Transforming Health Through Breath and Light

Welcome back to the Reclaim Your Health Energy, Weight, and Longevity Summit. I'm Marcel Pick, Summit Co-Founder, along with Wisdom for Life and your host for this entire event. Join us now for the next session where we do a deep dive into chronic disease and their root causes, and give you actionable solutions for your well-being and your health. What I want to do today is introduce one of my favorite people who is going to teach us some things that I think very few of us really understand and know about, and that has to do with our breathing, and how breathing in general can be transformative in regards to our overall health and well-being. So let me introduce to you Sachin Patel. He describes himself as a father, husband, philanthropist, functional medicine practice success coach, speaker, author, and breathwork facilitator and plant medicine advocate. Sushant is convinced that the doctor of the future is the patient, and he has committed himself to helping others raise their consciousness, activate their inner doctor, and initiate their deepest healing through the use of lifestyle and breathwork. But he does it in a very different way. Sachin founded the Living Proof Institute through which he pioneered a revolutionary approach to patient-centered health care. Sachin coaches hundreds of practitioners around the world, so they're empowered to deliver affordable and inspired care to their communities through his Perfect Practice Mentorship Program. He's an advocate of transforming the health care paradigm, and he has devoted his life to the betterment of health care for both patients and practitioners. I'm so excited to have you here. And I'm more excited for us to really dig into this notion of what are some things that we can actually do that might be something that's not usual that we can actually dig into this whole notion of metabolic dysfunction. And I'm very familiar with some of the work that you do with breath work, but I'd really like to find out how you started this and what are some of the results that you're seeing with regards to health, weight loss, well-being. and overall metabolism, knowing that about 70% of our population is obese, but also more importantly, knowing that so many of them have a metabolism that's not working. Either they're hungry all the time, they don't have a shutoff valve, or they've got some pretty significant blood disorders, high cholesterol, high hemoglobin A1Cs for blood sugar, high blood sugars, and blood pressure. So How did you start this? And let's also give some examples of how powerful this can be as well. Well, first of all, thank you, Marcel. I'm so grateful for our time today and our conversation. As you and I know, this is a huge epidemic. And with really no end in sight, I think the current mainstream solutions don't really provide a root cause resolution to what people are dealing with. And a lot of times they're focused on the outcome. but not necessarily on how people get there and what happens after that outcome is achieved. And so when we designed our metabolic program, we realized that everything is rooted in metabolism. Kind of like you can have all these different apps on your phone, or you can have all this amazing electronic equipment in your home. But if somebody pulls a plug, or the battery is dead, then nothing works, right? Our immune system requires healthy metabolism. Our brain requires healthy metabolism. Metabolism, how it's... Can do... Traditionally defined, I mean, most people think of metabolism, they think of fat burning and burning carbohydrates and glucose for energy, but they forget that it's a symphony, right? Metabolism is a symphony that takes place in our body, and there's many systems that rely on proper metabolic function. And really what I've discovered over the last few years is that the simpler we can keep it, and the easier and more accessible we can make it for people, the more likely we are. to get the outcome for them, get them there the way they want to get there, and then help them achieve long-term success and results. Amazing. So let's dig in. Number one, how did you come to that for yourself in your practice? And then number two, some examples of perhaps people you've worked with, and also then perhaps get a little bit more deeply into the notion of breathwork. Yeah, absolutely. So we started off as a traditional functional medicine practice. And the traditional functional medicine practice is where you take a really good intake, you try to identify the root cause, and then you run some labs on your clients. And then, of course, you work through lifestyle education, nutritional education, and then supplemental support where needed. And what we found was that that works great, but it can get very expensive. And there isn't really any short feedback loops are so long, right? So if I put somebody on a protocol for gut health, it might take me a while until I can reproduce that test and show them the progress that that person has made. And so we started looking at this and started questioning, you know, how do we create results for people without relying on lab testing and without relying on supplementation? where the results would be so obvious to that person and to us that they were better, that we would know it was working. It would be clear as day that this is working. Because a lot of times people want to know, how do I know this is actually going to work? And what we realize is if we can create quick, rapid results for people, they have no doubt within the first week if it's working. Now, if we can pair on top of that, not necessarily laboratory testing, but using a wearable device like an Oura Ring. they can further objectify the results that they're getting. So what they see is that they aren't just losing weight and improving their energy and their sleep and such, but they're also seeing that their HRV is going up. Their resting heart rate is going down. Their respiratory function is improving. So there's ways for us to show them that what they're doing is working. It's measurable, it's undeniable, and they just get so excited when they see everything moving in the right direction. And what... What... You know, what are some of the pieces that are a little bit different about what you're doing that really make a difference? I mean, I think the audience is really interested in, okay, this sounds amazing. So how do I even begin to do some of this myself? Well, I think the first thing is for people to realize that everything that we teach, we teach our clients to do with more awareness, the things that they're already doing. So as an example, When I talk to somebody, I tell them, and they tell me, I don't have time for this, right? Or I don't have time to get healthy. Or being healthy is expensive. Or they're concerned about the pill burden that may be associated oftentimes to health and wellness. What we tell them is that we're going to take things that you're already doing and do them with more self-awareness. You're already eating. Let's eat with more self-awareness. You're already chewing. Let's chew with more self-awareness. You're already pooping. Let's poop in the right anatomical position with your... knees higher than your hips. So it's easier for you to do these things. You're already sleeping. Let's get you to tape your mouth shut while you're sleeping so that you're healing more deeply while you're sleeping. You already have light bulbs in your home. Let's make sure that the right type of light bulbs. So we try to introduce really simple things that people can do that are passive as much as possible, but also that they don't even realize they're doing them after a while, right? If I get you to change the right bulbs in the right rooms in your house for the right time of day, you don't even realize that you're doing anything anymore to improve your health and which you are. So we really tap into the compound effect. Small wins in all areas of their life are what we feel result in the brightest diamond. So a simple analogy I can offer is if you take a diamond and you polish it, you have to polish all the facets of the diamond to really show its brilliance. If you just polish one side, it might be the nutrition side or the exercise side. then it's not going to shine its full brightness. So we look at our clients like diamonds, when we're trying to polish as many facets of that diamond as we possibly can. Absolutely. So let's be more specific about light bulbs. I know that you mentioned light bulbs, the other things people can be aware of sleep and you know, the aura ring and certainly eating and thinking about food. But what about the light bulbs? Yeah, so lighting is actually one of the most informative things to our endocrine system. And so what I mean by that is that light is information. In fact, the information that's being transmitted for us to have this conversation is all light. It's basically a light flickering on and off, communicating the information through fiber optic cables that allows us to have this conversation. That same light that we get from the sun is very different informationally from the light compared to the light that we have in our bulbs. The closest thing to natural sunlight is a tungsten bulb. A tungsten bulb is a traditional light bulb. If you look at the spectrum and the emissions from LED light bulbs, and you look at them as a biologist, you would view these as a weapon. They are actually very, very destructive information-wise to our endocrine system, very disruptive to our endocrine system and metabolic system. In fact, certain types of light bulbs will stimulate cortisol production. And certain types of light bulbs will stimulate melatonin production. So one of the things that we give our clients in their welcome packages is a light bulb that is a specific frequency of red light. It's an LED bulb, but it's a flicker-free LED bulb that's at 640 nanometers, which shuts off cortisol production. and enhances melatonin production in the evening. So you can have your lights on, so you can have your cake and kind of eat it too, if you will. But having the wrong type of lighting is a problem. Another big thing about lighting that many people may or may not realize is the directionality of lighting. So in nature, if you look at the position of the sun, it's constantly changing throughout the day. In fact, every minute of the day, the sun is in a different position. The lighting and the spectrum of light in the morning and the spectrum of lighting at sunset are relatively similar. And they're kind of a reddish, orangish type of color. The light when the sun is directly above us is a much fuller spectrum. And what's really fascinating about that is the positioning of the sun also makes a difference. So human beings are the only animals on the planet that don't regulate their biology anymore with the rising and setting of the sun. Every plant and other animal does that. And it's so important, that information that comes to our brain. What's also significant is the direction of the light and where it's coming from. So only in the middle of the day would you have light coming from directly above. As the position of the sun changes, then the light goes all the way down to the horizon. And then after the sun goes away, we want lighting coming upwards. So instead of having lighting coming from overhead sources, having lighting come from downward sources, which can be like a campfire. I think about campfires. We always sleep better after sitting in front of a campfire because... of the light spectrum that's being emitted. And if you think about a campfire starts off as yellow, then orange, and then red, and those red embers, because they're coming from the ground up are sending information to our brain telling it's time telling us it's time to go to sleep and wind down. Interesting fun fact, light bulbs reduce overhead light bulbs, especially LEDs, reduce melatonin production by about 40%. Whereas moonlight or candlelight or fire only reduce it about two to 5%. So huge difference in our hormone production. So moving along with that, if somebody was saying, you know what, I don't sleep well at night, I'm really interested in kind of this whole notion. How do you begin to, I mean, how are we going to have lights above us, to the side of us, below us? How does one really kind of put that into perspective? How do you do that? Yeah, so there's a few different ways you can do this. One is by replacing the bulbs, particularly in your bedroom. And so when it's bedtime, we have the red bulbs in our nightstand lamps. So they're right next to our bed because that's when it's time for us to start winding down. Another thing that we do is we encourage people to change the color temperature on their devices. So a device could be like your iPad or your phone. You can actually set your screen up so it stops emitting that blue light. There's an app called Twilight for Android. And for Apple, there's a built-in setting that allows you to do that as well. So that's another way. And for those of us that need to be on the computer, there's an app called Flux. And that's a free app that you can download for your computer. And it starts reducing the blue light emission. And another way, if you're watching TV, TVs don't have this feature just yet. Hopefully in the future they do. You can wear blue blocking glasses as well. Fabulous. Awesome. And the bulbs they can probably get on Amazon or someplace like that as well. Is that correct? The bulbs that we suggest are specifically from a company called Boncharge. And they ship from Australia. There might be other ones, but you're specifically looking for a flicker-free LED bulb. Or you can get an incandescent bulb that has a red coating on it. Those you typically will find at pet stores. They use them for reptile. So it's a... it's a type of light bulb that heats up your amphibian friends. Awesome. Fantastic. So let's get into then the breathing. What I love about what you've said so far is that we're, you know, everybody's familiar with lifestyle. Everybody's familiar with many of the things you're talking about. And you're really talking about how do I hone that in for myself? How do I pay more attention to how much I chew my food? How do I pay more attention to being present when I'm eating? How do I pay more attention to being outside in nature? and the lights around me and the things that I'm getting bombarded with all the time. So let's get more into now this whole notion of how we breathe, because so many people don't know that they're holding their breath. So many people also, you mentioned taping the mouth at night, so you can actually sleep through your nose. Is that for everyone, by the way, or is that just for people that snore? You know, I would say for everyone, because sometimes people can breathe through their mouth and they may not actually snore. Breathing through the mouth is, and we'll get into this, is very catastrophic to your health. And the more and more I go down this rabbit hole, the more and more I realize that It's a very overlooked and be very easy to fix and see very impactful on our health in a very short period of time. Awesome. So let's start this journey. I'm excited to hear more about this. Me too. Where shall we start? So you start in what I'd love to have you be able to do is show us where I know we have a time limit here, but how you got into this and also some of the techniques and why it's so important. I mean, we have so many people that with the obesity being 70% that are actually have sleep apnea. And that is just so destructive and so bad for their health. So let's let's have the ability for people to be more aware of how to do this. And also why it's so important. Yeah, absolutely. So I really quick how I got into this a few years ago, I went to a Wim Hof training, I was invited by a friend of mine. And I became really fast friends with the instructor at the beginning of that event, I could hold my breath for about 90 seconds. By the end of the event, I was holding it for about three and a half minutes. So I saw very quickly how by engaging my nervous system and my breathing, I could make a significant impact on my metabolic health. One of the things about breathing that's really fascinating is that we actually only use oxygen in the mitochondria. So there's nothing more important for us than delivering oxygen to that mitochondria, and then removing the waste products that are produced. Really fun fact, for every 10 pounds that somebody loses, 8.4 of those pounds is actually through their lungs, which means that 84% of weight loss is actually breathed out of our lungs. The other 1.6 pounds that we lose actually comes from water excretion. So the byproducts of our metabolic activity are carbon dioxide and water. So just kind of... tells you how important breathing is for overall health and wellness. After going through that training, I had the pleasure of experiencing an entire breathing journey. And that opened me up to the fact that breathing can take us into different spiritual and out-of-body experiences as well. So pretty fascinating about that. So you have this metabolic capability that breathing can help improve spiritual practice, and then also improves our nervous system health as well, which as... Many of us know when we're stuck in fight or flight, we're not burning fat as a fuel source. We're burning glucose as a fuel source. So if we can steer our nervous system in the right direction using our breath, then we can be in that more parasympathetic like state. And my son and my wife, particularly my son, I'll share his story. He had a ton of cavities when he was a child. And even though he was eating healthy, we couldn't figure out quite why. It turns out in hindsight, it's because he was a mouth breather. Mouth breathing is a number one cause of cavities. The other thing that mouth breathing does is that it actually, in his case and in young children's cases, if their tongue isn't sitting in the roof of their mouth, it doesn't act as a spacer to expand the palate, which means that he also had a narrow airway. So as he started growing up, I couldn't really tell looking at him, but as his teeth started coming in, then the dentists were saying, hey, his teeth aren't going to have any room to come in. We're going to have to pull some teeth. And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me. Nobody's born with too many teeth unless they have some sort of like rare genetic disease. There's probably not enough room in his face. And around that time in 2020, I learned about James Nestor's work, went down the rabbit hole with him and realized that my son was a mouth breather. The cavities were a dead giveaway. The drooling was a dead giveaway. The palate being narrow was a dead giveaway. And we didn't realize any of this until I got educated and went through my own journey. And now, you know. thousands of dollars later on dental work, he's having a palatal expander put in, he's handsome as ever, and all of his teeth are coming in and we didn't have to have any of them pulled. And it's because of how he was breathing. So there's so many different ways that breathing can affect us. Now, here's the thing. If he remained a mouth breather his entire life, because of that narrow palate, then he would have been stuck in fight or flight the rest of his life, which then doesn't allow him to be the best version of himself. So that's a little bit of background about why. how I went down this rabbit hole and why I'm so passionate about it. Amazing. So I want to really reiterate the importance of what you're saying, because this is something that doesn't cost money. It is something that people can actually do, and it could enhance metabolic function. I mean, I hope people really heard what you just said, which is absolutely contributes to weight loss as well for those women that are stuck in fight, flight, or have hormonal issues. So let's take it a little further. So when you say breathing, okay, I'll breathe a little bit better. I'll put tape on my mouth at night and so on. Okay. What else? Okay. So let me, let me give people some insights into how to actually breathe because, you know, when a child is born. We're waiting for that baby to cry. Crying is a form of breath work, okay? And when a child, or not a child, but an adult takes their last breath, right, we kind of celebrate that because we know they're on to the other side of what life has to offer. So I've had the privilege of witnessing my son's first breath and witnessing my grandmother's final breath. So I've seen both ends of the spectrum, and they're both magical experiences. However, what happens in between oftentimes doesn't get the attention that it deserves. So everyone breathes, we take about 23,000 breaths per day. Another fun fact is we consume. Well, let me ask you, I wonder if you know this. Do you know how many pounds of air we consume a day? No, I don't. So we consume about two to three pounds of food a day, we consume 30 pounds of air per day. So we consume air more than anything else. And it's so fascinating when you think about it, because you're like, Oh, my God, like this is all moving in and out of me. With every breath you take, there's more molecules of oxygen. then there are grains of sand on the planet. And you can literally fact check that I was blown away by that. Every red blood cell in your body carries 1 billion, 1 billion molecules of oxygen to your tissue. So this process is happening without us even thinking about it 23,000 times a day. So there's 23,000 opportunities for us to create awareness and really steer our life, our thoughts, our focus, and our nervous system in the direction that we want to. So when we Talk about breathing correctly. The first thing we want to do is think about tongue posture. Where in your mouth is your tongue? Your tongue should be at the roof of your mouth and the tip of your tongue should be just behind your front two teeth. So put your tongue there and when you do that you'll notice that it's impossible to breathe through your mouth. Your tongue in that position kind of seals your mouth. What also happens when we put our tongue in the roof of our mouth, it calms our nervous system down. So I'm really big on opposites. And so if you think about if you were running away from a lion, where would your tongue be? Your tongue would be like hanging out of your mouth, right? Or the bottom of your mouth. The exact opposite of that would be putting it at the roof of the mouth. So just for effect and just to give people polarity, just think of when you're stressed, how you'd be breathing at maximum stress levels. How would you be breathing on the opposite side of that equation? The next thing is you want to breathe through your nose. When you breathe through your nose, a few things happen. One is you increase nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator, so it helps increase circulation. It lowers blood pressure because it's a vasodilator, and it also creates the effect of killing viruses, bacteria, and pathogens on contact. So it sterilizes the air that we breathe, and of course, that makes total sense. The other thing that happens when we breathe through our nose is it pressurizes the air, temperature regulates the air, moisture regulates the air. When we pressurize the air, we get 20% more oxygen delivery because we're able to breathe deeper into our lungs. That's why it's always going to feel harder to breathe through your nose because the air is being pressurized. And that pressure is very important to help have cleansing breaths as well. The other thing that happens when we breathe through our nose is because we're cleaning the air, we're taking the stress off the immune system. The mouth is the dirtiest part of our body. So when we're breathing through our mouth, we're breathing the dirtiest possible air that we can breathe right into our lungs. And our lung has an immune system that is constantly being upregulated, which means that we're going to feel tired, right? Your immune system is one of the most metabolically expensive systems in your body. And if you're breathing in this dirty air 23,000 times a day, when instead you should be breathing through your nose, which is clean, purified air, then obviously that's going to create dysregulation in your nervous system and in your immune system as well. When we breathe through our mouth, on the other hand, it dries out our saliva, rots out our teeth, and it decreases nitric oxide production along with breathing in this dirty air. And it puts our nervous system into the slight edge of being more on the side of fight or flight. So breathing with the tongue at the roof of the mouth, breathing in through the nose, out through the nose, and then the next thing is the cadence. So you want to breathe in for about six seconds and out for six seconds. In for six seconds and out for six seconds. Now, you're not taking deep belly breaths with every breath you take, right? So deep belly breaths are therapeutic breaths. Just like if you're going for a walk, you're not taking the longest stride possible with every step you take, right? You're taking the right stride. And so with breath, our average breath is about 500 milliliters. And when you're breathing in this six in, six out pattern, you're going to increase oxygenation to the brain. We call this coherence breathing. It puts us in a... more calm and relaxed state, and it creates a better connection between our brain and our heart. So we're able to sink into that heart-brain connection, which is so important, especially when we're doing creative type of work. That also tells our nervous system that we're in a calm relaxed state. So this is how people should be breathing throughout the entire day. When we breathe this way during the day, it's going to carry over into the evening, just like how we eat during the day and how we regulate our blood sugar throughout the day that carries over into the evening and while we sleep as well. So when we have calm, relaxing, you know, the right size breath throughout the day, then we're going to be better breathers at nighttime. So those are some things that can be helpful in terms of how people breathe. and how they want to breathe on a consistent, regular basis. So I can guarantee you that some people that are listening are saying, I just tried that and I feel like I can't get enough air in my body. How am I going to do this? How long will it take for me to really customize this for myself? Yeah, great question. So here's a very fascinating, fun fact. The reason we breathe, the urge to breathe, rather, comes not from wanting more oxygen. The urge to breathe actually comes from not being tolerant to the carbon dioxide that's building up in our lungs. So when we breathe, it's to get rid of the toxicity from carbon dioxide as opposed to needing more oxygen. So part of that is actually getting used to that and the body will build up tolerance. And so that's one thing for people to take into consideration. We don't have to, if you're not getting enough air in, unless there's some sort of obstruction that's coming in, If you don't feel like you're getting enough air, it's because you've been over-breathing. Most people over-breathe. So if you look at breathing from a longevity standpoint, lung capacity is the greatest predictor of lifespan. And if you want to slow down the aging process, it's not the sexiest way to do it, but is the most absolutely effective way to do it, it's to slow down your breathing. When we slow down our breathing, we become much more parasympathetic. We've become more anabolic and we've become much less catabolic. So it, you know, it's the exact opposite of, you know, again, you're running away from a lion. What's the exact opposite of that is breathing as little and as slow as possible. And how long will it take people to kind of shift that? I mean, it's going to take some pretty conscious thinking for some people to be able to shift that. How long does that usually take and how, you know, how do you keep on having that awareness? Yeah, you know. It really is about awareness. So attaching your breath to your first thought is how I look at it. So anytime I'm having any conversation, you know, the mind tends to wander, right? If we're talking to someone, the mind might start wandering. If we're on a Zoom call, the mind might wander. If we're walking to the office, the mind might start wandering. The thing that's with me everywhere I go is my breath. It's like the steering wheel of my car, right? Just like even when you're driving, right? The mind wanders, but it... We have one hand on the wheel and we're always just fine tuning it and adjusting it. So part of it is making it a habit to prioritize raising your awareness around your breath because it's always there for you. And it's a great way to check in. So anytime you're doing a self-check, check your breath first because that's going to regulate the rest of your entire biology and nervous system. And regardless of what task you're doing, there should be an appropriate breathing. that goes along with it to allow you to do it more effectively. If I'm sitting at my desk, I want to have nice, calm, relaxing breaths. And if I'm going for a run, I want to be able to go all out. So for everything that we're doing, there should be an appropriate breathing signature that goes along with it that matches the demands of that activity. So for me, it took me a few weeks to kind of get used to always checking in. But I check in with my tongue posture. That's the first thing. And when you do that, everything else falls back into place. So for me, it's like, it's a self check that I do is what position is my tongue in? And what's the cadence of my breathing? And I keep try to keep as much as I'm talking, I try to keep my tongue in the roof of the mouth as much as I possibly can throughout the day. And what about exercise? I mean, vigorous exercise, you're still recommending the same idea is doing nose breathing. So here's a really great question. Thank you. You're full of great questions. I love it. So so when it comes to exercise, here's we there's three gears to breathing. The first gear and the gear that we always want to come back to, let's call it neutral or park. Let's say neutral is probably better. Let's call that being back in neutral. That's going to be our six in, six out. That's the breath that we always want to come back to. So for 95% of the day, 99 in some cases, we should be breathing towards that cadence during our waking hours. The next gear up from that is breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. right? So breathing in nice, clean, pressurized air, right, to meet the demands of our body, and then blowing it out through the mouth. So thinking of the mouth as an exhaust instead of an intake. right because we can blow the air out and so that's gear number two and then if we're going in an all-out sprint right then we're going to breathe in and out through our mouth but usually that all-out sprint that level of demand is going to be less than one percent of your day right right so and then once you're in that all-out sprint or you're catching your breath then you go back down the gears just like you would in your car so you're going to go back to in through the nose out through the mouth and then back to in through the nose, out through the nose. And the faster that you can get back to that six in, six out, that's actually the best measurement of the resilience in your nervous system. Many people, it might take me like say 30 to 60 seconds to get back into that coherence breathing after going to an all out sprint. Other people, it might take them a few minutes to get back to that point. And so that tells me how much reserve they have in their nervous system and resilience they have in their nervous system to come back to baseline. So now a little bit more kind of digging a little deep with this. So if people are just so excited about this, what are some of the things they can check in with themselves about? And how long does that shift happen? You know, we're going to see it in two days, a week, you know, a couple of weeks. And what can they expect to see? Is sleep going to be better? Are they going to start losing weight? Are their hormones going to be more balanced? All of which I believe to be true. But what are your experiences with this? Yeah, so tons of case studies that we have. I'll share a story from a mutual friend of ours. I won't share her name, but we did an interview like this. And she's a fertility expert. We were talking about how breath affects the nervous system, which affects infertility type issues. And the interview, you know, we just went down the rabbit hole. And it was so fascinating because her jaw was literally on the floor after she realized the connection between the two and she hadn't put it together. And one of the things that she took away from the interview is that she sleeps with their mouth open. Here's how you know you sleep with your mouth open. One, your mouth is dry when you wake up in the middle of the night. Perhaps your partner tells you you're snoring and your mouth is open. You have bad breath in the morning. Okay. And your lips might be dry as well. And another sign that you breathe through your mouth is you wake up frequently to urinate in the middle of the night. Okay. Because mouth breathing is a diuretic. So it actually, uh, doesn't it, it affects how we regulate, uh, moisture and it also affects how we regulate body temperature. So our body gets rid of fluids as a way of regulating body temperature. So with her, within three days, she realized that she needed to be mouth taping at night. Within three days, she noticed that she started dreaming again. She's waking up much more energized and she just feels like she's getting more restful and deep sleep. So many people will notice within a very short period of time, they'll notice a difference. Here's the thing with breathing that I found really fascinating. You can not eat for 30 days and you'll still live. You'll feel miserable, but you'll still live, right? Your body will eat away at your fat and muscle before anything happens to you. You can not drink water for a few days and you'll still live, but you can't not breathe for more than a few minutes and expect to live, right? So it's the most important thing that we do. And so why not bring awareness to it? Because, you know, food, we have three times a day. We might be thinking about food all day, right? But we only have a meal three times a day. And then the rest of the day, what should we be thinking about, right? Then, you know, people think about food in the morning. Then after breakfast, they're thinking about lunch. And after that, thinking about dinner. But if we could shift our awareness to something that is actually more important, which is how am I breathing, there's an opportunity in every breath to improve your health, right? Every opportunity that we bring our awareness to our breath is an opportunity to steer our health in the direction that we want it to go in. So let's kind of unpack this a little bit more because I'm so intrigued by what you're saying. And I've been aware of it for a number of years, but not to the extent that you're talking about. So making this simple for our customers here, we're talking about having more awareness about the food, the thoughts that you think. Certainly exercise, everybody talks about it. But when we talk about lifestyle changes, we never, ever talk about breath. What you've done on this amazing interview. is you've helped us understand the unbelievable importance of breathing and tools that you can actually use immediately to change that. So let's dig a little deeper now with the taping of the mouth. Why are we going to recommend that for pretty much everybody on this show? You know, the summit. Why are we doing that? Sure. So for those of you that are listening to this, first and foremost, mouth taping sounds a little bit... crazy. It sounds a little bit insane and it's very different and kind of makes you think like, I can't do that. Right. For a lot of people. And maybe it's not for everyone. Some people may have to breathe through their mouth because they have severe obstruction. What I'm here to tell you is that the more you breathe through your nose, the more it opens up. Okay. So the more you use it, or if you don't use it, you lose it. The more you use it, the more it becomes available to you. So for some of you, if you're consistent chronic mouth breathers, which about 50% of the population is, then that's okay. Just keep doing it and do your best and work your way up. we don't always expect you to go right into mouth taping at night. Some people like me, I'm just like, tell me what to do and I'm going to do it, right? And we'll figure it out. Yeah. Whereas some people, maybe there's trauma around the idea of closing their mouth like that. Perhaps they do have obstructive breathing, or maybe they just feel uncomfortable with the idea. First of all, we're not going to seal our mouth. So we're just going to put a piece of tape vertically on our lips like this. And you only need about an inch of tape. We use 3M micropore tape. It comes off nice and easy and it holds really well and it's hypoallergenic. So that micropore tape, you just take a bit, about an inch, put it vertically on your mouth. You can still talk through your mouth and you can still breathe through your mouth if you need to. So we encourage people to start with doing it awake at their desk for about five minutes, then work your way up to 15 minutes, then half an hour, then try taking a nap with the tape on. and then start taping it at night. So you could do a progressive strategy when it comes to implementing the mouth taping. And the idea here is to keep the mouth closed. The reason for that is because A, when we breathe through our mouth, it's diuretic, so it causes us to wake up at night. When our mouth is open and our tongue isn't at the roof of our mouth, our body goes into a fight or flight type of state. So we're producing now cortisol while we're sleeping instead of producing our healing hormones and anabolic growth hormones. The other thing that breathing will affect when we breathe through our mouth is that it also affects our teeth and our oral health, and it affects nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide, as many of you might know, regulates our blood pressure, as we mentioned earlier. It also regulates our erectile tissue. So one of the benefits of mouth breathing for my male clients is they start having morning erections again because they're making adequate amounts of nitric oxide. When we don't breathe through our nose and we breathe through our mouth, it kills the bacteria that protects protective bacteria and the saliva that helps keep our gums and our teeth nice and healthy. So as I mentioned earlier, the number one cause of cavities is mouth breathing. And so there's so many catastrophic effects of breathing through our mouth and the microbiome changes, which then also, you know, as we all know, there's a connection between heart health and oral health as well. So I'll give you an interesting example. My wife, before she started mouth taping, used to get tons of cavities. And we couldn't quite figure out why, because her oral health care is superior to mine. And I, on the other hand, I mean, I have good oral health care, but not as obsessive as she is about it. And I've never had a cavity in my entire life. And so I'm kind of scratching my head. And she's like, how does this make sense? And she was feeling frustrated, but it turns out that she tends to breathe through her mouth. And when she started recognizing that and realizing that. We realized going all the way back to when she was young, she used to suck her thumb. And so the reason she used to suck her thumb was because she had a tongue tie. And that tongue tie was preventing her tongue from sitting properly in the roof of her mouth. And so she would suck her thumb, which then acts as a little spacer. This is the reason that children feel instant relief when they suck their thumb, because now they're pushing that magic button that their tongue should be pushing. And so she had a narrow palate. And so for her mouth. breathing was much easier. So she's had some dental work done. She has a beautiful smile, always has, but now she has some dental work done to widen the palate and adjust, slightly adjust the shape of her upper teeth. And it's made a profound difference for her. She doesn't get cavities anymore and she's more calm and she's more relaxed. She's less anxious and on the edge. Now, sometimes people keep themselves cool on the outside, right? But they're troubled on the inside. And a lot of it has to do with how they breathe. So they're... They're playing, they're taking up so much energy just trying to fight how they feel so they can show their game face and their best face to everyone in the world. But if they were to fix their breathing, if they're dysfunctional breathers, then it makes all the difference in the world. They're calm because their breathing is calm. They don't have to pretend that they're calm. You know, our breath informs our biology. And so we can use our breath to change the chemicals and the emotional chemicals that our body and our brain produces to literally change how we feel. The breath is also utilized by the body. So as an example, when we feel a sense of relief, we sigh, right? We, when we are shocked, we gasp. right? And we hold our breath. When we are tired, we yawn, right? When we find something funny, we laugh, right? These are all forms of breath work that create, you know, chemicals and neurotransmitters in our body that make us feel a certain way. This is why you can go to a laughing yoga class. And after laughing for just a few minutes, you start laughing hysterically and you don't understand why, but it's because the breath is creating that emotion. And those chemicals in your body to make you feel that way. So it's really a fun two-way street to help us choose how we want to feel. Wow. Amazing. What I love about what you just presented is, you know, we talk about adrenal dysfunction and we talk about the stress levels that everybody's experiencing because the world has gotten a little out of control for some people. And now there's a very simplistic tool, two of which you've talked about, the breathing that you can do every day, changing it, learning how to do it on your own. And then also the taping of the mouth. Wow. This is amazing. And I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people. Yeah, we're literally just scratching the surface. So, you know, I really invite people to, you know, we've got some resources that we're happy to share. And I really invite people to explore this and what it means to them. Do not let the simplicity of what we talked about today fool you because The greatest sign of sophistication is simplicity. And there's nothing more sophisticated than your body, which means that nothing should be simpler to take care of. So do all the other things that you're doing, but never forget how important your breath is. And it's the thing that you can do. And within literally within minutes, like if you put your blood pressure cuff on, if you put your heart rate monitor on, if you put your HRV measuring device, I mean, all of those things use breath to get you into the state where you're performing as the best version of yourself. So we've known this from the personal development world, from the meditation world. And what I want to do is I want to bring it to the metabolic world because it literally is how you breathe while you sleep is the upper limit of your metabolic health. Because while you're sleeping is when you're resting, regenerating and burning fat. And if all that depends on how you breathe, then that is the upper limit of how you're going to feel each day. Absolutely. So to find out more, and for those people that are really interested in hearing this, obviously you can buy that. you know, the format at the end of the program. But for those that want to find out a little bit more about you and kind of the things that that they could kind of check into, how would they do that? Yeah, thanks for asking. So one of the things that I did, Marcel, for everyone is I put together a breathing bundle. And it's absolutely free. It's my best five resources. And if they go to breathworkwithsatchin.com, breathworkwithsatchin.com, www, they will get the free resources. I've got a 90 minute breathwork experience in there. I've got a stop snoring guide in there. I've got a breathing signatures guide in there, a few keynotes that I've done on breathing that you can watch as well. And I think it'll really open up people's, you know, eyes and ears and hearts to, you know, this amazing tool that I wish I had known my entire life. And metabolism and name and say that again one more time for the reader. So for the listeners, sure. www.breathworkwithsatchin.com. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm almost feeling like we need a part two, but we'll do that another time. Thank you so much and have a fantastic experience, everybody, that's going to be utilizing some of this material because I think it's going to change your life. Thank you, Marcel.

He describes himself as a father, husband, philanthropist, functional medicine practice success coach, speaker, author, and breathwork facilitator and plant medicine advocate. Sushant is convinced that the doctor of the future is the patient, and he has committed himself to helping others raise their consciousness, activate their inner doctor, and initiate their deepest healing through the use of lifestyle and breathwork. But he does it in a very different way. Sachin founded the Living Proof Institute through which he pioneered a revolutionary approach to patient-centered health care.

Sachin coaches hundreds of practitioners around the world, so they're empowered to deliver affordable and inspired care to their communities through his Perfect Practice Mentorship Program. He's an advocate of transforming the health care paradigm, and he has devoted his life to the betterment of health care for both patients and practitioners. I'm so excited to have you here.

And I'm more excited for us to really dig into this notion of what are some things that we can actually do that might be something that's not usual that we can actually dig into this whole notion of metabolic dysfunction. And I'm very familiar with some of the work that you do with breath work, but I'd really like to find out how you started this and what are some of the results that you're seeing with regards to health, weight loss, well-being. and overall metabolism, knowing that about 70% of our population is obese, but also more importantly, knowing that so many of them have a metabolism that's not working.

Either they're hungry all the time, they don't have a shutoff valve, or they've got some pretty significant blood disorders, high cholesterol, high hemoglobin A1Cs for blood sugar, high blood sugars, and blood pressure. So How did you start this? And let's also give some examples of how powerful this can be as well.

Well, first of all, thank you, Marcel. I'm so grateful for our time today and our conversation. As you and I know, this is a huge epidemic.

And with really no end in sight, I think the current mainstream solutions don't really provide a root cause resolution to what people are dealing with. And a lot of times they're focused on the outcome. but not necessarily on how people get there and what happens after that outcome is achieved.

And so when we designed our metabolic program, we realized that everything is rooted in metabolism. Kind of like you can have all these different apps on your phone, or you can have all this amazing electronic equipment in your home. But if somebody pulls a plug, or the battery is dead, then nothing works, right?

Our immune system requires healthy metabolism. Our brain requires healthy metabolism. Metabolism, how it's...

Can do... Traditionally defined, I mean, most people think of metabolism, they think of fat burning and burning carbohydrates and glucose for energy, but they forget that it's a symphony, right? Metabolism is a symphony that takes place in our body, and there's many systems that rely on proper metabolic function.

And really what I've discovered over the last few years is that the simpler we can keep it, and the easier and more accessible we can make it for people, the more likely we are. to get the outcome for them, get them there the way they want to get there, and then help them achieve long-term success and results. Amazing. So let's dig in.

Number one, how did you come to that for yourself in your practice? And then number two, some examples of perhaps people you've worked with, and also then perhaps get a little bit more deeply into the notion of breathwork. Yeah, absolutely.

So we started off as a traditional functional medicine practice. And the traditional functional medicine practice is where you take a really good intake, you try to identify the root cause, and then you run some labs on your clients. And then, of course, you work through lifestyle education, nutritional education, and then supplemental support where needed. And what we found was that that works great, but it can get very expensive. And there isn't really any short feedback loops are so long, right?

So if I put somebody on a protocol for gut health, it might take me a while until I can reproduce that test and show them the progress that that person has made. And so we started looking at this and started questioning, you know, how do we create results for people without relying on lab testing and without relying on supplementation? where the results would be so obvious to that person and to us that they were better, that we would know it was working. It would be clear as day that this is working.

Because a lot of times people want to know, how do I know this is actually going to work? And what we realize is if we can create quick, rapid results for people, they have no doubt within the first week if it's working. Now, if we can pair on top of that, not necessarily laboratory testing, but using a wearable device like an Oura Ring. they can further objectify the results that they're getting. So what they see is that they aren't just losing weight and improving their energy and their sleep and such, but they're also seeing that their HRV is going up.

Their resting heart rate is going down. Their respiratory function is improving. So there's ways for us to show them that what they're doing is working.

It's measurable, it's undeniable, and they just get so excited when they see everything moving in the right direction. And what... What... You know, what are some of the pieces that are a little bit different about what you're doing that really make a difference? I mean, I think the audience is really interested in, okay, this sounds amazing.

So how do I even begin to do some of this myself? Well, I think the first thing is for people to realize that everything that we teach, we teach our clients to do with more awareness, the things that they're already doing. So as an example, When I talk to somebody, I tell them, and they tell me, I don't have time for this, right? Or I don't have time to get healthy. Or being healthy is expensive.

Or they're concerned about the pill burden that may be associated oftentimes to health and wellness. What we tell them is that we're going to take things that you're already doing and do them with more self-awareness. You're already eating. Let's eat with more self-awareness. You're already chewing.

Let's chew with more self-awareness. You're already pooping. Let's poop in the right anatomical position with your... knees higher than your hips. So it's easier for you to do these things.

You're already sleeping. Let's get you to tape your mouth shut while you're sleeping so that you're healing more deeply while you're sleeping. You already have light bulbs in your home.

Let's make sure that the right type of light bulbs. So we try to introduce really simple things that people can do that are passive as much as possible, but also that they don't even realize they're doing them after a while, right? If I get you to change the right bulbs in the right rooms in your house for the right time of day, you don't even realize that you're doing anything anymore to improve your health and which you are. So we really tap into the compound effect.

Small wins in all areas of their life are what we feel result in the brightest diamond. So a simple analogy I can offer is if you take a diamond and you polish it, you have to polish all the facets of the diamond to really show its brilliance. If you just polish one side, it might be the nutrition side or the exercise side. then it's not going to shine its full brightness. So we look at our clients like diamonds, when we're trying to polish as many facets of that diamond as we possibly can.

Absolutely. So let's be more specific about light bulbs. I know that you mentioned light bulbs, the other things people can be aware of sleep and you know, the aura ring and certainly eating and thinking about food.

But what about the light bulbs? Yeah, so lighting is actually one of the most informative things to our endocrine system. And so what I mean by that is that light is information.

In fact, the information that's being transmitted for us to have this conversation is all light. It's basically a light flickering on and off, communicating the information through fiber optic cables that allows us to have this conversation. That same light that we get from the sun is very different informationally from the light compared to the light that we have in our bulbs. The closest thing to natural sunlight is a tungsten bulb. A tungsten bulb is a traditional light bulb.

If you look at the spectrum and the emissions from LED light bulbs, and you look at them as a biologist, you would view these as a weapon. They are actually very, very destructive information-wise to our endocrine system, very disruptive to our endocrine system and metabolic system. In fact, certain types of light bulbs will stimulate cortisol production. And certain types of light bulbs will stimulate melatonin production. So one of the things that we give our clients in their welcome packages is a light bulb that is a specific frequency of red light.

It's an LED bulb, but it's a flicker-free LED bulb that's at 640 nanometers, which shuts off cortisol production. and enhances melatonin production in the evening. So you can have your lights on, so you can have your cake and kind of eat it too, if you will.

But having the wrong type of lighting is a problem. Another big thing about lighting that many people may or may not realize is the directionality of lighting. So in nature, if you look at the position of the sun, it's constantly changing throughout the day. In fact, every minute of the day, the sun is in a different position.

The lighting and the spectrum of light in the morning and the spectrum of lighting at sunset are relatively similar. And they're kind of a reddish, orangish type of color. The light when the sun is directly above us is a much fuller spectrum. And what's really fascinating about that is the positioning of the sun also makes a difference. So human beings are the only animals on the planet that don't regulate their biology anymore with the rising and setting of the sun.

Every plant and other animal does that. And it's so important, that information that comes to our brain. What's also significant is the direction of the light and where it's coming from. So only in the middle of the day would you have light coming from directly above. As the position of the sun changes, then the light goes all the way down to the horizon.

And then after the sun goes away, we want lighting coming upwards. So instead of having lighting coming from overhead sources, having lighting come from downward sources, which can be like a campfire. I think about campfires. We always sleep better after sitting in front of a campfire because... of the light spectrum that's being emitted.

And if you think about a campfire starts off as yellow, then orange, and then red, and those red embers, because they're coming from the ground up are sending information to our brain telling it's time telling us it's time to go to sleep and wind down. Interesting fun fact, light bulbs reduce overhead light bulbs, especially LEDs, reduce melatonin production by about 40%. Whereas moonlight or candlelight or fire only reduce it about two to 5%. So huge difference in our hormone production. So moving along with that, if somebody was saying, you know what, I don't sleep well at night, I'm really interested in kind of this whole notion.

How do you begin to, I mean, how are we going to have lights above us, to the side of us, below us? How does one really kind of put that into perspective? How do you do that?

Yeah, so there's a few different ways you can do this. One is by replacing the bulbs, particularly in your bedroom. And so when it's bedtime, we have the red bulbs in our nightstand lamps.

So they're right next to our bed because that's when it's time for us to start winding down. Another thing that we do is we encourage people to change the color temperature on their devices. So a device could be like your iPad or your phone.

You can actually set your screen up so it stops emitting that blue light. There's an app called Twilight for Android. And for Apple, there's a built-in setting that allows you to do that as well.

So that's another way. And for those of us that need to be on the computer, there's an app called Flux. And that's a free app that you can download for your computer.

And it starts reducing the blue light emission. And another way, if you're watching TV, TVs don't have this feature just yet. Hopefully in the future they do. You can wear blue blocking glasses as well. Fabulous.

Awesome. And the bulbs they can probably get on Amazon or someplace like that as well. Is that correct?

The bulbs that we suggest are specifically from a company called Boncharge. And they ship from Australia. There might be other ones, but you're specifically looking for a flicker-free LED bulb. Or you can get an incandescent bulb that has a red coating on it. Those you typically will find at pet stores.

They use them for reptile. So it's a... it's a type of light bulb that heats up your amphibian friends. Awesome.

Fantastic. So let's get into then the breathing. What I love about what you've said so far is that we're, you know, everybody's familiar with lifestyle. Everybody's familiar with many of the things you're talking about.

And you're really talking about how do I hone that in for myself? How do I pay more attention to how much I chew my food? How do I pay more attention to being present when I'm eating? How do I pay more attention to being outside in nature?

and the lights around me and the things that I'm getting bombarded with all the time. So let's get more into now this whole notion of how we breathe, because so many people don't know that they're holding their breath. So many people also, you mentioned taping the mouth at night, so you can actually sleep through your nose.

Is that for everyone, by the way, or is that just for people that snore? You know, I would say for everyone, because sometimes people can breathe through their mouth and they may not actually snore. Breathing through the mouth is, and we'll get into this, is very catastrophic to your health. And the more and more I go down this rabbit hole, the more and more I realize that It's a very overlooked and be very easy to fix and see very impactful on our health in a very short period of time.

Awesome. So let's start this journey. I'm excited to hear more about this.

Me too. Where shall we start? So you start in what I'd love to have you be able to do is show us where I know we have a time limit here, but how you got into this and also some of the techniques and why it's so important. I mean, we have so many people that with the obesity being 70% that are actually have sleep apnea.

And that is just so destructive and so bad for their health. So let's let's have the ability for people to be more aware of how to do this. And also why it's so important.

Yeah, absolutely. So I really quick how I got into this a few years ago, I went to a Wim Hof training, I was invited by a friend of mine. And I became really fast friends with the instructor at the beginning of that event, I could hold my breath for about 90 seconds. By the end of the event, I was holding it for about three and a half minutes. So I saw very quickly how by engaging my nervous system and my breathing, I could make a significant impact on my metabolic health.

One of the things about breathing that's really fascinating is that we actually only use oxygen in the mitochondria. So there's nothing more important for us than delivering oxygen to that mitochondria, and then removing the waste products that are produced. Really fun fact, for every 10 pounds that somebody loses, 8.4 of those pounds is actually through their lungs, which means that 84% of weight loss is actually breathed out of our lungs.

The other 1.6 pounds that we lose actually comes from water excretion. So the byproducts of our metabolic activity are carbon dioxide and water. So just kind of... tells you how important breathing is for overall health and wellness. After going through that training, I had the pleasure of experiencing an entire breathing journey.

And that opened me up to the fact that breathing can take us into different spiritual and out-of-body experiences as well. So pretty fascinating about that. So you have this metabolic capability that breathing can help improve spiritual practice, and then also improves our nervous system health as well, which as... Many of us know when we're stuck in fight or flight, we're not burning fat as a fuel source. We're burning glucose as a fuel source.

So if we can steer our nervous system in the right direction using our breath, then we can be in that more parasympathetic like state. And my son and my wife, particularly my son, I'll share his story. He had a ton of cavities when he was a child.

And even though he was eating healthy, we couldn't figure out quite why. It turns out in hindsight, it's because he was a mouth breather. Mouth breathing is a number one cause of cavities. The other thing that mouth breathing does is that it actually, in his case and in young children's cases, if their tongue isn't sitting in the roof of their mouth, it doesn't act as a spacer to expand the palate, which means that he also had a narrow airway.

So as he started growing up, I couldn't really tell looking at him, but as his teeth started coming in, then the dentists were saying, hey, his teeth aren't going to have any room to come in. We're going to have to pull some teeth. And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me. Nobody's born with too many teeth unless they have some sort of like rare genetic disease. There's probably not enough room in his face.

And around that time in 2020, I learned about James Nestor's work, went down the rabbit hole with him and realized that my son was a mouth breather. The cavities were a dead giveaway. The drooling was a dead giveaway.

The palate being narrow was a dead giveaway. And we didn't realize any of this until I got educated and went through my own journey. And now, you know. thousands of dollars later on dental work, he's having a palatal expander put in, he's handsome as ever, and all of his teeth are coming in and we didn't have to have any of them pulled. And it's because of how he was breathing.

So there's so many different ways that breathing can affect us. Now, here's the thing. If he remained a mouth breather his entire life, because of that narrow palate, then he would have been stuck in fight or flight the rest of his life, which then doesn't allow him to be the best version of himself.

So that's a little bit of background about why. how I went down this rabbit hole and why I'm so passionate about it. Amazing. So I want to really reiterate the importance of what you're saying, because this is something that doesn't cost money. It is something that people can actually do, and it could enhance metabolic function.

I mean, I hope people really heard what you just said, which is absolutely contributes to weight loss as well for those women that are stuck in fight, flight, or have hormonal issues. So let's take it a little further. So when you say breathing, okay, I'll breathe a little bit better.

I'll put tape on my mouth at night and so on. Okay. What else?

Okay. So let me, let me give people some insights into how to actually breathe because, you know, when a child is born. We're waiting for that baby to cry. Crying is a form of breath work, okay?

And when a child, or not a child, but an adult takes their last breath, right, we kind of celebrate that because we know they're on to the other side of what life has to offer. So I've had the privilege of witnessing my son's first breath and witnessing my grandmother's final breath. So I've seen both ends of the spectrum, and they're both magical experiences. However, what happens in between oftentimes doesn't get the attention that it deserves.

So everyone breathes, we take about 23,000 breaths per day. Another fun fact is we consume. Well, let me ask you, I wonder if you know this.

Do you know how many pounds of air we consume a day? No, I don't. So we consume about two to three pounds of food a day, we consume 30 pounds of air per day.

So we consume air more than anything else. And it's so fascinating when you think about it, because you're like, Oh, my God, like this is all moving in and out of me. With every breath you take, there's more molecules of oxygen.

then there are grains of sand on the planet. And you can literally fact check that I was blown away by that. Every red blood cell in your body carries 1 billion, 1 billion molecules of oxygen to your tissue. So this process is happening without us even thinking about it 23,000 times a day. So there's 23,000 opportunities for us to create awareness and really steer our life, our thoughts, our focus, and our nervous system in the direction that we want to.

So when we Talk about breathing correctly. The first thing we want to do is think about tongue posture. Where in your mouth is your tongue?

Your tongue should be at the roof of your mouth and the tip of your tongue should be just behind your front two teeth. So put your tongue there and when you do that you'll notice that it's impossible to breathe through your mouth. Your tongue in that position kind of seals your mouth. What also happens when we put our tongue in the roof of our mouth, it calms our nervous system down. So I'm really big on opposites.

And so if you think about if you were running away from a lion, where would your tongue be? Your tongue would be like hanging out of your mouth, right? Or the bottom of your mouth.

The exact opposite of that would be putting it at the roof of the mouth. So just for effect and just to give people polarity, just think of when you're stressed, how you'd be breathing at maximum stress levels. How would you be breathing on the opposite side of that equation?

The next thing is you want to breathe through your nose. When you breathe through your nose, a few things happen. One is you increase nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator, so it helps increase circulation. It lowers blood pressure because it's a vasodilator, and it also creates the effect of killing viruses, bacteria, and pathogens on contact.

So it sterilizes the air that we breathe, and of course, that makes total sense. The other thing that happens when we breathe through our nose is it pressurizes the air, temperature regulates the air, moisture regulates the air. When we pressurize the air, we get 20% more oxygen delivery because we're able to breathe deeper into our lungs.

That's why it's always going to feel harder to breathe through your nose because the air is being pressurized. And that pressure is very important to help have cleansing breaths as well. The other thing that happens when we breathe through our nose is because we're cleaning the air, we're taking the stress off the immune system. The mouth is the dirtiest part of our body.

So when we're breathing through our mouth, we're breathing the dirtiest possible air that we can breathe right into our lungs. And our lung has an immune system that is constantly being upregulated, which means that we're going to feel tired, right? Your immune system is one of the most metabolically expensive systems in your body. And if you're breathing in this dirty air 23,000 times a day, when instead you should be breathing through your nose, which is clean, purified air, then obviously that's going to create dysregulation in your nervous system and in your immune system as well. When we breathe through our mouth, on the other hand, it dries out our saliva, rots out our teeth, and it decreases nitric oxide production along with breathing in this dirty air.

And it puts our nervous system into the slight edge of being more on the side of fight or flight. So breathing with the tongue at the roof of the mouth, breathing in through the nose, out through the nose, and then the next thing is the cadence. So you want to breathe in for about six seconds and out for six seconds.

In for six seconds and out for six seconds. Now, you're not taking deep belly breaths with every breath you take, right? So deep belly breaths are therapeutic breaths. Just like if you're going for a walk, you're not taking the longest stride possible with every step you take, right? You're taking the right stride.

And so with breath, our average breath is about 500 milliliters. And when you're breathing in this six in, six out pattern, you're going to increase oxygenation to the brain. We call this coherence breathing.

It puts us in a... more calm and relaxed state, and it creates a better connection between our brain and our heart. So we're able to sink into that heart-brain connection, which is so important, especially when we're doing creative type of work. That also tells our nervous system that we're in a calm relaxed state. So this is how people should be breathing throughout the entire day.

When we breathe this way during the day, it's going to carry over into the evening, just like how we eat during the day and how we regulate our blood sugar throughout the day that carries over into the evening and while we sleep as well. So when we have calm, relaxing, you know, the right size breath throughout the day, then we're going to be better breathers at nighttime. So those are some things that can be helpful in terms of how people breathe.

and how they want to breathe on a consistent, regular basis. So I can guarantee you that some people that are listening are saying, I just tried that and I feel like I can't get enough air in my body. How am I going to do this?

How long will it take for me to really customize this for myself? Yeah, great question. So here's a very fascinating, fun fact.

The reason we breathe, the urge to breathe, rather, comes not from wanting more oxygen. The urge to breathe actually comes from not being tolerant to the carbon dioxide that's building up in our lungs. So when we breathe, it's to get rid of the toxicity from carbon dioxide as opposed to needing more oxygen. So part of that is actually getting used to that and the body will build up tolerance. And so that's one thing for people to take into consideration.

We don't have to, if you're not getting enough air in, unless there's some sort of obstruction that's coming in, If you don't feel like you're getting enough air, it's because you've been over-breathing. Most people over-breathe. So if you look at breathing from a longevity standpoint, lung capacity is the greatest predictor of lifespan.

And if you want to slow down the aging process, it's not the sexiest way to do it, but is the most absolutely effective way to do it, it's to slow down your breathing. When we slow down our breathing, we become much more parasympathetic. We've become more anabolic and we've become much less catabolic. So it, you know, it's the exact opposite of, you know, again, you're running away from a lion. What's the exact opposite of that is breathing as little and as slow as possible.

And how long will it take people to kind of shift that? I mean, it's going to take some pretty conscious thinking for some people to be able to shift that. How long does that usually take and how, you know, how do you keep on having that awareness?

Yeah, you know. It really is about awareness. So attaching your breath to your first thought is how I look at it. So anytime I'm having any conversation, you know, the mind tends to wander, right?

If we're talking to someone, the mind might start wandering. If we're on a Zoom call, the mind might wander. If we're walking to the office, the mind might start wandering.

The thing that's with me everywhere I go is my breath. It's like the steering wheel of my car, right? Just like even when you're driving, right?

The mind wanders, but it... We have one hand on the wheel and we're always just fine tuning it and adjusting it. So part of it is making it a habit to prioritize raising your awareness around your breath because it's always there for you.

And it's a great way to check in. So anytime you're doing a self-check, check your breath first because that's going to regulate the rest of your entire biology and nervous system. And regardless of what task you're doing, there should be an appropriate breathing.

that goes along with it to allow you to do it more effectively. If I'm sitting at my desk, I want to have nice, calm, relaxing breaths. And if I'm going for a run, I want to be able to go all out. So for everything that we're doing, there should be an appropriate breathing signature that goes along with it that matches the demands of that activity. So for me, it took me a few weeks to kind of get used to always checking in.

But I check in with my tongue posture. That's the first thing. And when you do that, everything else falls back into place.

So for me, it's like, it's a self check that I do is what position is my tongue in? And what's the cadence of my breathing? And I keep try to keep as much as I'm talking, I try to keep my tongue in the roof of the mouth as much as I possibly can throughout the day.

And what about exercise? I mean, vigorous exercise, you're still recommending the same idea is doing nose breathing. So here's a really great question.

Thank you. You're full of great questions. I love it.

So so when it comes to exercise, here's we there's three gears to breathing. The first gear and the gear that we always want to come back to, let's call it neutral or park. Let's say neutral is probably better.

Let's call that being back in neutral. That's going to be our six in, six out. That's the breath that we always want to come back to.

So for 95% of the day, 99 in some cases, we should be breathing towards that cadence during our waking hours. The next gear up from that is breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. right? So breathing in nice, clean, pressurized air, right, to meet the demands of our body, and then blowing it out through the mouth. So thinking of the mouth as an exhaust instead of an intake.

right because we can blow the air out and so that's gear number two and then if we're going in an all-out sprint right then we're going to breathe in and out through our mouth but usually that all-out sprint that level of demand is going to be less than one percent of your day right right so and then once you're in that all-out sprint or you're catching your breath then you go back down the gears just like you would in your car so you're going to go back to in through the nose out through the mouth and then back to in through the nose, out through the nose. And the faster that you can get back to that six in, six out, that's actually the best measurement of the resilience in your nervous system. Many people, it might take me like say 30 to 60 seconds to get back into that coherence breathing after going to an all out sprint.

Other people, it might take them a few minutes to get back to that point. And so that tells me how much reserve they have in their nervous system and resilience they have in their nervous system to come back to baseline. So now a little bit more kind of digging a little deep with this.

So if people are just so excited about this, what are some of the things they can check in with themselves about? And how long does that shift happen? You know, we're going to see it in two days, a week, you know, a couple of weeks. And what can they expect to see? Is sleep going to be better?

Are they going to start losing weight? Are their hormones going to be more balanced? All of which I believe to be true.

But what are your experiences with this? Yeah, so tons of case studies that we have. I'll share a story from a mutual friend of ours.

I won't share her name, but we did an interview like this. And she's a fertility expert. We were talking about how breath affects the nervous system, which affects infertility type issues. And the interview, you know, we just went down the rabbit hole. And it was so fascinating because her jaw was literally on the floor after she realized the connection between the two and she hadn't put it together.

And one of the things that she took away from the interview is that she sleeps with their mouth open. Here's how you know you sleep with your mouth open. One, your mouth is dry when you wake up in the middle of the night.

Perhaps your partner tells you you're snoring and your mouth is open. You have bad breath in the morning. Okay. And your lips might be dry as well.

And another sign that you breathe through your mouth is you wake up frequently to urinate in the middle of the night. Okay. Because mouth breathing is a diuretic.

So it actually, uh, doesn't it, it affects how we regulate, uh, moisture and it also affects how we regulate body temperature. So our body gets rid of fluids as a way of regulating body temperature. So with her, within three days, she realized that she needed to be mouth taping at night.

Within three days, she noticed that she started dreaming again. She's waking up much more energized and she just feels like she's getting more restful and deep sleep. So many people will notice within a very short period of time, they'll notice a difference.

Here's the thing with breathing that I found really fascinating. You can not eat for 30 days and you'll still live. You'll feel miserable, but you'll still live, right?

Your body will eat away at your fat and muscle before anything happens to you. You can not drink water for a few days and you'll still live, but you can't not breathe for more than a few minutes and expect to live, right? So it's the most important thing that we do. And so why not bring awareness to it? Because, you know, food, we have three times a day.

We might be thinking about food all day, right? But we only have a meal three times a day. And then the rest of the day, what should we be thinking about, right? Then, you know, people think about food in the morning.

Then after breakfast, they're thinking about lunch. And after that, thinking about dinner. But if we could shift our awareness to something that is actually more important, which is how am I breathing, there's an opportunity in every breath to improve your health, right? Every opportunity that we bring our awareness to our breath is an opportunity to steer our health in the direction that we want it to go in.

So let's kind of unpack this a little bit more because I'm so intrigued by what you're saying. And I've been aware of it for a number of years, but not to the extent that you're talking about. So making this simple for our customers here, we're talking about having more awareness about the food, the thoughts that you think.

Certainly exercise, everybody talks about it. But when we talk about lifestyle changes, we never, ever talk about breath. What you've done on this amazing interview.

is you've helped us understand the unbelievable importance of breathing and tools that you can actually use immediately to change that. So let's dig a little deeper now with the taping of the mouth. Why are we going to recommend that for pretty much everybody on this show? You know, the summit. Why are we doing that?

Sure. So for those of you that are listening to this, first and foremost, mouth taping sounds a little bit... crazy.

It sounds a little bit insane and it's very different and kind of makes you think like, I can't do that. Right. For a lot of people. And maybe it's not for everyone. Some people may have to breathe through their mouth because they have severe obstruction.

What I'm here to tell you is that the more you breathe through your nose, the more it opens up. Okay. So the more you use it, or if you don't use it, you lose it.

The more you use it, the more it becomes available to you. So for some of you, if you're consistent chronic mouth breathers, which about 50% of the population is, then that's okay. Just keep doing it and do your best and work your way up.

we don't always expect you to go right into mouth taping at night. Some people like me, I'm just like, tell me what to do and I'm going to do it, right? And we'll figure it out.

Yeah. Whereas some people, maybe there's trauma around the idea of closing their mouth like that. Perhaps they do have obstructive breathing, or maybe they just feel uncomfortable with the idea.

First of all, we're not going to seal our mouth. So we're just going to put a piece of tape vertically on our lips like this. And you only need about an inch of tape. We use 3M micropore tape.

It comes off nice and easy and it holds really well and it's hypoallergenic. So that micropore tape, you just take a bit, about an inch, put it vertically on your mouth. You can still talk through your mouth and you can still breathe through your mouth if you need to.

So we encourage people to start with doing it awake at their desk for about five minutes, then work your way up to 15 minutes, then half an hour, then try taking a nap with the tape on. and then start taping it at night. So you could do a progressive strategy when it comes to implementing the mouth taping. And the idea here is to keep the mouth closed.

The reason for that is because A, when we breathe through our mouth, it's diuretic, so it causes us to wake up at night. When our mouth is open and our tongue isn't at the roof of our mouth, our body goes into a fight or flight type of state. So we're producing now cortisol while we're sleeping instead of producing our healing hormones and anabolic growth hormones. The other thing that breathing will affect when we breathe through our mouth is that it also affects our teeth and our oral health, and it affects nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide, as many of you might know, regulates our blood pressure, as we mentioned earlier.

It also regulates our erectile tissue. So one of the benefits of mouth breathing for my male clients is they start having morning erections again because they're making adequate amounts of nitric oxide. When we don't breathe through our nose and we breathe through our mouth, it kills the bacteria that protects protective bacteria and the saliva that helps keep our gums and our teeth nice and healthy. So as I mentioned earlier, the number one cause of cavities is mouth breathing. And so there's so many catastrophic effects of breathing through our mouth and the microbiome changes, which then also, you know, as we all know, there's a connection between heart health and oral health as well.

So I'll give you an interesting example. My wife, before she started mouth taping, used to get tons of cavities. And we couldn't quite figure out why, because her oral health care is superior to mine. And I, on the other hand, I mean, I have good oral health care, but not as obsessive as she is about it.

And I've never had a cavity in my entire life. And so I'm kind of scratching my head. And she's like, how does this make sense?

And she was feeling frustrated, but it turns out that she tends to breathe through her mouth. And when she started recognizing that and realizing that. We realized going all the way back to when she was young, she used to suck her thumb. And so the reason she used to suck her thumb was because she had a tongue tie. And that tongue tie was preventing her tongue from sitting properly in the roof of her mouth.

And so she would suck her thumb, which then acts as a little spacer. This is the reason that children feel instant relief when they suck their thumb, because now they're pushing that magic button that their tongue should be pushing. And so she had a narrow palate. And so for her mouth. breathing was much easier.

So she's had some dental work done. She has a beautiful smile, always has, but now she has some dental work done to widen the palate and adjust, slightly adjust the shape of her upper teeth. And it's made a profound difference for her. She doesn't get cavities anymore and she's more calm and she's more relaxed. She's less anxious and on the edge.

Now, sometimes people keep themselves cool on the outside, right? But they're troubled on the inside. And a lot of it has to do with how they breathe.

So they're... They're playing, they're taking up so much energy just trying to fight how they feel so they can show their game face and their best face to everyone in the world. But if they were to fix their breathing, if they're dysfunctional breathers, then it makes all the difference in the world. They're calm because their breathing is calm.

They don't have to pretend that they're calm. You know, our breath informs our biology. And so we can use our breath to change the chemicals and the emotional chemicals that our body and our brain produces to literally change how we feel. The breath is also utilized by the body. So as an example, when we feel a sense of relief, we sigh, right?

We, when we are shocked, we gasp. right? And we hold our breath. When we are tired, we yawn, right? When we find something funny, we laugh, right?

These are all forms of breath work that create, you know, chemicals and neurotransmitters in our body that make us feel a certain way. This is why you can go to a laughing yoga class. And after laughing for just a few minutes, you start laughing hysterically and you don't understand why, but it's because the breath is creating that emotion. And those chemicals in your body to make you feel that way. So it's really a fun two-way street to help us choose how we want to feel.

Wow. Amazing. What I love about what you just presented is, you know, we talk about adrenal dysfunction and we talk about the stress levels that everybody's experiencing because the world has gotten a little out of control for some people. And now there's a very simplistic tool, two of which you've talked about, the breathing that you can do every day, changing it, learning how to do it on your own. And then also the taping of the mouth.

Wow. This is amazing. And I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people.

Yeah, we're literally just scratching the surface. So, you know, I really invite people to, you know, we've got some resources that we're happy to share. And I really invite people to explore this and what it means to them.

Do not let the simplicity of what we talked about today fool you because The greatest sign of sophistication is simplicity. And there's nothing more sophisticated than your body, which means that nothing should be simpler to take care of. So do all the other things that you're doing, but never forget how important your breath is.

And it's the thing that you can do. And within literally within minutes, like if you put your blood pressure cuff on, if you put your heart rate monitor on, if you put your HRV measuring device, I mean, all of those things use breath to get you into the state where you're performing as the best version of yourself. So we've known this from the personal development world, from the meditation world. And what I want to do is I want to bring it to the metabolic world because it literally is how you breathe while you sleep is the upper limit of your metabolic health. Because while you're sleeping is when you're resting, regenerating and burning fat.

And if all that depends on how you breathe, then that is the upper limit of how you're going to feel each day. Absolutely. So to find out more, and for those people that are really interested in hearing this, obviously you can buy that.

you know, the format at the end of the program. But for those that want to find out a little bit more about you and kind of the things that that they could kind of check into, how would they do that? Yeah, thanks for asking.

So one of the things that I did, Marcel, for everyone is I put together a breathing bundle. And it's absolutely free. It's my best five resources. And if they go to breathworkwithsatchin.com, breathworkwithsatchin.com, www, they will get the free resources. I've got a 90 minute breathwork experience in there.

I've got a stop snoring guide in there. I've got a breathing signatures guide in there, a few keynotes that I've done on breathing that you can watch as well. And I think it'll really open up people's, you know, eyes and ears and hearts to, you know, this amazing tool that I wish I had known my entire life.

And metabolism and name and say that again one more time for the reader. So for the listeners, sure. www.breathworkwithsatchin.com.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I'm almost feeling like we need a part two, but we'll do that another time. Thank you so much and have a fantastic experience, everybody, that's going to be utilizing some of this material because I think it's going to change your life. Thank you, Marcel.

Transcript for:Transforming Health Through Breath and Light

Transcript for:
Transforming Health Through Breath and Light