Dr. Andy Galpin

This is subconscious. You're just breathing more. You have no idea what's happening. Not an active process, autonomic nervous system. It does that, it gets rid of the CO2, it brings the acidic level down. If the acidic level is too low, meaning you're too alkaline, it will have you slow your respiration down. You'll hold your breath. Again, you won't even know this.

It'll let the CO2 levels increase more until it gets to the spot it wants, and then it'll bring your respiration back up. If you go start exercising, you start putting a bunch of CO2 in the blood, that's why your body makes you breathe more. Because it has to dump that CO2.

It'll let the CO2 levels increase more until it gets to the spot it wants, and then it'll bring your respiration back up. If you go start exercising, you start putting a bunch of CO2 in the blood, that's why your body makes you breathe more. Because it has to dump that CO2.

In normal circumstances, the primary reason you get air hunger or you feel like you have to breathe, if I were to make you hold your breath right now, it's not because you're running low on oxygen. It's because CO2 levels are rising. CO2 concentrations in your blood are the primary mechanism that drive you to feel like you need to ventilate.

In normal circumstances, the primary reason you get air hunger or you feel like you have to breathe, if I were to make you hold your breath right now, it's not because you're running low on oxygen. It's because CO2 levels are rising. CO2 concentrations in your blood are the primary mechanism that drive you to feel like you need to ventilate.

So it can be conscious, you can feel it, but most of the time this is happening without you having any awareness at all of what's going on. If you are chronically breathing heavily, Not enough. You are under breathing, which doesn't happen much. CO2 levels would be getting really high, you'd be acidic. What's more common is the opposite. And there are papers on this, right? That you can see it.

So it can be conscious, you can feel it, but most of the time this is happening without you having any awareness at all of what's going on. If you are chronically breathing heavily, Not enough. You are under breathing, which doesn't happen much. CO2 levels would be getting really high, you'd be acidic. What's more common is the opposite. And there are papers on this, right? That you can see it.

If you are breathing too much, whether you want to call this over breathing, like we tend to call it, Or if you are actually truly into what's called chronic hyperventilation, this is a medically diagnosable condition. Chronic hyperventilation is over breathing. What that really is, is you're putting too much CO2 out of your body into the atmosphere.

If you are breathing too much, whether you want to call this over breathing, like we tend to call it, Or if you are actually truly into what's called chronic hyperventilation, this is a medically diagnosable condition. Chronic hyperventilation is over breathing. What that really is, is you're putting too much CO2 out of your body into the atmosphere.

So because of that, your CO2 levels in your body get too low. This is called hypocapnia, too low of CO2. This is incredibly problematic because again, one, we are out of pH range now. We're not acidic, we're alkaline, we're the opposite. So because of that, your kidneys, somewhere within a couple of days or a couple of hours to a couple of days, maybe even a few weeks, can respond to that.

So because of that, your CO2 levels in your body get too low. This is called hypocapnia, too low of CO2. This is incredibly problematic because again, one, we are out of pH range now. We're not acidic, we're alkaline, we're the opposite. So because of that, your kidneys, somewhere within a couple of days or a couple of hours to a couple of days, maybe even a few weeks, can respond to that.

They don't always, but they can respond to that by putting you into what's called metabolic acidosis. And it's doing that because it's, again, trying to reestablish some acidity in the system to make everything happy. This then has a whole host of renal and kidney issues, hydration issues, and sodium, potassium, and electrolyte issues, and a bunch of other stuff that is just overall problematic.

They don't always, but they can respond to that by putting you into what's called metabolic acidosis. And it's doing that because it's, again, trying to reestablish some acidity in the system to make everything happy. This then has a whole host of renal and kidney issues, hydration issues, and sodium, potassium, and electrolyte issues, and a bunch of other stuff that is just overall problematic.

The other major problem with this over-breathing strategy is CO2 is a vasodilator. And so if you are exhaling too much of it and CO2 concentrations get too low, you get vasoconstriction. This means decreased cerebral blood flow. This means decreased blood flow everywhere else, it also alters what's called Bohr's effect. In general, what all this is meaning, you don't have as much oxygenation.

The other major problem with this over-breathing strategy is CO2 is a vasodilator. And so if you are exhaling too much of it and CO2 concentrations get too low, you get vasoconstriction. This means decreased cerebral blood flow. This means decreased blood flow everywhere else, it also alters what's called Bohr's effect. In general, what all this is meaning, you don't have as much oxygenation.

Not exactly what it is, but if that helps you conceptualize what's going on here, then that's fine. And so we're seeing problems in health, cognitive performance, physical exercise performance, all of this stuff can be a response to chronic hyperventilation or over-breathing, however you would define those things. That said then, if I'm seeing HRV is fine, resting heart rate's fine,

Not exactly what it is, but if that helps you conceptualize what's going on here, then that's fine. And so we're seeing problems in health, cognitive performance, physical exercise performance, all of this stuff can be a response to chronic hyperventilation or over-breathing, however you would define those things. That said then, if I'm seeing HRV is fine, resting heart rate's fine,

but I am chronically over breathing, I still have some work to do. And it is indicating something is happening potentially from a stress situation that's not going to be necessarily picked up by changes in sleep or changes in HRV or changes in overall resting heart rate. Why this becomes really problematic is they can then turn quickly into what are called sustaining factors.

but I am chronically over breathing, I still have some work to do. And it is indicating something is happening potentially from a stress situation that's not going to be necessarily picked up by changes in sleep or changes in HRV or changes in overall resting heart rate. Why this becomes really problematic is they can then turn quickly into what are called sustaining factors.

And so while something caused hyperventilation, which is a normal and healthy response, remember, I say I get scared right now. I want to go into sympathetic drive. I want adrenaline up. I want to start an anticipatory over-breathing strategy. I know CO2 is going to start increasing because I'm about to start doing something physically. So I'll start over-breathing. That's great.