Deep Breathing Exercise and Your Health

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Every morning when I do my round of Tai Chi I also do deep breathing 10 times. This is how I do it:

I breathe in deeply into my lower abdomen to the count of 5
I hold my breath to the count of 20
Then I breathe out to the count of 10

I inhale as well as exhale through my nose. The ratio is 1, 4, and 2. You can take a deeper and longer inhalation, say, 6 inhale, 24 hold, and 12 exhale. While others exhale through their mouth I use my nose throughout the exercise.

The exercise is to cleanse your system and oxygenate the blood and activate your lymphatic system. When you do it regularly, it clears your mental cobwebs. You are more energetic, more alert, and more capable of warding off illnesses.


Lymphatic system

The lymph is often referred to as the body’s sewage system. Every cell in our body is surrounded by lymph. It removes dead cells, blood proteins, and other toxins and excretes them from the body. The lymph system is also able to destroy bacteria, viruses, and abnormal cells like cancer cells. The effectiveness of your immune system depends very much on your lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is only active by deep breathing because unlike our blood flow, the lymph system does not have a ‘pump’ to push the lymph fluids around the body.

How it works

Blood is pumped from the heart through the arteries to the thin, porous capillaries. The blood carries nutrients and oxygen to the capillaries, where they are diffused into this fluid around the cells called lymph. The cells take nutrients and oxygen for their health and then excrete toxins. The lymphatic system then removes excess fluid, dead cells, and other toxic material.