INDIA ABROAD February 10, 2017 31 HEALTH
INDIAABROAD.COM
By Lesley Alderman
ake a deep breath,
expanding your belly.
Pause. Exhale slowly to
the count of five.
Repeat four times.
Congratulations.
You’ve just calmed your nervous
system.
Controlled breathing, like
what you just practiced, has been
shown to reduce stress, increase
alertness and boost your immune
system. For centuries yogis have
used breath control, or pranaya-ma, to promote concentration
and improve vitality. Buddha
advocated breath-meditation as a
way to reach enlightenment.
Science is just beginning to
provide evidence that the benefits of this ancient practice are
real. Studies have found, for
example, that breathing practices
can help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, insomnia,
post-traumatic stress disorder,
depression and attention deficit
disorder.
“Breathing is massively practi-
cal,” says Belisa Vranich, a psy-
chologist and author of the book
“Breathe,” to be published in
December. “It’s meditation for
people who can’t meditate.”
How controlled breathing may
promote healing remains a
source of scientific study. One
theory is that controlled breath-
ing can change the response of
the body’s autonomic nervous
system, which controls uncon-
scious processes such as heart
rate and digestion as well as the
body’s stress response, says Dr.
Richard Brown, an associate clin-
ical professor of psychiatry at
Columbia University and co-
author of “The Healing Power of
Consciously changing the way
you breathe appears to send a
signal to the brain to adjust the
parasympathetic branch of the
nervous system, which can slow
heart rate and digestion and pro-
mote feelings of calm as well as
the sympathetic system, which
controls the release of stress hor-
mones like cortisol.
Many maladies, such as anxiety and depression, are aggravated or triggered by stress. “I have
seen patients transformed by
adopting regular breathing practices,” says Dr. Brown, who has a
private practice in Manhattan
and teaches breathing workshops
around the world.
When you take slow, steady
breaths, your brain gets the message that all is well and activates
the parasympathetic response,
said Dr. Brown.
When you take shallow rapid
breaths or hold your breath, the
sympathetic response is activat-
ed. “If you breathe correctly,
your mind will calm down,” said
Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, assistant
clinical professor of psychiatry at
Dr. Chris Streeter, an associate
professor of psychiatry and neu-
rology at Boston University,
recently completed a small study
in which she measured the effect
of daily yoga and breathing on
people with diagnoses of major
depressive disorder.
