Mäetagused (Jan 2006)
Kommentaar artiklile "Hüperventilatsiooni ilmingud rituaalsetes tantsudes"
Abstract
In applied medicine, respiration is viewed as the chemical process of gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Corresponding experimental studies have enabled to observe the condition of all systems involved in respiration. In relaxation state, the cycles of inhalation and exhalation generally follow the temporal ratio 1:3 (1:1 for infants). The acceleration of breathing rate usually occurs on account of the shortening of exhalation cycle. The situation in which the exhalation phase is longer than the inhalation phase cannot be seen in normal circumstances. In the treatment of acute respiratory failure, this pattern of breathing is in rare cases used together with artificial pulmonary respiration. Hyperventilation always leads to hypocapnia of a healthy lung, since the exchange of carbon dioxide in alveolus occurs very rapidly by means of diffusion on the principle of redistribution of concentrations. From the viewpoint of medical practices, hypocapnia resulting from hyperventilation has a negative regulatory effect on humans. Scientists have explored the role of hyperventilation in various physiological psychoemotional conditions and activities. Various scientific theories and empirical studies link pathological anxiety and panic with hyperventilation. A patient may deliberately use hyperventilation to bring on clinical symptoms and in this case it is used as a diagnostic tool. At the same time, respiration training (including deliberate hyperventilation) is used for the same psychiatric disorders. In this study, the author's approach to hyperventilation is somewhat overgeneralised but is accurate in principle. The hypothesis posed by the author of the article, arguing that dancing (a motor activity), the technique of singing and/or breathing, the psychological disposition of participants of the ritual and the cultural context may evoke the state of trance, is a theory generally recognised also by other scholars.
