We all experience stress and anxiety at times in our lives. Prolonged stress can impair our mental and physical health.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a quick and easy way to reduce anxiety and the stress response? It turns out that there is a research-demonstrated way to do just that.
An article in Cell Reports Medicine by Balban and colleagues on January 17, 2022 reported on a breathing technique that reduces stress and anxiety. It is called, “exhale-focused cyclic sighing.” It must be practiced for 5 minutes a day for at least a month.
It “produces greater improvement in mood and reduction in respiratory rate compared with mindfulness meditation” also done 5 minutes daily for over a month. The authors suggest that “cyclic sighing has promise as an effective stress management exercise.”
Here is how it is done: Sit or lie down and set a timer for 5 minutes. Slowly inhale through your nose as deeply as you can, then, without exhaling, take another breath to completely fill your lungs (much shorter breath than the first one). Next, exhale slowly and fully through your mouth. Continue this method of breathing for 5 minutes.
Repeat this breathing exercise for 5 minutes daily for a minimum of a month. Controlled breathing has been shown to produce “physiological and psychological calming due to increased vagal nerve tone during slow expiration.”
The biological mechanisms that produce these improvements are described in greater detail within the article. It can be accessed by typing this into your internet search engine:
doi:https//doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
