The Benefits of Intermittent Hypoxia

In this 6-part series we will discuss simple techniques that you may begin to incorporate into your life to increase your overall health.

Hormesis is about tolerable amounts of acute controlled stress delivered to the body in small intermittent doses which triggers a cascade of cellular processes that boosts mitochondrial health, increases energy, builds resilience and increases longevity.

What are some examples of hormetic stressors?

• Heat and cold exposure
• Intermittent fasting
• High-intensity interval training
• Phytonutrients in foods
• Mentally stimulating and challenging activities
• Intermittent hypoxia

Prolonged stress zaps our energy and decreases our immunity and sets us up for chronic health conditions and should be avoided.

However, the short bursts of hormetic stress actually promotes cellular resilience, ignites the cellular self-repair mechanisms, helps to clear and remove cellular debris through a process known as autophagy, allows DNA repair to take place, creates new mitochondria and helps to repair damaged mitochondria, reduces inflammation and stabilizes blood sugar while helping the body eliminate toxins and clean house.

All of this leads to slowing down the aging process, reducing the risk of cancer and chronic diseases, and increases the likelihood of wellness throughout the lifespan.

Hormetic stress works by creating a little bit of oxidative stress by generating low levels of free radicals in the body. This creates enough of a stress to activate the mitochondria to generate more of themselves which boosts our cellular energy.

The bursts of oxidative stress are also important in influencing other cell signaling pathways including those that trigger the production of powerful antioxidants such as glutathione (the master antioxidant) as well as phase II detoxification enzymes that help clear out toxins making the benefits long-lasting over time.

Let’s talk about the first technique today.

Intermittent Hypoxia

Intermittent hypoxic training (IHT) is a technique to induce low oxygen levels in the blood, cells and mitochondria which creates a low-level stress that causes the mitochondria to adapt in order to utilize oxygen more efficiently by allowing the blood to extract more oxygen from the lungs.

Benefits of IHT:

• Induces beneficial changes in mitochondrial function and protects them from damage
• Induces mitochondrial biogenesis (the creation of new mitochondria)
• Helps the mitochondria to become big and strong and effective cellular energy creators
• Decreases fatigue
• Boosts immune function and increased resistance to stress
• Decreases Inflammation
• Increases energy level and exercise performance
• Helps to create a calm mind and resilience through increasing nervous system balance
• Improves sleep

Two Exercises You May Begin Doing Each Day to Induce Hormetic Changes and Boost Mitochondrial Energy

Walking Breath-Holding Exercise

Step 1: Exhale and hold the breath out
Step 2: Count how many paces you can do before you need to breathe
Step 3: Breathe until you return back to normal breathing
Step 4: Repeat (Do this as many times as you can without over-exerting yourself. I recommend beginning with 6 rounds and advancing from there.)

This exercise can be added to a walking meditation. If you’re able to get out somewhere in nature such as a forest walk or walk along the beach or a mountain hike, I recommend that. If you don’t live anywhere close to these places, it’s fine. Get outdoors anywhere that inspires you to move and get into your groove.

Pranayama Exercise: Breath of Fire

This pranayama helps us expand our lung capac- ity. When performed in a relaxed state, it should feel comfortable and not strained. Even though you will be breathing at a rate of about 120 to 180 times per minute, you will not hyperventilate because when done properly, it is experienced as one long breath.

When you are new to this practice, you may experience some sensations that are normal and will eventually resolve. You may notice tingling and itching in the nose or lightheadedness or dizziness, or you may feel pressure or cold or warm sensations in your nose. This is considered a deeply detoxifying breath, and in time, it will feel amazing when you do this.

Get into your seated meditation position with your spine straight and sit either cross legged or with your knees bent. You may sit on a folded blanket, pillow, or yoga bolster or block if that is more comfortable on the knees.

Place your hands into the venus lock mudra by making two claws with your hands, fingers facing one another—left hand looks like the letter C, right hand looks like a backwards C, and place the right thumb into the C of the left hand, and then your left thumb will rest on the side of the right thumb and all the fingers gently alternate as they fold over one another.

Next, you will breathe forcefully in and out of your nose only. No mouth breathing.

As you breathe, it will sound like a train engine. As you inhale lift your chest and hold still without moving, and as you exhale, bring your navel in toward your spine and up toward your diaphragm. If you get uncomfortable, or feel like you can’t continue, just change your breathing back to long, slow deep breaths through the nose until you get comfortable again.

At first, this is a challenging exercise for most people, as they may reverse breathe, but that’s okay. Work on this slowly over time and keep practicing. Start with only thirty seconds and continue to work up until you can do five minutes per day.

When learning breath of fire, I find it easiest to try a few rounds of about thirty seconds with your hands on your belly so you can feel your belly pull in and up with each exhalation. When you get comfortable, you can then use the previously described hand mudra. This technique is not only stimulating and energizing to help wake you up but also calming to the nervous system, allowing you to handle the stress of life with more grace and ease as the body is experiencing this pranayama practice as one long breathe.

My yoga teacher taught me to do five minutes per day and break it up into shorter thirty-second pieces with long slow breaths in between, and after a few days, you can work your way up to one-minute rounds of breathing and then two-minute rounds and so on.

The additional physiological benefit is that of hormetic stress which not only stimulates the mitochondria to produce more mitochondria but also triggers the mitochondria to heal those that are fragile or damaged. The result is improved resilience, heightened cellular oxygenation, and increased energy!

Try these techniques for yourself and notice how much better you feel instantly! The breath of fire can even be done anytime during the day when you’re feeling low in energy and looking for a caffeine-free boost.

Check out the upcoming 5 blogs in this series to learn more about other hormetic stress techniques and drop a comment below to let me know how your breathwork is going, I’d love to hear from you!