How to Deep Breathe

Today's Blog Post is all about How to Deep Breathe! This week's Tuesday's Tip was that Deep diaphragmatic breathing can help lower adrenaline! I know this probably sounds crazy, and I didn't believe it at first either😅 But it's true! I want to provide a bit of background information in order to explain how it works! So, if you haven't already read yesterday's blog post about the Autonomic Nervous System, I would suggest reading it first! I will provide a brief summary about it in this post, but I think the full post will give helpful background information:) Either way, I like understanding how things work, because then I'm more likely to do them haha😅 Are you the same way??  

The Autonomic Nervous System & POTS: 

As mentioned before, I will talk more about the Autonomic Nervous System in future courses, but here's a brief summary! The Autonomic Nervous System controls most of the things that happen automatically in your body like heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, etc. The Autonomic Nervous System has 2 divisions, The first is the Sympathetic or "fight and flight" which is your stress response and the second is the Parasympathetic or the "rest and digest" part 🩺 With most POTS patients, standing up triggers a stress response! This is problematic because our body is supposed to be in "rest & digest" or the Parasympathetic response most of the time😬 A lot of medications and interventions for POTS focus on lowering the Sympathetic Nervous System or the Stress Response💊 And a lot of mindfulness exercises like deep breathing, meditation and other behaviors you can learn in therapy help trigger the Parasympathetic Nervous System which will then lower your adrenaline levels! 🧘🏽‍♀️ While this isn't a replacement for other treatments, they can be a very helpful addition! 

Deep Breathing: 

Deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing is one of the things that triggers the Parasympathetic/Rest and Digest system and helps lower adrenaline! There is a lot of research that shows this and I have personally noticed a difference in my symptoms when I take the time to deep breathe! 🧘🏽‍♀️ So, how does it work? There are a lot of different recommendations for techniques, but I'll just share some of the ones that have worked for me😊

1) You can deep breathe in any position, but I think if you are trying to lower your heart rate laying down or sitting down would be best!

2) Make sure you are using your diaphragm to breathe! You can put one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen to see how you are breathing, but you want to make sure you are breathing with your abdomen instead of your chest:) 

3) Breathe in (Inhale) through your nose for anywhere from 2-6 seconds and make sure your abdomen is expanding while you breathe in

4) Hold the breath for anywhere from 2-6 seconds

5) Breathe out (Exhale) your mouth for 5-10 seconds

6) Repeat this until you feel your symptoms lessen:) It might be stressful and hard at first, especially if you have been hyperventilating! But I promise it helps! And you can find a lot of helpful videos online about how to do it! 

How to Fill out a Medication Form

I think having a medication chart is really helpful! It can help you keep track of your medications and it can save you a LOT of time at appointments because you can hand them a copy of it instead of trying to list everything from memory on the tiny lines they provide on their forms. Make sure you include supplements and vitamins that you take as well! 

I have included a list of things you should include on your medication form and I have tried to explain it and give examples. You should be able to find all of this information on the pill bottle under directions or on your prescription bottle. I hope this can help! I will upload a template next week:) 

1. Medication Name 

There is a Brand name and a Generic name for each medication and it does not normally matter which    one you put down, they should recognize both or have both in their system.

    ex: Ibuprofen is the generic name and Advil or Motrin is the Brand name

2. Dosage

This is how much of the medication you take in one dose or at one time. It's not how many pills you        take, but what the strength or amount of medication you take at one time, it's almost always written in milligrams or mg. 

    ex: 1 pill of Ibuprofen is 200mg, so if you take 2 pills at a time write 400mg. 

3. Frequency

This is how often you take the medication. In medicine, we talk about Scheduled medications that you take regularly and PRN medications that you take as needed or only when you need it. 

    Ex: My heart rate medication is scheduled, meaning it has been prescribed by my Doctor and I take it               every day, so I would write "Once Daily" or "Daily (AM)" on my form

    Ex: I only take Tylenol or Ibuprofen as needed for pain, meaning I don't take it regularly, so I would                   write "PRN" or "As Needed" on my form. If a medication is PRN it will still have a minimum time            between pills, for Ibuprofen that's every 4-6 hours, so you could write "every 4-6 hrs as needed" or            "PRN every 4-6 hours"

4. Route

This is how you take the medication. For example, most medications are taken orally or "by mouth" as we say in medicine and most are tablets or capsules; however, some are liquid medications or "oral suspensions" as we call them. There are other routes including medication patches (transdermal patches) or suppository (where you put it up your rectum or butt) and there are others as well, but since there are other routes, it can be helpful to list how you take the medication.

    Ex: Ibuprofen is take by mouth or PO and it is a tablet. So you could say "PO" or "tablet"

    Ex: Some nausea medications disintegrate in your mouth, meaning you don't have to swallow them and            for those you would say "ODT" or "Orally Disintegrating Tablet" 

5. Reason

This is the reason you are taking the medication or the diagnosis it is associated with. You don't always need to list this, but it can be helpful and some people might ask why you are taking it (just so they know and can put it in their chart) so it can be helpful to have. 

    Ex: For my heart rate medication I would write my POTS diagnosis or I would just write "Tachycardia"            which means fast heart rate

    Ex: For Ibuprofen or Tylenol I could just write pain or I could write "joint pain related to                                  hyper-mobility"