The Big Think: Life and Breath!
Take a deep breath.
Breath is life. It is the very life force that sustains us and infuses us with a vital essence. Just think about the relief of catching your breath or the joy a deep breath of clean, fresh air.
The Hindu text, the Upanishads (ancient and brilliant) called it Parana--a life-sustaining force. A force that enters through the breath and flows to all parts of our body. A similar notion is that of Qi, the well-established Chinese concept of life energy.
So let's move forward from 3,000 years ago. Forward from ancient wisdom to modern medicine. It seems that breath and its vital power can play a key role in regulation physiology and disease. Everyone knows, or at least senses the connection between anxiety and breath and how breath can relax and control "the jitters". Public speakers know the trick of breath control as a device to steady their physiology and help improve thought and presentation. But we can even take this further...
It seems now that two major disease can be treated (at least in part) by simple breath!
The first is hypertension. There are much data to suggest that breath regulation can actually LOWER blood pressure. If you want the lofty description, here it is in a nut-shell: Slow Breathing Improves Arterial Baroreflex Sensitivity and Decreases Blood Pressure in Essential Hypertension ((Hypertension. 2005;46:714.). The key word here is SLOW. A slow, modulated breath has a physiologic calming effect that results in lower blood pressure. But I would imagine that there is a wide range of systemic benefits far beyond blood pressure and far beyond the immediate numerical effect on systolic and diastolic numbers. The trick is the time between breaths!
The second is asthma. Asthma, in the United States seems to be getting worse, not better. Patients are fixed to their rescue inhalers and steroids--never leaving home without them. But an interesting body of evidence that comes our way from Russia suggests that breathing itself can be a powerful therapy in controlling this disorder. A shallow-breathing technique developed in 1952 by Konstantin Buteyk can dramatically reduce the frequency of attacks and the need for medication. The idea behind this technique is that "over-breathing" or hyperventilation can make asthma worse. This "over-breathing" can result in lower levels of carbon dioxide--which can result in the dreaded "broncho-spasms" and their dire consequences. Jane Brody has a great article in the NY Times about this old technique that's getting some attention both in the US and abroad at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03brod.html.
Again, the secret here is not just breath, but controlled, slow breath.
As we groom our consciousness with introspective thought (prayer, introspection, meditation, etc) we often use the "ping" of our mantra to guide us to a place of deep relaxation or even to experience our true nature revealed in transcendence. Our breath is the companion to this process that is always there--like a shadow that never leaves. Breath is life...and this breath is an essential tool that we must embrace and use wisely.
Think on...and, of course, breath on!