By LAURA LEONARD
Doctor of Chiropractic
Los Alamos
Have you ever experienced the out of control feeling of a panic attack?
I was in my mid-30s when I learned first-hand what a panic attack felt like. I had pulled up at a red light and boom … my heart started beating out of my chest and I felt like I was going to pass out. The first clue that I wasn’t dying was that I was able to drive myself to the nearest ER.
It’s funny now looking back on how illogical my mind was at that moment. Clearly, I wasn’t dying but how would I know, I had never experienced anything like this before. After several months of repeated panic attacks, anti-anxiety rescue medication, behavioral therapy and cardiac work-ups, things started to get better.
I learned from the cardiologist that I was perfectly healthy and that I simply felt my heart beating more than the average person. I also learned that some people are more sensitive to CO2 levels in their body.
Panic attacks are a physiological expression of conscious or unconscious stress in our lives. This tendency to be in fight or flight is all too common for many of us and is a result of the many pressures we feel on a daily basis. When we are struggling with finances, work and home relationships, social media pressures and trauma the body never has a chance to get in a proper rest and digest state.
The fight or flight response releases a slow stream of adrenaline into the system, making our heartbeat faster, our muscles tighten and our breath shallow and fast. If we are focused on the negative in our lives then we are also not able to pay attention to body and how it is feeling.
A recent article published in the Journal of Translational Psychiatry showed healthy participants had a strong fear response when they inhaled a mixture of 7.5 percent CO2. These participants also had a decrease in flexible thinking and an increase in memory for negative words when presented with a list of words. The inhaled CO2 solution also caused an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, which are classic panic attack symptoms.
Ultimately all humans anxious or not will react with a fight or flight response to increased CO2 levels in their body and research over the years show that people with severe anxiety and panic disorder are simply more sensitive to lower amounts of it. When we are feeling stressed, we tend to breathe up high with the muscles between our ribs and our neck muscles instead of from our belly with the diaphragm.
This type of breathing is shallow and it creates an imbalance of O2 and CO2 in our blood stream. The more sensitive we are to the shift in CO2 levels, the more anxious and less focused we feel. For someone with anxiety, breathing properly and doing exercises to increase CO2 tolerance is an important part of healing. Behavioral therapy sessions won’t work as well if the brain is overwhelmed with negative thoughts and fear due to impaired CO2 tolerance.
How is CO2 tolerance built? Part two of this discussion to be continued in next week’s column.
Next week I will update on our potato diet experience as our mini “snowpocalypse” made it too hard to say no to comfort foods. Yes … I also have my weak moments with food. Life’s too short as they say!
Dr. Leonard’s practice focuses on posture and performance using a combination of soft tissue release, adjustments and exercise recommendations. She also coaches patients on nutrition, self-care and body awareness so they can manage themselves in between visits. Los Alamos Chiropractic Center is in the Mary Deal Building on Trinity Drive.
