excellent question.

breathing is connected to our state of mind, as well as the overall level of stress in the body, so whenever anything changes the homeostasis of the organizm breathing is affected. for example: after a full meal, your breathing pattern will change. if you are experiencing anxiety, your breath will shorten and become more shallow. people who are depressed or sick are usually not breathing properly, and often this is one of the causes of their condition in the first place.

it is actually possible to change one's state of mind by changing one's breathing pattern.

what made you ask, out of curiosity?

it is the topic of discussion for a recitation in my human anatomy class, i am trying to gather different perspectives and more information. does anyone know about any frailties of the resp. system?

nice! i wish i was there to hear the discussion

here's a good argument:

respiratory distress it is not simply a side-effect, it is very closely related to the cause of most illnesses. breathing is vital to life, if we stop breathing we die. just as the food we consume regulates our metabolism, so does the way we breathe.

good luck!

could you elaborate more on the frailties of the respiratory system and what leads to distress?

thanks for your help btw

what i am referring to is not a weakness in the respiratory system, but rather in the lifestyle which dissociates us from our body, thereby causing disruption to breathing patterns due to lack of basic awareness. certain breathing patterns cause stress and illness, while others prevent it.

just as we are now discovering how emotional and intellectual training can influence or lower our levels of stress, so are we uncovering that breath is another dimension of our existence which has long been known in the east, but forgotten in the west due to the disproportional cultural emphasis placed on the importance of thinking versus being. just as we only use a small percentage of our brain, so we use a very small capacity of our breath (awareness) in comparison to the capacity available to us.

awareness of breath is the central focus of most eastern practices, such as yoga, tai chi, qi qong, meditation and many more. all of these practices are proven to reduce stress, and prevent illness.

in the west, we forget our breath, our body, and focus our lives around mental activity. we absorb the breathing patterns of those around us instead of maintaining balance of body, mind, and spirit.

we do acknowledge the role that stress plays in causing aging and illness, yet we do not yet fully utilize the knowledge available to us to prevent stress in the first place.

here is an article about stress and breathing:
http://www.openmindbody.com/stressandbreat hing.htm

below is a reference to a study which measured athletes performance with and without breath retraining. athletes with breathing training achieved superior performance compared to those without.
http://repositoryaut.lconz.ac.nz/bitstream /10292/83/2/VickeryR.pdf

and further is an excellent resource which covers the physical benefits of heart rhythm meditation (a technique which combines breath and heart awareness to produce healing results)

http://appliedmeditation.org/physical/bene fits.shtml

hope that helps

thanks