ChiDragon Posted July 6, 2013 (edited) Songtsan........You welcome...!!!My last comment to you before you go.The concept about the abundance of oxygen is under the normal vital condition of the human body. In the contrary, The excessive carbon dioxide, under hypoxia, is the abnormal condition of the body. I believe both the pranayama and Chi Kung, under normal conditions, are learning to breathe oxygen and rid of carbon dioxide. Of course, the excess of oxygen also will cause body harm. Edited July 6, 2013 by ChiDragon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sheng zhen Posted July 6, 2013 Its been right under our nose since the 1800s, but because of our misguided love for oxygen we have overlooked all the amazing functions CO2 has in our physiology. I have come to think of CO2 as the great life-giving protector, and O2 as the destroyer. "Over the oxygen supply of the body carbon dioxide spreads its protective wings." - Friedrich Miescher, 1885 Breathe less, live longer. All taoists know this. With clearing up the O2/CO2 misunderstanding we can also know why it really is true from a western scientific point of view. Good luck! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Songtsan Posted July 6, 2013 Its been right under our nose since the 1800s, but because of our misguided love for oxygen we have overlooked all the amazing functions CO2 has in our physiology. I have come to think of CO2 as the great life-giving protector, and O2 as the destroyer. "Over the oxygen supply of the body carbon dioxide spreads its protective wings." - Friedrich Miescher, 1885 Breathe less, live longer. All taoists know this. With clearing up the O2/CO2 misunderstanding we can also know why it really is true from a western scientific point of view. Good luck! Today is probably my last day here for a long while...I just wanted to add that one reason that when you breath less you live longer, is that when cell metabolism slows down, cell turnover rate slows down, too, and because cells can only divide a certain number of times (telomere therory), when cell division rates slow, aging slows. I imagine that improved oxygen efficiency in combination with increased tolerance to CO2 and metabolites work together to improve overall respiration efficiency. Also something to keep in mind is that aerobic respiration is active well up into 70% plus of VO2 max levels, becoming less above that. Most pranayams are done seated, which will definitely not exceed the cellular load that a slow jog would have on the system. So I doubt that levels of O2 saturation will ever go into the anaerobic zone at all with breathing exercises. Try this sometime: Sit there, relaxed - do not try to breath, do not try NOT to breath. Sit with relaxed abdomen and diaphragm. Let your body breath itself. Watch how slow and shallow your breathing becomes. Soon it will become nearly insensible (at least mine does), very shallow and much slowed down. This is how efficient the body is - it needs hardly any O2 at this level of relaxation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sheng zhen Posted July 7, 2013 (edited) When I do my breathing meditation I keep a long pause at the outbreath before breathing in again. In this pause the CO2 increases a lot, and as long I keep the pause within my bodys limits for tensing up (tension is counteractive) I get increased bloodflow and heat and energy and bliss sensations all over. I dont do it for "energy" though, but the sensations are similar and I think a lot of what we experience as energy in meditations and qigong is really just increased bloodflow from increased CO2. It has NOTHING to do with oxygen, because the oxygenlevel in the blood and at the mitchondiral level stays the same all through the meditation. Only if we hold the breath for more than 50 seconds the oxygen starts to decrease. Here are some of the studies that I have enjoyed the most during my research into the role of CO2: http://www.biomed.cas.cz/physiolres/pdf/51/51_335.pdf http://emj.bmj.com/content/28/4/269.long http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3340129/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3073030/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2890048/ http://jp.physoc.org/content/571/2/415.full http://www.pnas.org/content/104/suppl.1/8655.full An this very important one: http://www.univ-rouen.fr/servlet/com.univ.utils.LectureFichierJoint?CODE=1307716204012&LANGUE=0 I am leaving now too. Im only here occationally to follow the John Chang drama that keeps going on here, like Days of our Lives. But this topic has taken up a lot of my time this year so I had break my wow of silence and post Enjoy! Edited July 7, 2013 by sheng zhen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
