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Detox That's as Easy as Breathing

by Dr. Stephen Sinatra

Published 04/30/09

Detoxification is a natural function that your body routinely performs. Sweating out toxins during a fever is one example. Liver and kidney functions that regularly filter and release toxins and waste are two more examples. Now, I’d like to focus on a fourth detox system: your lungs.

Your lungs expel waste products such as carbon dioxide on every exhalation. High-quality breathing is paramount to good health. If it is restricted, chaotic, or dysfunctional in any way, all other detoxification systems are impaired.

The liver, colon, kidneys, and skin are commonly considered the major detox organs. To some extent, this is true, but the lungs are possibly more important to detoxification. When they are restricted, cellular activity is disturbed, and toxic buildup is increased. Over time, other organs of detoxification must fill in the gaps, which cause a greater burden to fall on them.

Bad Breathing Promotes Heart Disease

If you are a type-A individual, chaotic breathing can accentuate heart disease and weaken your immune system. Type-A people, who are more prone to heart attacks, typically have one of several common breathing patterns.

People who talk fast, interrupt others, suck in their breath, and generally don’t pause can create physiological damage to their bodies due to irregular breathing. A study conducted in Poland, for example, showed that these chaotic breathing habits cause the release of excessive amounts of thromboxane, a chemical that can predispose us to excessive inflammation and even blood clotting.

During my nearly 15-year training in bioenergetic psychotherapy, the relationship between breathing and health was constantly emphasized. Dr. Alexander Lowen, my mentor and therapist, would place my body in various positions and then stimulate my breathing. When breathing is even, deep, relaxed, and regular, the exhalation process and detoxification are stimulated as well.

Exercise for Good Breathing

Whenever the breath is full and deep, especially when involuntary—such as during deep sobbing or even laughing—the whole process of respiratory movement is enhanced. Deep breathing creates a freeing up of “energetic blocks” in the body, relieving stagnant energy and expelling toxins. This is why many of us feel so good after deep breathing sessions in yoga, bioenergetic psychotherapy, or even after a good laugh or cry. “Squeeze and breathe,” a way to improve energy, lessen anxiety, and self-cleanse, is another effective way to accomplish this.

Do the Squeeze and Breathe

The squeeze and breathe technique is something I’ve learned from one of my colleagues, Michael Grant White, a breathing specialist who’s also well versed in bioenergetic psychotherapy. His Web site, www.breathing.com, is a great resource for learning about optimal breathing. For those of you who want to take breathing to its highest level, I encourage you to read his material and purchase his video entitled “The Art and Science of Optimal Breathing Development—#176.” His techniques are outstanding and effective if you practice them daily.

Although he endorses his squeeze and breathe technique as a “great stress buster,” it’s my belief that it will also help you cleanse your body. You’ll feel a rejuvenation of health and well-being. So I’m recommending his technique, with slight modifications, as my initial breath exercise for self-cleansing. Here’s how you do it:

• Sit in a straight chair with a pillow between your shoulder blades.
• Remove your shoes and place your feet firmly on the floor.
• Remember to sit erect, but not stiff.
• Gently open your mouth. Don’t grit your teeth; just let your jaw hang softly.
• Breathe in and out and focus on inhalation and exhalation.
• After you have breathed for several respirations, focus grounding your feet onto the floor.
• Next, place your thumbs over your kidneys (below your back ribs and above your pelvis), and wrap your fingers around the sides toward your navel.
• Squeeze your fingers together gently as you inhale slow, deep breaths through your nose.
• Remember, don’t clench your jaw or tighten your pelvis and as you breathe, focus your breathing with the contact of your feet on the floor.
• Continue to squeeze gently as you breathe in long, slow, deep breaths into your squeezed fingers, forcing them apart and into your belly with your breath.
• Use a slow mental count; one, two, three, four, on the inhale and again on the exhale.
• Practice this for at least 5–10 minutes per day.

This is an exercise you can do when you’re under stress or intense anxiety. Slow, rhythmic breaths in and out, with pauses in between inhaling and exhaling, will not only help calm your nervous system, but also assist in body cleansing.

Believe me, this simple squeeze and breathe technique is a great step to unleashing the power of proper breathing. Do it every day and detox. Your body will thank you for it.

References:

• Sinatra ST. Heartbreak and Heart Disease. Keats Publishing: New Caanan, CT: 1998.
• White MG. Secrets of Optimal Natural Breathing. Optimal Breathing Press: Waynesville, NC: 2003.