This hypothesis is easy to test. Attacks are long lasting and stereotypic and recognizable because unconscious unlooked for physically broken breathing will have chronic recognizable behavioural and mood effects due to the level of rising PCO2 in the blood and tissues, made more difficult to control when one is ill from a virus, exposure, malnutrition, dehydration, and/or all at the same time. Again, his hypothesis is easy to test. And I suggest scientific ways to do this, much as Dr Kraepelin did in the last century.
This hypothesis is easy to test. All it takes is to measure and track baseline respiration rate at rest in unmedicated subjects. All it takes is to measure and track increase in respiratory rate with physical activity and note whether or not the increase is normal or sluggish for the level of exercise or motor activity. All it takes is to measure and track the response of respiratory rate to upper airway obstruction [the common cold with stuffy nose etc..] to see if respiratory rate rises [as would be normal] or does not respond as the textbooks describe, suggesting that this homeostatic reflex is broken.
Knowing that this homeostatic reflex can be broken,[ as is the case with Paula], is the key to further scientific studies on how this affects the brain and the body’s ability to manage pH and PCO2 of blood and tissues during different challenging physical conditions. This has never been studies before because humans take this miraculous management of bodily fluids and air and energy for granted. to be continued……
It is amazing that this population of healthy people have hidden unseen unfelt broken breathing and are well much of the time. They will not know that their breathing is broken, uncoupled from normal metabolism and locomotor activity…because it is broken and this is not known by the frontal lobes even as it is known by the brain stem. They will sense hypercapnia [or hypocapnia] and will feel horrible inside and have no clue that it is due to the disconnect between their breathing rate and their metabolism and their need for respiratory support. They will feel horrible [or depending on the level of abnormal pH and PCO2 they might feel euphoric or even combative [ all behavioural outward signs of delirium].
If only the brain stem could talk; since it cannot then doctors MUST measure the pattern of vital signs to assess the level of mechanical and metabolic stress in health and in illness [unmedicated subjects].
Studies are needed to know how many patients diagnosed with a psychiatric illness such as major depression or bipolar illness actually have unconscious, hidden unknown and unlooked for BROKEN BREATHING due to uncoupling of the ventilatory system to normal metabolism and normal locomotor activity.
Does anyone have any question?
Do you now understand?
It is both much more serious than you thought AND much more hopeful.
People can have this kind of damage and only occasional need supportive medical care to breath and can basically be fine.
Like Paula is fine and has been most of her life.
And her breathing is very very broken. We know her baseline breathing rate at rest. We know her baseline breathing depth at rest [normal]. We know that her breathing rate is sluggish when she is physically active. We know that her respiratory rate does not rise at all when she has upper respiratory obstruction. We know that her respiratory rate can rise much too quickly and much too high under conditions of exposure to overcrowded poorly ventilated conditions. We know that she cannot easily correct perturbations to her internal bodily fluids.
And she is alive. And she is fit. And she can outrun you. And she will outlive many. She has already outlived some of her doctors, all of whom refused to track or study her minute ventilation [a measure of autonomic nervous system function] because they could not explain it and were afraid instead of fascinated and curious.
This is nothing short of miraculous, really, yet….it is so. And thousands of people were observed to have the same ventilatory defect in the last century. And this ventilatory defect made pH and PCO2 metabolism more complex for them also. Not so much 02 metabolism since their lungs and hearts and kidneys were healthy and could work harder if need be.
Nature is miraculous. More than we know. A major function of our brains is to regulate our internal fluids, our pH and our PCO2 [since it tracks only this mostly endogenous product] no matter what bodily injuries and broken bits we have accumulated from our birth to our death, during which we will have gone from being very little in size to much bigger, to becoming primed for reproduction, and enduring developmental hormonal changes all along the way. This is the main job of our brains and our bodies. Everything we do will help first to remain alive [by dealing with our internal fluid environment] and then, if we achieve not being dead, we can use some part of our minds to achieving our goals….but only then. It makes perfect sense to Paula and I.
Please read our previous blogs to learn more.
Of Sound Mind 