Pain Reduction Through Breathing

anthony · #1 26-04-2006, 04:01 PM

Good breathing is an essential part of good health. Some Western medical researchers seeking a unified theory of disease are now looking at lack of oxygen in the tissues as a basic underlying cause of ill health. They have come to believe that they would choose correct diaphragmatic breathing if they had to share only one technique for maximally improving health. (Norris 1989)

Poor Breathing

Compromises immune system function.
Constricts blood vessels.
Increases heart rate and blood pressure.
Reduces oxygen supply to the brain and body.
Increases carbon dioxide in bloodstream.
Releases too much calcium into muscles and nerves.
Causes erratic heart beats and/or chest pains.
Causes breathless attacks at rest or for no apparent reason.
Causes disturbance of vision, ie. blurred.
Causes frequent sighing and/or yawning.
Causes dry mouth and throat, lump in throat.
Causes irritable coughing and chest tightness.
Causes dizziness, light headedness and spaced out feelings.
Causes faintness, unsteady feelings.
Causes trouble thinking clearly.
Causes headaches.
Causes ache in outer ears.
Causes ringing in ears (tinnitus).
Causes pins and needles or numbness.
Causes gut disturbances, indigestion, nausea, wind or irritable bowel and stomach pain.
Causes muscle aches and pains.
Causes tiredness, weakness, disturbed sleep and nightmares.
Causes phobias.
Causes fear, anxiety, panic, tension and shakiness.
Causes clammy hands and flushed face.
Causes sexual problems.
Causes coldness, generally hands and feet.
Causes talking difficulty.

You can consciously choose to breathe well and good breathing can help you improve your health and reduce your pain.

So, how do you breathe correctly then? Glad you asked, as here is an insight into your own breathing development exercises to improve yourself from all the above.

Breathing Exercises

Monitor your breathing rate using your watch, and count how many breaths you take in 60 seconds. Relaxed breathing is about 10-14 breaths.
Diaphragmatic breathing is for when people are anxious, they tend to use muscles that lift the rib cage to breathe. When they are relaxed, they breathe using the diaphragm, a large muscle that stretches across the bottom of the rib cage and works like a large piston.
1. Sit upright or lie flat
2. Place both hands across the upper abdomen, just below the rib cage, with the fingers of one hand just touching the fingers of the other hand
3. Breathe in through your nose
4. As you breathe in, the fingers will move apart
Slow breathing exercise for when people are anxious they tend to over-breathe. This then worsens the anxiety and can cause a number of physical symptoms: listed above. This exercise helps you to slow your breathing down to a normal rate.
1. Take a normal diaphragmatic breath
2. Hold your breath for 10 seconds
3. Breathe out. As you do so, say the work "relax"
4. Then breathe in and out in six-second cycles, three seconds in and three seconds out. Say "In, two, three" as you breathe in, and "Relax, two, three" or "Out, two, three" as you breathe out
5. After a minute (10 breaths), hold your breath for 10 seconds and repeat the cycle
6. Do the exercise for around five minutes
Check your rate of breathing, and on completion of the exercise, again record your breathing rate.

These strategies are proven for the control of breathing, otherwise referred as "controlled breathing". They are proven to lower all the problems associated with "poor breathing".

Picture is worth a thousand words.

anthony · #2 26-04-2006, 04:37 PM

Some good sources for more information on this topic can be found at:

http://www.depressionet.com.au/inspi...ps.html#290402
http://www.tne.net.au/~swag/physymp1.html
http://www.healthfirst.net.au/content/view/909/42/
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/b...s?OpenDocument

piglet · #3 26-04-2006, 07:09 PM

This is what I was told about on Monday - and my given homework for the week!