Originally Posted by richard
No this isn't psychosomatic. Do you ever get chest tightness? And why the need to get "satisfying deep breaths" anyway?
The more you breath deeply, the less well your tissues oxygenate. As you breath deeply more often, you will feel less satisfied and feel the need for more air.
Our bodies have a "capnostat" that sets the desired CO2 levels in our
arterial blood. Buteyko's primary discovery is that many of us have this
set to have CO2 levels that are too low. We breath much too much oxygen.
CO2 is not a waste product but a precious compound used by every cell in
the body. If we overbreath, or chronically hyperventilate, the CO2
levels are too low and we actually don't do nearly as well.
Some of us respond by snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, hay fever, panic
attacks, anxiety. Buteyko believed that snoring and asthma are
mechanisms that our bodies use to *restrict* our air intake in an effort
to raise CO2 levels that are too low.
You can tell someone who chronically hyperventilates because they will
almost always be nose breathers. And they will be breathing fast and
often noisily, with or without wheezing.
The solution...I would recommend you start nose breathing even when you run. It may slow you down at first but after awhile you'll be up to your present levels, but it is far healthier. Nose breathing makes hyperventilation very difficult.
richard, thanks for the info!
No chest tightness and I don't tend to notice my need for deep breaths during running, interestingly enough. It's mostly just at rest that I find myself taking deep breaths. Not sure why exactly I have this need. My first guess was that it is my body's way of saying I need more oxygen, but since I don't do it while running, it seems a bit odd to be happening at rest. Your description of how our bodies regulate CO2 intake does make sense. I'm going to try and concentrate on my breathing and see if I can get out of the habit of belly-breathing and more in the habit of nose-breathing. I'll let you know what I uncover!
Oh, also, this all might be related to my latest bout of sickness, which was about a month ago or so as you might remember. I had a badass cold that left me with a cough that lingered a good two weeks. I'm wondering if that has something to do with it.. every once in awhile I'll still have a bit of a coughing fit left over. Very frustrating. Probably bronchitis or something.