My daily breathwork practice currently revolves around improving my spear fishing skills.

This is my CO2 table at the moment calculated on a max breath hold of 3mins40seconds (after mamallian dive reflex has been activated, gives me an extra 50 secs)

You basically hold your breath (in my case 1min50secs) and then rebreathe normally for a decreasing amount of time.

I believe that improving CO2 tolerance can help reverse a lot pf stress physiology.

The urge to breathe is not driven by falling O2. It is driven by rising PaCO2 and falling CSF pH at the medullary central chemoreceptors.

CO2 + H2O <-> H2CO3 <-> H+ + HCO3- via carbonic anhydrase.

The H+ is what the brainstem reads as the signal to breathe.

Most modern adults are chronically overbreathing/ancious breathijg.

Chronic hypocapnia keeps the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve left-shifted (Bohr effect in reverse).

What this means is that O2 stays bound to hemoglobin, tissue extraction drops, and you feel air-hungry while sitting on a couch full of oxygen.

CO2 tolerance work reduces promotes a rightward shift of the curve.

The Bohr effect at the tissue level means rising CO2 and H+ lower Hb affinity for O2, making more O2 available for the mitochondria tp utilize.

The Haldane effect runs the reverse at the lung level.

This means better delivery & better clearance.

What anthropic is doing to claude performance is what your body does to functions in state of micronutrient insufficiency.

You get throttled out of vitality.

Are you side quest maxxing anon?

Pantothenic acid (B5) is one of those nutrients that prob doesnt get enough attention considering what it actually does.

Its the precursor to coenzyme A. CoA is required for approximately 4% of all known enzymatic reactions. In mitochondria, CoA functions as the acyl group carrier for PDH and alpha-KGDH in the TCA cycle, the entire fatty acid beta-oxidation pathway, and leucine metabolism. Also needed for the first step of cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis.

But the really interesting part to me is the heme connection.

Heme synthesis requires succinyl-CoA. When B5 is low → CoA production drops → succinyl-CoA drops → heme synthesis is rate-limited.

↓ heme → ↓ cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) activity → ↑ mito ROS → accelerated cellular aging

Pantothenate deficiency depresses heme biosynthesis and causes anemia as well.

So B5 deficiency is a dual hit on mitochondria:
1. Starves the TCA cycle of its carrier molecule (↓ energy production directly)
2. Impairs heme synthesis (↓ complex IV → ↑ oxidative stress)

This converges on the exact same outcome as B6, B2, zinc, iron, copper, and biotin deficiency btw. They all hit heme synthesis at different points. Seven different nutrient deficiencies, one chokepoint (systems biology)

If you're seeing signs of poor ETC function on testing like mitoswab, B5 status is worth looking into alongside the more commonly assessed cofactors.

Every other day I speak to people who have had their SIBO come back time and time again after using conventional or functional medicine approaches...

The biggest philosophical mistake made is latching onto a label rather than exploring which system domains are out of balance.

Next time you go to your doctor, ask them to name all of the vitamins... you will be surprised

Gm

Lactoferrin for healthy aging via improved iron metabolism

The difference between people with SIBO that relapse and those who never relapse is quite simple actually.

The former had a label treated and the latter had their physiological dysfunctions identified & fixed.

One treated their illness, the other aimed at optimizing their health.

I havent seen anyone ever say this, but if you have gut issues that you are actively trying to solve, you gotta stop travelling for a while.

Gm