How much do you know about the benefits of abdominal breathing?

Text/Lin Xuhua (Doctor of Family Medicine) Foreword No matter when we are sleeping, working, watching TV or eating, we are all breathing, and we can still breathe when we are completely unconscious, because breathing is controlled by autonomic nerves. Fortunately, only breathing can consciously take a deep breath, or temporarily stop breathing. Proper breathing can adjust the disordered autonomic nerves. There are two kinds of autonomic nerves, one is sympathetic nerve that will be activated when excited, and the other is parasympathetic nerve that works when relaxed. Only when these two nerves are balanced can they be in a healthy state. Under the continuous pressure of modern society, sympathetic nerves are often in a favorable state. In other words, living in modern society, the autonomic nervous system is easily out of balance, and the simplest way to help us adjust the autonomic nervous system is "abdominal breathing". Abdominal breathing and its advantages Abdominal breathing 1, preferably inhaling through the nose. Exhale is not limited to oral exhalation or nasal exhalation. 2, abdominal breathing needs to move the abdomen, so don't wear too tight clothes. 3, breathing too shallow, when the oxygen entering the body is insufficient, the body will have various problems, such as chronic fatigue syndrome. 4. When inhaling slowly, the air is inhaled from the nose, reaches the lungs through the trachea, and then stores the air through the expansion of the lungs. It is worth mentioning that there are three ways to expand the lungs: (a) The shoulder blades are raised and the shoulders are lifted upward, which increases the space above the lungs. (b) Lowering the diaphragm will squeeze the abdomen to make it bulge and expand the space below the lungs. (c) Combining the above two methods. What we want to promote is the second way. 5, slowly inhale deeply, the lower abdomen slowly protrudes, the whole body remains relaxed, and then slowly exhale the lower abdomen and sink back to the state before inhalation. This is abdominal breathing. 6. Modern people are stressed, easily nervous, anxious, panicky and difficult to relax. If you can sit quietly, it is better for abdominal breathing to regulate autonomic nerves. Advantages 1. The nervous and frightened mental state can interfere with the development and maturation of T cells, inhibit antibody reaction and phagocytosis, and reduce the production of interferon. All these will reduce immunity and make people easy to get sick. Abdominal breathing can inhibit sympathetic nerve, stimulate parasympathetic nerve, activate immune system, and greatly improve the resistance and immunity to diseases. 2. Abdominal breathing is not limited by the place, nor does it need tools and any fees. Chinese medicine believes that at least nine meridians pass through the abdomen. They are stomach meridian, spleen meridian, liver meridian and ren meridian. Liver meridian can regulate mood, which is related to nervous system and mental state. Spleen and stomach meridians are acquired, which are in charge of digestion and nutrition. Kidney meridian is the innate foundation, which is in charge of human essence, brain and endocrine. Ren Mai is in charge of Yin Qi. Abdominal breathing can easily achieve the best state of natural relaxation and the best state of meridian operation. Case Discussion Case 1 is a patient with advanced cancer. Patients and their families are always in anxiety, tension and panic. They always have expectations when the attending doctor makes rounds. Involuntary accelerated breathing increases the severity of the disease. Case 2 is a supervisor with high work pressure. He had a general health examination recently, but he couldn't find the reason. Therefore, seeking the help of Chinese medicine, the argument of Chinese medicine is the same as that of western medicine, that is, autonomic nerve disorder. It is necessary to balance the autonomic nervous system. The easiest way is to take frequent deep abdominal breaths to relax and calm down, instead of rushing to seek medical attention. Conclusion Some people say that it is difficult for patients with autonomic nervous disorder to be cured by traditional Chinese and western medicine, because no one can be completely cured without changing their personal living habits, such as staying up late, overworking their brains, accumulating stress, being depressed, not exercising, not quitting smoking and not giving up drinking. Personally, I don't think this is so absolute. But these words are reminding us that "doctors are emergency doctors" and that we are our best doctors. Generally speaking, investing more in health and making the autonomic nervous system sound and balanced will lead to fewer diseases. Abdominal breathing is a good breathing habit for decompression and relaxation, which is recommended to everyone.