System #29: Breath into it
When you go to a massage therapist and they find a knot that hurts, you're told to breathe as they work it out. When you're in a yoga class, you're told to breathe into a posture (asana). When you're going through anything painful, you're told to breathe. I always wondered why we are told that and why does it work?
It turns out there are multiple reasons why breathing is helpful in those types of circumstances. For one, in yoga, the act of breathing moves things around. It shifts your organs, enlarges your chest cavity, and depending on the posture you're breathing into, it can allow you to enter a deeper stance by subtly massaging your muscles.
Another reason, especially when breathing through your nose is that your nostrils create Nitric Oxide, which dilates your blood vessels allowing more blood flow throughout your body. This also helps relax your body.
Not only that, but as mentioned in a previous short relaxing muscles requires more ATP (the energy currency of the cell) than contraction. What's interesting is that to create energy, your cells need nutrients AND oxygen. In fact, the last step of the Electron Transport Chain (the cycle that creates ATP) uses oxygen to create pure water.
Electron Transport Chain (ETC)
What's the Electron Transport Chain? It's a series of complexes that pass electrons down the line to ultimately create a proton gradient that allows the creation of ATP. You can think of them as a line of bricklayers throwing bricks to one another until the last one lays it. The only way you can pass your brick to the next one is if he's not holding a brick. If he is, the process stalls. This is where most of aging happens. In the ETC, you have four complexes, with both Complex I and Complex III being the leakiest (imagine the bricklayer discarding his brick to catch your brick), these electrons that leak out have to go somewhere and end up prematurely reacting with oxygen to create reactive oxygen (ROS) that damages your mitochondrial DNA. Oxygen becomes the enemy...but I digress...
Understanding the ETC is fascinating, so much so that I've had it drawn up on my wall for years. Once you understand its mechanics you can start to understand how and why we age. If backup causes aging, what causes backup? Most of the time it's either too much food (ie. too many bricks) and not enough movement (ie. everyone's hands are full so bricks get thrown on bystanders). Not enough nutrients (ie. missing bricklayers) or not enough oxygen (ie. the one who actually places the brick).
What does that mean? It means that without oxygen, no matter how healthily you are eating or well you are exercising, your mitochondria aren't able to produce enough ATP for your body. When you don't have enough ATP your muscles tighten. When your muscles tighten, they restrict blood flow...when blood flow is restricted so is the supply of oxygen and nutrients enraging the cycle more and more until you get a knot.
Breathing is key...it makes me wonder if the stories of people living longer in ancient times (according to books like The Bible) could have been directly tied to a richer cocktail of oxygen in the atmosphere? There's only one way to find out...