How Cerebrospinal Fluid Can Help Clear Brain Fog & Improve Brain Health

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

The spinal column and the brain are all held within an ever-moving liquid called cerebrospinal fluid. It's clear and colourless and it's found within the tissues that surround the brain and spinal cord. 

It has 4 main functions: 

1. Buoyancy: Interestingly, the actual mass of the human brain is about 1400–1500 grams; however, the net weight of the brain suspended in CSF is equivalent to a mass of 25–50 grams. The brain, therefore, exists in neutral buoyancy which allows the brain to maintain its density without being impaired by its own weight, which would cut off blood supply and kill neurons in the lower sections if CSF was not present.

2. Protection: CSF protects the brain tissue from injury when jolted or hit, providing a fluid buffer that acts as a shock absorber from impacts.

3. Homeostasis: CSF helps the cells of the brain communicate whilst alerting the central nervous system to subtle changes in temperature, blood pressure, and pH levels. This then allows the nervous system to regulate as needed. 

4. Clears waste: CSF allows for the removal of waste products from the brain and is critical in the brain's lymphatic system called the glymphatic system. Metabolic waste products diffuse rapidly into CSF and are removed into the bloodstream as CSF is absorbed. When this goes awry, CSF can be toxic, such as in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the commonest form of motor neuron disease.

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Even though cerebrospinal fluid moves up and down our spine and in and around our brain all day long, scientists still aren't exactly sure how its formed. One area most agree upon, however, is that it continually gets produced and replaced every six to eight hours. 

What affects the movement of CSF? 

The movement of CSF is affected by the downward pull of gravity, blood flood, respiration (breathing), pressure from the veins, and head and body movements.

However, from that list, perhaps respiration (breathing) is the most exciting. 

Why?

The average person breathes between 15,000–20,000 breaths a day and it accompanies us through every thought, conversation, scenario, and situation during day-to-day life. 

It's completely free of dogma, judgement, prejudice, and assumption too. Helping it to be all-inclusive, non-binary, accessible, free, willing, and available in every single moment we are alive. 

We don't have to go anywhere to find it, buy it, grow it, source it, persuade it, or convince it either, it will continue to breathe us regardless.

Why I'm so excited to share this information with you here is because CSF pulsates and moves in tune with the rhythm of our heart and the rhythm of our heart moves in tune with the rhythm of our breath.

Each pulse (or breath) pushes CSF up and down the spine and in and around the brain all day long. So, when we hold the breath out (through a technique called intermittent hypoxic training), this movement slows down. So much so that when we breathe in again after a short break, a burst of energy is pushed forward. 

This burst of energy is highly regenerative.

Imagine our spine as a free-flowing pipe that suddenly gets squeezed shut as we hold our breath out. The liquid inside the pipe keeps flowing but it slows down as the pressure builds up behind the point of contact. Once the pressure is released by breathing in, a surge of energy is pushed forward. That surge of energy can carry tremendous healing capacity. That's what happens up and down the spine and in and around the brain when we breathe in after we've held 'no breath' for long enough (60–90 seconds+). 

If done regularly on a day-to-day basis (2 rounds of rhythmical breathing followed by a breath-hold, for example), brain fog can clear, tissue cells can regenerate, dormant areas in the body can reactivate, energy levels can rise, focus and clarity can be experienced, and a message of healing can be carried throughout the body via the nervous system.

Breath control techniques such as Soma Breath have a strong focus on this process for these exact reasons. So, if you are wishing to explore intermittent hypoxic training, Soma Breath is a fantastic technique I can highly recommend.

"When we pause our breath, we press pause on life." - Niraj Naik

So, what is intermittent hypoxic training?

Hypoxia is defined as - a condition where not enough oxygen makes it to the cells and tissues in the body.

Intermittent is defined as - occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.

So intermittent hypoxia is the act of temporarily slowing the flow of oxygen to the cells and tissues in the body.

This might sound counterintuitive at first as how can no breath be good so for us? But pausing the breath for short intervals can lead to some fascinating health benefits in much the same way fasting from food can be a welcome break to the digestive system.

The health benefits that are associated with holding the breath out come when the body builds up a tolerance to carbon dioxide and becomes more oxygen efficient. And a brilliant way to do this is through intermittent hypoxic training.

How it works

Imagine a set of scales that tips from one side to the other on every breath that you take. Inhaling tips to the left, exhaling tips to the right. Oxygen is on the one side, CO2 is on the other. When we breathe in, the scales tip to the left as oxygen comes in. When we breathe out the scales tip to the right as CO2 goes out. This back-and-forth motion happens with every breath that we take. So, when we breathe out and hold no breath, the scales momentarily stop where they are, our oxygen levels will begin to drop, and our CO2 levels begin to rise. Intermittent hypoxic training is extending the time without breath.

To hold the breath out for long enough (60–90+ seconds), our oxygen levels must rise. In order for our oxygen levels to rise, we must breathe more intensely through a round of active breathing (40 breaths = one round, for example). 

More intense or active breathing causes the blood to become saturated with oxygen whilst lowering carbon dioxide levels. And because our first impulse to breathe comes when we need to get rid of a build-up of CO2 and not the more commonly thought idea that we need more oxygen, if we can build up a tolerance to carbon dioxide, we can prolong the urge to breathe out for longer thus holding our breath for longer. 

Carbon dioxide is what helps to release and separate oxygen from haemoglobin - a "sticky" protein - in the red blood cells so as our carbon dioxide levels begin to rise, the now oxygen-rich cells can be released and deposited around the body.

A wonderful comparison can be drawn to fasting from food. Fasting gives the digestive system a break and as it does, it takes stock, flushes out, rests, cleanses, regenerates, and ultimately strengthens in the process. It's only when a person goes without food for too long or too often does it become a problem. The same can be said of the breath. However, because the body can survive for months without food there is less urgency to respond to it having no food so the body processes more slowly. However, because the body knows it only has a few precious seconds whenever the breath stops it doesn't waste any time in acting with urgency. This urgency can be highly regenerative.

Science now shows that through fasting, cold-water therapy, time in a sauna, intense exercise, and breathing exercises such as intermittent hypoxia, we can potentially slow the aging process down and heal parts of ourselves that were otherwise deemed 'unhealable'. And a big part of that is the urgency the body feels to heal itself.

Building up a tolerance to carbon dioxide is a fantastic way to go longer without breathing and to activate the health benefits that intermittent hypoxic training can provide. However, its long-lasting effects are that fewer breaths are needed to be breathed per minute.

Closing thoughts 

We seem to be past the time when gaining knowledge is the desired path. Now, maybe so than ever before, we are longing for experience. Experience is knowledge in action. Repeated action creates neural pathways in the brain that solidify knowledge into wisdom. This then imprints the cells within the body and the wisdom carried forward thereafter is one of personal truth. There's no turning back from personal truth and once you know how to get there, there's really nothing stopping you from repeating it over and over again.

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If you've been inspired by this ever-moving, clear liquid that never stops moving and would like to work with it more intentionally, check out my favourite breathwork exercise here.

Or, alternatively, see how Soma Breath incorporates intermittent hypoxic training into their fabulous breathwork technique here.