Learn How to Breathe for Better Health

What? I’m not kidding. Sure, you knew how to breathe as soon as you were pushed out of the womb. But you didn’t learn to breathe right. If you were slapped on the butt by the doctor, you probably learned to breathe too shallow and too fast, maybe even hyperventilate. All that screaming and crying you did after leaving the comfort of the womb taught your brain that stress and anxiety go with rapid, shallow breathing. So when faced with adversity as you got older, your automatic reaction is to breathe too fast and too shallow. This is a case of classical conditioned learning. That kind of learning actually helps sustain the stress, because your brain has learned that rapid, shallow, breathing is supposed to go with stress. The brain thinks this is normal.

About a month ago, I was having a large, benign growth on my neck removed by local surgeon, Dr. John Mason. The area was locally anesthetized, but so much tissue was involved that as he had to cut deeper, I felt pain. The nurse said, huffing and puffing with staccato rhythm, “Breathe. Breath in, breath out.” After several such reminders, I blurted, “Is there any other way?” Then, I realized the risk I was taking if my surgeon started to laugh while holding a scalpel to my neck. Dr. Mason did a great job. And I was reminded that there is a right and a wrong way to breathe under stressful conditions.

There are three principles to correct breathing for reducing stress:

1.      Breathe deeply. This means abdominally. As you inhale, the abdomen should protrude, filling the lungs better because the diaphragm contraction expands the chest cavity for more lung inflation.

2.      Breathe slowly. Common breathing rates are around 16-20 breaths per minute. This is fine when you are very active physically, but remember that the brain has spent decades of conditioned learning to associate rapid breathing with distress. When you are trying to relax, you can shut down stress by slowing down to three to five breaths per minute.

3.      Exhale through the mouth. A good way to automate this method is to slightly open the mouth and move the tip of the tongue behind the front upper teeth during inhalation, then relax the tongue during exhalation.

You can use these principles in two well-known breathing techniques:

1. The Navy Seal box technique. When they are not raiding a terrorist cell or on another similar stressful mission, Navy Seals train themselves to stay calm by taking a four-step breath cycle of inhale, hold breath, exhale, hold breath, and then repeat the cycle. Each step lasts 4 seconds. This would yield a total breathing rate of about four per minute. With practice, you can make each step last 5 or more seconds. Now you would be breathing like a Yogi.

2. The hum technique. Here, the idea is to make a soft, guttural humming sound throughout each exhalation. You can even do this during the exhale stages in the Navy technique. This may have a similar effect as using a mantra during meditation. Sometimes, people tell me I am humming when I had not been aware of it. I guess I have learned to associate humming with calming down and feeling good. Perhaps it is similar to why cats purr. Cats purr for two seemingly conflicting purposes. One is that the purring sound has a conditioned association with a calm state. When the cat is calm, it purrs. The other cause of purring is anxiety. In an anxious cat, the anxiety acts as a cue that retrieves the memory of associated purring, which then helps to calm the cat.

If you are trying to train yourself to be calm, I recommend that you employ and combine the three principles and the two techniques during mindfulness meditation. All of the principles (deep and slow breathing, and exhaling via the mouth) and the two techniques (4-step and humming) can be synergistically combined during mindfulness meditation. In such meditation, the idea is the block out all thoughts in order to focus on breathing. You can achieve further synergism by mediating in certain yoga postures, which have their own mental relaxing effects. If you are like me, you are stiff and sore when you awaken in the morning. I deal with this by combining yoga stretches with mindfulness meditation and stress-relieving breathing. It is a great way to start each day.

                                                                                                  

There is a biological explanation for why all these ideas work, but few scholars explain it. The whole constellation of beneficial effects is attributable to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a huge nerve that supplies most of the visceral organs: lungs, heart, and the entire gastrointestinal tract. Usually, when biology or physiology teachers explain the vagus nerve, they focus on its “motor” effects, that is initiating secretions, slowing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and promoting peristaltic movements in the GI tract. What usually gets left out of teaching is that the vagus is a mixed nerve; it contains sensory fibers. These sensory fibers are activated by all the breathing functions mentioned above. These impulses signal the part of the anterior hypothalamus that contains the neuronal cell bodies of the so-called parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS suppresses the “fight or flight” system of the “sympathetic nervous system,” which is triggered by certain neurons in the posterior hypothalamus. Thus, feedback signals from proper breathing serve to keep the PNS active and in control of a relaxed physical and mental state. So, CALM DOWN. TAKE A DEEP BREATH.

These ideas are part of the issues raised in my new book on mental health, neuroscience, and religion, Triune Brain, Triune Mind, Triune Worldview, by Brighton Publishing, available in paperback or e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Five Ways to Make Yourself Smarter

As a "Memory Medic" committed to helping people improve their learning and memory capabilities, I am often asked in the on-line Quora.com forum questions like: "How can I make myself smarter?" I am stunned to see so many people struggling in school or the workplace who perceive a need to become smarter. Nobody seems to know how to become smarter. In fact, it is commonly believed that you cannot change your IQ, that you are stuck with whatever level you happen to have. This belief is wrong. Experimental evidence demonstrates that IQ often improves with age as infants progress through elementary school. However, by middle school and later in life IQ seems to become fixed in

most people. As far as I know, there has been little research to test this assumption. Even so, in my own experience, and others have similarly reported, going through a rigorous Ph.D. program does make you smarter. I think other things can work too.

I became sensitized to this point when I was in Graduate school at Notre Dame. I barely gained admission, because my test scores did not match their usual acceptance criteria. My major professor chastised me on multiple occasions for not being smart enough, with the comment, "Strive for insight."  If I was short on insight capability, it meant that I am not smart enough to be at Notre Dame as his student. I believed that at first. After all, my IQ score, determined in middle school, was 113, only a little above average and certainly not up to the level of Notre Dame Ph.D. graduate students. Yet my professor was also telling me that I could make myself smarter. Otherwise, what’s the point of “striving?” He couldn’t explain how to become smarter, but no doubt he had discovered this was possible from his own experience as he progressed through the rigorous education of becoming a Notre Dame priest and a earning a science Ph.D. in a prestigious University of Chicago program.

Eventually, I learned he was right on both counts: I was not smart enough, but by striving for insightfulness, I could make myself smarter. Eventually, I think I figured out how to become smarter. I know my IQ is higher now, even in old age, than it was when I was 13.  I don't know how high, and don't care to know. What matters is that I found what works for me to become smarter. I think I can explain some of that to students.

School lessons can be intimidating and sometimes “over the head” of many students. Students get discouraged when they don't understand things. When they don't understand, they struggle, and their grades suffer. They come to believe they are not smart. They may quit trying, because they wrongly conclude they don't have the ability. They become underachievers. Their belief in their incompetence becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I recently took on a task of writing a curricular item for science teaching of eighth graders. The curricular item I was writing involved a "Simulated Peer Review" learning activity in which middle-school groups work together to role play being peer reviewers of a scientific research report. I give them scaffolding questions to show them what to check for, and I also totally reconstruct the report so it could be understood by middle schoolers. The published research paper I needed to re-write posed a major problem: it was so complex that even I didn’t understand it.

Figure 1. Diagram in the original research report used to explain the purpose of the study and how it was done. Original legend presented the full chemical names. From Guedes et al. 2018.

This paper was a report on drug development for pain relief. The paper was ideal for a variety of reasons, but it was unbelievably complex, with lots of chemistry and arcane acronyms, as illustrated in Figure 1. In figuring this out, I reminded myself how I was going about this task, which crystallized as five steps or principles that anyone can use to figure out most anything, and in the process develop the mental algorithms that will make you smarter.

How am I supposed to explain the ideas in this figure to 8th graders? The legend explaining all these abbreviations and relationships only made things still harder to comprehend. Here maybe was a chance to track my strategy for figuring things out, and I could formulate and explain simple steps that would be generally applicable. I kept track of the sequence of the steps I used, and now I can specify a specific sequence of tactics for developing understanding.

Step 1. Believe You Can Become Smarter. When I formulated the "Learning Skills Cycle" in a book I recently wrote for teachers and parents, the very first step in that cycle was "Motivation." A learner who is not motivated to learn will not make the effort needed to learn much. They become under-achievers. If you don't believe you can become smarter, you won't be motivated to “strive for insight.”

Step 2. Look for the Big Picture. Look first for over-all patterns. The original legend of Fig. 1 explained in an overly complicated way that damage to cell membranes triggers three chains of chemical reactions that stem from breakdown of the phospholipids that form cell membranes. Think about the purpose of the diagram: the three pathways may reveal points in the pathways where a drug might alter the response to pain. The pathway on the right is not very relevant, so you don’t have to think about it. Focus on the meaning of the other two paths.

T

he breakdown products of these membrane phospholipids, as explained in the original legend, included three relevant enzymes (COX, Cyp450, and sEH), and a host of chemicals, some of which cause inflammation and pain. The figure also indicates that enzymes are targets: anything that inhibits them would stop their action. Note the diagram shows inhibition with lines that end in a line segment instead of an arrow. We see that inhibition of only one target enzyme, COX, can help to alleviate pain (such inhibitors are already in medical use). In the other pathway, the so-called epoxy fatty acids (EpFAs) could, in theory, block the COX enzyme or have a direct inhibitory effect on inflammation and pain. However, the EpFAs are destroyed by the enzyme soluble epoxy hydrolase (sHE), so they are not available for pain relief. Note, however, that a second enzyme (sEH), if it could be inhibited by the drug t-TUCB, it would stop the destruction of EpFAs, enabling them to accumulate and exert their anti-inflammatory and pain relieving effects. This is the purpose of the study, that is, to test to see if t-TUCB can actually reduce pain, as a previous study had suggested.

3. Simplify. For thinking purposes, temporarily strip out the information that is non essential. Be discerning in what you temporarily omit from your thinking. Sometimes, small items of information (as the three lines that end in line segments) are crucial for understanding. The other key elements here are the two over-all pathways, the three enzymes they contain, and the steps in the path they i

inhibit.

For the moment, I can ignore most of the names of the compounds. They just clutter my mind with more information than I can hold in working memory to think with. I can also ignore for now the genetic mechanisms, which though important, are not central to the purpose of this present report. Likewise, I can also ignore the glucocorticoid inhibition of enzymes that break down membrane phospholipids, because these enzymes are blocked by drugs like cortisone.

The reason we need to simplify is that we think with the information that we can hold in conscious working memory (as when you try to remember a phone number you just looked up). The capacity of working memory is very limited (4-7 items at any one time). Thus, to think clearly about any confusing matter, you must not clutter your mind with more information at any one time than your working memory can handle.

Figure 2. Simplification of Fig. 1

Step 4. Reframe the Issue. Einstein was famous for reframing his problems in the form of thought experiments, such was watching movement of trains relative to each other or riding on a moonbeam. We don’t have to be as imaginative as Einstein. In this example, all we have to do is re-draw the diagram in a form that captures the essence of the key information.  So, to help my understanding, I sketched a simpler diagram that captures the big picture" in the simplest possible way (Fig. 2). Note that I gave blue color to emphasize the enzymes and red lines to indicate their inhibition. Two inhibitory influences were shown with dashes to emphasize that this was only theoretical, because the anti-inflammatory chemicals in the right-hand path are usually destroyed and thus not available or inhibition. The test drug had been shown earlier to inhibit the enzyme in the right-hand pathway. What we don’t know is if this drug actually reduces pain. Now I have the ideas framed in the most meaningful and distinct ways. At this point, I could see the crucial points, unobscured by all the detail.

Step 5. Identify the Crucial Details. The first objective is to understand the principles, and then add in whatever level of detail that is necessary. No more, no less. One of my cardinal principles of learning is flagged with the question: What is the point of learning if you don't remember it? In this particular case, learners need to put back into those details that are crucial and may have practical relevance. As I show in Figure 3, students can now see that a drug that inhibits COX could alleviate pain, as could any new drug that could inhibit sHE (soluble epoxy hydrolase) by preventing destruction of the anti-inflammatory epoxy fatty acids. Counteracting the inflammatory chemicals (prostaglandins) would also alleviate pain, and this is what many known pain relievers do. At this point, I understand the principles of pain biochemistry, and I bet 8th graders can do so too, even if they haven’t yet learned chemistry.

Figure 3. Essential detail reinserted into Fig. 2

This reminds me to tell you that in my Learning Skills Cycle, I always put the "Understand" step before the "Memorize" step. Two reasons explain why: 1) understanding allows you to simplify and reduce the amount of detail that will burden your memory, and 2) the very act of striving for the insight about the issues is helping to encode the relevant information and is rehearsal practice that will help consolidate the memory into long-lasting memory. Thinking, rather than rote repetition, is the most powerful way to memorize.

We have now arrived at the final and most practical stage in the Learning Skills Cycle, namely, Problem Solving and Creativity. Now we can get to the practical matter of using this new understanding to plan the exploration to find drugs that can alleviate inflammation and pain. Drugs that block the path on the left should reduce pain, and this is the mechanism of action of aspirin, Tylenol, and other non-steroidal drugs. In theory, we could alleviate pain by preventing the destruction of anti-inflammatory epoxy fatty acids by blocking the enzyme (sEH) that destroys them. Epoxy hydrolase is a new target for drug development, which the research paper I was rewriting aimed to test with an inhibitor of this enzyme.

I invite you to join my LinkedIn group on 

"Neuroeducation: Promoting Cognitive Development" 

at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4883556/

Sources:

Guedes, A. G. P. et al. (2018). Pharmacokinetics and antinociceptive effects of the soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor t -TUCB in horses with experimentally induced radiocarpal synovitis. J.  Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2018, 41 (2) , 230-238. DOI: 10.1111/jvp.12463.

Klemm, W. R. 2017. The Learning Skills Cycle. A way to Rethink Education Reform. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman& Littlefield. Lanham, Md., Rowman & Littlefield.

Klemm, W. R. 2013. Teaching beginning college students with adapted published research reports. J. Effective Teaching. 13 (2), 6-20.           

Belief about Memory Ability Can Become Self-fulfilling Prophecy

If you think you don’t have a good memory, you probably don’t. It is not just a matter of self-awareness. People often think they are stuck with whatever memory capability they have, for better a worse. Not true! The fact is that anybody can improve memory ability, if they learn how (I have four books that explain how; see reviews at WRKlemm.com).

On the other hand, if you believe you have a poor memory, you may not do what is necessary to improve your memory capability. Thus, believing you have a poor memory contributes to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Evidence

1. Memory “athletes” who participate in memory tournaments train to improve their memory. Joshua Foer, author of the memory book, Moonwalking with Einstein, was a journalist with an ordinary memory. In his reporting on memory athletes, he became enamored with how they achieved amazing feats of memory. So he learned how they did it, trained, and in  2006 won the U. S. Memory Championship. 

2. Another line of evidence comes from the elderly in China. There, old age is venerated and researchers have noticed that older Chinese do NOT have diminished memory ability, as is the usual case in other countries. Picking up on this theme, Harvard University researchers studied 90 people, age 60 or older, and found they could change memory task performance by manipulating the beliefs about their memory skills.The manipulation involved creating a biasabout memory ability. Subjects viewed a list of about 50 words that either represented senile behaviors (“absent-minded,” “senile,” etc.) or represented “wise” behaviors (“sees all sides of issues,” “smart,” etc.). The lists were presented on a computer screen, and the subjects were asked to notice whether a flash occurred above or below a bulls eye that they were to focus on. Subjects were to signal the location of the flash as soon as they could with a computer key press. The rate of stimulus presentation was slow enough to allow the subliminal messages to be encoded but fast enough to keep them from being registered consciously. This was a way for the experimenter to make the conditioning subliminal and implicit. Messages were presented in five sets, each containing 20 words. Before and after the intervention, subjects were given three different kinds of memory tests that are known to assess the kinds of memory decline that occur in old age.

Test results revealed a correspondence between memory performance and the conditioned bias. Compared with their pre-test memory scores, post-test scores increased in the group that was primed with words signifying wisdom and were lower in the group that was primed with words suggesting senility.

Explanation

Belief changes attitude, and attitude changes performance. Psychologist Martin Seligman wrote a magnificent book, Learned Optimism, Beliefs about poor memory ability can cause poor memory. which points out that both optimism and pessimism are learned explanatory styles that people use to evaluate the causes of their successes and failures.

Seligman even has a test that measures one’s explanatory style, on a scale ranging  from an optimist style (where people consider negative events as temporary, specific, and external) to the pessimist style  (where people regard negative events  as permanent, pervasive, and personalized). Optimists believe they can fix what is wrong. Pessimists don't try to fix things, because they have concluded that their shortcomings are permanent, pervasive, and characteristic of themselves. The effects of these contrasting styles clearly affect one’s view of the capacity for self-improvement. The good news is one can learn a more beneficial explanatory style, in effect, changing one’s attitude.

It doesn’t take long to learn a limiting explanatory style that says you are as good as you can get. I see this all the time in students, many of whom don’t really believe they can improve their memory capability, even when I show them how. Instead of using the new approaches I teach, they fall back on their old ways of learning, which usually involves no particular strategy and the use of rote memory.

Cure

The point is this: if you are motivated to develop a better memory and believe you can, you are much more likely to do what it takes to have a better memory. The implications for real-world memory performance seem clear. Believing can change our attitude and motivate us to do the things that will make it so.

References

Klemm, W. R. 2012. Memory Power 101. SkyhorsePublishing.com

Klemm, W. R. 2011. Better Grades. Less Effort. Benecton. Smashwords.com

Levy B. R, and  Langer,  E. (1994) Aging free from negative stereotypes: Successful memory among the American deaf and in China. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 66:935–943

Dr. Bill Klemm. a.k.a. “Memory Medic,” is a Professor of Neuroscience at Texas A&M University. He has spent a career in brain research. His 50 years of experience with students and his own aging have given him additional insights into how memory can be improved. 

                   If your memory is ill, Dr. Bill is your pill