Healing Breathing - free & highly efficient health elixir.

"So you are distracted, learn to pay attention to the breath."

Gautama Buddha

The breath is the clock for a number of essential processes in the body. Breathing in and out causes expansion and rebound of the body walls. One could speak of a breathing wave that triggers tension, pressure and relaxation throughout the body tissues, down to the cellular level. The diaphragm, as the main breathing muscle, is connected to the pericardium and the lumbar spine. As a result, each breath has a supportive effect on the heart's blood flow and at the same time gives impulses to the spine. This influences posture, promotes blood circulation, lymphatic return and the activity of the digestive organs.
In addition, a large part of the acids produced in the body is exhaled when we breathe out. As you can see, the importance of breathing goes far beyond the topic of gas exchange.

Through correct breathing, i.e. the perfect balance of breathing rhythm, breathing movement and breathing volume, you influence bad posture, pain, psychological disharmonies, digestive problems, states of exhaustion etc.
Deep meditation is a very difficult state to achieve for many people. To consciously perceive and control breathing, on the other hand, is easy, and the beneficial and even healing effects are quite similar to those of meditation.

Healing effect of breath in Alzheimer's accidentally discovered

Dr. Sundar Balasubramanian, a cell biologist working in the USA, noticed an increase in saliva production while performing certain breathing exercises. This turned out to be a general phenomenon of pranayama, the part of the yogic tradition that deals with breathing exercises.
Saliva is commonly seen as a digestive juice, but it is now known that numerous proteins, hormones and messenger substances enter the bloodstream via saliva.
In 2015, Dr. Balasubramanian then conducted a study aimed at qualitatively and quantitatively measuring saliva composition during and after breathing exercises. The subjective perception that the body generally produced more saliva during the exercises was experimentally proven. Much more interesting, however, is the fact that significantly increased amounts of NGF (neuro growth factor) can be measured in the additional saliva thus produced. NGF is a protein building block that is essential for nerve growth and the formation of nerve connections, but also promotes the longevity and stress resistance of nerve cells. Alzheimer's patients typically have a deficiency of NGF, and so medical research is trying to introduce it into the body artificially, for example by injecting it directly into the brain.
A wonderful example of how often simple, obvious and even free techniques that have been proven to achieve the desired effect are ignored, and instead elaborate and expensive procedures are sought and applied.

Dr. Balasubramanian was also able to show with his Pranayama experiment that significantly increased amounts of the following substances were measurable in the saliva as a result of the breathing exercises:

- proteins, which are important for tumor control, and
- antibodies essential for immune defense

You can view Dr. Balasubramanian's breathing study here: https://is.gd/RBn1Kv

Two recommended pranayama breathing exercises:
1) "Victorious Breathing" (Ujjayi)
To do this, you narrow the glottis, which leads to an audible fricative sound. The breathing process is slowed down. The artificial resistance exercises all the respiratory organs. The inhalation becomes invigorating, the exhalation relaxing. As a variation, you can also produce a buzzing sound when exhaling. The resulting vibrations also have a relaxing effect.

2) "The reciprocal breathing" (Nadi Sodhana).
In this breathing technique, you use only one nostril at a time and hold the other closed with your thumb or ring finger: exhale on the right, inhale on the right, then close both nostrils and hold your breath a little, exhale on the left, inhale on the left, and so on. Alternate breathing is one of the central breathing exercises in yoga. Through it, you improve cellular respiration and cleanse energy and nerve pathways. During such an exercise, Dr. Balasubramanian had observed the increased production of salivary secretions for the first time.

Dr. Sundaravadivel Balasubramanian demonstrates some breathing exercises in the video below. If you are interested to see this video with German dubbed translation, please write us an appropriate comment).

Wim Hof, the "ice man," also attributes his incredible performance to a particular breathing technique. We look at Wim Hof's healing philosophy in this article in detail. His breathing technique is also demonstrated there by means of video.