The hip breathing trick that helps your hippocampus remember better

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the IMST breathing exercise. In case you missed it, IMST can improve blood pressure and ease sleep apnea in just five minutes a day . In the old days, you’d have to put in 30 minutes of aerobic exercise to get results like that. Well, hold on to your hat because the power of breathing doesn’t stop there… I seem to “lose” my keys more frequently. I tell my husband with confidence that I’m not the one who had the remote control last when it’s sitting right next to me. I keep telling myself that there has to be an easy solution to the problem and luckily there is. If you’re experiencing your fair share of senior moments, too, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered a breathing technique that can boost your brain’s memory center… In through your nose and out through your mouth If you’ve ever practiced meditation, you’re familiar with nasal breathing — the old “in through your nose and out through your mouth.” And, it turns out it’s beneficial for more than just relaxation. It actually helps you better consolidate, reinforce and stabilize your memories. In the Swedish study, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience , the researchers had participants learn twelve different smells on two separate occasions. They were then asked the participants to either breathe through their noses or mouths for one hour. When the time was up, the participants were presented with the old smells as well as a new set of twelve smells and asked to say if each one was from the past learning session or new. And, guess what… When the participants breathed through their noses between the time of learning and recognition, they remembered the smells better. And, […]

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