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Wisdom Wednesdays: The crazy benefits of nasal breathing during exercise · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today,
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  Speaker 1: I want to dive into a topic that might sound
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  Speaker 1: a little niche, but could actually have profound effects on
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  Speaker 1: your brain, your exercise performance, and even your lifespan.
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  Speaker 2: Today we're going to talk about.
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  Speaker 1: The many benefits of nasal breathing, especially during lower intensity exercise,
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  Speaker 1: and how it links to a fascinating concept called transient hypercapnia.
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  Speaker 1: By the end of this episode, you'll have a strong
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  Speaker 1: case for why naso breathing should become ideally practice, not
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  Speaker 1: just something reserved for meditation. So let's dig into the
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  Speaker 1: recent science. The first study that I want to talk
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  Speaker 1: about came out of Baylor University and was published in
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  Speaker 1: a journal called Cerebral Circulation, Cognition, and Behavior, and the
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  Speaker 1: author in this study led out a comprehensive framework for
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  Speaker 1: how naso breathing during moderate aerobic exercise, particularly in what
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  Speaker 1: we call zone two that's sixty to seventy percent of
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  Speaker 1: your max heart rate, how this can create a state
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  Speaker 1: called transient hypercapnia, which means a temporary increase in the
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  Speaker 1: levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.
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  Speaker 2: So why should this matter?
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  Speaker 1: Turns out that when we breathe through our nose, particularly
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  Speaker 1: during lower intensity exercise, we actually avoid hyperventilation, which is
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  Speaker 1: a big deal. So hyperventilation, as you probably know, is
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  Speaker 1: that shallow, fast breathing that blows off too much CO
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  Speaker 1: two naso breathing slows you down, helps you retain more
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  Speaker 1: CO two combon dioxide, and that slight elevation in CO
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  Speaker 1: two is enough and this is the key to trigger
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  Speaker 1: cerebral vasodilation, which is a fancy term meaning that your
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  Speaker 1: brain's blood vessels widen, and when that happens, you get
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  Speaker 1: an increase in cerebral blood flow. Now why is this
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  Speaker 1: important Because.
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  Speaker 2: Your brain is a very greedy.
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  Speaker 1: Organ It consumes about twenty to thirty percent of your
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  Speaker 1: glucose but also about twenty percent of your oxygen, and
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  Speaker 1: increasing blood flow to it during exercise stimulates neuroplasticity, the
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  Speaker 1: brain's ability to adapt and to grow. You also get
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  Speaker 1: a boost in metabolic activity in key areas like the hippocampus,
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  Speaker 1: which is vital from memory and cognition. And we know
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  Speaker 1: that in older adults, cerebral blood flu tends to drop off,
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  Speaker 1: which can cause neurodegenerators at least impact neurodegenerative diseases. So
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  Speaker 1: anything that's increasing cerebral blood flow is a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: And this study showed that past about seventy percent of
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  Speaker 1: year max aerobic effort. And that's when we get into
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  Speaker 1: ZOE three, cerebral blood flow actually declines, largely due to
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  Speaker 1: compensatory mechanisms that prevent pressure brain pressure from getting too high.
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  Speaker 1: But that sweet spot sixty five to seventy percent of
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  Speaker 1: your max effort, right in the middle of the zone two,
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  Speaker 1: you get the best of both words. You get sustained
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  Speaker 1: brain blood flow and cognitive benefits. And here's where naso
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  Speaker 1: breathing comes in. It actually amplifies the effect without the
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  Speaker 1: need for fancy altitude chambers or gas masks. And in fact,
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  Speaker 1: the authors argue that naoso breathing can mimic the beneficial
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  Speaker 1: effects of hypoxia low oxygen without the need to train
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  Speaker 1: in low oxygen environments and transient that's short term hypoxia
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  Speaker 1: or low oxygen actually has been shown to have lots
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  Speaker 1: of health benefits and a lot of people are saying
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  Speaker 1: it's a longevity practice, but it has to be transient.
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  Speaker 1: That's key. Transient hypoxia is possible because naso breathing induces
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  Speaker 1: hypoventilation that's slowing down in the breathing and leads to
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  Speaker 1: a buildup of carbon dioxide, which is known as hyper capnia,
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  Speaker 1: which acts on the body much the same way that
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  Speaker 1: hypoxia does. So there's this interaction between hypoxia and hypercapnia. No,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to add a second piece to the puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: The second study, published this year and the International Journal
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  Speaker 1: of Molecular Sciences, explores the relationship between hypoxia, hypercapnia tolerance,
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  Speaker 1: and life expectancy. And anybody who knows anybody who does
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  Speaker 1: any free diving, they're all about hypercapnia tolerance, increasing their
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  Speaker 1: tolerance for CO two. And there's lots of extreme exercise
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  Speaker 1: that's around this hypercapnia tolerance. And there's very good reason
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  Speaker 1: because researchers have found that the ability to tolerate these states,
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  Speaker 1: both the mild oxygen deprivation of hypoxia and the hypercapina
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  Speaker 1: the elevated CO two, is strongly linked to increase longevity
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  Speaker 1: in both humans and animals, and they point to species
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  Speaker 1: like the naked mole rat and the bowhead wheel, both
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  Speaker 1: of which live in low oxygen or CO two rich
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  Speaker 1: environments and have exceptional life spans compared to other similar species.
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  Speaker 2: And what these species have in.
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  Speaker 1: Common is a heightened resistance to oxidative stress, right, a
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  Speaker 1: term you probably have heard of that contributes to aging.
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  Speaker 1: And they also get enhanced mitochondrial efficiency. You've heard me
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  Speaker 1: bang on about the mitochondria, and this is really key.
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  Speaker 1: This is where we get a little bit geeky. There's
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  Speaker 1: upregulation of HEIF one alpha, and the HEIF one alpha
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  Speaker 1: pathway is really critical in longevity. This is a protein
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  Speaker 1: that stimulates both vascular and neuronal as in new nerve
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  Speaker 1: cells growth, much like you see in the naso breathing
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  Speaker 1: induced hypercapnia and even more impressingly, mice that are subjected
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  Speaker 1: to intermittent hypercapnic hypoxic training. So short repeated sessions of
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  Speaker 1: low oxygen and high CO two show the sixteen percent
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  Speaker 1: increase in average lifespan. Now that is not a small number.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about potentially adding years of qualitary life quality
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  Speaker 1: life sorry, through respiratory conditioning. So let's try and connect
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  Speaker 1: these dots. When you engage in modern intensity aerobic exercise
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  Speaker 1: that zone two and you breathe only through your nose,
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  Speaker 1: you prevent hyperventilation, you increase the carbon dioxide the CEO
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  Speaker 1: two in your bloodstream, and this sets off a chain
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  Speaker 1: reaction vasodilation, increased cerebral blood flow, nitric oxide production, and
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  Speaker 1: the stimulation of hypoxia inducible factors that if one, all
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  Speaker 1: of which have cognitive, vascular, and longevity benefits. So you're
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  Speaker 1: essentially doing a mini hypercapniic hypoxia training session every time
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  Speaker 1: you go for a brisk walk or a slow run
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  Speaker 1: or an easy jog using only naisle breathing. And you
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  Speaker 1: can do that with any type of exercise. So the
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  Speaker 1: key here is finding out what your zone too is. Right,
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  Speaker 1: that's that sixty to seventy percent of your VO two
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  Speaker 1: max or sixty seven percent of your maximum heart rate.
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  Speaker 2: If you have a heart rate manager, you can work
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  Speaker 2: that out.
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  Speaker 1: There are aids prediction formulas, but they can be a
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  Speaker 1: bit hit or miss. Basically, this is an intensity and
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  Speaker 1: you can try this whether it's on a rower or stomaster,
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  Speaker 1: a treadmill.
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  Speaker 2: An exercise bag.
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  Speaker 1: Get to an intensity where you can just about to
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  Speaker 1: carry on a conversation. You can talk, but you cannot sing. Right,
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  Speaker 1: that is definitely zone too and just note whatever that
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  Speaker 1: speed is, and that is where you should be exercising
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  Speaker 1: and ideally tape your mouth. Tape your mouth shut so
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  Speaker 1: you can just breathe through your nose. And I've been
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  Speaker 1: traaling with this. Sounds a bit weird, but it is
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  Speaker 1: a proven strategy to build a habit. Now you probably find,
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  Speaker 1: particularly if you're outside doing slow running or whatever, that
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  Speaker 1: breathing through your nose. You'll be a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: snotty mess the first few times you do it, but
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  Speaker 1: you will adapt, right.
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  Speaker 2: So the second point here, So the first one is training.
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  Speaker 1: Your tolerance, so doing that that moderate intensity exercise and
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  Speaker 1: then monitoring your breath. If you've got a heart rate
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  Speaker 1: monitor and you know what that zone is, try and
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  Speaker 1: aim to say in that zone too.
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  Speaker 2: But you'll notice if you go too.
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  Speaker 1: High because you really struggle with a breathing and you
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  Speaker 1: just got to slow it down a little bit. And
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  Speaker 1: then it's just about consistency. This will take you a
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  Speaker 1: number of sections to actually get used to it, and
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  Speaker 1: the consistency really is key.
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  Speaker 2: Here, it really is.
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  Speaker 1: And then it's about building your hyper company of tolerance,
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  Speaker 1: just like those free divers do. Taco breathing is another
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  Speaker 1: type of breathing that builds up your hypercapanic tolerance, and
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  Speaker 1: there's lots of benefits from potaco breathing and you can
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  Speaker 1: even do short breath holes at the end of each
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  Speaker 1: ex heel when you're walking. Just don't push it too far.
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  Speaker 1: This isn't about going purple and seeing if you can
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  Speaker 1: beat your meats. It's about gently increasing your CO two
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  Speaker 1: tolerance over time. And look, if you're already a regular exerciser,
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  Speaker 1: this is an easy tweak to your low intensity sessions
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  Speaker 1: that can supercharge the brand benefits of your workout. And
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  Speaker 1: if you're not yet in the habit, this could actually
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  Speaker 1: be a really good entry point where you're actually doing
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  Speaker 1: that lower intensity exercises as well tolerated. But just tape
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  Speaker 1: your mouth up and you get a shit heap more
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  Speaker 1: of extra benefits.
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  Speaker 2: So that is it for this week, folks.
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  Speaker 1: A little one that's a little bit left side, but
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  Speaker 1: I've actually been trialing with it, and big shout out
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  Speaker 1: to Barney. Actually he was on my podcast a couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks ago around the breathing who actually reminded me
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  Speaker 1: about this and that's when I went and dug into
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  Speaker 1: the research. So thanks for the nudge, Barney. That is
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  Speaker 1: it for this week folks, catch you next time.