During the physiology of Excitability, chest breathing is necessary. This is because rapid shallow chest breathing allows one to breathe out all the acid indirectly, in the form of carbon dioxide, that accumulates during intense activities. Strong chest breathing is an attribute of Excitability.
Chest breathing is triggered and by a more emergency interpretation or anticipation of rapid acid build-up. If you were more nervous, for example, you would be anticipating future excitability. If you were running up a hill, you would actually experience this build-up.
We would consider hyperventilation to be the anticipation of the need for faster breathing without the actual need. Without getting detailed, let’s just say that stress would be the main reason for this hyperventilation.
The primary result of this hyperventilation is a depletion of carbon dioxide in the body. This depletion is potentially dangerous. If you were to breathe as fast as you can, you might pass out in 20 seconds. However, most hyperventilation is more subtle and chronic. The body has multiple ways to compensate. One way is mucous production, which can often be reversed by practicing holding ones breath. Asthma and so-called COPD could also be seen as a protective mechanism against hyperventilation. If you see the apnea as some breathing dysfunction that occurs for no reason someone would probably argue that the CPAP makes sense. If you see like we do the apnea to be a protective mechanism, not only would you deal with it differently but you would see the danger in long term use of the CPAP.
