Breathing Easy: Function, Tasks, Role & Diseases

Breathing easy is a regulatory measure of the body to avoid pain. It leads to impaired performance and can result in serious complications.

What is rescue breathing?

Breathing gently is a regulatory action taken by the body to avoid pain. Sparing breathing is characterized by reducing the depth of breathing to avoid increasing pain by expanding the chest. Various causes may underlie the triggering pain. The shallow breaths cause the respiratory volume to be reduced. Normally, it averages 500 ml at rest. Together with the resting frequency of 12 – 15 breaths/minute, this results in a respiratory minute volume of approximately 7.5 liters. The reduction in breathing depth results in poor ventilation of the lungs; not enough oxygen-saturated air reaches the alveoli. As a result, the gas exchange that takes place there is reduced and oxygen saturation in the blood drops, which has a direct impact on performance. In contrast to shallow breathing due to mechanical causes, the possibility of compensation through an increase in frequency is eliminated in the case of sparing breathing, since it is pain-related. Reduced ventilation, also called hypoventilation, presents good conditions for pathogens to enter the lungs, especially pneumococci.

Function and task

The function of a protective breathing is to avoid pain that may be caused or aggravated by expansion of the chest or abdomen during inhalation. The causes of pain can be varied. During inspiration, the thorax is expanded at rest by the use of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. The lungs are covered on the outside with a thin skin called the pleura visceralis, which is connected to the pleura parietalis, which lines the inside of the chest. The gap between them contains fluid that causes the two skins to adhere to each other. This construction causes the lungs to be pulled along and expanded as the thorax expands, allowing air to flow into them from the outside. This reaches the smallest units, the alveoli, where gas exchange takes place. In the case of gentle breathing, the expansion of the thorax is reduced. The alveoli are only partially dilated or not dilated at all. No or too little fresh, oxygen-enriched air reaches them. The uptake of O2 into the blood is reduced, and with it the supply of oxygen to the cells. Affected people have to reduce their activities, their performance decreases. In this case, the regulatory mechanisms that control the systems prioritize the avoidance of pain, to the detriment of the supply of oxygen to the organs and cells. Compensatory mechanisms such as frequency increase, which are otherwise set in motion during shallow breathing, are suppressed. The respiratory center in the medulla oblongata normally regulates breathing based on the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, which are measured by certain receptors. As needed, breathing is adjusted to keep these levels constant within narrow limits. The pain, which is the cause of the protective breathing, breaks this mechanism. The muscles of inhalation are inhibited in order to keep the intensity of their activity low, although the blood composition is unfavorably altered as a result, the oxygen content decreases and the carbon dioxide content increases.

Diseases and ailments

Causes of shy breathing may include disease, injury, or surgery of the lungs, surrounding tissues, chest, or abdomen. Pneumonia or bronchitis causes pain in the skeleton of the lungs that increases as it expands. While pneumonia is typically a bacterial disease (pneumococcus), viruses are usually the cause of bronchitis. Highly painful are inflammatory irritations of both pleurae, called pleuritis. They often occur as a result of thoracic injury in the form of mechanical irritation, and less frequently as a result of secondary bacterial infestation. If the affected regions are localized, some compensation for sparing breathing is possible by redirecting breathing to other unaffected areas. Trauma to the thoracic region is also very painful and can affect breathing in the long term.These include rib fractures as well as rib and thoracic contusions, with respiratory impairment depending on the size of the affected area and the nature of the injury. Fractures of a single rib restrict respiratory activity only slightly in contrast to serial rib fractures. Fractures in which the ends of the fracture are pressed onto and may puncture the lungs and pleura during respiratory motion have a particularly dangerous and debilitating effect. The negative impact on breathing in thoracic contusions often persists over a long period of time. Good pain management is especially important in this case to avoid complications. Pain in the abdomen caused by temporary discomfort can be compensated by shifting the direction of breathing and does not lead to sustained relief breathing. In that case, abdominal breathing is avoided and thoracic and flank breathing are increased. All surgeries that are performed in the areas affected by expansion during breathing can lead to gentle breathing, as the expansion causes painful stretching of the surgical area and scars. These include lung surgery as well as open heart and abdominal procedures. As a result of the soft breathing itself, complications related to hypoventalation and changes in blood composition may occur. Poor ventilation of the lungs makes it easy for pneumococci to invade the lung tissue and pneumonia can develop. Thus, pneumonia can be both a cause and a consequence of the protective breathing. The change in blood PH, as a result of impaired gas exchange, increases the risk of thrombosis and the associated risk of pulmonary embolism.