Brian Mackenzie: Respiratory Physiology, the Stress Response, and the Importance of CO2

In this episode of the Smarter Not Harder Podcast, our guest Brian Mackenzie joins our host Dr. Scott Sherr to give one-cent solutions to life's $64,000 questions that include:

• Why is CO2 so important in respiratory physiology?

• How does building up CO2 tolerance affect not only your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, but your aerobic and anaerobic metabolism as well?

• What is the importance of nasal breathing?

Brian is the founder and CEO of SHIFT, a comprehensive and adaptive training program that focuses on breath control as a primary tool for improving performance. He is also the president and co-founder of the Health and Human Performance Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the research on how breath and innate tools can optimize and help health and human performance. He's an innovator in human performance on stress adaptation, and a pioneer in the development and application of custom protocols to optimize human health and performance. His work harnesses and integrates respiratory movement, strength conditioning and endurance based training approaches to elicit unprecedented positive results. His protocols have been used to accelerate and raise both mental and physical performance in world class Olympic and professional athletes, top executives and elite military operators, as well as to improve the health for people suffering from various chronic and pathological issues.

What we discuss:

[00:00] Understanding stress response and respiratory physiology

[06:15] Positive prison population leads to positive staff population

[17:59] Our attention span is decreasing due to technology and distractions.

[23:29] Stress response is a human trait, hardwired in us, but we need to actively work on keeping it in check.

[34:53] Hyperventilation can cause stress on the heart and disrupt the nervous system.

[40:16] CO2 tolerance affects anxiety levels.

[51:36] Breathing control can improve athletic performance.

[57:11] Mouth breathing impacts aerobic capacity.

[1:07:33] Breathing through the nose and chewing hard food can improve CO2 tolerance and prevent sleep apnea.

[1:12:25] Manage stress and develop breath control before practicing breath hold techniques.

[1:23:38] Manage stress by identifying stressors, avoiding reactive responses, and becoming aware of stressors in life for personal growth.

[1:29:23] SHIFT is a membership site that offers programs to make everything more accessible to people.

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Find out more from Brian Mackenzie:

https://www.hhp-foundation.org/

Instagram: @_brianmackenzie

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