Erkrankungen, Diagnosen, Therapien » Atemübungen

Unter dem Begriff Paranayama werden im Yoga verschiedene Atemübungen zusammengefasst. Prana bezeichnet im Hinduismus eine Art Lebensenergie, welche man durch diese Übungen zu erweitern trachtet.

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Effects of yogic breath regulation: A narrative review of scientific evidence
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Pranayama or yogic breathing practices were found to influence the neurocognitive abilities, autonomic and pulmonary functions as well as the biochemical and metabolic activities in the body. The studies in the clinical populations, show the effects of yogic breathing in modulating cardiovascular variables in patients with hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias, relieving the symptoms and enhancing the pulmonary functions in bronchial asthma, as an ancillary aid to modify the body weight and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, to enhance mood for patients withdrawing from cigarette smoking, to reduce the reaction time in specially abled children, to manage anxiety and stress in students, to modulate the pain perception, improve the QoL and sympathetic activity in patients with diabetes, reduce the cancer related symptoms and enhancing the antioxidant status of patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer. Thus the cost effective and safe practices of yogic breathing could aid in prevention and management of various non-communicable diseases. They may also play a role in management of communicable diseases such as pulmonary tuberculosis.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6470305/

Auch abseits von Yoga forscht man nach den Auswirkungen von Atemtechniken.

Langsames Atmen:

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How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing
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Slow breathing techniques act enhancing autonomic, cerebral and psychological flexibility in a scenario of mutual interactions: we found evidence of links between parasympathetic activity (increased HRV and LF power), CNS activities (increased EEG alpha power and decreased EEG theta power) related to emotional control and psychological well-being in healthy subjects.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137615/

Tiefes Atmen und Stress:

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The role of deep breathing on stress.

The objective of this study was to verify, in a sample of university students, whether a relaxing technique called deep breathing (stress Intervention Functional IFA) is capable to improve the mood and to reduce the levels of stress.
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The results obtained from the present research support the possibility that deep breathing technique is capable to induce an effective improvement in mood and stress both in terms of self-reported evaluations (MPS and POMS) and of objective parameters, such as heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. No statistically significant difference was found between men and women.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27995346

Kurze Atemübungen mit tiefem Atmen:

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Acute effects of deep breathing for a short duration (2-10 minutes) on pulmonary functions in healthy young volunteers.
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The volunteers performed deep breathing (DB) exercise for 2, 5 and 10 minutes at the rate of 6 breaths per minute under guidance, and the duration of DB exercise for that day was randomly selected for each group. PFT was done before and after the DB exercise. There was a significant (P < 0.05) increase in vital capacity (VC) after 2 and 5 minutes' DB exercise and a consistent improvement in tidal volume (TV) and minute ventilation (MV) after the DB exercise in all the three groups, though it wasn't statistically significant. There was a significant (P < 0.05) increase in forced vital capacity (FVC) after 2 minutes' of DB exercise and a consistent increase in all the three groups in forced inspiratory vital capacity (FIVC) and peak inspiratory flow rate (PIFR), though this increase was not statistically significant. This shows that deep breathing exercise, even for a few minutes' duration is beneficial for the lung functions.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22319896

Die potentielle Verletzungsgefahr bei Atemübungen sollte man auch nicht außer Acht lassen:

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According to at least one study, pranayama was the yoga practice leading to most injuries

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranayama#Risks

Besser erst gründlich informieren, bevor man etwas ausprobiert!

Hättet ihr gewusst, dass es für das Gehirn einen großen Unterschied macht, ob man durch die Nase, oder den Mund Atmet?

How to breathe your way to better memory and sleep
More than half of us breathe the wrong way, missing out on many benefits from better health to altered consciousness. Here's how to do it right

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Most of the time, the right way to breathe is through your nose. The pointy thing stuck to your face is exquisitely designed to trap dust and other foreign bodies in its hairs and snot. Beyond your visible nose lies the nasal cavity, a cavernous space the size of a gaping mouth. This is lined with folded membranes designed to warm or cool the air to body temperature, add moisture and trap pathogens in yet more mucus. Your sinuses – air-filled spaces that connect to the nasal cavity – swirl the air around more and add nitric oxide, which kills bacteria and viruses and relaxes the blood vessels in the respiratory tract, allowing more oxygen to pass into the blood.The upshot of all this is that nose breathing adds 50 per cent more air resistance than breathing through the mouth. That gives your heart and lungs a workout and increases the vacuum in your lungs, which allows you to draw in up toAs if that wasn’t enough, nasal breathing boosts brain function too. Young mouth-breathing rats were slower to complete a maze than nose breathers and, when they reached adulthood, they had fewer neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain important for learning and memory.

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https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2...mory-and-sleep/

Nose breathing enhances memory consolidation
Findings add to growing evidence for influence of respiration on human perception, cognition

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Breathing through the nose may improve the transfer of experience to long-term memory, finds a study of human adults published in JNeurosci. The findings add to growing evidence for the influence of respiration on human perception and cognition.

Building on previous research in animals and humans, Artin Arshamian and colleagues compared the effects of nose breathing and mouse breathing during a one-hour consolidation period after participants were exposed to various odors. Nose breathers, whose mouths were taped over during the consolidation period, showed increased odor recognition compared to mouth breathers, whose noses were clipped during consolidation.

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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/766340

Nasal airflow and brain activity: is there a link?
Abstract:

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Background:
Over the past few decades, evidence has emerged suggesting that nasal airflow asymmetry and brain asymmetry are linked. The nose exhibits asymmetrical airflow, with the dominant airflow alternating from one nasal passage to the other over a period of hours. Some authors have suggested a correlation between cerebral hemisphere dominance and nostril dominance. Others have proposed an association between rhythmic fluctuations in nasal airflow and corresponding fluctuations in cerebral hemisphere activity. Based on ancient yoga breathing techniques, newer evidence suggests that altering nasal airflow can influence brain activity, with reports of improved cognitive function caused by unilateral forced nostril breathing. It seems that a nasal airflow stimulus may have an activating effect on the brain, as it has also been shown to trigger seizure activity in epileptic patients.

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https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/...6399F41F4564A2A

Nasal Respiration Entrains Human Limbic Oscillations and Modulates Cognitive Function

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Abstract:
The need to breathe links the mammalian olfactory system inextricably to the respiratory rhythms that draw air through the nose. In rodents and other small animals, slow oscillations of local field potential activity are driven at the rate of breathing (∼2–12 Hz) in olfactory bulb and cortex, and faster oscillatory bursts are coupled to specific phases of the respiratory cycle. These dynamic rhythms are thought to regulate cortical excitability and coordinate network interactions, helping to shape olfactory coding, memory, and behavior. However, while respiratory oscillations are a ubiquitous hallmark of olfactory system function in animals, direct evidence for such patterns is lacking in humans. In this study, we acquired intracranial EEG data from rare patients (Ps) with medically refractory epilepsy, enabling us to test the hypothesis that cortical oscillatory activity would be entrained to the human respiratory cycle, albeit at the much slower rhythm of ∼0.16–0.33 Hz. Our results reveal that natural breathing synchronizes electrical activity in human piriform (olfactory) cortex, as well as in limbic-related brain areas, including amygdala and hippocampus. Notably, oscillatory power peaked during inspiration and dissipated when breathing was diverted from nose to mouth. Parallel behavioral experiments showed that breathing phase enhances fear discrimination and memory retrieval. Our findings provide a unique framework for understanding the pivotal role of nasal breathing in coordinating neuronal oscillations to support stimulus processing and behavior.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Animal studies have long shown that olfactory oscillatory activity emerges in line with the natural rhythm of breathing, even in the absence of an odor stimulus. Whether the breathing cycle induces cortical oscillations in the human brain is poorly understood. In this study, we collected intracranial EEG data from rare patients with medically intractable epilepsy, and found evidence for respiratory entrainment of local field potential activity in human piriform cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. These effects diminished when breathing was diverted to the mouth, highlighting the importance of nasal airflow for generating respiratory oscillations. Finally, behavioral data in healthy subjects suggest that breathing phase systematically influences cognitive tasks related to amygdala and hippocampal functions.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5148230/

Nasal breathing synchronizes brain wave activity and improves cognitive function

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Key Points
-Nasal breathing synchronizes brain wave oscillations in the piriform cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus

-Nasal breathing improves cognitive function when compared to mouth breathing

-Breathing affects emotional and mental state, shifting the paradigm for why we breathe

The Breathing Diabetic Summary
It is established that emotions and mental state affect breathing. When you’re anxious, you breathe faster and shallower. When you’re relaxed, you breathe quiet and light. Intuitively, I think we all know that the opposite is true too: Your breathing can affect your emotions and mental state. However, the brain mechanisms behind this shift have remained elusive.

This study sheds light on the issue. Intracranial EEG (iEEG) was used to assess how breathing impacts electrical oscillations in different regions of the brain. Then, emotional recognition and memory tests were used to see how breathing impacts cognitive function.

The results showed that oscillations in the piriform cortex are directly related to nasal breathing. The piriform cortex is associated with the nose through smell, so it makes sense that nasal breathing would cause oscillations in this region (although the participants were breathing odorless air).

Interestingly, two other regions of the brain also showed these oscillations: the amygdala and hippocampus. When breathing was switched to the mouth, however, this brainwave activity became disorganized. Thus, nasal breathing is critical to synchronizing electrical brainwave oscillations.

If nasal breathing affects these regions of the brain, it follows that it would potentially impact cognition. And that’s exactly what they found.

They showed participants faces expressing either fear or surprise and had them quickly decide which one it was. When breathing through the nose, the response times were faster than when breathing through the mouth. Additionally, the participants identified fearful faces faster during inhalation than exhalation. This effect wasn’t present when mouth breathing.

Next, they had the participants perform a memory task involving picture recognition. They found that their memory retrieval was more accurate during nasal inhalation, which was not observed for mouth breathing. However, there was not a statistically significant difference in the overall accuracy between nose and mouth breathing.

Taken together, the iEEG measurements and cognitive tasks suggest that nasal breathing promotes coherent brainwave oscillations in the piriform cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. This coherence leads to improved cognitive function, especially during nasal inhalation.

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https://www.thebreathingdiabetic.com/sci...lano-et-al-2016





Auch die Atemgeschwindgkeit und Rythmus hat natürlich Einfluss:

Can the way we breathe affect brain health?
https://www.alzdiscovery.org/cognitive-v...ct-brain-health

Rhythm of breathing affects memory, fear
Breathing is not just for oxygen; it's also linked to brain function, behavior
The rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the human brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall, scientists have discovered for the first time. These effects on behavior depend critically on whether you inhale or exhale and whether you breathe through the nose or mouth.

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Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered for the first time that the rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the human brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall. These effects on behavior depend critically on whether you inhale or exhale and whether you breathe through the nose or mouth.

In the study, individuals were able to identify a fearful face more quickly if they encountered the face when breathing in compared to breathing out. Individuals also were more likely to remember an object if they encountered it on the inhaled breath than the exhaled one. The effect disappeared if breathing was through the mouth.

"One of the major findings in this study is that there is a dramatic difference in brain activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during inhalation compared with exhalation," said lead author Christina Zelano, assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "When you breathe in, we discovered you are stimulating neurons in the olfactory cortex, amygdala and hippocampus, all across the limbic system."

The study was published Dec. 6 in the Journal of Neuroscience. The senior author is Jay Gottfried, professor of neurology at Feinberg.

Northwestern scientists first discovered these differences in brain activity while studying seven patients with epilepsy who were scheduled for brain surgery. A week prior to surgery, a surgeon implanted electrodes into the patients' brains in order to identify the origin of their seizures. This allowed scientists to acquire electro-physiological data directly from their brains. The recorded electrical signals showed brain activity fluctuated with breathing. The activity occurs in brain areas where emotions, memory and smells are processed.

This discovery led scientists to ask whether cognitive functions typically associated with these brain areas -- in particular fear processing and memory -- could also be affected by breathing.

The amygdala is strongly linked to emotional processing, in particular fear-related emotions. So scientists asked about 60 subjects to make rapid decisions on emotional expressions in the lab environment while recording their breathing. Presented with pictures of faces showing expressions of either fear or surprise, the subjects had to indicate, as quickly as they could, which emotion each face was expressing.

When faces were encountered during inhalation, subjects recognized them as fearful more quickly than when faces were encountered during exhalation. This was not true for faces expressing surprise. These effects diminished when subjects performed the same task while breathing through their mouths. Thus the effect was specific to fearful stimuli during nasal breathing only.

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https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/...6399F41F4564A2A


Mundatmung ist nicht nur Nachteilig für die Gehirnleistung sondern auch für die Zahngesundheit!

Investigation on the Effect of Oral Breathing on Cognitive Activity Using Functional Brain Imaging
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Oral breathing directly affects behavioral performance and dental health. Various relationships between oral breathing and periodontal disease have been well-described. However, the effect of oral breathing on cognitive performance remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of oral breathing on cognitive function using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty-two healthy participants (mean age, 22.27 ± 1.42 years) performed a two-back (2B) working memory fMRI task using a 3T MRI scanner while breathing through their oral or nasal passage. Functional activity analysis was performed using a statistical parametric mapping software package. One-sample group analyses were performed in 2B > Rest contrast. Functional connectivity analysis was conducted using MATLAB-based imaging software. Mixed ANOVA analysis was performed. The results showed more brain activation and connection during nasal breathing than during oral breathing. For Nasal > Oral contrast, various functional connections are known to have a significant relationship with working memory, including the left cerebellum, left and right inferior parietal gyrus. This can be significant evidence to demonstrate that oral breathing is an inappropriate method for intellectual activity using brain imaging techniques. Therefore, this study suggests that changing various habits related to oral breathing is important for cognitive function.

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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34072444/

Passend dazu: Meditation

Der Geruchssinn ist nicht umsonst der Sinn, der am direktesten mit unseren Hirn verbunden ist.

der Geruchs-Sinn wird dem "Element" Erde zu geordnet ...
und das Hu ruft den "Geist" herunter, um ihn dann ein-zu-atmen ...

Zitat von BenutzerNeu im Beitrag #3

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Der Geruchssinn ist nicht umsonst der Sinn, der am direktesten mit unseren Hirn verbunden ist.

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Der Geruchssinn ist einer der evolutionär ältesten Sinne des Menschen und deshalb besonders eng mit grundlegenden Aspekten unserer Biologie verknüpft. Düfte können bestimmte Gefühle auslösen, Erinnerungen wachrufen und sogar unsere Träume beeinflussen. Auch bei der Partnerwahl könnten Gerüche eine Rolle spielen, auch wenn das Ausmaß ihres Einflusses noch strittig ist.

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Anders als bislang gedacht reagiert schon der Riechkolben und damit die erste „Empfangsstation“ für Riechreize unterschiedlich auf positive und negative Duftsignale. Rochen die Testpersonen einen unangenehmen Geruch, feuerten die Neuronen im Riechkolben schon nach 50 bis 200 Millisekunden und erzeugten einen charakteristischen Schub von Betawellen. Angenehme Düfte dagegen lösten erst nach rund 800 Millisekunden eine Reaktion aus, wie die EEG-Messungen ergaben.

„Negative Gerüche scheine demnach schon im Riechkolben privilegiert verarbeitet zu werden“, schreiben Iravani und sein Team. „Das deutet darauf hin, dass es eine der ersten Aufgaben des Riechkolbens ist, frühe geruchsbasierte Warnsignale zu detektieren und zu verarbeiten.“

Warnung an den Motorcortex
Und nicht nur das: Wie das Team feststellte, sendet die Riechkolben direkt nach der Wahrnehmung eines potenziell gefährlichen Geruchs auch eine Warnung an den motorischen Cortex, den Hirnteil, der unsere Bewegungen steuert. Je unangenehmer ein Geruch ist, desto stärker fällt das Signal an den Motorcortex aus. „Wir haben daher vermutet, dass diese Frühwarnung der Vorbereitung auf eine schnelle Abwehrreaktion dient“, erklären die Forscher. Eine solche instinktive Reaktion, beispielsweise in Form des Zurückschreckens, ist von vielen Tieren bekannt.

Ob auch der Mensch eine solche unwillkürliche Schreckreaktion zeigt, haben Iravani und sein Team überprüft, indem sie ihre Testpersonen beim Riechtest auf einer mit Drucksensoren verknüpften Platte stehen ließen. Tatsächlich registrierten die Sensoren eine schwache, aber signifikante Verlagerung des Körpergewichts nach hinten, sobald die Testperson einen unangenehmen Geruch eingeatmet hatte. „Das Signal führte dazu, dass sich die Person unbewusst nach hinten lehnte und damit der Geruchsquelle auswich“, erklärt Iravanis Kollege Johan Lundström.

Instinktiver als andere Sinne
Nach Ansicht des Forscherteam belegen diese Ergebnisse, dass schon der Riechkolben zwischen potenziell gefährlichen und harmlosen Gerüchen differenziert und entsprechend unterschiedlich reagiert. „Die menschliche Abwehrreaktion auf unangenehme und eine potenzielle Gefahr anzeigende Gerüche galt lange als bewusster, kognitiver Prozess“, sagt Iravani. „Aber unsere Studie belegt nun zum ersten Mal, dass diese Reaktion unbewusst ist und extrem schnell abläuft.“

Gleichzeitig bestätigen die Ergebnisse auch, dass der Riechsinn tief in unserer Biologie und unseren tierischen Wurzeln verankert ist. Denn anders als beim Hören und Sehen laufen viele Prozesse bei der Geruchswahrnehmung instinktiv ab. „Unser Geruchssinn ist wichtig, um Gefahren in unserer Umwelt wahrzunehmen, und ein Großteil dieser Fähigkeit ist unbewusster als bei unserer visuellen oder akustischen Reaktion auf Gefahren“, erklärt Iravani.

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https://www.scinexx.de/news/biowissen/wi...iges-schneller/

#5
Das mit dem Zurückweichen stimmt. Bei manchen Gesprächspartner weicht man zurück.
Eine Urangst? Der Atem des Raubtieres ist ganz nah.
Aber meine Augenlider zucken auch recht flott, wenn was angeflogen kommt. Oder der Gleichgewichtssinn, der automatisch reagiert beim stolpern.