The Science of Breathwork with Dr. Sachin Patel Rational Wellness Podcast 471
Dr. Ben Weitz introduces the Rational Wellness Podcast and interviews Dr. Sachin Patel, a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner known for breathwork, about how breathing influences health. Patel explains how tongue posture and nasal breathing affect facial structure, airway size, posture, circulation, lymph flow, and nervous system regulation, and discusses CO2 tolerance, the Bohr effect, and how hyperventilation can reduce oxygen delivery. He outlines common mistakes such as treating breathwork as a single daily session instead of frequent check-ins, and emphasizes nose breathing—especially during sleep—citing high rates of mouth breathing and recommending options like micropore tape or Myotape. They cover breathing “gears” for exercise, parasympathetic-focused patterns (including 4-7-8 and longer exhales), breath holds, digestion and vagal tone, sleep apnea considerations, and resources including Patel’s sites and book.
00:59 Meet Dr Sachin Patel
01:59 Why Breathwork Matters
05:32 Tongue Posture Airway
09:47 Diaphragm Heart Lymph
13:25 CO2 Tolerance Bohr Effect
19:07 Daily Breath Habits
22:00 Mouth Taping Sleep
25:06 Nasal Breathing Benefits
29:19 Athletes Three Breathing Gears
33:22 Breathing Metabolism Fat Loss
35:07 Question About 478
35:17 Exhale For Sleep
36:14 Breath And Trauma
40:21 Somatic Breathwork
41:05 Why Mouth Breathing
42:46 Breath And Digestion
48:08 Breath Holds Benefits
50:11 Breathing For Longevity
51:23 Clinicians Start Here
53:32 Sleep Apnea Alternatives
57:31 Final Takeaways
01:01:21 Diaphragm And Rhythm
01:03:48 Heart And Blood Pressure
01:04:49 Where To Learn More
01:06:58 Podcast Wrap Up
Dr. Sachin Patel is a doctor of chiropractic, a Functional Medicine practitioner and success coach, an international speaker, and author. He is perhaps most well known for his expertise on the science of breathwork and he is also a very successful business coach for Functional Medicine practitioners. His websites are TheLivingProofInstitute.com and BreathworkwithSachin.com
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Transcript:
Dr. Weitz: If you’re looking for clinically useful insights, not wellness hype, then this is the place for you. Welcome to the Rational Wellness Podcast, the podcast for functional and integrative practitioners who wanna practice with greater clarity and precision. I’m Dr. Ben Weitz, and each week, I sit down with the leading clinicians, researchers, and lab innovators to explore the science, lab testing, and clinical reasoning behind modern root cause medicine. This is a show focused on practical, evidence-informed insights that you can actually use in patient care. Please subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Please tell your friends and colleagues, and if you could give us a ratings and review on Apple or Spotify, we would certainly appreciate it. Finally, to access the show notes and the full transcript, please go to my website, drweitz.com. [00:01:00]
Hello, Rational Wellness podcasters. Today, we’ll be speaking to Dr. Sachin Patel about the science of breathing. Dr. Patel is a doctor of chiropractic, a functional medicine practitioner, and success coach, and international speaker, and author.
He’s perhaps m- most well-known for his expertise on the science of breathwork, and he’s also a very successful business coach for functional medicine practitioners. Let’s explore the profound impact of breathing on overall health with Dr. Sachin Patel. Sachin, thank you so much for joining us today.
Dr. Patel: It’s my absolute honor and pleasure. I appreciate the opportunity to share with, you and your community, and I always learn something new when I’m speaking to smart, capable, and powerful people like yourself. So I’m, really looking forward to our time together.
Dr. Weitz: Thank you very much. So, you [00:02:00] began your career as a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner, and what led you to become so passionate about breathwork?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, thanks for asking. I was thinking about it even when you were doing the intro, that I never thought that this would be the thing that, I’m, now trying to propagate this message all over the world, and I’m certainly standing on the shoulders of giants like, Konstantin Buteyko, and Patrick McKeown, and James Nestor. So I’m very grateful to have learned what I’ve learned. I, think what really set me down this path is my son, and he had some dental challenges and some occlusion challenges growing up, and it turned out that it all stemmed from dysfunctional breathing. So had I known better, I could have done better, and it…everything’s cute until you get the bill, right? So drooling on your pillow at night is cute until you get the bill for it. And through the process of going through the [00:03:00] dental world with him, and trying to find a solution, and taking my chiropractic philosophy to heart, and understanding that God doesn’t make any junk, we were able to, and extra parts really, we were able to, keep all of his teeth, ’cause many dentists wanted to pull it, pull about four teeth, ’cause his jaw wasn’t expanding because he wasn’t breathing properly.
That’s when I learned about James Nestor’s work, and right around the same time, COVID happened, and I also had a profound, spiritual awakening during a breathwork experience. So it’s really a cataclysmic set of events that all happened around the same time that moved me in this direction, and the thing that really lit me up was how breath is such a powerful tool when we use it for spiritual experiences.
It’s a powerful emotional regulating tool, and for, for mom- for moment-to-moment, life, and it’s a very powerful tool and a lead domino for, [00:04:00] other health, a- and metabolic activities in the body. It’s really the most important thing that we do that is invisible, shapes our face, shapes our physiology, shapes the way we think, shapes the way we function, but nobody really talks about it. And so, as I started learning about it, my really, this is where my chiropractic and my functional medicine background came in, handy, and my kinesiology background came in handy, ’cause I started connecting the dots of how breathing affects us, biologically, how it affects us biochemically, how it affects us physically, and how it affects us emotionally and spiritually. And through that investigation, I haven’t found anything to be more predictable and reliable, and more scalable than teaching people how to breathe.
Dr. Weitz: I want to go into each of those if we have enough time. Why don’t we start with the structural factors, especially, me being a [00:05:00] chiropractor. So can you talk about how breathing affects our structure, and also how does our structure affect breathing? And I’ve, I thought maybe, in that regard, you could talk about things like posture, how does, forwards head posture, maybe kyphosis, scoliosis, misalignments, things like that, how does that affect our ability to breathe properly?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, absolutely. it’s a great, place to start. as chiropractors, posture is so important, right? Form affects function, and function affects form, and that’s actually very, very important with a muscle that we often don’t give much consideration to, which is our tongue. So the posture of our tongue is very crucial to, the rest of our body. The fascia from our tongue is connected all the way to the tip of our toes, and so how [00:06:00] we position our tongue affects how the rest of the fascia hangs in our body, so to speak. And so the tongue should be resting in the roof of the mouth. If you look at any anatomical drawing, if you open up Netter, you’ll see that the tongue is not resting at the roof of the mouth. So even in our educational system, even if you, look at cadaver, or, anatomical drawings, the tongue is n- often sitting in the middle of nowhere.
It should be resting in the roof of the mouth. In the roof of the mouth, we have 84 meridian points, so it’s almost like a little piano in the roof of our mouth. In the roof of our mouth, we also have bundles of nerve endings that when a pressure is applied to, it relaxes the nervous system. So think of a child sucking their thumb or a child latching onto their mother’s nipple or the nipple of a bottle that hits the back of or the roof of the mouth, instantly soothing a child.
So when our tongue is placed there, it soothes our nervous system. It also seals our mouth, so now [00:07:00] we’re breathing through our nose instead of our mouth, and the other thing that it happens is it widens our palate. So if we don’t push our face outwards from the inside, gravity is causing it to cave in. So when our tongue is resting in the bottom of our mouth instead of in the roof of our mouth, it doesn’t act as a spacer, and that spacer allows for a widening of the palate and expansion of the palate, and the roof of our mouth is the floor of our sinuses.
So the way we breathe and the way we posture our tongue changes the shape of our face, it changes the structure of our airway, and it also, improves oral health and function, and it’s more, most importantly, it soothes the nervous system. Because our tongue is, basically holding the front of our head up, you’ll also get more relaxation, in the cervical extensor muscle.
So people with chronic and achy necks, they might benefit from, of course, chiropractic and massage therapy and even [00:08:00] physical therapy, depending on what’s going on. But if they’re sitting at a desk, there’s nothing holding the front of their head up, and that’s also part of the the function of, the tongue. The tongue is a unsung hero, so to speak, when it comes to, how we breathe and even how we look. So I have pictures of myself from About six or seven years ago before I started my own breathing journey, and you can literally see the shape of my face changing over time. By simply placing my tongue in the roof of my, in my, of my mouth, I’ve actually widened my palate.
And so you can change the way you look. It’s, pretty remarkable, and it’s, fascinating, ’cause when I look at pictures of myself from just even, my facial hair and stuff was different too, but you can tell the structure of my face ha- has, changed significantly. So it’s never too late. so for those of you that want a new look, of course you have cosmetic surgery available to you, but if you’re patient enough, you can change-
Dr. Weitz: On the other hand, I guess if you wanted to be a model, you want, might want a narrower [00:09:00] face, so you- … maybe you don’t want to do that.
Dr. Patel: Well, you know what? It’s, quite fascinating, ’cause when, we actually look at attractiveness from a primal level, we are naturally more attracted to people with a wider smile.
Dr. Weitz: Huh.
Dr. Patel: which leads to a much more open airway, right? So if you’re looking for a mate, you want one that has all their teeth- … and you want one that has a open airway so they’re not gonna snore at night, and one that can breathe through their nose so they’re calm and able to regulate their nervous system. A habitual mouth breather has no regulation of the nervous system. They’re like a boat without a rudder, but when you learn how to breathe, you can, and breathe with precision, and breathe with awareness, now it’s almost like you’re grabbing the steering wheel of your nervous system. The, in the same vein as we think about posture- obviously our ribcage is meant to expand and contract, right?
And it’s protecting what I would argue are some of our most vital organs, right? Our [00:10:00] lungs and our heart. And so the cardiorespiratory system works together. So one of the best ways that you can give your heart a hug is by taking a deep breath, ’cause as we expand the lungs and we breathe in, there’s a limited amount of expa- room for things to expand, so it actually squeezes our heart.
So our breath actually allows for improving the circulation of our blood by helping assist the heart in pumping blood. The diaphragm, as it moves up and down, 23,000 times a day, it’s pumping the heart. The diaphragm is referred to as the second heart. Some of the biggest lymph nodes in our body are underneath our diaphragm, and if I was an intelligent designer, that’s exactly where I’d put them, so that every time somebody takes a breath, their lymphatic system is also getting pumped.
And, most disease and illness starts in the trunk organs, right? People don’t get finger cancer, they get liver cancer, and they don’t com- you know, they’re complaining more about chronic issues in this region, and the [00:11:00] diaphragm is what keeps things in check. So when you’re breathing properly, you’re assisting your heart in pumping blood. You’re also moving the lymphatic system. So your master piston in your body is your diaphragm. It’s the only muscle that you can control 24… that you can control that’s active 24/7. And so when, as our lungs expand and contract, they’re also helping shape our posture. In fact, there’s, the name escapes me, but there was a lady, many decades ago, she would actually cure people of their scoliosis by teaching them how to breathe.
Dr. Weitz: Oh.
Dr. Patel: And one of my suspicions, I don’t have any research to support this, but if a mother holds their child in the same arm so let’s say, a mother’s working, she’s using her left hand, so she’s holding the baby in her right arm, and that’s the arm that she holds the baby in. I suspect, and maybe this has already been researched, but, that doing that changes the way a child breathes because they’re getting more expansion in one lung versus the [00:12:00] other which then changes the shape of their spine. Because the lungs act like a balloon. They’re expanding from the inside. So if I’m in this position, even just a few degrees, and this is how I’m breathing, my left lung is getting more expansion, my right lung is being compressed. Huh. So the shape of my spine is gonna change as well. So the, the way we breathe really is-
Dr. Weitz: Well, that’s kind of interesting because to this day, we don’t really have a good understanding of why scoliosis develops.
Dr. Patel: Yeah. It’s idiopathic, right? So if we can… I always say, if you can cause something, it’s probably also the cure. So if I were to put somebody in this position and just say, “Hey, breathe like this,” a child takes about 40 to 60,000 breaths a day, so breathe like this, of course it’s gonna change the shape of the structure, right? It’s almost impossible for it not to. And I know that a lot of people, like, if they have a working mother or somebody holding them, they’re usually their working hand [00:13:00] is active and busy, and they’re holding the child in the other. So just, it’s a theory, but, certainly- Yeah … we are using breathing techniques to, to reverse scoliosis, so if proper breathing mechanics can cause it, improper breathing mechanics, or can cure it, improper breathing mechanics can likely cause it, especially in those developmental years.
Dr. Weitz: Huh. That’s pretty fascinating. so, we often think of breathing that the main goal is to get oxygen in. But the trigger to breathe is actually to remove CO2. On the other hand, if we over breathe or hyperventilate, you blow off too much CO2, and, that actually restricts blood vessels and makes it harder for oxygen to get to your organs. Can you explain the purpose of breathing and the oxygen and CO2 factors? [00:14:00]
Dr. Patel: Yeah. I, want to expand this conversation because I think that many times when we think of what is the purpose of breathing, we kinda limit it or restrict it to the exchange of gases. And, I wanna expand on that because, one of the things that we do very powerfully with our breath is we express emotions. So I wouldn’t be able to talk if I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t be able to smell food or flowers, if I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t be able to laugh if I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t be able to cry, I wouldn’t be able to cry if I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t be able to pump my lymph- lymph and my trunk organs, right?
I wouldn’t be able to assist my heart. So breathing is one of those things, and this is what really sealed the deal for me, Ben, is, as I started connecting all the dots, I realized that the breath is the lead domino. It’s the one thing that if we teach people how to do correctly, they’re already doing it, it’s everywhere they go, they have no [00:15:00] choice, they can, never forget it, it’s reliable, it’s predictable.
So if we can teach people how to breathe It will affect every other system in their body automatically. So I don’t need to breathe a different way to heal every single different organ in my body. I just need to learn how to breathe in a parasympathetic way and drive my autonomic nervous system in that direction, and everything automatically falls into place and takes care of itself. So the, the breath is such a powerful tool, so we do it for so many reasons. It plays such a crucial role in so many activities that we do, and again, that’s what sealed the deal for me, is that it is the steering wheel for our nervous system. Now, in addition to that, if we think of, obviously the biochemical and biological need to breathe, the urge to breathe comes from an intolerance to CO2.
So as, we breathe in oxygen and other gases, only about 20% of it actually [00:16:00] makes it to our cells. We breathe out the other 80%, okay? So we only brea- we breathe in, the 100% of the oxygen we breathe in, we only bre- we br- only u- utilize about 20%. And then that binds to hemoglobin, which travels through our bloodstream, and then that red blood cell, dumps the oxygen to the tissue where it needs it.
Now, that process is dependent on CO2 levels, so the higher our CO2 levels are, the more we dump oxygen at the tissue, okay? So the more CO2 we have, the more oxygen delivery we have. Now, most people i- are intolerant to CO2 ’cause they’ve never trained to become tolerant to CO2. So the urge to breathe isn’t because you need more oxygen.
The urge to breathe is because you need to release that CO2 that’s building up. If we [00:17:00] can tolerate higher levels of CO2, which you can train, and we can certainly… I can… We can talk about how to test your CO2 tolerance and how to train for it, but you will experience less anxiety, you will have more resilience, you’ll perform better under stress, okay?
You’ll have better sleep. Like, so many things will improve when we improve function in that regard. So CO2 tolerance is something that, we work on and we can test and build upon, and it’s, is a very low-hanging fruit or opportunity for people to assess and also improve their health. The elevation of CO2 and the increased oxygen delivery, that’s known as the Bohr effect, so if people wanna dive into that, the biochemistry of that a little bit more detail, they can search, Bohr effect, and they’ll see that as we increase CO2, we increase oxygenation of the tissue. Now, here’s where this [00:18:00] becomes valuable for us, is let’s say somebody passes out and they stop breathing.
Dr. Weitz: Right?
Dr. Patel: As the CO2 in their body starts to climb from metabolic activity, y- they’re actually dumping more oxygen to the tissue. So it’s actually a, a survival mechanism as well. We wouldn’t want to be dead as soon as we stop breathing. Our mitochondria can only survive for about five sec- five seconds without oxygen, so we’ve gotta keep feeding and fueling those mitochondria with oxygen.
So if somebody stops breathing, they actually have about five extra breaths in them, right? ‘Cause remember, we only absorb about 20% of the oxygen, so there’s a lot available to us, and if we can get the CO2 levels high enough, then we can start dumping it at the tissue level and, again, keep us alive in a life or death situation, but also in a normal situation, like if I’m breathing right now listening to this, I can breathe in a way that creates what we call a little bit of air hunger, which [00:19:00] increases my CO2, which increases my brain tissue oxygenation
Dr. Weitz: Okay. So what are some of the biggest mistakes people make when breathing?
Dr. Patel: I think the biggest mistake people make, when it comes to breathing or incorporating breathing into their daily routine is they think that they have to set aside 10 minutes or half an hour or even, any amount of time throughout the day, and they think that’s their breathwork. I like to think of drawing my attention to my breath hundreds if not thousands of times a day, just always coming back to it, always coming back to my breath because it’s serving me in every moment. It’s available to me in every moment. So if I’m exercising, I wanna check in with my breath and breathe a certain way that supports the activity that I’m doing.
If I’m sitting at my desk checking emails, right, there’s a way that I could be breathing that’s supportive for that activity, where I could breathe a certain way [00:20:00] to relax my nervous system, right? I could breathe a certain way to excite my nervous system if I wanted to. So when one- when I check in with my breath throughout the day, it’s– there’s always an opportunity for me to make micro adjustments and steer my nervous system in the direction that serves me.
So the mistake people make is that if they didn’t do their breathwork this morning or they didn’t set aside the time, then they think, “Oh, I didn’t do my breathwork today.” But they were breathing all day, which means they had thousands of opportunities to check in with themselves. What I encourage people to do to remind themselves about breathing is attach their breath to their most common thought.
So for example, BJ Fogg talks about this in his book Tiny Habits, where when we wanna change behavior, we need first motivation, then we need ability, and then the third thing, which is the part that’s missing for most people, is we need a prompt. We need something that’s gonna prompt us or remind us to, change the behavior or implement the behavior. So what I invite people to do is think of the thing [00:21:00] you think of the most. So Ben, let’s, check in with you. What’s the thing you think of the most?
Dr. Weitz: I’m not sure.
Dr. Patel: Maybe it’s email, maybe it’s patients, maybe it’s, your wife- Okay … or kids or, maybe it’s every time you pick up your phone, right? So something that you do over and over again. You would just anchor your breath to that. So for me, every time I, come to a red light, that’s a reminder for me to check in with my breath, right? So something that you do frequently throughout the day or something you think about frequently throughout the day, attach your breath to that, and then it just gives us an opportunity to check in. And, if you’re doing that, several times a day, and then eventually it becomes part of who you are, you’ll see a, rapid shift in the state of somebody’s nervous system. Their state of healing, repair, all those things start to improve. And how we breathe during the day is carried into how we breathe at night.[00:22:00]
Dr. Weitz: And one of the biggest issues with breathing is that people tend to breathe through their mouth instead of through their nose.
Dr. Patel: Yeah, about 50% of people breathe through their mouth habitually without realizing it, and about 66% of people, breathe with their mouth open at night. And while we’re sleeping is the most restorative and reparative time for us to, be, healing and repairing, right? Just like a car, your car doesn’t, repair itself while you’re driving. It breaks down while it’s driving. It repairs itself in the shop at rest, right? So every night, we kind of roll our car into the shop, and, the car has to be at rest. It has to be turned off, so to speak, right, so that all the biological processes can take place.
But breathing through your mouth at night is like putting, leaving your car on and putting your foot on the gas. You’re stuck in this sympathetic dominant state. Mouth breathing increases blood sugar. Mouth, mouth [00:23:00] breathing decreases nitric oxide levels. Mouth breathing causes cavities. But it doesn’t get, help us get into that restful night’s sleep.
Mouth breathing is also diuretic, so we also encourage… So therefore, we encourage people at night to tape their mouth closed, just with a small piece of 3M micropore tape placed vertically, ensuring their mouth stays closed and they breathe through their nose while they’re sleeping. Now, you might work up to that if you’re not used to that, five minutes while you’re awake, 10, 20 minutes while you’re awake, and then you can try sleeping with it.
But if you’re waking up with a dry mouth, if you’re waking up with dry lips, or, and/or if you’re waking up to use the restroom at night, chances are that individual is a mouth breather because mouth breathing will dry out the mouth, it’ll chap out the lips, it’ll make them dehydrated, and it’ll act as a diuretic, so it’ll make them wake up to go pee at night.
And just the simple act of conscious breathing during the day and, mouth taping at night can have a life-changing impact on a [00:24:00] lot of people’s lives because they’re changing the way they breathe about 7 to 8,000 times when they breathe through their nose while they’re sleeping.
Dr. Weitz: I was just talking to a mother today, and I was talking to her about breathing, and she was telling me that her kids breathe with their mouth open. I said, “You should tape their mouth.” And she said, “Oh, I’m afraid that it’s not safe.”
Dr. Patel: Yeah, so you can actually get something called Myotape. And Myotape, is tape that goes around the mouth. So when the child’s mouth is relaxed while they’re sleeping or even while they’re watching TV, for example, they don’t have to think about it, the mouth, stays closed. But because the tape goes around the lips, if they wanna open their mouth, they’re more than welcome to. So it gives them, gives parents maybe that, sense of safety, that they, if their child needs to vomit or something like that, I mean, it’s rare that might happen, but it can happen, then the Myotape allows them to open their mouth, on, on their volition, but at rest it’ll keep it closed.
Dr. Weitz: [00:25:00] Oh, interesting.
Dr. Patel: So it’s, yeah, M-M-Y-O T-A-P-E, myotape.com.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, great. And so what’s the importance, why is breathing through the nose so much more beneficial than breathing through the mouth?
Dr. Patel: Great question. So the nose has 35 unique functions, 35 different things- … it does. One of them is it spiral-
Dr. Weitz: The nose knows.
Dr. Patel: Yeah, the nose knows. one of them is to literally spiralize the air. So by spiralizing the air, we actually create, a, a greater efficiency to get the air into the bottom of our lungs.
Dr. Weitz: Huh.
Dr. Patel: Right? You… So s- the spiralization happens through the turbinate. So the inside of your nose, has little turbinates in there that spiralize the air, pressurize the air. And when you breathe through your nose, because of that, you get about 20% more oxygen with less effort. So when you breathe through your nose, you’re priming and optimizing the air from a pressure standpoint and an efficiency standpoint. You’re also moisture [00:26:00] regulating the air, temperature regulating the air, and cleansing the air from particulate.
So one thing we encourage people to pay attention to is their booger volume. And, if, their booger volume- They’re talking … is wrong. Because, we talk about earwax and stuff, but nobody talks about booger, right? booger is a functional sign that they’re breathing dirty air. So, I, remember growing up, I w- I was, I’d have boogers in my nose all the time, playing outside, playing in the dirt, all that kind of stuff.
And now my nose stays, like, perfectly clean, ’cause we purify the air that we breathe and such. But people who have a lot of, particulate in their air, they’re gonna h- they’re gonna get a lot of, boogers. I don’t know even if that, what the scientific terminology for boogers is, but, it, that’s actually the hair filtering the particulate so it doesn’t go into the lungs.
we breathe 30 pounds of air a day, so we consume more air a day than food in a [00:27:00] week, and so there’s, we want that filtration process, to be working. We also sterilize the air, so our nasal mucosa, produces, assuming the bacteria in the mouth is, is stable, th- our tongue bacteria helps us produce nitric oxide in our nasal mucosa.
So our nasal mucosa is actually, the inside of our sinus is lined with erectile tissue, and nitric oxide is an antiviral, antibacterial and antipathogenic, so it actually kills pathogens before they get into our lungs and sterilizes the air. So we have a mechanical sterilization- and a biochemical sterilization of the air.
so y- that, that’s like some of the functions of what the nose does. Wow. And of course it, our mouth is the dirtiest part of our body, so if, we’re breathing in air, it’s gonna get dirtier if we breathe from our mouth going into our lungs, versus breathing through our [00:28:00] nose, which cleanses the air.
And when we breathe habitually through our nose, we’re al- also less likely to become dehydrated, because we recapture about 30% of the moisture that we would normally be exhaling through our mouth, and we also protect the teeth, and oral bacteria. So, they say a lot of illness and disease actually starts here, right?
in the mouth. what’s happening in the mouth is also migrating and happening in the, cardiovascular system and elsewhere. So the mouth is where the digestive system starts, and so if our oral bacteria is imbalanced, then we’re gonna constantly have a imbalanced digi- gut bacteria as well.
Dr. Weitz: And we also wanna breathe through our bellies rather than through our chest, correct?
Dr. Patel: Yeah. So it’s much more efficient to breathe into your belly if you’re breathing through your nose. And so breathing in through the nose, tongue in the roof of the mouth, breathing in for about a count of four to six, and breathing, letting the water, [00:29:00] letting, the air fall into our y- lungs, so filling up from the bottom, and relaxing the belly, ex- allowing the ribcage to expand in all directions.
So we want 360 expansion of the ribcage taking place, along with the belly being soft and relaxed.
Dr. Weitz: Now, what about athletes? What if somebody’s running a mile or they’re running five miles? Should they optimally be breathing through their nose and taking deeper belly breaths?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, great question. So there’s…
I, believe there’s three gears to breathing. So the first gear of breathing is just breathing in comfortably in through the nose, out through the nose, and that’s how we should be. That’s how you’re breathing right now, that’s how I’m breathing when I’m not talking, and that’s my resting, breathing signature, so to speak.
And there’s gonna be variances. Some people, depending on the state of their nervous system, the depth and cadence of their breath is gonna be a [00:30:00] little bit different. But each of us has our own unique breathing signature that’s as unique to us as our fingerprint. So you and I breathe just a little bit d- differently, and there’s a story to be told there.
so how we breathe, makes a, makes a huge difference in that regard in terms of, our breathing, signature and the regulation of our nervous system Repeat the question again that you were asking me? Oh,
Dr. Weitz: I was asking about athletes and-
Dr. Patel: Yeah, so, so for athletes, sorry. Yeah. So, my apologies. So for athletes, their resting breathing posture is something we wanna pay attention to because that tells us how efficient they are. When we’re breathing the three gears in through the nose, out through the nose, that’s our br- breath at rest. When we increase our metabolic activity, then we’re gonna breathe in through our nose and then out through our mouth, okay?
So if I’m going for a jog, I’m gonna try to maintain nasal breathing as much as I can. [00:31:00] Once I can’t do that anymore, I’m gonna breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth
So this allows me to breathe in, spiralize the air, pressurize the air, get it into the bottom of my lungs, and then exhaling through my mouth allows me to rapidly, get rid of the CO2. Okay? So I wanna be able to rapidly get rid of the CO2. If you’re going into an all-out sprint, right, and you really wanna pick up the pace, and this you would do for a short duration, then you would be rapidly breathing in and out through your mouth.
And the reason you’d wanna do that is because every time we’re breathing in and out, we’re also rapidly expanding and contracting our lungs, which is assisting our heart in pumping blood. So there is a secondary benefit, to the heart and pu- and creating enough blood pressure to, to get that blood flowing to the arms and legs And then you would s- and then you would gear down from there.
So then if you went hard [00:32:00] on a sprint, in and out through the mouth, you would then go down to breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth, and then gear down again and go in and out through the nose. So when I work out, for example, if I push myself really hard, I go into that, rapid breathing in and out through my mouth, and then I gear down in between the set.
So then I go to breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth, and then I don’t do my set until I’m able to get back to nasal breathing again.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. but if you’re running a longer distance, you’re gonna be more likely brea- optimally, it would be good to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.
Dr. Patel: Yeah, if you’re, exerting yourself. and, if you can maintain nasal breathing, for as long as possible, and as you train CO2 tolerance, you can train to exhale a little bit more slowly, that’s actually gonna create more, efficiency, because you’re breathing less, and you, have more oxygen being [00:33:00] delivered because the CO2 levels are higher.
But that takes some training to be able to tolerate that high level of CO2. But you would train, you could train to that metabolic threshold, right? So some people train to the threshold where they can maintain nasal breathing, and they don’t, go beyond that. So, and then they can expand their metabolic window from there if they choose to.
Dr. Weitz: Is your breathing affected by the fuel that you use to fuel your body?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, it’s a great question. there, there are certainly, you know-
Dr. Weitz: Like, if somebody’s, say, trying to use fat for energy as opposed to carbs, is that gonna change things?
Dr. Patel: That, I don’t know so much. I, would look at that more from a nervous system regulation standpoint, so, and a, activation level standpoint.
Okay. So if you’re going, if you’re going into a sprint, you’re not gonna be using fat for energy.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Patel: Right? No matter how hard- No, I know … you try, you’re gonna be using- No, I
Dr. Weitz: know …
Dr. Patel: the creatine phosphate cycle and glycogen. Right. Those are gonna be your [00:34:00] energy sources.
Dr. Weitz: It’s- But
Dr. Patel: in longer
Dr. Weitz: distances, you might.
Dr. Patel: Right, yeah, or lower level activities. Right. So what we, encourage people to focus on is breathing slow at rest, because that shifts them into that more parasympathetic state, where they’re now utilizing fat as an energy source instead of glycogen as an energy source. So the s- the, protocol for that would be to breathe, slower.
And so we would have them breathe in for a count of four- Out for a count of six, pause for a count of two, and then repeat that cycle. So you’re just really lengthening the exhale and, breathing gently on the inhale. That form of breathing will naturally shift them into a more parasympathetic state, lower cortisol production, and that can help target, specifically target belly fat.
‘Cause a lot of times people don’t realize this, but their breath plays a role in their belly fat because the breath, their breathing [00:35:00] signature is kinda, cluing us into the default state of their nervous system.
Dr. Weitz: What about the 4-7-8 breathing strategy? I tend to recommend that a lot. Is there something unique about 4-7-8?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, generally speaking, anything that lengthens the exhale-
Speaker: Okay …
Dr. Patel: is going to shift us into a more parasympathetic state. I generally tend to use the 4-7-8 breath as a recommendation for sleep. So I’ll have people, and for people that aren’t familiar, we breathe in for a count of four, of course always breathing in through the nose, tongue at the roof of the mouth, hold for a count of seven, and then exhale for a count of eight.
So when you do that, you’re about four seconds on the inhale, 15 seconds on the exhale. When you do the 4-6-2 breath, you’re four seconds on the inhale, eight seconds on the exhale. If you do box breathing, you’re breathing in for four, and then essentially exhaling for a count of 12. So [00:36:00] all of those breathing techniques are going to lengthen the exhale, which are going to shift us more into that parasympathetic state.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. How, how do breathing strategies affect our physiology and affect our, anxiety, our, stress levels, our nervous system?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, great question. So, our breathing, if… So here’s the thing, we’re all for the most part born perfect breathers, okay? ‘Cause for the most part we came with pretty regulated nervous systems.
Dr. Weitz: Then how do kids end up being mouth
Dr. Patel: breathers? Well, I’ll, I’ll, I have some theories, okay?
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Patel: So one is, s- so we’ll backtrack. So when we think about our nervous system, our [00:37:00] breathing signature is almost like imagine you were driving your car and you let go of the steering wheel.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Patel: Most pe- when we’re born, when we just buy the car off the lot, that car’s just gonna go in a straight line, right?
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Patel: But over time, it might pull to the left or pull to the right a little bit more. And so based on our life experiences, traumas that we go through, the challenges that we go through, the way we breathe, changes.
So our trauma is stored in our diaphragm, our emotional hard drive is our myofascial system, and our grief is stored in our lungs. So we all know people, or maybe ourselves, have experienced trauma, grief and emotions, and that’s all tied to our breathing, right? So if you think about how we emotionally express ourselves, it’s through the breath, right?
Laughing is breathing, sighing is breathing, crying is [00:38:00] breathing. These are all forms of breathing, and the way we control that breath is through the way our diaphragm moves, right? So when you laugh, there is a… Your diaphragm contracts in a specific way. When you cry, same thing. Like, when you’re sighing, there’s a specific contraction, so these are breathing signatures we refer to them as.
When we experience traumatic events, our breath has been a witness to every traumatic experience we’ve had. That trauma gets stored in our diaphragm. Many of us have trapped emotions, so let me, backtrack a little bit and use an example we can all probably relate to. We’ve all probably either been told to stop crying, have told somebody to stop crying, or have witnessed somebody told, been told to stop crying.
The only way to stop crying is to stop breathing. The only way to stop breathing is to hold your diaphragm still. So you have a million miles an hour of emotion trying to boil itself to the surface, and you [00:39:00] have this diaphragm that’s trying to, put a lid on it, and that emotion, if we don’t release it, gets pushed down, f- literally and figuratively into the myofascial system.
So our myofascial system, is this web-like system that connects all of our body parts together simultaneously. This is why people end up with chronic pain and chronic issues. it’s a lot of times related to em- chronic emotions that are unresolved, and the way we release those emotions is by using the breath.
So vocalizing, right, screaming can be very powerful. Crying can be very powerful. Talking with somebody can be very powerful. using specific holotropic breathing techniques or specific, techniques like elemental rhythm can activate our myofascial system and then use our lungs and our diaphragm to move that emotion out of our body, and we’ve seen literally [00:40:00] hundreds of emotional transformations and, just had a lady last week who had debilitating neck pain.
She’s had multiple neck surgeries, and for the first time in as long as she can remember after doing the breathwork, her pain was completely gone. So-
Dr. Weitz: What is, emotional… What did you say? Emotional rhythm?
Dr. Patel: elemental rhythm.
Dr. Weitz: Elemental rhythm. Yeah. What is that?
Dr. Patel: So elemental rhythm is a type of breathing, practice.
It’s a type of breathing facilitation, that’s what I actually do, that, creates an altered state that shuts off our default mode network and makes our brain more suggestible- Okay … so that we can, release old traumas and stories that we’re holding onto, forgive ourselves, love ourselves again, and then it allows us to, basically shut off the part of our brain that’s constantly ruminating and helps us write a new story.
So when you’re, doing, breathwork like that, therapeutic breathwork, somatic breathwork we call it, [00:41:00] it’s really a whole body, mind, spirit experience that people have.
Dr. Weitz: So, are you- are you saying that the reason why if we should be breathing through our nose, and yet most of us are breathing through our mouth.
What’s the reason for that?
Dr. Patel: I mean, it could be a variety of reasons. R- One, it could be, tongue tie. So some people don’t have the ability to put their tongue in the roof of their mouth, right? And so that, that doesn’t allow for the palate to properly expand, which creates a more narrow airway, making it more difficult.
Some people might have food allergies or sensitivities that are causing them to constantly have a runny nose- Sure … or, a clogged nose, which then causes them to breathe through their mouth. Some people have never been taught how to breathe, so they don’t know where their tongue goes, right? I mean, I didn’t know where my tongue went.
It was just in my mouth, but I didn’t know it was supposed to go in the roof of my mouth, right? Most people have never been taught how to breathe. We just assume our, our [00:42:00] child is breathing, and br- just breathing is enough. But, it’s- And
Dr. Weitz: if, and if you’re trying to breathe through your mouth, having your tongue on the roof of your mouth is in the way.
Dr. Patel: Well, yeah, you simply can’t, right? and the other thing is, in this regard is, people who have allergies, like airborne allergies, right, histamine-related issues, pe- people have pets, right, dander, like mites, things like that, it can affect, breathing. And of course, certain foods, like dairy can be very mucogenic.
and so then that can lead to a person being an, an, a nasal bre- or mouth breather versus a nasal breather. So there’s a variety of different reasons, where that might be stemming from.
Dr. Weitz: So, I, talk a lot about digestive health and, work with clients with that. How does breathing affect digestion?
And can breathing contribute to digestive [00:43:00] problems, to constipation, to other symptoms?
Dr. Patel: Yeah. It’s funny, you read my mind. I was just gonna share a story. So I facilitate a breathwork at, the Institute of Function- Institute of Functional Medicine at their annual conference, and the next day, after I did the breathwork, I just had so many people coming up to me, thanking me, and, telling me how much the experience meant to them.
And I had one particular lady who was very embarrassed to come up to me, so she told my wife, and then my wife’s like, “No, you gotta go tell him.” So she ended up having the first normal bowel movement that she’s had in 40 years after doing the breathwork. Wow. And so she just had this huge emotional release.
sh- when we’re constipated, we’re holding onto stuff, right? We’re holding onto crap that doesn’t serve us anymore, literally.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah.
Dr. Patel: So she had this huge emotional release and forgiveness, like she was able to let go of that, and because of that rhythmic action of the breathing, we created a lot of activation of her vagus [00:44:00] nerve, and then started getting that, that, motility engine working again.
But when you breathe correctly, you’re constantly pumping your digestive system, so you’re assisting the motility of your bowels, just by breathing correctly. So there’s that. The other thing is, that when we are in a rest and digest state- We can’t h- our organs can’t be in a rest and digest state while our breath is in a fight or flight state.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Patel: Okay? So it’s, you’re either in rest or, and digest, or you’re leaning towards fight or flight sympathetic dominance. One way to check in for people, with their digestion is I tell people, and you might, tell them this too, Dr. Ben, is never eat until you’re salivating first.
Dr. Weitz: Huh.
Dr. Patel: So when you’re salivating, that means you’re in a parasympathetic state.
So if we look at, if you pull up a chart online and you type in auto- auto, [00:45:00] autonomic nervous system, and you’ll see parasympathetic, and you’ll see sympathetic, you’ll see when you’re in a parasympathetic state, in a relaxed state, your pupils constrict, your saliva production increases, your stomach acid production increases, your digestive motility and function and secretions increase, your h- heart rate slows down, your blood pressure goes down, and then all of your trunk organs are now getting more blood flow, so they’re actually able to perform their activities the way they’re supposed to.
When we’re in fight or flight, we have no saliva production. We have no ga- gastric s- enzyme secretion, right? We’re, like, literally dry on the inside, right? So a way to check in is to make sure you’re salivating. If you’re salivating, you’re ready to eat, because now, because you’re, it’s in, my body’s telling me it’s in a parasympathetic state.[00:46:00]
Then I can make saliva, which means I can start the digestion of carbohydrates through the, masseter muscle. I can signal stomach acid production. So how much we chew our food will determine, how much stomach acid production takes place, and then, then I’m getting the proper digestion of my proteins.
So we can use our breath to shift ourselves into that parasympathetic state by simply doing box breathing, or even four-seven-eight breathing, or even four-six-two breathing. Anything that lengthens our exhale is gonna be beneficial for us. If you’re acutely stressed out, I wanna share a really simple breathing technique that, it’s called a physiologic sigh- Okay
where it’s a double inhale and then a audible exhale. So sometimes the mic blocks it out, but it’s
So if you’re feeling really stressed out and you really wanna calm down, [00:47:00] then the double inhale, audible exhale, it’s a little bit easier if you’re in the car or on your own, versus in public, but that’s a rapid way to kinda reset your nervous system, and then some box breathing followed by that will get that saliva production going on.
Dr. Weitz: So proper breathing is one way to stimulate the vagal nerve?
Dr. Patel: So proper breathing will stimulate the vagus nerve. proper breathing, one thing, I, should have mentioned this earlier, is that, our digestive system starts in our mouth, so we wanna ma- make sure we have a good, healthy oral microbiome, because we swallow about a liter of our saliva every day.
And so if our, if we’re habitually mouth breathing, as an example, then that changes the type of bacteria that grows in our mouth, making us more prone to gum infections, to dental caries, to bad breath, and also that depletes our nitric oxide-producing bacteria that normally grows on our [00:48:00] tongue. So there’s a lot of consequences to, the mouth, which is part of the digestive system, if we’re not breathing correctly.
Dr. Weitz: So lengthening the exhale is important, and then what’s the benefit of working on practicing holding the breath?
Dr. Patel: Yeah. You know what? There’s the… So there’s a few different ways to hold the breath. You can hold on the exhale or you can hold on the inhale. Okay. So when we do breath holds, if we’re trying to increase CO2 tolerance, we would hold on the exhale.
So the 4-6-2 breathing, for example, you’re breathing in for four, exhaling for six, and holding for two at the bottom, right? So we’re, holding the exhale. That’s gonna help increase our tolerance to CO2. If we are holding our breath, let’s say we’re doing some holotropic type breathing, and we’re, then [00:49:00] gonna hold our breath for a few minutes.
The benefits of holding your breath, the research has shown for about 200 seconds, but just do it as long as you can and work your way up. You get, you get benefits to stem cell production, increased stem cell production. You get increased growth hormone production, and a decrease in p53 factor, which helps with, cancer.
Awesome. So there is multitude of benefits to doing breath holds, and breath holds are a little bit more of an advanced technique, compared to just getting people to breathe normally, but they can be a very powerful way to, to initiate certain responses in the body and also to help us increase our levels of, CO2 tolerance.
some other breath holds that you can do are when you’re walking. So what I’ll do is when I go for a walk, I’ll do some breath holds where I will, do a, just normal breathing, and then I will do a relaxed exhale, plug my nose, and [00:50:00] count how many steps I can take. And I’m trying to take as many steps as I possibly can, to build up my tolerance to CO2.
Dr. Weitz: Interesting. how does breath work contribute to healthy aging?
Dr. Patel: Well, interestingly enough, the less we breathe, the longer we live. So a turtle takes about, three breaths a minute, lives to about 200 years. A dog takes 35 breaths a minute and ages, so much faster. And keep in mind that, life is essentially an oxidative reaction. So the more we breathe, the more we rust on the inside. We oxidize, right? That’s what happens to the oxygen inside of us. It, oxidizes, creates, free radicals, and then that ages our cellular machinery. So the less we breathe, the more relaxed we are, the more in a healing state we are, the more regenerative of a state we’re in, the less [00:51:00] cortisol we’re producing, the less insulin we’re producing, the better our digestive function and immune function is, the better our, microbiomes and barriers function. So there’s so, so many benefits to, breathing correctly that translate to virtually every, every system in the body.
Dr. Weitz: All right, so if a practitioner wanted to incorporate breathwork into his clinical practice, where would the best place to start be?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, a good place to start is paying attention, right? Even bringing it up, in conversation, but more so paying attention to how your clients are breathing in your presence. Are they breathing through their nose, or are they breathing through their mouth, right? That tells you the state that their nervous system is in, right? If they’re breathing through their mouth, we already know they’re in, more likely to be in a fight or flight type of state, and that may be a good time to [00:52:00] pause and, even start a conversation about, proper tongue posture, breathing through their nose, getting them maybe to even mouth tape, if, that’s appropriate for them, or asking them a few questions.
“Do you wake up at night to pee? Do you wake up with a dry mouth, or do you find yourself thirsty all the time with a dry mouth?” Like, that can clue them in and say, “Wow,” like, “How did you know that?” Because it’s all kinda connected. And I would say that having casual, more structured… more casual, but then also more structured conversations around breathing.
paying attention to, are they breathing not just through their mouth or their nose, but are they breathing short and shallow? Are they breathing into their chest, or are they breathing into their belly, right? Even doing a simple exercise where you have them breathe into their belly so they know what that feels like.
Some people maybe have never been taught how to breathe, so really starting with the basics and then working them up from there. So a great book for [00:53:00] clinicians to read, I would say, is, Breath by James Nestor, and another great book is The Oxygen Advantage by, Patrick McKeown. Those are two great books that provide lots of great insights and explanation into why we breathe and, the different breathing techniques that are available to you, and certainly they’re welcome to go to breathworkwithsachin.com, where I have a whole plethora of free tools and resources, for practitioners and non-practitioners to improve and optimize their breathing.
Dr. Weitz: Now, when it comes to sleep, on one hand, people breathe with their mouth open, and they often snore, and it’s… they’ll often get diagnosed with sleep apnea, and then they’re gonna have a breathing machine. What do we think about that as a strategy versus learning to breathe with your nose while you sleep?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, great question. So, [00:54:00] typically, the question I ask people is, “If I put you in a wheelchair, it’s not gonna make you stronger. It’s probably gonna make you weaker.” And a CPAP is like a wheelchair for your diaphragm. Interesting. And so it’s doing, all the breathing for you, in a sense.
And mind you, it’s, probably gonna help people. If they, have sleep apnea, it’s definitely gonna help them. But most people, I find, are not very compliant with their machines. They don’t clean their machines, or they travel and it’s kind of a pain in the butt to deal with it. And I think if you gave most people a choice, they’d rather sleep with…
If you gave people a choice, they’d rather sleep without any apparatus, But if they have no choice, then, which is what they’re often presented as the only solution, then, that’s all they have available to them. There is a few different breathing techniques that I recommend. So one is they first wanna get used to breathing through their nose during the day, so drawing their attention in that regard, taping their [00:55:00] mouth at night.
And then for some people, losing weight. So our, tongue is marbled with fat, which means that when we, typically when we lose weight, we lose it here first. So our tongue gets smaller. even a small decrease in weight can open up the airway. So, so, like, some people’s airways are really small, and, you can get a cone beam scan to actually measure the size of the airway, so that’s also, for some people with severe apnea, that might be important for them to know.
But losing weight significantly opens up the airway. just a 10% decrease in weight will open up the airway about 30%. So that can be helpful for people if they’re carrying some extra, weight around with them. And then tongue exercises. So there’s tongue exercises that they can do. I won’t demonstrate them.
I’ll spare you those details. But if they, if they go to my, if they go to Breathwork with Sachin, I actually have a whole guide, and I demo all the exercises for people to do. And then another big thing, for [00:56:00] apnea is, the way they breathe during the day. So there’s, C- CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure, and there’s actually something we call a CPAP breath, where you can maintain a continuous positive airway pressure from the way you’re breathing.
And it’s basically, imagine, if you take a breath in right now- And pretend you’re fogging a mirror, but exhale through your nose
Okay, so you’re slowing down the air as it’s coming out with your glottis, and you’re, you’re creating that positive airway pressure. So now there’s a positive airway pressure in the lungs, and you’re regulating it. So this is called victory breath or ujjayi breath, and breathing like that throughout the day periodically is also gonna help.
It’s… Another thing that you can do is something called crocodile pose, which is laying on your stomach for a couple of minutes, and [00:57:00] that will increase the strength of the diaphragm. And then I don’t… I just took it off before our call, but I also have a belly band. So you can actually wear a, breathing belt around just below your diaphragm, and that will, help you become a more conscious breather throughout the day, but it’ll also strengthen your diaphragm because the belt creates resistance, when you breathe in, so your diaphragm is getting stronger with each breath you take.
Dr. Weitz: That’s great. so let’s, let’s wrap this. How, any final thoughts for us?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, Ben, this is like, you asked some really great questions, and I appreciate the opportunity to share with your community. I, want people to know that we literally just scratched the surface of the surface today, and this could be an eight-hour conversation.
Dr. Weitz: Yes.
Dr. Patel: And, I would say that I was very dismissive of the power of breathing until I [00:58:00] experienced it in multiple domains in my life. So my son, it changed his facial structure, it changed his dental structure, changed his smile, changed the way he looks, allowed him to keep all of his body parts, which was really important to us.
My wife, she had a tongue-tie. When she had her tongue-tie snipped, which is a 30-second laser procedure, her cervical lordosis restored itself instantly. She was able to bend over and touch her toes without resistance for the first time in her life, and chronic neck pain that she had in her cervical extensors and upper traps completely disappeared. So, a lot of us might have some stuff going on in our fascia, associated with a tongue-tie. And then for me, it changed my facial structure, but it also gave me the opportunity to have what I believe is one of the most powerful healing tools and modalities, where we get to experience our own medicine.
So that’s the beauty about breathing, [00:59:00] is it’s your medicine to yourself, and you- your diaphragm is like a little pharmacy, and you can choose how you feel. You can choose how you function reliably and predictably, and that’s something I wanted for myself first, but then also for my clients. I wanted to have something that I knew would work every single time they used it. I knew they didn’t have to buy anything. I knew they didn’t have any chance of forgetting it in their hotel room or when they were traveling. They had no excuse not to do it, and nobody even knows you’re doing it, right? So it’s available to you 24/7, and once I discovered how it was so interconnected to so many different areas of health, I realized, man, if I can teach people how to push this button, something so simple, yet so sophisticated, then they have a healing opportunity available to them 24/7.
And if they can then teach this to their children and their family members, like it’s so simple that once you learn it, you can teach it to others, and it’s [01:00:00] never gonna change. It’s a timeless tool that you have available to you. Like, there’s never gonna be a time where you’re gonna say, “Sachin, lower your stress by breathing faster.” Right? You’re never gonna say, “Hey, like, you should probably be breathing through your mouth. Breathing through your nose is a bad idea.” Like, it… There, the tables are never gonna flip, In, in, in nutrition, it’s like one day carbs are bad for you, one day fats are bad for you, one day they’re good for you. Like, there’s all this back and forth.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Patel: But the world of breathing, there’s, no, like, conflict. it’s- … the research is very overwhelming and very consistent, and it works in every single person. So that’s what I, that’s what I loved about it, and I could, in 60 minutes, taking people through breathwork, I can witness their healing.
as a functional medicine practitioner, sometimes it takes weeks or months, really, for people to fully blossom. Right. But after they do, breathwork, I mean, some people are walking out of there, they’re like, “Oh my God, you’ve given me a whole new life again.” [01:01:00] And, to have that available to, them, and being able to facilitate that, and certainly you’re welcome to learn these breathing techniques and facilitate it for others, I mean, that’s what I want more people to do.
yeah, it’s hard to look back. It’s hard to- Yeah … it’s hard not to think about it and talk about it every single chance I get.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. You were just talking about, you were just talking about the diaphragm, and I heard you say, in one of your discussions about how you can have, fascial adhesions that affect the diaphragm’s ability to move, and that can be an important factor in affecting breathing as well.
Dr. Patel: Yeah. interestingly enough, I saw this fun fact, and you’ll have… I might misquote it, but every breath we take, our kidneys move up and down about five inches.
Dr. Weitz: What? Really?
Dr. Patel: So th- think about that. So about five inches with every breath we take, right? That’s a lot. In somebody [01:02:00] who’s, breathing the way they’re supposed to.
Dr. Weitz: Huh.
Dr. Patel: And, so our kidneys move about a mile a day-
Dr. Weitz: Really?
Dr. Patel: Wow … because 23,000 times… You’ll have to do the math, but they, they move up and down with every breath we take, so they’re going on a little walk themselves, you
Dr. Weitz: know, inside- We need something that measures your kidney steps.
Dr. Patel: Yeah. so there’s a lot of mobility, right? Like, somebody could be sitting perfectly still, but their entire inside is moving up and down, right? There’s a rhythm to it. and so what we learned is that… I know you’re trying to wrap up here, but, what, I learned is that- Yeah,
Dr. Weitz: no, that’s fine …
Dr. Patel: We just want to help people restore the rhythms in their life, right? So, their heart rhythm is the shortest rhythm, but it’s… that’s hard to control consciously. We can secondarily control it through our breath, right? So restoring the rhythm of our breath restores the rhythm of our nervous system. Restoring the rhythm of our circadian [01:03:00] clock restores the rhythm of our hormones and our sleep and wake cycles, right?
And then for women, and even for men, the restoring our, lunar cycle, right, the ovulation cycle that, menstrual cycle that women go through, that’s kind of coordinated by the moon. So we… And then our annual cycles, right? So there’s all these different cycles, and if we can get people to move in rhythm with them- then, their health falls into place, so to speak. And so I always look for what is the one thing that can do a thousand other things for me, and, that’s what breathing has been for me. So I just wanna share this with as many people as possible so the light bulb goes off in their head, and they start learning how to, again, experience their own medicine, which is the breath.
Dr. Weitz: So it, it makes me realize that, breathing could potentially affect blood pressure and the rhythm of the heart. We have a lot of patients- with rhythm issues, [01:04:00] arrhythmia.
Dr. Patel: Yeah. So when you breathe through your nose, you increase nitric oxide production by about sixfold. nitric oxide dilates blood vessels, and then we also talked about how the ratio of oxygen and CO2 affects, how blood vessels dilate or constrict.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Patel: So how we breathe has a direct effect. And then if you think about it this way, if you’re a… if somebody’s a short, shallow breather, right, their breathing is like this. So they’re always, like, just kinda punching their heart, right, to, beat more. But if my breathing is like this- Right? My pressure just naturally is just gonna be much lower, right? So mechanically and then, biochemically, the way we breathe changes our blood pressure
Dr. Weitz: Fascinating. Well, thank you so much, Sachin. How can, people listening, practitioners, patients, find out more about you and your, [01:05:00] y- your website is, is it The Living Proof Institute?
Dr. Patel: Yeah, so if people are interested in more of the breathwork side of things, they can go to breathworkwithsachin.com.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Patel: And they’ll get, all, access to all my free tools and resources. so that’s all available to them. They’ll get free downloads, free breathwork experiences, keynotes, slides if they want them, and they’ll also get downloadable guides that, if you’re a clinician, you can give to your patients, and if you’re just a layperson, they’re written for the layperson, so really easy to understand.
And, that’s one way to connect with me, and then the other way to connect would be, at thelivingproofinstitute.com, as you mentioned. that’s where we do our clinical work. We actually run a metabolic health program, and part of that program, we teach people how to breathe, but we also teach them about their genomics. So we have a nutrigenomic-based, metabolic health program. So based on their DNA, we create customized [01:06:00] solutions to help improve metabolic function, and of course, breath is our metabolic catalyst. and yeah, so they can go, they can learn more at thelivingproofinstitute.com if they want more about that, and certainly follow me on Facebook as well.
Dr. Weitz: And, you have, do you have courses available?
Dr. Patel: it, it’s something that’s been requested quite often. And I’ve, I’ve actually committed to creating some courses, for people, but you know, it’s all available to them. it’s all free, and- Great … I actually, I wrote a book, I guess this is another way, I wrote a book called Breathe. Balance. Burn. that basically teaches people how to use their breath to regulate their nervous system to burn belly fat, and that book, does come with a free course that goes along with it. So if you go to Amazon and type in Breathe. Balance. Burn., you’ll be able to get that book and course as well.
Dr. Weitz: That’s great. Thank you so much, Sachin.
Dr. Patel: You’re welcome. Thank you for the opportunity.
Dr. Weitz: Thank you for making it [01:07:00] all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and give us a five-star ratings and review. As you may know, I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine. If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and want to promote longevity- Please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111, and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine. And I will talk to everybody next week
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