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Oxygen, breathing and learning

Neurons burns glucose with oxygen to obtain energy. How goes oxygen get from the air outside our body to the cells within our brain? Oxygen enters the bloodstream through our lungs. The oxygen attaches itself to special proteins in the blood. The blood then transports oxygen to the brain via blood vessels, and these vessels break down into smaller and smaller pathways until they become capillaries. Capillaries weave throughout the brain and flow close to each neuron. When needed, oxygen detaches itself from the blood and flows into the neuron.

While your brain is only around three percent of your body mass, it can consume more than twenty percent of your body’s oxygen intake. Its consumption increases during mental activities such as learning. Let’s look at ways to ensure your oxygen use is ideal for learning. This involves good blood efficiency, good lung efficiency, good pulse rate and strength, and good breathing.

Good blood efficiency

Blood efficiency is how well your blood takes up, transports and releases oxygen. The key nutrient that helps your blood transport oxygen is iron. Be sure to get enough iron in your diet. Good sources include wholegrain cereals and breads, green leafy vegetables, and meat (especially red meat). Vitamin C also helps absorption of iron.

Iron deficiency is common in western diets, especially in women and vegetarians. If you regularly feel tired, have less energy, or look pale, see a medical practitioner to have a blood check. Not all people display symptoms of anemia, so why not ask for a test next time you visit the doctor. Too much iron is not good for you either—another reason to check.

Good lung efficiency 

Efficient lungs more easily move oxygen into your blood. They also do a better job at removing carbon dioxide. Here are four ways you can support and improve lung efficiency:

• Eat your fruits, vegetables and grains. Anti-oxidants such as vitamins E and C, and beta-carotene can improve how well your lungs work. The best source of these anti-oxidants is from a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and grains.
• Stay fit. Aerobic fitness improves your lung efficiency, both during exercise and during rest.
• Try a lung exerciser. These are fairly new products on the market that provide variable resistance to breathing. They look similar to an asthma inhaler. Used for a few minutes a day these appear to improve lung efficiency. Brand names include PowerLung™ and PowerBreathe™.
• Don’t smoke. Smoking drastically reduces lung efficiency.

Good pulse rate and strength

Increasing your pulse rate and strength increases the blood flow into the brain. This increases both oxygen and glucose availability. You can improve your pulse rate during learning as well as over a longer term:

• During lessons. Get up occasionally and do some light exercise during lessons. Go for a walk while learning or memorizing some material. Involve some elements of the physical style in your learning, even if it’s not one of your strengths.
• Longer term. The key is cardiovascular fitness, or fitness of the heart. Normal regular exercise provides a good base. If you want to further improve your heart fitness, try some interval training. Interval training consists of repetitions of a short burst of high-effort exercise, followed by a medium intensity recovery period. Here’s an example for when you are already reasonably fit: While jogging, jog or run harder for thirty seconds, and then jog slowly for two minutes while you recover. Then jog hard again for the thirty seconds, and recover for two minutes. Continue for ten repetitions. This is a simple example. You can vary the intensity period, the recovery period and the number of repetitions based on your fitness levels.

Good breathing

Good abdominal breathing improves your lung efficiency. You can find many ways to improve your breathing in various books and on the web. Many of us are lazy when it comes to strong abdominal breathing. Here are some basic points on breathing and learning:

• Before learning. Incorporate some breathing exercises into a relaxation exercise before each lesson (coming up).
• During learning. Be aware of your breath while you are learning. Avoid shallow breathing, even if you are just sitting at a desk. If you become aware you barely breathed over the past few minutes, take moment to take a few deep breaths. Use a short inhale and a long exhale, at a minimum ratio of 1:4 seconds (for example a two-second inhale, and an eight-second exhale). Also try increasing the pressure in your lungs by occasionally breathing out through pursed or partly closed lips. Don’t go too far and get dizzy though!
• After learning. Take a few minutes after learning to repeat your breathing exercises.
• During day-to-day activities. There are many other benefits from improving your overall breathing during the day. Spending time focusing on your breathing habits is well worthwhile.

Continual deep breathing is not a complete answer to lung efficiency. For some people, better breathing may involve reducing their breathing rate. Some researchers believe that breathing difficulties (such as asthma) may be the result of too much breathing. Again, do more research or talk to the doctor if you want to check or improve your breathing habits.