Breathing technique - disorders, reassurance, technique

Our breathing is an extremely complex process involving muscles and nerves, various bones and other internal organs than the lungs. Numerous health problems can lead to a disturbed or even complete failure of the breathing.

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Breathing is the hallmark of life
How does breathing work??
Causes of disorders and problems of the breathing technique
Pulmonary tissue diseases as the main cause
Respiratory and thoracic disorders
Respiratory disorders due to muscle and bone diseases
Disorders of the breathing technique due to malfunction of the nerves
Special case: postural damage
Tips for a good breathing technique

It is important to value a proper breathing technique and to review it from time to time. What this is all about and what measures have to be taken to maintain healthy breathing, we will tell you in this article.

Breathing is the impulse of our life. (Image: RFBSIP / fotolia.com)

Breathing is the hallmark of life

Breathing has two basic functions in the body. On the one hand, it serves to absorb oxygen, which, by inhaling (inspiring) the air, first reaches the lungs and is introduced here via the alveoli into the bloodstream. Oxygen is important to maintain the functionality of the body's organs because all body cells rely on a continuous supply of oxygen.

The second task of breathing is to transport carbon dioxide as a decomposition product of used oxygen out of the body. This carbon dioxide removal occurs through exhalation (expiration) and is no less important than the intake of fresh oxygen. Because if too much carbon dioxide accumulates in the body, it can have disastrous consequences. In addition to material imbalances in the blood, in particular the heart and brain functionality is endangered, which is why a disturbed respiration in the long run can bring life-threatening consequences.

Our breathing is controlled and regulated by the respiratory center of the brain. It is a special group of neurons, formerly known as the life node, located in the extended spinal cord (medulla oblongata). Various brain sensors measure the carbon dioxide and oxygen content, but also the pH value in the blood and exchange the information among each other. If certain standard values - which are otherwise very strictly defined - are exceeded or undercut, the respiratory center intervenes in a regulative manner and, for example, makes the lungs' breathing deeper or increases their frequency.

Like the pulse, the blood pressure and the body temperature, breathing is one of the fundamental vital signs and is therefore called the characteristic of life. An untreated person will therefore die within a few minutes if untreated, as all vital organs are no longer supplied with sufficient oxygen, and therefore sooner or later they will cease functioning. And even a temporary respiratory arrest, which was corrected in time, can already lead to permanent organ damage. This applies in particular to the brain, whose performance over a certain period of time can be lifelong reduced without oxygen.

Breathing is supposed to move oxygen in and out of the body. (Image: Rido / fotolia.com)

How does breathing work??

As already mentioned above, breathing is controlled by the brain's own respiratory center. The respiratory mechanics of the lung itself is then a highly complex physical process, which is based primarily on different pressure conditions inside and outside the body as well as muscular contraction processes. The respiratory center first sends corresponding impulses to the nervous system, which then transmits the signals to the musculature. The breathing process is then as follows:

Inhaling

Diaphragm - The nerve signals of the respiratory center initially cause contractions of the diaphragm. This consists of a muscle tendon plate and is dome-shaped between the chest and abdomen spanned. The respiratory contractions lead in the course of inspiration to the fact that the diaphragm lowers down. This creates a suction effect, which sucks the air into the lungs.
Intercostal Musculature (Intercostal Muscles) - To initiate inspiration, a reciprocal contraction between the diaphragm and the outer portions of the intercostal muscles is necessary. The contractions of the intercostal muscles cause an elevation of the ribs and thus an extension of the thorax. Since the lung tissue is glued to the chest wall through the pleura, the thoracic wall enlarges the lung volume and creates a negative pressure in the lungs. The oxygen-rich air outside the body now follows this pressure gradient and flows into the lungs via the nose and / or the mouth.
Respiratory muscles - The number of accessory muscles that support the process of inspiration described above is very extensive. They essentially serve to intensify or complete the muscle contractions and are provided by the following muscle segments:

Small Pectoral Muscle (Muscular Pectorialis Minor) - This muscle section at chest level aligns the shoulders when inhaled.
Head Turner (Sternocleidomastoid Muscle) - Usually the head turner is responsible for the lateral tilt of the head. In contrast, they serve as light stretch muscles for the head area as part of inspiration.
Rib lifter (Musculi levatores) - Unlike the name suggests, the rib lifters are not responsible for lifting the ribs proper. Rather, they pull down the vertebral bodies of the spine and thus cause a spinal column erection, which leads to an elevation of the ribs.
Saw muscles (Musculi serrati) - A particularly important group of muscles, one of which is located in the area of the lumbar vertebra, another in the lateral rib area and a third in the area of the neck. The main task of the serrate muscles is to help with the expansion of the ribcage. The corresponding sawing muscles are named as follows:
- Anterior sawing muscle (serratus anterior muscle)
- Upper superior sawing muscle (serratus posterior superior muscle)
- Lower back sawing muscle (serratus posterior inferior muscle)
- Stair Muscles (Musculi scaleni) - These skeletal muscles coordinate the neck and trunk movements during inspiration
Spinal erector (erector spinae muscle) - A muscle group that coordinates spinal movement during inhalation.

The exhale

diaphragm (Diaphragm) - Exhaling relaxes the previously contracted muscle groups. The diaphragm thus rises again in this process, resulting in a reduction in the lung volume. This creates an overpressure in the lungs, which is why exhausted and carbon dioxide-rich breathing air now flows back outward via the trachea in the sense of pressure equalization.
Intercostal muscles (Musculi intercostales) - The midriff muscles are again helpful when exhaling the diaphragm. Also, they relax in the course of expiration, so it can come to a reduction of the lung volume by reducing the chest volume.
Respiratory and abdominal muscles - Both the abdominal and the respiratory muscles are involved in a physiological exhalation only to a very limited extent. The respiratory aid muscle intervenes in this respect only when the respiratory process due to health problems has significant deficits. In such a case, it supports the raising and lowering of the chest wall by its own contractions. The same applies to the abdominal muscles, which intervene supportive only in deficient exhalation analogous to the respiratory aid muscles.

A healthy adult performs as much as 12 to 18 breaths per minute in a trouble-free respiratory process, but this process is usually relatively unconscious. Only when there are disorders, we notice how dependent we are on undisturbed breathing and how quickly we get to deal with the fear, if this fails.

Numerous health problems can lead to the breathing process deviating from a healthy technique. This can result in a life-threatening condition for those affected within a few minutes, the usual way through

difficulty in breathing,
a headache,
Circulation problems,
performance degradation,
Tiredness or
dizziness

makes noticeable. Respiratory problems are especially treacherous if they develop creepingly, because those affected do not always notice the disturbed respiration here. The oxygen content of the blood is inconspicuous in such cases, but decreases continuously and can then trigger very sudden and unexpected complaints.

Reason for the fact that people often do not recognize slight to steadily growing respiratory problems is on the one hand the fact that the body first tries to compensate for a slight lack of oxygen by changing the breathing technique. A critical value is thus avoided for the time being, but suggests later all the more intense. On the other hand, breathing is such an essential process that it is hardly perceived consciously and therefore inconsistencies often do not find the necessary attention.

Causes of disorders and problems of the breathing technique

We now know that the interference of different muscle, nerve and bone structures is necessary for trouble-free breathing. After the neural structures of the respiratory center in the brain have sent appropriate signal stimuli to the respiratory muscles and the respiratory aid muscles, they initiate special muscle contractions, through which the bony structures of the thoracic wall (spine, ribs and sternum) expand or diminish. In this way, it then comes to the expansion or reduction of the lungs, which allows the inhalation and exhalation in consequence.

Based on this complex mechanism, it can also be surmised that the causes of a disturbed breathing technique can be relatively versatile. For a simplified overview, it is easiest to subdivide the cause fields into the structures involved, ie:

Diseases of the lung tissue,
Diseases of the ribcage,
Respiratory Musculoskeletal Disorders,
Diseases of the respiratory center.

Pulmonary tissue diseases as the main cause

The lung tissue itself can already provide a variety of causes for a disturbed respiration or incorrect breathing technique. This usually happens whenever the respiratory function of the lungs is limited by existing health problems. For example, the lung tissue may become inflamed due to invading pathogens or allergens, causing the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract to swell and produce excessive inflammatory secretions.

As a result, the lung tissue is no longer able to carry out the necessary gas exchange to the usual extent. The result is often insufficient deep breaths and thus a shallow breathing. A respiratory respiration, for example due to inflammation-related pain, is possible and flatten the breathing then additionally. Possible clinical pictures that are associated with this complication and sometimes most frequently lead to a respiratory disorder do not exclusively concern the lungs themselves, but can also migrate from other areas of the respiratory tract into the lung tissue, as the following overview shows:

Asthma (bronchial asthma),
Runny nose (rhinitis),
Hay fever (rhinitis allergica),
Pharyngitis (pharyngitis),
Tonsillitis (tonsilitis),
Laryngitis (laryngitis),
Summer flu (influenza),
Pneumonia,
Inflammation of the bronchi (bronchitis).

Most of these inflammatory diseases can be completely resolved with timely counter-treatment, so that an incorrect or disturbed respiration is only temporary. However, lung tissue may also vary in structure and histological structure to the extent that sustained loss of function may be associated and incorrect breathing techniques become a permanent problem.

The causes of such remodeling processes include environmental toxins and toxic aerosols, which are inhaled over a longer period of time and thus massively attack the tissue structures of the lungs. Examples of such pollutants are nicotine, tar, asbestos or chemical solvents. Likewise, autoimmune and genetic processes can cause corresponding remodeling in lung tissue. The result is cells that:

are degenerate as for example in lung cancer,
are no longer elastic enough, such as in fibrosis, asbestosis,
hinder gas exchange, as in pulmonary emphysema,
produce excessive mucus such as in cystic fibrosis,
Forming tissue nodules such as in sarcoidosis,
or cause a narrowing of the airways, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Important: Especially when it comes to the influence of pollutants that cause the corresponding difficulty in breathing, often only nicotine consumption is mentioned as conceivable cause. However, there are also certain levels of risk, such as in the field of road construction. Working with tar, as well as the permanent stay in the exhaust-rich road traffic, here increase the risk of chronic changes in the lung tissue enormously. The same applies to industrial occupations working with toxic fumes. It is therefore important that people in relevant occupational areas always wear a breathing mask to protect themselves from severe respiratory diseases and thus a persistently disturbed respiration.

Respiratory and thoracic disorders

Also, the pleura, ie the tissue structure, which sticks the lung tissue to the thorax wall and thus in the first place allows expansion or contraction of the lung, can change due to illness and thus lead to a disturbance of the respiration. Very often this happens, for example, as a result of accidents that occur in the chest. In such a case, serious accidental injuries often cause blood or air to enter the pleural space, thus reducing or even eliminating the adhesive property of the pleura. As a result, the lung tissue collapses and can not fully expand.

A similar event can also occur in the context of tumors, very severe inflammation and heart disease, where it is often tissue fluid or wound water that accumulates in the pleural space. The three typical clinical pictures that arise in such air or fluid collections are:

Haematothorax (in the case of blood accumulation in the pleural space),
Pneumothorax (with accumulation of air in the pleural space),
Pleural effusion (in case of water accumulation in the pleural space).

Respiratory disorders due to muscle and bone diseases

Anyone who has ever had severe back pain, it has been found that this can also be connected to complicate breathing. Both muscle tension of the back muscles, as well as the intercostal and abdominal muscles can prevent undisturbed extent undisturbed breathing. But even the bony parts of the chest wall are susceptible to interference and thus susceptible to complications that adversely affect the breathing technique. Possible complaints are:

intercostal,
Lumbar syndrome (better known as "lumbago"),
neck tension,
shoulder pain,
Herniated discs,
Bone or rib fractures,
Degenerative processes in the rib, neck or thoracic spine area.

Special attention should be paid here to rib fractures and fractured collarbones. Alone, they make breathing more difficult due to their pain and the associated limited ability to lift and lower the thorax. In addition, an additional risk for rib and collarbone fractures is due to the immediate proximity of these bony structures to the pleura and lungs. If bone fragments are displaced as a result of falls or accidents, there is always the risk of pneumothorax or hematothorax, as the resulting bony peaks of the fragments may penetrate the pleura or lung tissue.

Disorders of the breathing technique due to malfunction of the nerves

Nervous disorders in the region of the respiratory organs (for example in the respiratory center of the brain) occur in particular in the context of tumor diseases or accidents involving craniocerebral trauma. As a consequence of cerebral hemorrhage or cerebral edema (cerebral edema), there is often an excessive pressure on the respiratory center, which subsequently reacts with dysfunctions or even functional failures.

Not infrequently, accident victims are therefore intubated and artificially ventilated until the brain is swollen again. Paralysis of the respiratory center may also occur as a result of degenerative or autoimmune processes in the brain and peripheral nerves, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or myasthenia gravis.

A certain special position in the area of the nervally caused causes for a disturbed breathing technique takes the Zwerchfaelläung. Affected here is the phrenic nerve (phrenic nerve), which initiates the respiratory contractions of the diaphragmatic muscles and at the level of the cervical spine originates from the spinal cord. In the context of degenerative processes and herniated discs of the cervical spine, but also by tumor diseases, it is conceivable that the phrenic nerve is unfavorably pinched or squeezed, whereby he is limited in its function.

Often there is only one-sided damage or paralysis of the phrenic nerve, which is why only one side of the diaphragm is affected by the loss of function and can no longer adequately contract. A unilateral phrenic palsy leads in this regard to a unilateral diaphragmatic high and often makes itself felt only in minor respiratory disorders. A bilateral phrenic palsy, on the other hand, as it can occur among other things in a paraplegia, is associated with a significant disturbance of the breathing technique.

Incidentally, even stress influences can significantly affect the nerves involved in breathing. People who are permanently exposed to hectic everyday life, therefore, also tend to a wrong breathing technique.

Special case: postural damage

A cause that increasingly causes respiratory problems and affects both the muscles, as well as the nerves and bone structures in the respiratory system, is a wrong posture. Of course, there are rare hereditary diseases and accidental injuries that cause without the intervention of those affected bad posture in the chest and thus make breathing difficult. However, postural breathing problems are much more common

overweight,
lack of exercise
or a wrong seating position

owed. Modern day-to-day life adds to these risk factors, with sitting in a crooked posture (such as computer work) producing more and more cases in which patients are taking postural respiratory respiration. A dangerous trend that can be defused only by a more conscious lifestyle and self-control of one's own posture.

Tips for a good breathing technique

There are many measures that help to transform your own breathing into healthy routine. First and foremost, paying more attention to one's own breathing and influencing factors, which may affect them. Finally, our tips for improving the personal breathing technique:

Breathe through the nose: A stressful everyday life, but also overweight and wrong posture often provoke a mouth breathing. This is not only unhealthier, because it brings unfiltered air into the respiratory tract and thus the infestation of infectious agents is favored. Also, breaths that are made through the mouth, experience has shown that it is less deep, so that in the long run only insufficient oxygen enters the lungs. It is therefore important to breathe primarily through the nose. The fine nasal hair filters in advance dirt, pollutants and germs from the air. In addition, the air is heated and humidified, which is important especially in cold temperatures and dry heating air in winter, to prevent airway inflammation.

Take a healthy postureEspecially for people who are sitting or otherwise engaged in postures, it is important to regularly review their own habits. In order to prevent a respiratory respiration, it is most sensible to incorporate smaller movement units into everyday life in between, and thus to carry out a dangerous work routine (e.g., permanent back bend) preventively. In addition, courses such as yoga are a great help in improving your breathing and posture.

Improve breathing technique through sport: In every sport without exception, it also depends on proper breathing. This is learned relatively early by a competent coach or coach, which is why professional guidance for newcomers at the beginning is definitely recommended. In the long term, a good coaching and the adaptation of the indicated breathing technique can have a positive effect on breathing in everyday life. A special tip is in this regard, by the way, trampoline jumping. The jump or hopping movement not only boosts the metabolism but also stimulates the diaphragm, muscles and lungs, which can improve their functionality. Other sports that are especially useful for breathing include strength training, cycling, Nordic walking, aquagym and swimming.

Set harmful everyday habitsIt does not matter if it is about stress that is harmful to your breathing or habits like smoking: if you are looking for a proper breathing technique then you should definitely get rid of such habits. Instead, daily breathing rituals such as aromatherapy or sauna sessions make sense. Anyone who can not escape harmful influences for the lungs due to their work is recommended to have effective respiratory protection and, in the long term, possibly also a change of occupation, if breathing already suffers from the working conditions.

Consider herbal therapy: There are countless herbs that can help with breathing difficulties. They can be used, for example, for aromatherapy, steam baths, sauna infusions or teas, and usually even without an existing respiratory disease. It is exceptionally mentioned a herb that so far still enjoys a dubious reputation. We're talking about cannabis. In some parts of Germany, in some cases still being labeled an illegal drug, medicine in other countries already uses the curative effects of the essential oils contained in the cannabinoid of the marijuana plant as standard. In particular, respiratory diseases such as asthma and mucous respiratory tract react extremely positively to cannabis. And even in lung cancer, cannabis has shown exceptional healing potential in several studies. However, smoking cannabis is more damaging to the lungs.

Those who prefer to try it with legally less controversial medicinal plants, for the following herbs are recommended:

Elecampane,
Curcuma,
eucalyptus,
coltsfoot,
chamomile,
mullein,
lungwort,
balm,
oregano,
peppermint,
sage,
Plantain,
licorice,
thyme.

Pay attention to conscious nutrition: Even the right nutrition plays an important role in healthy breathing. This starts with the actual eating process itself. For those who eat hectically, they also breathe wrong, which can then contribute to an unhealthy respiratory routine. Taking time to eat, chewing carefully, and portioning your meals, on the other hand, also supports a desirable breathing technique. In addition, a healthy diet also prevents risk factors such as overweight and nerve disorders. Important nutrients that support the respiratory function in particular are:

Vitamin A,
vitamin B,
vitamin C,
magnesium,
selenium,
zinc,
Omega-3 fatty acids,
antioxidants.

Particularly healthy foods for the lungs and respiratory system include apples, berries, chili, fish, grapefruit, ginger, garlic, cabbage, horseradish, melons, carrots, oranges and onions.

Check breathing rhythm: That one can not pay attention to a proper breathing around the clock, is completely clear. However, it may help to observe the rhythm of breathing at least once a day and, if necessary, to "adjust". A good recommendation is to breathe deeply in and out for about five minutes every day. It should be after each a little break. The mechanism not only helps maintain a healthy breathing technique but can also help with stress relief and relaxation. (Ma)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)

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