The Mind Body Connection - Breath Work and Meditation

We have all seen the pictures of Yogi’s, Monks and Buddhist in a seated position, there spines long and sometimes pinching their index finger and thumb together.
It may have seemed exotic or weird even mystical or mysterious. Did you ever think about trying to sit still for twenty minutes just inhaling and exhaling to see what would happen or how you might feel afterwards? Meditation of various types has been around for at least six thousand years, starting in perhaps the most mystical place on earth. India. The land of the first of the four great religions. Hinduism.
An estimated six thousand years ago at the time of the pre Rig Vedas (ancient text of knowledge) meditation begins to take hold as a religious practice and to this day in all of the four religions including the philosophical beliefs of Buddhism  meditation still exists.
Over the many millennia meditative practices moved to China and then Japan and became what is known as Zin meditation.
Meditation became a bedrock of eastern philosophy and religion and was not exported to the west until sometime in the eighteen hundreds.
Now let’s fast forward to the present day. We only skipped two millennia or so.
Does the mind affect the body or the body affect the mind? The answer is both which is why we have a mind body and what I call a body mind connection. For instance, if we sprain our ankle the injury to the ankle affects the mind.
If we imagine something bad is going to happen, the worry affects the body. Essentially the mind affecting the body. If we are in a state of worry cortisol and adrenaline levels rise as the body prepares to fight for survival. Cortisol is a hormone that regulates the body’s response to stress. Cortisol affects every organ in our body and when the body is under stress cortisol levels rise essentially shutting down or altering the body’s functions not needed for the battle ahead. This is called “the fight flight response”. Running from prey. “The saber tooth tiger”. When cortisol levels remain elevated, the result is anxiety. The mind affecting the body. Simply put, there is no saber tooth tiger just the thoughts in your head.
Adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and high levels of adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate, respiration and blood pressure as the body prepares for muscle exertion to once again run from prey or run to kill prey. This physiological response is part of our fight flight mechanism.
Consistently high or higher than normal levels of this hormone is caused by anxiety and usually chronic anxiety. The thoughts in your mind.
Now let’s look at the injured ankle and it’s affect on the mind. First pain. People in pain either Chronic or acute tend to have a down tick in glutamate (a neurotransmitter) in the region of the brain responsible for regulating thoughts and emotion. This is an example of the body affecting the mind.
Now what does science say about meditation and breath work (breathing exercises)? There was something the ancients knew that science is catching up to rapidly. We now have the capacity to see changes in brain activity with meditation and simple breathing techniques called “breath work or breathing exercises “.  Now let us begin. The ancient meets the new. Technological innovation such as Electroencephalography - (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are two methods used to study changes in the brain during meditation. Electroencephalography uses electrical leads on the scalp to measure the cerebral cortex’s electrical activity. fMRI measures blood flow in the brain, specifically the consumption of oxygen by active cells.
Our cerebral cortex plays a role in memory, thinking, learning, reasoning, problem solving, emotions, consciousness and functions related to our senses. The cerebral cortex, is also called gray matter and is the outermost layer of nerve cell tissue. The cerebral cortex receives information externally and internally and thus generates commands to our internal organs and muscles.
Glial cells are also cells within our cerebral cortex and are hypothesized to have a communication network with the main cell of fascia which is called the “Fibroblast cell”.
The Pacini receptors (pacinian) sense vibration and the the golgi receptors sense changes in muscle tension. A strong argument can be made that the glial cells along with the pacini receptors and the golgi tendon receptors have a communication network within the fascial cellular matrix and meditation activities the aforementioned.
The second study with the fMRI which measure blood flow to the brain shows definitively that meditation increases blood flow which increases oxygen to the cells. This has profound affect on the area of the brain called the “hippocampus” a region that is crucial to memory. An increase in blood flow to the hippocampus can help with depression, panic disorder and anxiety.
Let’s dive a little deeper. With an increase in depression and various anxiety disorders on the rise we need to understand the battle between the primal structure called “Medulla oblongata”. The Medulla oblongata is a long stem like structure which makes up the 

Lower part of the brain stem. What are the functions of the Medulla oblongata? Breathing, circulation, swallowing, digestion and vomiting. When the Medulla is turned on high alert and doesn’t comeback to it’s normal state, anxiety and panic disorders are the result. This means you are in a constant fight or fight response and the Medulla over rides your logical brain the hippocampus.
Let’s keep meditation simple. A conscious awareness of your inspiration and expiration.That’s it for this purpose. We go from a natural spontaneous breath which is a function of the Medulla to a forced breath. This simple structural change influences structural changes in the Medulla due to its involvement in the control of respiratory flow.
We must look at meditation and the Vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve is the tenth cranial nerve originating at the Medulla oblongata of the brain stem and transitions out of the head on either side of the neck through the jugular foramen. The Vagus nerve branches out to all organs innervating the heart, lungs, digestive track - stomach, liver, pancreas, small intestine and ends it’s rout at the end of the colon. The Vagus nerve is responsible for heart rate  variability and is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system. The Vagus nerve calms the the organs of our body after an adrenaline response to danger. The Vagus nerve innervates a part of our diaphragm called the Crual which is where the esophagus passes through. The crual diaphragm which is two structures the right and left crus is connective tissue (thick fascia) which attach to the anterior longitudinal ligament. The anterior longitudinal ligament is a band running from the anterior body of the vertebrae cervical one to the the anterior body of the vertebrae lumbar five.
The expansion and contraction of the diaphragm in inhalation and exhalation (diaphragmatic breathing) stimulates the Vagus nerve. When the Vagus nerve is stimulated neurological changes take place in the brain and neurotransmitters from the brain are sent to our cells to relax. When we practice meditation or breath centered movement we work our way towards and into the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the calming part of our central nervous system.
When we meditate we breath in and out of our nose. Nasal breathing increases nitric oxide by stimulating the paranasal sinuses. The paranasal sinuses - small hollowed out spaces in the skull that contain air and that are connected to the nasal cavity- produce the gas nitric oxide. When nitric oxide levels rise this once again helps the body to relax which then our breath slows down our heart rate and blood pressure decrease, cortisol and adrenaline levels drop and a sense of well-being is the result.
Here is a simple meditation technique. First find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Close your eyes drop your shoulders away from your ears. If you are in some form of cross legged seated position keep your spine long. Set a timer for twenty minutes and just inhale to four pause at the peak of your inhalation and exhale for six and repeat. That’s it. Let thoughts come and go don’t be rigid if you have to make adjustments do so. It’s that simple. Try this for ten days straight and see what comes of it.
Stay tuned for my next blog.