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Standards Support Healthy Breathing

New research published in the journal Current Biology and highlighted in a recent NPR segment reveals that—much like human fingerprints—breathing patterns are unique to each individual.

"Many things are very common across all our brains, but at the end of the day, you have your unique brain," said neurobiologist Noam Sobel. "And since so much of the brain is involved in this process, we hypothesize that, therefore, respiration would also be unique."

While this hypothesis has existed for many years, scientists recently put it to the test at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where 100 participants wore a small nasal tube while going about their normal daily activities for 24 hours. Data collected confirmed that each person had a different nasal airflow pattern—and what’s more, those breathing patterns predicted measures of physical and mental health, like anxiety and depression.

What researchers have not yet determined is whether breathing patterns influence health – or if they are merely reflective of existing health conditions.

"The way cooler outcome is not 'you breathe this way because you're depressed,' but rather, 'you're depressed because you breathe this way,'" Sobel says. "And if that's true ... can we teach you to breathe, you know, to be less depressed or to or to be less anxious?"

Breathe Easy with Standards

Whether or not breathing therapy for improved health is on the horizon, standards have long paved the way for healthy respiration in many settings.

For individuals with sleep apnea, ISO 17510, Medical devices - Sleep apnea breathing therapy - Masks and application accessories, specifies requirements for masks and accessories, including any connecting element, that are required to connect the patient-connection port of sleep apnea breathing therapy equipment to a patient for the application of sleep apnea breathing therapy. This standard was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 121, Anaesthetic and respiratory equipment, Subcommittee (SC) 3, Respiratory devices and related equipment used for patient care. The U.S. holds the Secretariat for this TC and SC; administration of both has been delegated to the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). AAMI, an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, is also the administrator for the U.S. Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) for this TC and SC.

Standards also support healthy breathing in workplaces with unique environments:

• Airplane crew members can rely on SAE AS 452B, Oxygen Mask Assembly, Demand and Pressure Breathing, Crew. Developed by ANSI member and accredited standards developer SAE International, this standard establishes optimum guidelines for crew demand and pressure-breathing oxygen mask assemblies for use by crew members in civil aircraft.
• Emergency personnel can use equipment that follows NFPA 1989, Standard on Breathing Air Quality for Emergency Services Respiratory Protection. This American National Standard, developed by ANSI member and audited designator the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), specifies the minimum requirements for breathing air quality for emergency services organizations that use atmosphere-supplying respirators for the respiratory protection of their personnel.

Learn more about unique breathing patterns from NPR: Could humans' unique nasal 'fingerprints' give us information about our health?