Breathing well helps body handle stress
November 20, 2009
Elvira Cordileone
STAFF REPORTER
You probably don't think you need lessons on how to breathe. After all, it happens naturally.
In fact, research suggests habitual poor breathing, typically a response to chronic stress, can damage your health.
"We find that people will vary their breathing for psychological reasons," says Dr. Margaret Chesney, professor of medicine and a researcher at the University of Maryland.
She refers to breath-holding as the "freeze response."
"Imagine there's a sudden noise. You say, `What's that?' It's very common to hold your breath because it's noisy. You feel vulnerable and you want to hear."
The collaborative work Chesney and Dr. David Anderson, a senior investigator at the U.S. National Institute on Aging, have done on breathing patterns shows when people respond this way, their blood pressure rises.
"People thought reactivity to stress is why blood pressure went up," Chesney says. "But it may be they were just holding their breath."
The freeze reaction may be a normal response to stressful circumstances, but, for those facing unrelenting stress, breathing this way habitually poses a decided health risk.
When you're not breathing deeply, your body doesn't properly rid itself of carbon dioxide, Chesney says. Excess carbon dioxide makes your system acidic so your body compensates by upping sodium levels, which in turn can raise blood pressure.
The fight-or-flight reaction, which the online Encyclopaedia Britannica defines as a response marked by physical changes that prepare a human or an animal to react or to retreat, has also been studied.
It notes the human nervous system has a two-pronged component that works automatically (the autonomic nervous system). The fight-or-flight reaction triggers the "sympathetic" nervous system. The "parasympathetic" branch is associated with the relaxation, which can be activated by deep breathing, meditation and exercise.
When we perceive a threat, the sympathetic nerve fibres of the autonomic nervous system activate. This leads to the release of certain hormones from the endocrine system, which initiates a rapid, generalized response.
The heart rate speeds up, arteries constrict, blood pressure, blood sugar and respiration increase and gastrointestinal activity decreases.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic together help us maintain our physical balance. Too much fight/flight activity without corresponding rest and relaxation equals distress.
Chesney advises you take some time to observe your breathing pattern. If you're not breathing well, it's a signal that you're reacting to something stressful in your environment.
"Usually it's associated with a sense of vulnerability," she says.
In those situations, just breathe in and out nice and deep and slow.
For more information on the stress response visit www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/206576/fight-or-flight-response
For breathing exercises in the yoga tradition visit yogajournal.com/practice/219
Stress and the body
The effect of stress and what you can do about it.
Stress is a normal part of life that can either help us learn and grow or can cause us significant problems.
Stress releases powerful neurochemicals and hormones that prepare us for action (to fight or flee).
If we don't take action, the stress response can create or worsen health problems.
Prolonged, uninterrupted, unexpected, and unmanageable stresses are the most damaging types of stress.
Stress can be managed by regular exercise, meditation or other relaxation techniques, structured timeouts, and learning new coping strategies to create predictability in our lives.
Many behaviours that increase in times of stress and maladaptive ways of coping with stress – drugs, pain medicines, alcohol, smoking, and eating – actually worsen the stress and can make us more reactive (sensitive) to further stress.
While there are promising treatments for stress, the management of stress is mostly dependent on the willingness of a person to make the changes necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
Source: Medicinet.net
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