Summary: As the prevalence of stress and anxiety increases globally, it is time to look back and rediscover some of the traditional non-pharmacological means to manage stress and anxiety. Medications may help in such conditions, but they cause more harm than good. Moreover, many such drugs are highly addictive. Researchers think that instead of popping up pills for all kinds of mental stress, a safer way could be just to breathe deeply for some time. It is quite a simple way, in which a person breathes deeply, then holds a breath for a few seconds, and repeats it. This appears to boost the activity of the parasympathetic system and slows down excitatory sympathetic activity. What is best is that these exercises can be done at any place.
Experts suggest that a simple act of breathing deeply may help reduce pain and stress. It may have a soothing effect, calm down nerves, and may thus help ease the pain.
More and more people are living with chronic pain these days. The majority of adults have some chronic painful conditions. Similarly, most are living with some stress, which may ultimately lead to distress. For those struggling with such challenges, interventional pain management in St. Louis offers advanced solutions to manage and alleviate chronic pain effectively.
There are many novel ways to tackle chronic stress and pain. However, people want something that does not involve using substances. It is no secret the epidemic of antidepressants and opioids is now causing so many deaths and misery.
So, why not turn to some of the traditional ways of managing stress and pain. Even a simple act of walking or engaging in some physical activity may have considerable benefit.
But, now studies show that even breathing deeply and then holding breath a few times may have considerable benefit in reducing stress, anxiety, and chronic pain.
Breathing deep or other ways of practicing mindfulness have multiple benefits. First, these methods affect both physical health and mental state. Thus, they have an impact on various body functions and may also help rewire the brain.
Thus, no surprise why Americans are now increasingly turning to meditation and other similar methods to manage their stress and control chronic pains. Studies show that people practicing meditation in America have risen by several times in the last couple of decades. At present, almost about 15% report meditating regularly1.
Professor of psychology from Trinity College, Dublin, Ian Roberson, thinks that deep breathing exercises could be one of the simplest ways to reduce stress without drugs. Moreover, these exercises do not require much time or equipment and can be done at any place, even in the office or at work. One can even do these activities before some stressful moments at job2.
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Deep breathing helps in a very simple way. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and lowers the sympathetic system’s activity. Thus, it acts as a braking system that helps lower stress. Not only that, increased parasympathetic activity means reduced heart rate and blood pressure, along with lower anxiety.
It just helps counter the overactivity of the sympathetic system, which occurs due to all the excitement people experience during their working day.
It is also interesting to see that deep breathing has a beneficial effect on pain. It is especially good news for those living with chronic pains, as such pains are difficult to manage.
Researchers think this happens because stress and pain share some common neural pathways. Thus, influencing one pathway also helps reduce the activity of another neural pathway.
During the day, sympathetic activity rises, and in many, it just fails to come back to its original state. As a result, some people find it difficult to calm down. This prolonged excitement stimulates various body functions. However, a protracted hyper excitatory state is terrible for health and increases pain sensitivity.
Breathing exercises are pretty simple to do. For example, you may inhale slowly by counting one to four or five and then hold your breath before slowly exhaling it and again slowly counting. This can be repeated multiple times, like ten-time or till you feel relaxed.
It is vital to make it your second habit. So, next time you feel tense and in pain, just give this simple method a try. Use it repeatedly for a few days, and you will start experiencing the benefits.
References
- Twitter, Instagram, Email, Facebook. A lot more Americans are meditating now than just five years ago. Los Angeles Times. Published November 8, 2018. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-americans-meditating-more-20181108-story.html
- Dr Michael Mosley: How deep breathing can soothe anxiety, help you sleep and more. BBC Science Focus Magazine. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/dr-michael-mosley-deep-breathing/
