increased work capacity, easier social adaptation and relief of edema in upper extremities.
How about the relationship of nutrition with breathing? For example, we know there are foods that can trigger allergic reactions and also some other, dairy products for example, that increase the production of mucus. What would an ‘optimum breathing diet’ be like? What should we avoid?
This topic seems to be of great interest to many people, because quality of nutrition is considered to be the main factor for health and longevity. But it is almost impossible to give specific universal nutrition guidelines, due to the fact that breathing exercises are performed by different people, with different needs, living under different conditions and circumstances, from children to seniors, from sedentary patients to professional athletes.
Various foods have different pH indexes and thus can indirectly influence the activity of the breathing center, the pH balance in blood and tissues, lung ventilation and breathing processes in tissues. K.P. Buteyko has pointed out some factors that can cause overbreathing, and those are: overeating of high-protein foods (fish, eggs, pork, fatty cheese, black caviar, or lots of vegetable protein) and consuming strong tea, coffee, cacao, chocolate and alcohol in large quantities. Also according to Buteyko, vegetarianism and intermittent fasting make your breathing lighter.
My experience shows that when people perform respiratory training consistently, they need less food. On the whole, there is only one basic one recommendation on nutrition I can give to people who practice respiratory training: keep your diet diverse and consume everything in moderate quantities - avoid overeating and avoid eating the same foods all the time. Deep-fried and smoked foods, sweets and sugar, white flour products, alcohol and coffee should be kept to a minimum. It is also important to switch to a vegetarian diet from time to time and occasionally do short periods of fasting with fruit juices or just water. Finally, keep a log of what you eat to determine which foods are best for you.
In cases of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, is seems quite obvious that breath training can offer great benefits. But, what if the patient is at a very young age? I know that the main focus of your practice is treatment and health improvement in children, so in your expert opinion, how easily can we teach breathing exercises to a five year old, for example? Do you have any specific suggestions for such cases?
Indeed, respiratory exercises are mandatory in cases of lung diseases (asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, after pneumonia or lung surgery) and just as important in cases of children suffering from lung diseases. It is fairly easy to teach breath-training to school children, because they understand those exercises better, but I have also worked with pre-school children of age 3 to 5. In such cases, I have found that the most effective approach is to introduce the simplest exercise – slow diaphragmatic breathing through the nose – in the form of play. It is most important for a child to breathe with the diaphragm. You can also teach a child to exhale slowly by having her make bubbles with a straw in a glass of water. It is more complicated to teach a child how to use a respiratory training device, such as the Frolov device, but these basic exercises we mentioned can be quite effective. It is also important to teach a child to breathe only through the nose during the whole day.
Let’s talk a little about the connection between breathing and our psychological state: we know that psychological stress can alter our breathing patterns. How does this happen? Can it work the other way around, and by this I mean, can we alter our breathing patterns to minimize the effects of psychological stress on our body?
Breathing, brain function and the nervous system are closely connected. Psychiatrists, psychotherapists and physiologists know that all emotions (happiness and sorrow, anxiety and depression, fear and calmness, strain and relaxation) have a direct and immediate influence on the breathing function. To simplify things, think of it this way: when we are crying or laughing, the rhythm of our breathing is offset, we are ‘missing a beat’. It is mainly stress that throws the system that regulates breathing off balance and in turn deregulates the function of organs (heart, intestine, etc.) and systems (endocrine, immune). In this sense, it is of great importance that we perform respiratory training regularly, so that we can prevent possible ‘breakdowns’. After periods of great stress, I suggest daily breath-training sessions combined with relaxation for 7-10 days in order for one to recover mentally and physically.
There are some methods of self-exploration and therapy (for example, Stanislav Grof’s Holotropic Breathing), advocating the use of hyperventilation in order to achieve non-ordinary states of consciousness for the purpose of self-exploration. Such methods claim to be successful in treating psychological problems, but what do you think about possible side-effects in the physical health? Are there cases where consciously practicing hyperventilation can actually be good for us?
It’s true that the experience from using Grof’s method shows how deeply and strongly one can influence the mind through breathing. I personally view this and other similar techniques as ways of affecting consciousness by way of breathing, but not as breath-training, and that is why such methods should only be performed under the supervision of a specialist, as opposed to respiratory training, which we can practice without supervision. A Holotropic Breathing session can take up to 2 or 3 hours depending on the level of participants. A much less extreme alternative that I suggest, in order to effectively relieve stress or anxiety, is to lie on your back, inhale slowly for about 10 seconds, exhale in a relaxed manner for 10-15 seconds, and repeat for 5-10 minutes.
How about practicing breath holding? I believe there is a specific practice in a Russian martial art system where practitioners hold their breath while performing physical exercise (for example, push-ups) in order to gradually induce a feeling similar to that of panic and then recover by breathing fast and sharply. Is it possible to build ‘mental toughness’ through breathing practices such as this one? How about the effects such practices might have on our health?
Yuri Bulanov, doctor of sports medicine, who has been working a lot with strength training and bodybuilding, has developed his own patented system of breathing training, which is based on breath holding. He calls it hypoxic breathing training, since when you are holding your breath, the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood is increased and the oxygen saturation is decreased. Bulanov thinks that breath holding in a calm state has a strong effect on the body, but he adds that it should be practiced with great caution.
Breath holding is an extreme type of training that places significant stress on the body. It can be used as a method of physical training for different sports, but it is extensively used in free diving. If you are interested in that, you can find detailed descriptions of specific methods in the book «Breatheology» by Stig Avall Severinsen, a four time World Champion freediver. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that the experience of both sports medicine and martial arts tells us that it’s more important to be aware of your breathing and learn how to control it during physical activity, rather than to be able to hold it for long periods of time.
This third part concludes the Dynamo blog interview with Dr Sergey ZinatulinFor more information on Dr Zinatulin's work and the Frolov Respiratory Training Device, please visit:
www.intellectbreathing.com
www.vitaltkoncept.se
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