East Penn Chiropractic & Healing Arts Center

01/26/2023

Now offering Shockwave Therapy at East Penn Chiropractic!

05/05/2021

Breath and Brain: Attention to Breathing Boosts Brain Health

A recent study from 2018 titled Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama discussed how focused attention to breathing can help improve brain health and increase your focus and concentration.

How it does this exactly is through an area in the brainstem called the locus coeruleus (LC). The LC has well established functions in respiration and attention. The LC is a chemosensitive area within the brainstem that can automatically activate the phrenic nerve (the big nerve that connects to the diaphragm) to increase respirations when increased levels of CO2 are detected, to help bring oxygen up and CO2 levels down.

The LC is also an area that produces much of the brain's norepinephrine. Norepinephrine gets released into the bloodstream when you are exercising, focused or emotionally aroused. It enhances your attention to detail and improves overall brain health by promoting the growth of new neural connections by connecting to several key regions in the brain.

Too much norepinephrine can happen when we are stressed out and unable to focus, too little and we may feel too sluggish to think straight...but there is a sweet spot where we are able to think clearly...and this may happen with our breath.

When you breath in, activity in the LC increase (potentially raising norepinephrine) and when you breath out, activity in the LC decreases (potentially lowering norepinephrine).

Breath-focused meditation has long been shown to have numerous cognitive benefits such as improving attention, increasing positive emotions and decreasing emotional reactivity. This paper showed that there is a direct link between breathing and natural levels of norepinephrine.

“This study has shown that as you breathe in, locus coeruleus activity is increasing slightly, and as you breathe out it decreases,” says Michael Melnychuk, PhD candidate at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and lead author of the study. “Put simply, this means that our attention is influenced by our breath and that it rises and falls with the cycle of respiration. It is possible that by focusing on and regulating your breathing you can optimize your attention level and likewise, by focusing on your attention level, your breathing becomes more synchronized.”

Practicing breath-focused meditation on a daily basis can have a profound impact on brain health, but it is also a great way to short circuit panic, stress and fear. When we experience stress and fear, we can feel it in our body. Our palms get sweaty, our respirations increase in number and shorten in depth. These bodily cues are signals that the fear is about to take over our body and shut down our thinking brain.

A simple breathing exercise to realign the body and brain is this!:

1. Slowly inhale through your nostrils to a count of 4.

2. Hold your breath in to a count of 4.

3. Exhale slowly through your mouth to a count of 4 or more.

Repeat this until you feel your heart rate slow down and your body begin to calm. It really can be that simple!

Full blog post and link to paper: https://thebrainchat.com/brain-chat-blog/f/breath-and-brain-attention-to-breathing-boosts-brain-health

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06/10/2020

Optimal immune resilience requires your immune system to have the ability to communicate throughout your whole body via a variety of specialized cells whose job it is to continuously sample various compounds that come into the body, then signal the immune system to respond properly. To have the best immune response, these messenger proteins have to circulate throughout the body as quickly as possible. This requires good circulation and exchange of fluids in the lymphatic system. And what is one of the best ways to support that? Through physical movement.

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Traumatic experiences and events can be so overwhelming that the frontal lobe begins to lose the ability to filter out unwanted feelings and emotions.

05/06/2020

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Effects of excess cortisol on the body

04/13/2020

Chiropractors are Essential Providers as per PA and Federal mandates. Many offices are still open with limited hours to maintain social distancing and following good hygiene & CDC safe office protocols. If you or someone you know is experiencing Pain & Problems during this crisis and are afraid to goto an Urgent Care or ER... your PCA Chiropractor is a safer alternative in so many ways. To find a PCA doctor to see you soon, click here and you can do a provider search: https://members.pennchiro.org/activedirectoryforthepublic