I had the pleasure of an in person interview with Ed Harrold at the Inaugural FACE Conference in Washington DC this year. FACE is an organization that helps bring health care providers together and teach the screening of airway disorders, and Ed was there to motivate the group and teach us how to better take care of ourselves so that we can continue to help others.
This is a great interview packed with tips on how to help stall aging, deal with stress, help our children’s health, get the most out of a workout and for our healthcare workers, tips on wearing a mask and having a clean nasal passage.
He explains how you can control your breath to conserve energy both physically and mentally.
Physically, when we control our breath, we can control our heart rate which then helps control blood pressure. Emotionally, when blood pressure is controlled, the brain can turn down the fear centers and turn up the learning centers
When the brain senses relaxation it helps to burn fat and save glucose. He helps us learn how to get more out of a workout with less time and less energy used.
Ed shares what happens to the body when someone mouth breathes during exercise. Pure mouth breathing burns sugars, taxes the immune system and your body has to work hard to get rid of the excess acid and bacteria that gets stirred up from over oxygenation during exercise (I didn’t even know that was a thing before this, but WOW)!!
Nose breathing during exercise will help strengthen the diaphragm which helps with good posture and amplifies the vagus nerve get most out of rest and digest.
He encourages us to use nasal breathing and exercise to help remove toxins and help with gut toxicity. He explains that exercise is inflammation reduction, but when you breathe too fast and too hard, your body increases inflammation. Taking in less than 12 breaths per minute helps keeps the body in fat burning mode
We talk about what type of workout is best and how to prepare for it not only with working out, but also with everyday life.
He shares about how to move through stress without becoming stressful and how to not get bogged down with things.
He shares how to transition from mouth breathing to nose breathing with things like breath retention in cycles which helps you shorten the amount of time it takes to recover normal breathing patterns.
I share my challenge with nasal breathing while cycling and the frustration of learning what to do with all of that extra fluid. Ed explains what toxins are being released from my body during that process and encourages me to keep going through training!
For professionals that wear masks, Ed shares some tips his tips for having a clear nasal passage.
Towards the end of the interview we jump back into nasal breathing at work and how it helps not only become happy and fulfilled, but also more in tune with emotional intelligence.
We talk about how how to help calm before a dental appointment (practice this at home multiple times before visiting the office)
Towards the end of the interview we talk about how to help children through this type of breathing and how to help children. His book “Life With Breath: Iq + Eq = New You” is filled with tips and tricks to help calm and center our children and enjoy more family time together.
I wished this interview could have gone on forever, Ed has amazing insight, I hope we are able to get him on the podcast again soon!
Links discussed in the podcast
Ed’s Book Life With Breath: Iq + Eq = New You
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