Return to breathwork only with a qualified teacher or clinician, or not at all

If you want to practise breathing methods again, do it later, with a qualified teacher or clinician who knows about the dizziness, and never with breath holds alone.

Por qué funciona

Immink and colleagues describe hyperventilation-linked fainting as depending on more than the breathing alone, including other stressors, so the same method can carry different risk for different people. Kox and colleagues describe a ten-day training programme with three parts: meditation (third eye meditation), breathing techniques that included cyclic hyperventilation followed by breath retention, and cold exposure (immersion in ice-cold water). In the trained group, practising those techniques resulted in intermittent respiratory alkalosis and hypoxia. So a return is a decision for a teacher or clinician who knows your history, not something to restart from a video.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Put breathing practice down for now. Sit or lie down, feet on the floor, and let the steps above settle things before you think about returning.
2. Before any breathing practice, tell a clinician what happened, including any faint, chest pain or panic, and ask whether breathing methods are suitable for you.
3. If you go back, choose a qualified teacher who teaches slow, unforced breathing, and ask them directly how they handle dizziness and panic.
4. Never practise breath holds, or any fast breathing, in water, while driving, or alone.
5. If you feel dizzy, tingly or frightened during a session, stop straight away and tell the teacher. A good teacher will want to know.

Evidencia

Albert and Craig (1961) found loss of consciousness after hyperventilation and breath-holding was possible. Immink et al. (2014) describe the dependence of fainting on hyperventilation combined with other stressors. Kox et al. (2014) describe a ten-day training programme of meditation, breathing techniques including cyclic hyperventilation followed by breath retention, and cold exposure, which produced intermittent respiratory alkalosis and hypoxia in its trained group. (mechanistic)

Kox et al. describe physiological changes in a small trained group; they are not a safety trial. The reviews treat breath-holding risk as incompletely understood, and none of these sources can say whether a particular practice is safe for a particular person.

Fuentes

• Albert, B., & Craig, J. R. (1961). Causes of loss of consciousness during underwater swimming. Journal of Applied Physiology, 16(4), 583–586.
• Immink, R. V., Pott, F. C., Secher, N. H., & van Lieshout, J. J. (2014). Hyperventilation, cerebral perfusion, and syncope. Journal of Applied Physiology, 116(7), 844–851.
• Kox, M., van Eijk, L. T., Zwaag, J., van den Wildenberg, J., Sweep, F. C. G. J., van der Hoeven, J. G., & Pickkers, P. (2014). Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(20), 7379–7384.

Error común

Restarting from a video or app the same week, or trying to push past the feeling to prove you can do it.