Every other Friday, the Outside/In team answers one listener question about the natural world.
This week, Monica in West Hartford, CT asked, “We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘take a deep breath,’ and associate it with calming down. So, I was wondering about the science behind breath work, how it works, and why it’s so powerful to regulate the nervous system.”
Producer Felix Poon looked into it.
Transcript
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Felix Poon: Can you lead me through what you would do for a healing style of breathing?
Aditi Garg: Yes. This is called diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing or full yogic breathing. And just this practice calms you down instantly.
Felix Poon: This is Dr. Aditi Garg, a yogic and naturopathic physician, guiding us through a basic yoga breathing exercise. Feel free to join in, if you can.
Aditi Garg: Place your left hand on the abdomen, your right hand on the chest. Sit comfortably. And then as we breathe in, we will feel our chest is expanding. Also, try to expand your abdomen. Fill it up like a balloon. And as you breathe out, the abdomen comes down, the chest comes down.
Felix Poon: When it comes to our breath, most of the time we’re not really thinking about it. It’s involuntary. Our body just does it automatically. And how we breathe depends on what's going on around us.
Aditi Garg: So we have two phases of our nervous system. One is the sympathetic nervous system where we are mostly in the fight or flight mode.
Felix Poon: Let’s say there’s a lion chasing you, or maybe a high stakes presentation at work. Your sympathetic nervous system would kick in.
Aditi Garg: You would not want to digest food, you would not want to sleep. You would want to run. Your breath becomes shorter, and your heartbeat becomes faster.
Felix Poon: And then when the coast is clear, the other phase of your nervous system kicks in, the parasympathetic system, also known as "rest and digest."
Aditi Garg: Which is when you are relaxing, you’re digesting food, you are able to calm down your mind.
Felix Poon: So if our breathing changes depending on which nervous system mode we’re in, does it work the other way around? Because an amazing thing about the breath is that it’s also voluntary. We have the power to consciously change how we breathe. So does changing our breath change the state of our nervous system?
Aditi Garg: Breathing can work as the switch. Maybe change the rhythm, maybe change the length and breadth.
Felix Poon: So this is essentially what breath work is, it's any method of modulating the breath. Some studies suggest it can be a powerful tool. Research has shown it can reduce anxiety and depression. Some studies found breath work helped control blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes. Others have even shown that it can reduce inflammation and boost immune cells that fight off infections. But how does it do this? I spoke to Dr. Carolina Estêvão, a neuroscience and mental health researcher. She says we don’t have conclusive evidence yet.
Carolina Estêvão: Breath work is still seen as woo woo. It's not seen as actual science. So it's very difficult to get public bodies to fund this kind of research. As a result, we only have very small studies that don't really give us that definitive answer.
Felix Poon: A lot of research into breath work focuses on the vagus nerve. Think of the vagus nerve as the trunk of a tree. It’s rooted in our brain, then it runs all the way down to our heart, lungs, and intestines. The idea is that our breathing is connected to the vagus nerve, and we might be able to use breath work to send signals to, say, our cardiovascular system or digestive system. Different techniques are intended to achieve different results.
Carolina Estêvão: There are so many different patterns of breathing. There are types of breath work that make you more active, more alert. There are types of breath work that heat you up if you're feeling cold. So it's not just about calming you down.
Felix Poon: So, this segment is not intended as medical advice, but Carolina says you don’t have to wait for science to figure this all out before you try breath work for yourself. Diaphragmatic breathing is a good place to start, but if you’re looking for something more advanced, Aditi suggests 4-7-8-4 breathing.
Aditi Garg: We breathe in for four counts. Hold the breath for seven counts, breathe out for eight counts and hold the breath again for four counts. When your breath stops, your thoughts stop. And that is why retention of breath is really important.
Felix Poon: And even if that’s all it does, pausing our thoughts can be a welcome relief for many of us.
If you’d like to submit a question to the Outside/In team, you can record it as a voice memo on your smartphone and send it to outsidein@nhpr.org. You can also leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER.
