BY: ANDREW WEIL, MD
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4 THOUGHTS
1. Breath is (quite literally) Medicine
“One question I always ask is “How did we come to believe that medication is the only or the most effective way to treat disease?” Medicine and medication both derive from an ancient Indo-Iranian root meaning something like “thoughtful action to establish order”; the same root gives us the words measure and meditate. How curious that “thoughtful action” has become synonymous with the giving and taking of chemical substances.”
If “medicine” literally means something like “thoughtful action,” then mindful breathing is (in every sense of the word) medicine.
Let’s not forget to take our dose, today.
2. Why Slow Breathing Helps Reduce Blood Pressure
“The connection between stress and blood pressure is the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the tone of the smooth (involuntary) muscle that lines the walls of arteries. The sympathetic branch of that system constricts arteries, increasing blood pressure, while the parasympathetic branch relaxes them, lowering pressure.”
Slow breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of our nervous system. As we learn here, this relaxes our arteries and lowers blood pressure.
And with regular practice, we increase the tone of the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to long-term reductions in blood pressure.
As Dr. Weil succinctly puts it, “Relaxation training, such as breathing exercises, meditation, and biofeedback, lowers blood pressure by increasing activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. These approaches can drop the top blood pressure number by 10 and the bottom number by 7, if practiced regularly.”
Sounds good to me 🙏
3. Breath Work and the Power of the 4-7-8 Breath
“Breath work offers a unique access to the involuntary nervous system and is a powerful method of relaxation. One very effective technique is the 4-7-8 breathing exercise: inhale for 4 counts, hold for 7 counts, then exhale for 8 counts. Repeat this sequence several times throughout the day. (A video showing the practice can be found at DrWeil.com.)”
We can’t cover an Andrew Weil book without mentioning the 4-7-8 breathing technique he’s made famous.
It’s simple to perform: Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7, then exhale forcibly and audibly through pursed lips for 8 seconds. Here’s a link to the video demonstration.
This exercise only needs to be performed around 4-8 times in a row (Dr. Weil recommends not exceeding 8 reps in a podcast interview with Tim Ferriss, but he did not state why). People generally find this technique most helpful at bedtime.
Give it a try and enjoy the relaxing power of the 4-7-8 breath.
4. The Anti-anxiety and Anti-depressive Effects of Breathing
“Many options are available for managing depression and anxiety without drugs. There is good scientific evidence, for example, for the antidepressant effects of exercise and supplemental fish oil (to provide the essential omega-3 fatty acids needed for optimal brain function). Talk therapy, especially CBT, often works as well as or better than medication to treat depression. Acupuncture can be useful as well. Learning to regulate the breath is a more effective anti-anxiety measure than benzodiazepines, without any of the cognitive impairment and addictive potential of those drugs.” (my emphasis)
Of course, we probably can’t just “breathe our way off medications.” But, this is a powerful statement from Dr. Weil and reminiscent of a passage from another MD we’ve covered, Michael J Stephen.
Here’s how he puts it in Breath Taking: “Deep breathing is a potent inducer of the parasympathetic nervous system. The release of acetylcholine not only calms our organs, it also stimulates the release of serotonin, dopamine, and prolactin, the feel-good hormones targeted by medicines like Prozac and Zoloft. But yoga and breathing exercises produce this effect naturally and without side effects.”
Let’s also not forget how Leah Lagos, Psy.D., makes the connection it in Heart Breath Mind: “Additionally, recent neurocardiology studies have revealed that the heart is capable of secreting feel-good chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, and norepinephrine, all of which help to counteract feelings of depression. For years, the prevailing consensus has been that these powerful compounds were released only by the brain; the notion that the heart can produce these neurochemicals is exciting on many levels. This suggests that strengthening the heart through HRV-strengthening practices could possibly yield mild antidepressive effects.”
When three brilliant authors arrive at similar conclusions, I think there’s a good chance we might be able to use our breath to help reduce depression and anxiety without side effects. Sounds like a win-win to me 🙏.
1 LIFE-CHANGING IDEA
A Perfect Quote on the Extraordinary Power of Breathwork
“Breath work—learning how to change breathing habits and practicing specific breathing techniques—has remarkable effects on physiology. It cannot cause harm, requires no equipment, and costs nothing. It can correct some cardiac arrhythmias and gastrointestinal problems, for example, and is the most effective treatment I know for anxiety, as well as the simplest method of stress reduction.” (my emphasis)
I don’t have much to add, except that this is one of the best quotes I’ve ever read about breathwork. Life-changing, indeed.
1 STACK OF MEMORABLE QUOTES
“But because information on breath work is totally absent from conventional medical training, very few doctors can instruct patients about it. Instead they rely on drugs.”
“Optimal heart health depends upon balance of the mind-body connection. Stress, anger, anxiety, and depression accelerate coronary disease, while optimism and gratitude are balms for the heart. Fortunately, positive moods and emotions can be cultivated.”
“There are many practices to consider for neutralizing the harmful effects of stress on the body and mind: tai chi, yoga, meditation, hypnotherapy, breath work, and more.”
“Various mind-body techniques are available to help alleviate muscle tension: yoga, progressive muscular relaxation, breath work, self-hypnosis, transcranial stimulation, and neurofeedback.”
Discussing ADHD:
“Mind-body interventions like yoga and mindfulness training may help as well; ongoing studies are beginning to demonstrate their usefulness. And breath work can be an effective remedy for hyperactivity.”
“Apart from hypnosis, mind-body therapies useful in managing pain include visualization and guided imagery, biofeedback, breath work, meditation, and mindfulness training.”
“Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which can help a child or adolescent recognize and change unhelpful negative thought patterns, and techniques such as deep breathing to relax the mind and body can be as useful as antidepressant medications for some children.”
Discussing falling asleep:
“We need, instead, to practice letting go of wakefulness. Mastering relaxation techniques, such as breath control, can help greatly.”
And here are a few non-breathing ones I’ll leave:
“Keep in mind that doctors are frequently paid thousands of dollars to promote drugs to other doctors and allied health care professionals. The cozy (and lucrative) relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians has become such a problem that the Affordable Care Act mandates public disclosure of these payments. There is now a website you can check to see if your doctor has taken money from the pharmaceutical industry: cms.gov/openpayments.”
“Although it’s not their primary function, sedating antidepressants, antipsychotics, and antihistamines are also used “off label” as sleep aids.
Consumer cost of these drugs ranges from less than $1 to more than $30 per dose. The pharmaceutical industry promotes their sale through extensive direct-to-consumer ads and through contributions that influence public sleep education. For example, the National Sleep Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving sleep health, has received substantial funds from numerous pharmaceutical companies.”
“The information that doctors rely on when prescribing comes more often from industry sources than from objective ones. And despite attempts to curtail their influence, representatives of those companies are still very much present in medical offices, doing their best to persuade doctors to push their products. Pharmaceutical ads are the major revenue source for medical journals, compromising the objectivity of these journals in accepting or rejecting articles that report research findings with drugs and in deciding which to feature prominently.”