It seems that one of the symptoms of the Virus-Du-Jour, is that the oxygen levels in the body drop to a rate that is considered unhealthy.
Sometimes, the patient’s demeanour does not reflect the danger that their body may be in – in other words, they appear and feel ok but their oxygen levels are dangerously low and/or fluctuating. Hypoxia is the lack of oxygen in the blood/certain parts of the body – the cells are starved of oxygen (bit of a simplistic definition) – which can lead to bodily disfunction – organ damage / organ failure failure – death.
Then, perhaps it comes on all of a sudden and the patient has difficulty breathing, and when this happens, it can cause ‘hard breathing’. Gasping for breath.
In our yoga practice, we include Pranayama (yogic breathing practices) as part of each practice, to empower you to regulate your nervous system. How? – by understanding and becoming well rehearsed in the role your diaphragm plays in breathing.
Using diaphragmatic breath, can elicit the parasympathetic / rest and digest nervous system, as opposed to shallow breathing (and ‘hard breathing’), which tends to elicit the sympathetic / fight or flight response. (There are times when we may want to do either of these things, so we practice both throughout the year – if you’re sleepy, you need to pep up, if you’re overwhelmed you need to ground down, right? In Yoga we learn to ask ourselves “what do I need right now?”, and then we give ourselves the appropriate practice).
I wanted to share this video I found on Youtube, where (coincidentally an Irish guy!!) Patrick McKeown, explains really simply – watch it twice or more if you need – how The Bohr Effect works, and how this may be helpful if you or your loved ones are affected by this or any illness that may result in hypoxia.
I am not saying that this will cure hypoxia, but you can ask your doctor if it will harm you. Learning to breathe diaphragmatically can help improve your health in many ways, because when your body is not stressed, it has time to function properly, heal and thrive. So if its not going to harm you, I highly recommend learning sound breathing practices, and watching this video to understand something that MIGHT save your life some day.
If you are a mouth breather, pay special attention to your everyday breathing, and if you can, be mindful of trying to breathe through your nose, as breathing through the mouth tends to to increase breathing more than normal or hyperventilating (bigger airway within which the breath can pass, compared to the filtering nostrils), which disturbs the body’s ph balance. This is not advantageous!
There is so much to say on this topic, that it pains me to not expand, and I feel almost irresponsible as I’m leaving out lots of info that is important and helps make sense of these pointers when explained in tandem, but I don’t want to do an info overload, and really just want you to WATCH THE VIDEO!
I am offering this to you:
Healthy people, because why wait until you are sick to learn skills that may help you recover? (but may also prevent illness!)
And also to those experiencing illness, because it’s never too late.
My hope is that by understanding the Bohr effect, it will lead you to find breathing practices to help you trigger the Bohr Effect, and at the very least, remind you not to breathe in a way that prevents the Bohr Effect from taking place!! I can help you with this, please feel free to ask. I don’t feel aligned with trying to teach something as powerful and also nuanced as this in a blog post, but if you can’t attend practice in person, maybe I can share some basic videos soon? If anyone reads this and would like that, just let me know in the comments.
I would like to thank my teacher Simon Borg-Olivier, who introduced me and schooled me in this principle, along with his amazing Yoga teachings.
HERE IS THE BOHR EFFECT VIDEO …. CHECK IT OUT!
I have another video that I would like to share in this post, as a bit of background to the subject and to the ‘virus’ in general.
IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR LOVED ONES TESTED POSITIVE AND ENDED UP IN HOSPITAL, YOU WOULD BE WELL ARMED CONSIDERING THIS INFORMATION, IF YOU WANT TO COME OUT ALIVE.
If you would take the time to listen to this Dr. Zach Bush interview with Del Bigtree from back in May 2020, you can begin to understand how and why the Bohr Effect is important and why giving oxygen to Covid patients may be the beginning of the end.
I believe this is what ended my father.