You can think of breathing as the conductor of the homeostatic rhythms in the body, to optimise health.
Let’s take a minute to reflect how breathing affects our capacity to HEAL.
Dysfunctional breathing means the functions of breath are less than ideal, affecting all systems of the body and disrupting healing processes. Functions of breathing include the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide, the regulation of pH, the respiratory pump drives pressures throughout the body, affects posture and motor control.
Regulatory functions break down when people are overwhelmed; eg. stressed, exhausted, have pathological processes of disease (eg. CVD, asthma, post-COVID, COPD) or when in chronic pain. Chronic pain changes breathing and visa-versa!
People who don’t breathe well, don’t move well. Muscles of breathing are also muscles of movement and posture eg. the diaphragm fires when you breathe in, or raise your arm, or if you need to build intra-abdominal pressure to stabilise yourself. The brain always prioritises breathing, so postural control can falter. One study demonstrates dysfunctional breathing is a stronger predictor of back pain than obesity!
Some signs you may have dysfunctional breathing; rigidity around your ribcage, diaphragm, excessive tightness in accessory muscles of breathing, signs of respiratory distress (duh, but things like sighing, gasping, changes in your voice, inability to form full sentences), if you feel like your breath is unsatisfying, or if you keep going back to your therapist with the same symptoms over and over and over.
An osteopath may work with the biomechanics, the biochemistry and the nervous system of your body to help optimise your breathing and help your body back into homeostasis. That may involve manual therapy to influence fluid exchange in the lymphatic system, or the flexibility of your rib cage, activation or different muscle groups, calming techniques to help down-regulate your nervous system or even practicing breathing exercises (including Buteyko techniques, which I will write about in the future!).
