It’s Enough to Take Your Breath Away

Do you work yourself into a dither about money, relationships or your job? Do situations such as speaking in public or flying turn you into a basket case? Your friends may tell you it’s all in your head, and perhaps you agree.

But a growing number of scientists say the problem may be you’re breathing too fast. Hyperventilation, or “overbreathing,” is now a prime suspect in a number of psychological disorders, particularly those involving anxiety and irrational fears.

It’s a well-documented fact that people with chronic anxiety are more prone than others to hyperventilation. Until recently, though, hyperventilation has been considered a symptom of anxious feelings (it’s still listed that way in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,” the official U.S. handbook of mental disorders).

Some researchers are now revising this theory. They believe anxiety is really more a chain of events: It begins when some sort of psychological stress causes a person’s trunk, neck and throat muscles to clench. This restricts the lungs and makes the breathing faster and more erratic. It’s the erratic breathing pattern--not fear of the stressful situation--that accounts for the uncomfortable sensations of fear and nervousness. Curb this “hyperventilation response,” the theory goes, and the apprehensive feelings will evaporate.

“Hyperventilation can magnify any psychological disorder or emotional conflict,” says Dr. Herbert Fensterheim, a clinical professor in psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College in New York City. “The trigger doesn’t have to be negative, either. Depending on the person, any emotional stimulation can set off overbreathing.”

There’s nothing new about a connection between slow, even breathing and a sense of inner peace; it’s been a part of various Eastern philosophies, including Taoism, yoga and many martial arts, for millennia. But Western scientists remained largely unconvinced until they learned how to measure carbon dioxide in the blood stream and discovered that the blood’s carbon dioxide level drops sharply when a resting person breathes rapidly.

This forces the arteries, particularly the large ones going to the brain, to constrict. The result is a reduced blood flow and a shortage of oxygen in the body--regardless of how much is going into the lungs.

Besides feeling fearful, overbreathers often complain of poor concentration plus a sense of unreality and detachment. In severe cases they may even experience auditory or visual hallucinations, Dr. Ronald Ley, a professor of psychology and a hyperventilation researcher at the State University of New York in Albany, speculates that oxygen shortages in the brain trigger a subconscious feeling of suffocation that leads to “irrational thoughts and feelings of imminent doom.”

A single, sharp exhalation can reduce your carbon dioxide level by as much as 20% (it will take 30 seconds to return to normal); breathing hard 30 times in a minute will cut your carbon dioxide level nearly in half. According to the hyperventilation theory, such quick drops in carbon dioxide levels--or mini-attacks of hyperventilation--can occur almost imperceptibly in stressful situations, giving rise to anxious feelings.

For all the trouble it causes, chronic overbreathing is hard to detect in all but the most severe cases. The only outward clues are a tendency to gasp or sigh, especially during speaking, and a rising and falling of the upper chest when at rest (in healthy breathers, it’s the abdomen that moves). While hyperventilating you’re unlikely to feel you’re breathing too fast--in fact, because of the brain’s “air hunger,” you may feel you’re not breathing fast enough.

To get a rough idea of your own breathing pattern right now, count your breaths for a minute or two. If you took more than 14 to 16 breaths a minute, you’re breathing faster than what’s considered appropriate. Now observe the movement of your chest and abdomen as you breathe. If your chest moves more than your abdomen, chances are you’re hyperventilating.

In breathing therapy, patients learn to do slow, deep “belly breathing” at a rate of six to 10 breaths a minute, allowing the elastic diaphragm muscle to contract down and forward from the rib cage on each inhalation. Therapists also try to teach their patients to control each exhalation instead of cutting it short with a gasping intake of air.

You don’t need to visit a specialist, however, to regulate your breathing. Meditation, yoga or any other muscle relaxation technique can help.