Bag Breathing And Aggression

[Milklove]

Normally I am very peaceful guy, but every time I do some bag breathing I get really aggressive. My first idea was that it is connected to low blood sugar, but taking several hundred grams of sucrose didn't change anything.
Does anyone have an idea?

 

[Blossom]

Normally I am very peaceful guy, but every time I do some bag breathing I get really aggressive. My first idea was that it is connected to low blood sugar, but taking several hundred grams of sucrose didn't change anything.
Does anyone have an idea?

I've not heard of that happening before. Maybe if you continue bag breathing for too long instead of stopping when it just starts to become uncomfortable that could trigger a stress response in your body? I'm sorry to hear about that milklove. Normally one would think excessive bag breathing might result in a situation more like CO2 narcosis but your situation sounds just the opposite! Puzzling :? I suppose there is always a chance your CO2 is already optimal and this might be the bodies feedback telling you you don't need more. Have you ever had your CO2 checked? I'm just curious.

 

[Milklove]

Thank you very much for your thoughts, Blossom!
The aggressive mood even appears after just 30sec of bag breathing, but I also experience positive effects like increased blood flow and temperature, better verbal skills and increased muscular strength and endurance. Due to the experienced benefits I don't think that I have high co2, but maybe I will have it checked.

 

[Blossom]

Thank you very much for your thoughts, Blossom!
The aggressive mood even appears after just 30sec of bag breathing, but I also experience positive effects like increased blood flow and temperature, better verbal skills and increased muscular strength and endurance. Due to the experienced benefits I don't think that I have high co2, but maybe I will have it checked.

I doubt it too! Please share what you figure out! I was wondering if you have ever used baking soda and if so did you have any type of aggression associated with that?

 

[Milklove]

Thank you very much for your thoughts, Blossom!
The aggressive mood even appears after just 30sec of bag breathing, but I also experience positive effects like increased blood flow and temperature, better verbal skills and increased muscular strength and endurance. Due to the experienced benefits I don't think that I have high co2, but maybe I will have it checked.

I doubt it too! Please share what you figure out! I was wondering if you have ever used baking soda and if so did you have any type of aggression associated with that?

No, I can't remember getting any aggression when I used baking soda, but I couldn't feel any benefits either.

I got the feeling that the aggression is somehow connected with low brain energy ..

 

[Blossom]

Well your situation sounds unique. Maybe someone has had a similar experience and will chime in! CO2 was a hard one for me to notice any changes with initially. I just kept up with trying to optimize it because of Peat's views. In hindsight I can see the difference it has made so I'm glad now that I did take it seriously. I will definitely reply to your post if I run across any helpful information on CO2! Sorry I don't have more input.

 

[Blossom]

I wonder if you might prefer approaching the issue from the angle of breath awareness and practicing mindfully slowing your breathing. There is the buteyko method that some forum members use and a website http://www.normalbreathing.com that might have useful information about this approach. You probably know this but thought I'd mention it just in case. I suppose you could always try covering your face to see if that alone provokes the aggressive sensation and if so you would know if it is related to CO2 or what people call claustrophobia. It's a stretch but thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[Milklove]

Buteyko and breathing under my blanket when I am laying in my bed is just fine. I think it is too much CO2 which causes this weird aggressive mood.
When I do bag breathing I get a calm feeling, but the tiniest things can make me snatch, which is so unlike me.

 

[Blossom]

That's good to know! Sorry, CO2 is my favorite topic so now I'm intrigued to try to figure this out. Please do post anything you learn and I will too!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

When I was seven years old I attended a slumber party and we all brought sleeping bags for the sleepover. At one point the birthday girl suggested that we all put our heads at the opposite end of our sleeping bags as part of a game. I complied, but unbeknownst to me, it was a trick! As soon as I was all the way down to the other end of my bag the rest of the girls sat on the open end and blocked me from escaping. After a while I couldn't breathe and began to panic. It was no longer fun and I became quite angry, kicking and screaming....yes, that was some serious bag breathing and aggression. I was removed from the party due to my angry outburst.

I sleep with my head under the covers all the time and have since I was very small, I find it very comforting. So the slumber party incident was a solitary event.

 

[Milklove]

So, I solved the issue, although I am not really certain how or why
The last months I have been travelling a lot and couldn't get my hands on a lot of quality protein sources resulting in a quite low protein intake. I am back since last week and I realized that my liver had become somewhat sluggish. So I temporarily increased my protein intake to 200+ grams.
With each passing day my liver function improved and I could go for longer without food (a healthy liver stores more glycogen).
As my liver function improved, the aggressive reaction decreased. Today I actually felt peaceful after bagbreathing.
Somehow a good liver is necessary to do bag breathing (at least for me).

 

[tara]

The aggression seems consistent with a drop in blood sugar from the increased CO2 suddenly increasing sugar-burning. And the improvement from increased protein contributing to improved glycogen storage or other blood sugar stabilisation? Would that match?

Rakhimov says some people, including migraineurs and people suffering panic attacks should go slow because trying to increase CO2 too fast can trigger these symptoms for some people.
When I first tried using the home-made water device for 15-20 min to increase CO2 (pre-Peat), I think it triggered a migraine. My current hunch is that was because I hadn't fueled up adequately first.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

When I first did Buteyko breathing I first experienced evacuation of bowels, forcing me to go to the bathroom. After that stopped I started to get very emotional and depressed. I might even cry. Eventually that too dissapeared. Peat says that changes in physiology lead to changes in psychology so I figured these were kind of like purification reactions.

 

[Green]

I think breathing so deeply, as into a paper bag, would cause the diaphragm to massage the intestine and promote peristalsis based on what I've read. If that's actually what happens... then maybe if the intestine is inflamed it can cause irritation and promote serotonin. When I do things to increase peristalsis my body gets stressed based on the symptoms I get; which I associate with raise of serotonin. :2cents

 

[tara]

I think the increased CO2 improves blood and oxygen supply to GI system, and that is key to increasing peristalsis in a way that is mostly good, but can have a couple of negative effects if there is lots of fibre in gut and you rev up peristalsis too fast, or if your blood sugars are unstable. .
According to normalbreathing.com, these issues can be avoided. He says to do reduced breathing exercises on an empty stomach, because the resulting stimulation of peristalsis can cause damage if there is a lot of food forced through the intestine quickly. He suggests eating honey before exercises if necessary to sustain blood sugar, which can also drop from increased metabolism stimulated by exercises.
I wonder if that is why my yoga teachers have suggested eating at most lightly before class.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Had the same thing happened to me yesterday. Haven't been aggressive or pissed off in a week. Last night I was fuming for no reason