Breathing for Brain Health

How we can harness the brain's ability to shape itself and why conscious breathing is more than just breathing.

When I was diagnosed with MS, my biggest worry was cognitive decline. Seeing my mother's cognitive skills and memory wither away with Alzheimer is a constant reminder of the importance of keeping my brain as healthy as possible. Brain fitness is key for such a wide range of daily activities, such as remembering names, faces or items on a shopping list, planning daily tasks, and finding your way around.

In fact, my biggest motivation to exercise is to keep my brain healthy. And guess what? Breathing also influences our brain!

The mind-brain-body connection & neuroplasticity

The brain is the chemist... Whatever the mind’s image is, the brain is going to translate that image into chemistry.  Bruce Lipton, PhD

In his lectures, Dr Lipton often gives a great example. If you are sitting with your eyes closed and you open your eyes and see someone you love, your mind holds a picture of love. This mental picture is translated by the brain into very specific chemistry. The brain releases dopamine for pleasure, oxytocin for connection, vasopressin to help us become more attractive etc.  If however, instead of seeing someone we love, we see something that scares us, the brain releases chemicals associated with fear, which are stress hormones and inflammatory agents.

So, the brain takes the information from the mind, interprets it and this will influence the body. But the brain can also shape itself!

The adult brain … retains much of the plasticity of the developing brain, including the power to repair damaged regions, to grow new neurons, to rezone regions that performed one task and have assume a new task, to change the circuitry that weaves neurons into the networks that allow us to remember, feel, suffer, think, imagine and dream.

I highlighted the above passage when reading The Plastic Mind by Sharon Begley, printed it and stuck it in the corner of my computer screen so I would always remember it. Such a wonderful empowering reminder!

We know that maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle is crucial. 30 minutes or more of physical activity three to five times a week proves to be the most beneficial.

BUT. There is always a 'but', and this one is key! Research shows that attention is indispensable for neuroplasticity because what we focus on will be reflected in how neurons are fired in the brain and which part will thicken.

In other words, jumping around thinking of what to you'll watch on TV next will not have the same impact in terms of neuroplasticity as exercising or moving mindfully.

This is crucial because the same difference is true of 'breathing' as opposed to 'conscious breathing'. Breathwork is powerful because we pay attention to our breath. Without this attention, we miss a lot of the benefits.

Conscious Breathing & the Brain

This is a fascinating and complex area. As Dr Ela Manga explained in a wonderful webinar on Neurobreathing, it is complex because there isn't just one neural pathway that is involved in conscious breathing, but various multiple pathways.

So what do we know? (please skip this section if you find it too ‘technical’)

• We know that there are specific parts of the brain that are involved in breathing, such as the pre-Bötzinger complex, a cluster of neurons in the brainstem that influences the rhythm of our breath. The cells in this cluster are sensitive to changes in pH and CO2. When they feel that CO2 has gone up a little, that pH has changed, this cluster of cells coordinate and send a signal to the phrenic nerve to get the diaphragm to contract. We draw an inhalation.

• We know that the pre-Bötzinger complex is also connected to the Locus Coeruleus, which means 'Blue Spot'. The ‘Blue Spot’ is just above the pre-Bötzinger complex and connects with a whole range of other brain areas using norepinephrine as neurotransmitter. The 'Blue Spot' is involved in the sleep-wake cycle, attention and memory, creativity, decision making and cognitive control as well as posture and balance!

• We know that if we combine slow breathing with focused attention (ie slow conscious breathing), we can powerfully stimulate the activities of the ‘Blue Spot’.

• We know that there is an olfactory pathway, and that nasal inhalation is associated with improved cognition while exhalation prepares us for action.

• We know that interceptors in our body constantly gather information about everything (from muscle tone to pH levels, what's going on in guts, the state of our microbiome etc..) and send this information via the Vagus Nerve to the brain insula (which is involved in consciousness, emotional regulation and homeostatis). This allows the brain to regulate our heart rate, immune response, blood pressure, mucus and saliva production, digestion, mood and respiratory rate amongst others.

Research Findings

Fortunately, there is an increasing number of research project about conscious breathing and a lot of promising news both for general wellbeing and specifically for cognition.

One study shows that levels of GABA (which is important for its anti-anxiety effects) increased after a trial of controlled breathing. Another study shows that coherent breathing is associated with lower levels of cytokines (which are linked to inflammation and stress). In general research points to the benefits of conscious breathing for insomnia, anxiety, depressive symptoms, stress, immune system response, vitality, post-traumatic stress disorder. All these have an indirect impact on our cognition.

But research also shows a more direct impact on cognition. I'd like to mention one study in particular. It included 108 participants, half between ages 18 to 30 and half between 55 to 80. For 4 weeks, twice a day, half were asked to think of calming scenes for 20 minutes while the other half were asked to practise Coherent Breathing technique. The research shows that those doing the breathing exercise had a higher Heart Rate Variability and a drop in the levels of amyloid-beta peptides and tau protein circulating in the bloodstreams (which as thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease). The researchers think that the way we breathe affects our heart rate, which directly affects the nervous system and the way the brain produces and clears proteins.

We have such a powerful tool: our Breath!

Of course, there is still a lot to find out. The more we understand about the brain and the breath, the more skilfully we can use the breathing techniques to keep our brain healthy. But even if we don't understand it all yet, Breathwork makes sense and there are no negative side effects.

See you on the mat

Much love

Véronique