MadSci Network: General Biology
Query:

Re: Effects of alrenate nostril breathing

Date: Mon Nov 24 17:02:35 2003
Posted By: Kevin Reed, Engineer
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 1068273328.Gb
Message:

Shishir,

You've posed an interesting question. I'm going to answer in two parts, 
one part addressing generalized breathing, the other the yogic practice of 
nadi shodhana, or conscious alternate-nostril breathing.

A search through literature and the Web for naturally-occurring alternate-
nostril breathing yielded almost nothing. Many web sites promoting nadi 
shodhana breathing mention medical literature that shows nostrils 
alternate with one another on natural two- to three-hour cycles; that is, 
during breathing one nostril will be dominant for a period of time and 
then gradually the other will become dominant, back and forth over the 
course of the day. However, I was unable to find any papers addressing 
this phenomenon in any citation database I searched.

Disappointed, I went ahead and set up a random routine over the course of 
a couple of days where I made a rough measurement of air volume through 
each nostril while I exhaled. This is not a conclusive experiment, but the 
differences between the two nostrils were within the expected error in my 
measurements, and any measured differences between the two was 
consistently in favor of the same nostril.

Turning to the practice of nadi shodhana was far more fruitful. This is an 
area of research which has been ongoing for at least the last eight years, 
mostly (though not exclusively) in India. One source listing the titles of 
research papers on the subject, including physiological and mental effects 
of alternate-nostril breathing, may be found at the web site of the Swami 
Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation in Bangalore. The site address is  http://www.vkyogas.org.in/re
search.html .  Further citations may be found 
by visiting the US National Library of Medicine at  http://www.ncbi.nlm.ni
h.gov/entrez/query.fcgi and searching for more 
papers by the authors listed at the Swami Vivekenanda site. I found more 
than forty citations of papers dealing with breathing practices and their 
physiological effects.

I hope this is helpful!


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