The Nuance
A Single Deep Breath Is the Quickest Way to Relieve Stress
It’s a great way to stimulate the vagus nerve — and induce a state of calm
The way a person breathes is inextricably linked to the way a person feels. This is a central tenet of several forms of Eastern medicine as well as everything from yoga and meditation to tai chi and karate. Each of these disciplines emphasizes the primacy of careful and controlled breathing for the health and function of the body.
While Western medicine has long recognized shallow, rapid, or otherwise disordered breathing as a symptom of illness, breathing was not traditionally viewed as a modifiable factor in an ailment’s progression or treatment. But that’s changing. The last two decades have witnessed a surge in breathing-related interventions for pain- and anxiety-related disorders, as well as for diseases of the gut, heart, and brain. The more doctors explore breathing as a form of illness prevention and therapy, the more they turn up evidence of its importance.
One 2012 study in the journal Pain Medicine found that five-minute periods of deep breathing led to statistically significant improvements in pain detection and tolerance among healthy adults. And a 2005 study found that two minutes of slow, controlled breathing led…
