Poor breathing chemistry, brought about by improper ventilation of carbon dioxide (CO2), is undoubtedly one of the most insidious and dangerous physiological responses to stress, emotional distress, difficult and/or complex tasks, and relationship challenges. "Overbreathing" means bringing about CO2 deficit in the blood, and other extracellular fluids, through excessive ventilation (increased "minute volume"), a condition that may result in debilitating short-term and long-term complaints and symptoms. Overbreathing is a dangerous behavior immediately triggering or exacerbating a wide variety of serious emotional, perceptual, cognitive, attention, behavioral, and physical deficits in human performance and health. The slight shifts in CO2 chemistry associated with overbreathing may cause physiological changes such as hypoxia (oxygen deficit), cerebral vasoconstriction (brain), coronary constriction (heart), blood and extracellular alkalosis (increased pH), cerebral glucose deficit, ischemia (localized anemia), buffer depletion (bicarbonates and phosphates), bronchial constriction, gut constriction, calcium imbalance, magnesium deficiency, and muscle fatigue, spasm (tetany), and pain.

Good breathing chemistry establishes a system-wide context conducive to optimizing health and maximizing performance. Basic principles, concepts, and applications of monitoring and evaluating the chemistry and mechanics of breathing will be presented in the context of live demonstrations of the effects of deregulated chemistry (i.e., overbreathing) on health and performance. Profile assessments and techniques for restoring adaptive breathing based on breathing chemistry will be demonstrated, and resulting data interpreted and discussed with the audience. Evaluating, establishing, maintaining, and promoting good respiratory chemistry are fundamental to virtually any professional practice involving biofeedback, neurofeedback, or self-regulation training.



3. AGENDA: (sequence of topics)

RESPIRATION: chemistry and mechanics
CHEMISTRY: the role of carbon dioxide in acid-base physiology
DEREGULATION: effects of hypocapnia (carbon dioxide deficit)
COMPENSATION: long term effects of overbreathing and their price
OVERBREATHING: effects on health, cognition, emotion, and performance
CONSCIOUSNESS: personality, dissociative states, embracement vs. defensiveness
ASSESSMENT: instrumentation, measurement, checklists, interviewing
DEMONSTRATIONS: evaluating breathing mechanics and chemistry
EDUCATION: crisis interventions, mechanics, and misconceptions
TRAINING: somatic, visceral, and state awareness learning
APPLICATIONS: chemistry (CO2) biofeedback in neurofeedback practice

4. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Workshop participants will be able to:
*describe and explain basic principles and concepts of breathing chemistry
*discuss and summarize the consequences of deregulated breathing chemistry
*identify and apply simple breathing chemistry assessment and training techniques
*plan and prepare for implementation of CO2 biofeedback in neurofeedback practice