The Science Of Breathwork Therapy

By Nancy Gardner


For many years, the world of allopathic medicine has ignored the holistic approach outright. However, as more people have sought a more balanced and affordable way of dealing with disease, the world of science demonized those treatments as dangerous or irrelevant. In recent years the scientific community has been forced to study alternative treatments, such as breathwork therapy.

In order to utilize this therapeutic approach, both the doctor and the patient must be willing to acknowledge that there is a connection between the mind and the body. The ancient healers held that the thoughts of the mind could impact the health of the body, and this notion is being renewed. This is not an easy perspective for a very linear-thinking individual to embrace.

Followers within the New Age movement firmly believe that there is a connection between our thoughts and our health. They take it to the extreme sometimes, claiming that any negative thoughts are destructive. Negative thoughts are part of our reality and must be acknowledged, but there is no doubt that one who tends to be depressed has less chance of recovery than one who stays upbeat.

Research has shown that deeper breathing promotes calm in the face of anxiety. This has become an important approach in treating panic attacks as well as other psychological problems that many people experience. When one is able to control their breath rate, they can help work themselves through a moment of panic without making a scene.

Individuals who live with Asperger Syndrome have utilized this method to great success. By controlling their breath, they can control the way they handle an attack of anxiety in social situations. This ability helps to lessen the stress for those who care for them, and it gives them a greater sense of control over their own reality when they do not melt down in public.

Diseases such as COPD and asthma deal very directly with breathing, and this fast-shallow-to-deep-slow breathing exercise can help increase their lung capacity. Any time a COPD patient sees their doctor, they will be checked for their oxygen saturation levels. If there is a low level of oxygen in their blood, they run the risk of being hospitalized right away.

Most people only take in shallow breaths to their lungs, but when one takes breath in all the way to their diaphragm, it better oxygenates the blood. This deeper level of breathing allows for a greater saturation of oxygen into the bloodstream due to the fact that there are more shallow blood vessels in the diaphragm than in the lungs. This allows a great deal more oxygen into the blood stream, much like when one yawns.

For anyone facing serious illness, seeking the advice of your doctor about any additional treatments is highly recommended. It is important that the patient has a physician who appreciates their desire for the whole-body approach to wellness. Anyone who has fought such battles already knows, we must all play an active role in our own struggle to regain health and vitality.




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