My daily breathwork practice currently revolves around improving my spear fishing skills. This is my CO2 table at the moment calculated on a max breath hold of 3mins40seconds (after mamallian dive reflex has been activated, gives me an extra 50 secs) You basically hold your breath (in my case 1min50secs) and then rebreathe normally for a decreasing amount of time. I believe that improving CO2 tolerance can help reverse a lot pf stress physiology. The urge to breathe is not driven by falling O2. It is driven by rising PaCO2 and falling CSF pH at the medullary central chemoreceptors. CO2 + H2O <-> H2CO3 <-> H+ + HCO3- via carbonic anhydrase. The H+ is what the brainstem reads as the signal to breathe. Most modern adults are chronically overbreathing/ancious breathijg. Chronic hypocapnia keeps the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve left-shifted (Bohr effect in reverse). What this means is that O2 stays bound to hemoglobin, tissue extraction drops, and you feel air-hungry while sitting on a couch full of oxygen. CO2 tolerance work reduces promotes a rightward shift of the curve. The Bohr effect at the tissue level means rising CO2 and H+ lower Hb affinity for O2, making more O2 available for the mitochondria tp utilize. The Haldane effect runs the reverse at the lung level. This means better delivery & better clearance.
