Improving Your Breathing with Chiropractic Care
If you’re often feeling short of breath, exhausted, or confused, it may be because your body is having trouble getting and using oxygen. This can happen when breathing isn’t working right – a function of respiration that helps get vital nutrients and energy to cells. Breathing problems are very common worldwide, but chiropractic care can help make it easier to breathe.
Various diseases, including asthma, COPD, emphysema and bronchitis affects millions of people yearly. However, many individuals deal with difficulty breathing even without a diagnosis from a medical professional. Impaired breathing can have many causes, including disease or allergies. Sometimes it is the result of a combination of several conditions: environmental pollutants, body size and weight, anxiety and digestive problems, viral or bacterial infections that cause inflammation, and increased immune response.
Some people may not notice the deterioration of their breathing over time. They might chalk up symptoms like brain fog and forgetfulness to being tired, or write off a decline in physical performance as an inevitability of aging. Others may be aware that they have impaired respiration but feel powerless to do anything about it. The reason for this may be a pre-existing diagnosis, something passed down genetically, or simply an adjustment to what’s considered “healthy” as time goes on.
3 Ways that Optimal Breathing Can Radically Improve Your Health
#1. Breathing improves the function of every body system.
Without respiration, our bodies would not be able to survive; however, the quality of our breathing affects how well our body systems can perform their usual tasks or any other developments that may come up during the day. In short: are you merely surviving…or thriving?
When you have excellent breathing quality, your body will be able to better handle stressors. Your oxygen intake capacity will increase with the amount of activity needed, which directly supports your cardiovascular system, immune system, and muscular system.
Breathing is important for more than just reducing stress levels. Good breathing is necessary for activities like sitting, standing, and working (including in an office), and the better your quality of breathing, the better you will perform in every task you undertake.
Not breathing correctly can have widespread impacts on the body, including but not limited to: digestion, elimination, sleep, heart rate, and rhythm, thinking and memory recall, immunity against viruses and diseases, etc. When your breathing is of poor quality or quantity, it follows that the systems of the body responsible for these tasks will also be impaired.
#2. Breathing dictates your mood.
Not only does your breath play a role in keeping you healthy, but it also alters your mood.
The amygdala is responsible for the fight-or-flight response, and scientists have found that by simply changing the depth and quality of our breathing, we can provoke anxiety, fear, anger, and other stress responses without even trying.
In contrast, studies suggest that trying to take deep breaths and improve respiration quality (for example, during breathwork or breathing meditation) also has a measurable impact on mood—especially in the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is linked with reasoning, problem-solving, and creativity. When respiration quality improves from deeper breathing, people’s moods tend to become more positive. As a result, they may have an easier time paying attention spans enhanced memory, and increased potential for experiencing positive emotions.
#3. Breathing quality can change the quality of your life and affect your aging.
The quality of your breathing has a direct impact on your quality of life. By affecting the efficiency of your body’s systems and influencing your mood, breathing quality can make or break how you feel every day. To assess your own quality of life, ask yourself the following questions: How do I usually feel physically? How do I usually feel emotionally? Do I feel like I can handle current and future challenges in my life? If you’re not happy with the answers to these questions, it may be time to explore how chiropractic care can improve the quality of your breath—and ultimately, improve the overall quality of life.
How Chiropractic Care Improves Breathing Quality
If you have been diagnosed with a breathing disorder or want to improve your level of baseline breathing, consider chiropractic care.
Here are a few ways that chiropractic care can help improve your health:
#1. Chiropractic care decreases stagnation.
One of the best things about chiropractic care is that it helps to release stagnation in the body. This can involve movement in bones, joints, muscles, tissue, fascia, skin, ligaments or tendons. No matter where the movement takes place in the body, it can have a positive and dynamic effect on overall health.
When we move areas and layers of the body that rarely get attention or are “stuck” due to posture, lifestyle, or injury, it helps break up those stagnant areas. This allows for the release toxins and cellular waste from those places. It also provides support respiratory system. The respiratory system delivers nutrients and oxygen across the body. When parts of the body are blocked or stagnant, it makes it more difficult for the respiratory system to do its job effectively.
#2. Chiropractic care increases circulation.
In the same way that chiropractic care decreases stagnation, it also consequently increases circulation. When areas that were once stagnant are released by chiropractic care, new blood, lymphatic fluid, and oxygen then have the opportunity to flow more freely to these newly opened areas of attention within the body. These problem areas can occur anywhere in muscles (shoulder, neck or back), bones and joints (across the spine), tissues, ligaments or tendons.
Chiropractic care, which may include traction, adjustments, or manual tissue manipulation, can improve circulation long after the session is over. This enhances the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the body from the lungs.
#3. Chiropractic care helps realign the bones and joints.
If bones are not in their proper place, it can disrupt how different systems in the body function. The more out of alignment they are, the greater chance that multiple systems will be affected–especially nerves. Nerves send messages throughout the body to control movement and release hormones or chemicals when needed. When chiropractic adjustments relieve pressure on these nerves, it helps improve communication and therefore also improves your ability to breathe properly.
The left and right phrenic nerves help with regulating the activity of the diaphragm, which controls our breathing. If these nerves are misaligned, they may not work as efficiently.
#4. Chiropractic care decreases pressure on the organs.
When bones are severely misaligned, they may start to compress organs in the body. The most frequent case of this is scoliosis, an unnatural s-shaped curvature that appears in the lateral spine.
Severe scoliosis can cause the spine to contort, which in turn may collapse the ribcage on one side or lung. Additionally, changes near the diaphragm caused by severe scoliosis can significantly impede breathing function.
#5. Chiropractic care regulates the nervous system.
By realigning bones and joints that are out of place, chiropractic care can help heal pinched, compressed, or severed nerves. This allows the nervous system to once again communicate properly with the extremities and torso, resulting in the body being able to function at its full capacity.
Not only does chiropractic care reduce inflammation and pain, but it also improves cognitive function by regulating the nervous system. When the nervous system is regulated, it sends signals to the respiratory system to create deep breathing patterns that result in a calm brain state.
Ready to breathe more easily?
If you or someone you love would like to improve your breathing or respiratory function, then we can help.
Improve your quality of life by scheduling an appointment with Dr. Luc Archambault today. He proudly offers cutting-edge chiropractic care to people in the London area and is excited to help you achieve better health and wellness.
