Increased Blood Pressure And Pulse Rate With Bag Breathing?

[Logan-]

Does anyone else get increased bp and pulse rate after bag breathing (for a few minutes)? Anyone know why this happens?

 

[tara]

I don't know what exactly happened in your situation.

AIUI, bag-breathing has been recommended as beneficial up to the point when it starts to feel stressful, not beyond.

I presume it is possible to create stress by oxygen deprivation or CO2 excess if you breath in too well-sealed a bag for too long. If one habitually hyperventilates so that CO2 is chronically a bit below optimum, then bag breathing can help bring it up. There are limits to how high is OK too. If it's a well-sealed bag, a few minutes would use up a lot of the oxygen in the bag, and raise the rebreathed CO2 significantly. We have internal mechanisms to increase breathing when CO2 gets too far above set point/range. If just breathing more doesn't fix it, I think it escalates so one will do something about it urgently. Hopefully we act to resolve before O2 gets so low that we pass out.

 

[Logan-]

I have no problems with these effects or any other effects of bag breathing, I find it to be very beneficial. Just want to know the mechanism behind these effects.

 

[tara]

How can you tell it's beneficial?
Increased heart rate and blood pressure are the opposite to what I'd have expected if it was having the desired effect.

 

[Logan-]

It decreases adrenaline, when it’s particularly high.

 

[yerrag]

I've experienced the same thing when I learned Buteyko. I think it has to do with my acid-base balance being off, and I was acidic. CO2 increases the acidity, and the body has to compensate by either expelling the CO2 thru increased breathing (when the imbalance is already extreme, aka acidemia), or thru the kidneys converting CO2 to bicarbonate (in case of acidosis, where the imbalance is within range). In my case, I believe I was very acidic, and although I didn't feel I was breathing more, that may be attributed to my not being able to observe it. If the body is really striving to expel the CO2 thru breathing more, it may increase the flow rate of blood, and in so doing it would likely result in increased blood pressure. Same thing with heart rate.

Just a guess.

 

[tara]

It decreases adrenaline, when it’s particularly high.

How do you know it decreases adrenaline, when it increases HR and BP?

 

[tara]

Yerrag's comment might be relevant too. I didn't manage to improve breathing much till i made some changes to diet. For me, I think adding more alkaline minerals may have made a difference, as well as watching for hunger.

 

[redsun]

It decreases adrenaline, when it’s particularly high.

If you forcibly raise CO2 with artificial means, at a certain threshold your body will be forced to increase the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (hence adrenaline increasing your BP and heart rate) so you don't kill yourself from CO2 poisoning. So ironically you end up raising adrenaline.

 

[tara]

If you forcibly raise CO2 with artificial means, at a certain threshold your body will be forced to increase the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (hence adrenaline increasing your BP and heart rate) so you don't kill yourself from CO2 poisoning. So ironically you end up raising adrenaline.

+1