Breath work v Meditation.

My first foray into breath work was last year at Robett Hollis’ powermoves summit. On the first day we took a 3 minute dip in freezing cold water - which is next on my list to investigate further, but on the second day of the summit, breath work was it. We drove out to a sunny spot in Tāmaki Makaurau, piled out of the bus and lay down on the grass. Luke and Rachel from Taylored Health took us through a series of breathing exercises, that left all of us in a completely relaxed and refreshed state. I don’t totally remember all the types of exercises we did, and to be honest I hadn’t thought about breath work for stress management since then. But when I came across this study published in Cell Reports Medicine about the concept of breathing to manage stress and how it differs from meditation, I was hooked.

Before meditation fans get cross with me for trying to cancel out their thing, the study which you can read really only gives a minor difference in mood levels between the two, and if you really love meditating, you should definitely continue it.

But for people like me - I have ADHD, and meditating, especially while stressed, just doesn’t work. So for me, having breath work be a thing to try when I can’t meditate, well, that’s gotta be a good thing, right?

Reading further, the summary says a particular exercise - cyclic sighing came out on top

What’s that, am I right?

It’s ok. I’ve got you.

Cycling sighing is inhaling through your nose till your lungs are at half capacity, then you pause for a bit, and then continue inhaling through your nose to full capacity and exhale slowly out the mouth.

Here’s a thing all about cyclic sighing via Psychology Today and the more I read, the more intrigued I am. Google it if you want to - you’ll get a bunch of recent stories and studies and opinions.

The practice of cyclic sighing takes a bit of getting used to, and I’m not wholly certain that you should try this in the middle of a chronic stressy meltdown, and definitely don’t try this without medical advice if you have asthma or any breathing, lung, pulmonary type challenge.

For me, personally, I’m going to try cyclic sighing when I wake up in the morning and again at night to see what, if any difference, I can report on my stress levels.

Walnuts? Why not?

This study published in MDPI gathered a bunch of stressed out students and gave half the group 50-ish grams of walnuts to consume daily.
Initial benchmark data was taken at the start of the year, with the students reporting their stress levels mid way through exams, and then two weeks post end of semester.

Results were predictable. Students with daily consumption of walnuts reported even stress levels, and students in the control group of no walnuts, reported high levels of stress. PN - where I initially saw this study summary, pointed out that the testing wasn’t blind, the students all knew what the testing was for, and so this could have impacted some reports. PN also reports the study was funded by a California walnut company, and while the funding wouldn’t invalidate a study, is there a conflict of interest, here? Not really, but PN does suggest this study to be low quality and perhaps don’t read into it too much.

So why tell you about a slightly rinky-dink study?

Further on, the study talks about omega-3 fatty acids and folate - both of these things present in walnuts and fatty fish. You can even google the plentiful number of studies about omega-3 fatty acids and folate being beneficial for mental health, or read this one here - but even though the original walnut study wasn’t too impressive, maybe the walnut company is on to something.

Are you picking up what I’m throwing down?

It might not necessarily be the walnuts you need to eat, or stinking the office out with fish for lunch. Maybe just taking an Omega-3 supplement is enough to help with stress? We were taught at PN (my nutrition school) to eat whole foods before reaching for a supplement, but walnuts and fish? I’ll pass and instead I’m going to try a supplement out. Apparently I need to give it a three month stab at least to see any benefits. So watch this space.

Thanks for reading this newsletter. I really appreciate the time you give to me for this and I hope you get some value or entertainment from it. If you have any questions you can reply directly to this email or if you’ve landed here from a link, email lou@sweatypals.nz. You can also follow me on Twitter here, and instagram here.

Lou xx

I was writing a post on stress management over on the main page when it occurred to me that y’all might not be too interested in the rabbit hole I sometimes (always) go down when I’m reading up and nerding out on all the studies and medical journal summaries I get from PN.

So I created this separate little area all y’all nerds like me, can read a bit more, click through to the studies I read from medical journals online - yes, I’m that much of a nerd - and generally have a nice time.

Here’s how it works though.

I get a bunch of summaries from Precision Nutrition or PN for short. It’s a paid service where PN send snips of interesting studies completed in the name of health science. It’s a nice time and you can read more about this service, here.

Anyway, when I get a summary of a study I’m interested in, I go neck deep in all the supporting research papers so I can attempt to understand stuff a bit better. I’m not really the smartest person, but my ADHD really does allow me to consume a heck of a lot of content when it’s a topic I’m interested in, and some of it is fascinating. When it is, I’ll probably write a bit about it on the main page, and then write “a bit more…” here.

I will always link to this page and specific posts from the main page, but you can also subscribe to Sweaty Science Stuff if you’d just like to get to the top shelf straight away.

I need to make it perfectly clear that I am a lay person with a nerdy personal interest in health sciences. I share personal interpretations of studies I read and am certainly not an authority or specialist of any kind. Please check with your health provider before trying anything that I waffle on about.

So here’s to the rabbit hole of sweaty science. I hope you get some entertainment out of it.

Lou xxx