How much air do people breathe?
How much air should people breathe?

How much air we breathe in is, as a statistic just by itself, risking being extremely misleading. The answer would move around somewhere between a per breath 1/4 liter and 7 liters depending on height, weight, posture, parents genes (big lungs, small lungs, small bones vs. big bones, activity quality and intensity) cellular condition, emotions (joy, shallow breathing, hyperventilation), thinking processes and more. Not a great way to get any real clear conclusions.

How much air we take in is primarily in the relationship of lung volume and breathing rate. How much we get into our cells is another matter.

Most people breathe at 12 breaths per minute. This is in itself unhealthy because it overtaxes the breathing system and increases the oxygen cost of breathing. I recommend 6-7 breaths per minute. 6 breaths would be half the 12 breaths and simply stated would most often reduce the intake of bad air by half. The bottom line is if you breathe slower and relaxed without artificially holding your breath, you breathe in less pollutants.

But if you can breathe and feel a relaxed energy with only 6 breaths per minute your lungs are probably a lot larger or more efficient then the person needing 12 breaths per minute. So you may take in even MORE pollutants. But this is if you are in some sort of activity that requires deeper faster breathing because if you are breathing at your usual 6 per minute you are probably breathing at a half to a third of your maximum volume and do not need to use all the volume to perform adequately. this is similar to a large engine car with a top end of 160 MPH., traveling along in cruise control doing 60 MPH. Optimal performance is another issue that may require special breathing development skills.

What to do?

If you do not breathe deeply AND easily enough you compromise EVERY body and cellular function you have. A lower breathing rate, if it is NOT high chest or manipulated by holding it back, generally indicates larger, deeper, easier breathing. Your breathing rate and quality, whether it is high chest or abdominal (front, side and back)is a primary feedback system for sensing how stressed you are. People who cannot breathe slower will always breathe in more bad air, regardless of their activity. Plus they will be overtaxing/overstimulating the fight flight aspect of their autonomic nervous system causing unnecessary stresses. People that can breathe slower have the option to breathe in less pollutants and the slower breathing enables them to better handle the stresses of the pollutants in the first place because that saved oxygen-cost- of-breathing gets used in more constructive cellular tasking. People that might breathe slower are generally in better physical condition, but not necessarily; singers or woodwind players who are couch potatoes and/or frequenting bars and tobacco smoke for instance.

Other primary issues are your cellular health and how well you are uptaking oxygen. These factors are strongly influenced by diet, digestion, nutrient absorption, waste elimination, and toxic buildup.

Breathing volume, efficiency, training and cellular strength are significantly interdependent. An opera singer could have great breathing volume but not be in very good physical condition nor have a great diet. The upshot of that is all other things being equal they will probably be more prone to a heart condition then someone with the good diet, and lessened stress of the strong forces necessary for classical singing. Optimal would be to have all of volume, diet, digestion and physical conditioning. But the physical conditioning has its own goals that may negate volume due to need for physical strength. Massive muscles tend to limit breathing volume. Regardless of anything else, 7 liters is better then 4,3,2,or less liters. The Framingham Study proved that 20 years ago.

How much air should we breathe?

There is a direct relationship between breathing and aliveness. Breath is life. I maintain that shallow breathers live less life then optimal breathers. Shallow breathers agree with me.

If you are more active in a polluted environment I suggest you stay inside and make sure your surroundings have plenty of clean oxygen rich air, negative ion generation, oxygenized water to drink, zero toxic out-gassing and at least 75% of uncooked living organic foods that still have their vitamins, minerals, fats, soluble and insoluble fiber, natural enzymes, O2 and H2O2 content intact. Use the link on the breathing.com home page (bottom left) to locate local polluters by zip code to see if you are in need of more protected breathing conditions. I stopped riding my bike and now use the stationary bike in the gym and read books and bible and memorize choir songs instead of being in the out of doors. This is partly sad but at least constructive until the air gets clean enough, which in my area is, at least, on occasion. Thanks in part to groups like the /www.canarycoalition.com, it is slowly getting better.

Meanwhile you can take these insights and get energetic and strong enough to help us clean up the environment and learn to enjoy more the natural things like fresh air, clean water, sunshine and the organic non-genetically engineered food that God gave us to start with. About oxidation

How good is YOUR breathing? Take our Free tests or attend (or sponsor) a Seminar on Breathing.

I really would not worry about breathing too much oxygen. The problem is getting too LITTLE oxygen. Learn to develop your breathing and get as much oxygen as you will ever need, naturally and once you know how to get it, it is FREE.

#177 Rapid Breathing Development, Wellness & Vitality