Live data from Hacker News

5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

colorado.edu

171–180 of 244 posts

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#171
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you punishing yourself with unnecessary work if the easy way gets most of the benefit? Literally just breathe. "But I like exercise" OK that's great for you, I have other things to do and not enough time to do them.

Yes, exercise is not always easy, but it has been worth it. I have met plenty of amazing people and gone to many interesting places because of it, its not just about the exercise. I wouldn't exchange that for sitting around retweeting Elon Musk lol.

* I have met plenty of amazing people and gone to many interesting places because of it, its not just about the exercise.*

I haven't. At best, I'm alone. At worst - especially when I was younger - I was just laughed at. Not to mention that I couldn't always do things like afford shoes that allowed me to walk regularly without pain or that I can rarely find a sports bra in my size (let alone afford it), so things like running are out of the question.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#172
post #168

> not necessarily meant to replace exercise I'm hoping someone can answer a question to which I've never heard a really satisfactory answer: Why does human health benefit from exercise whereas any kind of simple machine wears out with exercise? For example, doing a hundred stretches per day improves my health whereas stretching an elastic band 100 times per day will cause it to lose elasticity and soon destroy it. So…

An extension to that question: Why do people say elevating your heart rate is good in relation to exercise, and bad in relation to cocaine? People frequently say things like "stimulants stress your circulatory system", but so does exercise.

Not a professional, but the way I reason it is that pushing your heart to the limit causes it to grow stronger, and that additional capacity means it doesn't have to work as hard during the rest of the day. You basically bring down your average heart rate by making your heart stronger.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#173
post #137

> not necessarily meant to replace exercise I'm hoping someone can answer a question to which I've never heard a really satisfactory answer: Why does human health benefit from exercise whereas any kind of simple machine wears out with exercise? For example, doing a hundred stretches per day improves my health whereas stretching an elastic band 100 times per day will cause it to lose elasticity and soon destroy it. So…

When recovering after exercise, the body does something called overcompensating. It doesn't just repair the damage done but actually strengthens the area. Muscles undergo hypertrophy and bone becomes more dense. So when you challenge the body physically a moderate amount, something called functional overreaching, your body responds by actually strengthening itself. Obviously inanimate objects don't have this system s…

With inanimate objects the same happens if you consider humans doing maintenance as part of the system: if some part gets damaged all the time because it's too weak we strengthen it or replace it with a stronger version.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't aware that either Hof or Nestor were academics so I'm not sure how it's relevant. As to the accusation that they've stolen an idea, someone should outline their accusation explicitly and then, far more importantly, explain why I should care. As I've pointed out, Patanjali wouldn't (or you can point out why he would, that would be interesting).

> I wasn't aware that either Hof or Nestor were academics so I'm not sure how it's relevant. Classic Strawman Argument. Sad to see this on HN. I never claimed they were academics. Just that doing this in academics would get you banned. They are journalists. The century-old Society for Professional Journalists has a simple statement on plagiarism in its Code of Ethics: “Never plagiarize. Always attribute.” The outline…

> This gets you banned in academics.

We're on a thread where someone is accusing Hof and Nestor of plagiarism and you made that comment as part of the thread

> I never claimed they were academics. Just that doing this in academics would get you banned.

If you want to make it extra clear that it's irrelevant, that's fine by me, but it's not a straw man either way.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#175
post #137

> not necessarily meant to replace exercise I'm hoping someone can answer a question to which I've never heard a really satisfactory answer: Why does human health benefit from exercise whereas any kind of simple machine wears out with exercise? For example, doing a hundred stretches per day improves my health whereas stretching an elastic band 100 times per day will cause it to lose elasticity and soon destroy it. So…

When recovering after exercise, the body does something called overcompensating. It doesn't just repair the damage done but actually strengthens the area. Muscles undergo hypertrophy and bone becomes more dense. So when you challenge the body physically a moderate amount, something called functional overreaching, your body responds by actually strengthening itself. Obviously inanimate objects don't have this system s…

To go one "Why?" deeper.

The reason that our bodies do this, as opposed to making all muscles strong all the time, is to avoid wasting energy on muscles you aren't using. It is basically using what muscles were used recently as a heuristic for which muscles need to be strong to ensure survival.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter one iota if someone claims it as their own, what matters is the benefit it brings. Do you think Patanjali (or whomever) would be protective of their techniques and trademark it, patent it, and extract wealth for it? If they don't care then neither should anyone else, and perhaps this will help the techniques spread further, which I'm sure Patanjali et al again, would not be against.

no, it does matter. Because once someone has appropriated it, they can block access to the original material. Theft of the commons is one of the enduring themes of capitalism. Could be soft-blocks, i.e. burying links to the original source so no-one finds it, reducing the number of teachers or the ability of those teachers to make a living, etc. Could be harder blocks; say the new company patents it. Files takedown n…

That's a slippery slope argument, which may not be fallacious, not all are.

If we accept that Hof and Nestor have "appropriated" these techniques then the next question would be how has that led to the blocks you've outlined? When will I lose access to the authentic teachings?

> are we so sure that Patanjali et al would feel about that one group claiming ownership and only allowing that group to access it?

I reckon he'd be against it as Patanjali et al seem more focused on sharing the knowledge in order to benefit others but who's to know.

> Perhaps Patanjali didn't try to trademark/patent (or the equivalent) their techniques because they were morally opposed to this?

I think this point has been covered but I'll add that I've not noticed any form of communism in the system of yoga Patanjali systematised.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And to expect a sagacious progenitor of a millennia-old practice like Pranayama to have considered modern-day legal protections is absurd. Yes, reductio ad absurdum was the point. > Even if Linux were not subject to a license, a person claiming to have invented an operating system who in reality simply forked Linux without giving appropriate credit would be considered a plagiarist. To consider "modern-day legal pro…

No, plagiarism is important in every circle, not just academic circles. If you copy your colleague's work at your FAANG job and claim it as your own, you will be in trouble. If a contemporary politician claims he has come up with this novel idea where decisions can be made with "majority vote", he will be mocked out of the room. And so on.

> No, plagiarism is important in every circle, not just academic circles.

Please show me how it would be important to Patanjali, or even how it will reduce the good the techniques bring, how it will negatively impacted yoga teachers, or something other than FAANG jobs, politicians and academia that simply aren't relevant to this discussion.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#178
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An extension to that question: Why do people say elevating your heart rate is good in relation to exercise, and bad in relation to cocaine? People frequently say things like "stimulants stress your circulatory system", but so does exercise.

Not a professional, but the way I reason it is that pushing your heart to the limit causes it to grow stronger, and that additional capacity means it doesn't have to work as hard during the rest of the day. You basically bring down your average heart rate by making your heart stronger.

That makes sense, but then why is it considered bad for drugs to raise your heart rate?

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#179

After reading Wim Hof and James Nestor a couple years ago during the pandemic, I used their techniques in full while battling long Covid. I had a blood pressure monitor and pulse oximeter on my bedside table that I would experiment with doing these various techniques and seeing my heart rate go down, my blood pressure go down, my anxiety would disappear, lung/chest inflammation would settle, and even oxygen levels in…

When I worked on Mt Erebus we used to play pulseox bingo: see who could match their O2 saturation to their pulse at the lowest or highest value.

Re: 5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)

#180
post #64

If you want to learn more about breathing I recommend checking out the book The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown. It's got a bunch of different breathing exercises and ways to measure progress. It basically reteaches you how to breath too, which is fascinating on its own. Worth checking out for sure. https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breat...

Please don't take this the wrong way, but is there a tl;dr? Often these "self-help" books are the same concept repeated for 200 pages that can be summed up in a paragraph.

How should I breathe?

Post reply on HN