> The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect"
You are not exercising when meditating, ergo your CO2 levels will drop.
I'd love to put a top meditator in a hyperbaric chamber and change the gas levels to something like CO2 @ 600ppm and then see how relaxed they are, unless they have high levels of myoglobin.
The higher the CO2 levels the more stimulated the body becomes. Its why some athlete's take a heaped teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate for asoda boost that has a stimulating effect on the body. Sodium causes the release of calcium from the bones which is stimulating, alters the metal profile in the blood, and the bicarbonate is double the CO2 which also stimulates the body and immune system. People who have trouble breathing used to be told to breath into a paper bag, as this increased the CO2 they rebreathed, which was useful when coal use was high.
So yes meditating can be relaxing, mainly because they are increasing oxygen levels in the body which is less stimulating than CO2 levels from running around.
The vagus nerve runs all the way down to the rectum in many animals, so be careful about stimulating it. One might have to suddenly evacuate in more ways than one, and this article seems like someone's idea of a joke, on the unprepared.
I thought athletes used sodium bicarbonate to buffer the production of lactic acid during anaerobic activity. I've never heard of it as a stimulant. Can you provide a source for that mechanism?
Try it. Heaped teaspoon in a glass of water, give it 30mins. You'll notice the difference if you are walking around or doing more vigorous exercise like jogging or running.
You are not exercising when meditating, ergo your CO2 levels will drop.
I'd love to put a top meditator in a hyperbaric chamber and change the gas levels to something like CO2 @ 600ppm and then see how relaxed they are, unless they have high levels of myoglobin.
The higher the CO2 levels the more stimulated the body becomes. Its why some athlete's take a heaped teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate for asoda boost that has a stimulating effect on the body. Sodium causes the release of calcium from the bones which is stimulating, alters the metal profile in the blood, and the bicarbonate is double the CO2 which also stimulates the body and immune system. People who have trouble breathing used to be told to breath into a paper bag, as this increased the CO2 they rebreathed, which was useful when coal use was high.
So yes meditating can be relaxing, mainly because they are increasing oxygen levels in the body which is less stimulating than CO2 levels from running around.
The vagus nerve runs all the way down to the rectum in many animals, so be careful about stimulating it. One might have to suddenly evacuate in more ways than one, and this article seems like someone's idea of a joke, on the unprepared.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2952396/ Effects of autonomic nerve stimulation on colorectal motility in rats
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15074355/ The role of the rectal branches of pelvic plexus in defecation and colonic motility in a canine model