Pranayama and Physical Health Benefits
Pranayama, comes from the Sanskrit words "prana" meaning life force and "ayama" meaning control or expansion. It is a practice of changing your breathing patterns. This can have huge effects on us mentally and physically. The benefits of pranayama were described in traditional texts and what I find really exciting is that modern scientific studies are starting to find similar results and we’re starting to understand why it works so well.
Understanding Pranayama
Pranayama isn’t just deep breathing, in fact deep breathing is often not helpful for people and doesn’t bring more oxygen to the brain (but that’s another blog post!). Pranayama is a whole range of techniques changing the speed and rhythm and adding pauses to the breath (breath retention). It’s important to understand your own nervous system and each breathing technique. Some practices are stimulating like Kapalabhati, so if you’re already over-stimulated it would probably not be helpful. Some practices like Chandra Beda are calming and take your energy down so if you’re already low in mood or energy again it would probably not be the best one to choose. If you’re unsure of what you need or of what the practice does it’s best to stick to the balancing ones that are good for everyone Dirga breath and Nadi Shodana.
So in this blog pose I’d like to talk about some science based physical benefits of Pranayama. The scientific studies are all listed at the end.
Physical Health Benefits of Pranayama
Improved Respiratory Function
I see Pranayama as a way to practice healthy breathing. How we breathe in our daily life has a huge knock on effect on our health and wellbeing. Unhealthy breathing patterns can cause things like IBS, brain fog, muscle aches and tiredness. There are studies that suggest Pranayama can help with respiratory health including COPD and heart failure (always check with your doctor!).
Cardiovascular Health
The slow Pranayama practices have been found to reduce blood pressure and have a positive impact on cardiovascular health.
Enhanced Digestive Function
The practice of pranayama can also improve digestive health. Techniques like diaphragmatic breathing are thought to stimulate abdominal organs and improve digestion by increasing the circulation of blood to the digestive tract. Deep diaphragmatic breathing associated with pranayama helps massage the internal organs, promoting peristalsis and enhancing digestive function. Pranayama can also improve digestion by reducing stress and take us out of the fight or flight response. One of the things that happens when we go into fight or flight is our digestion can be suppressed.
Stress Reduction and Mental Clarity
Chronic stress can contribute to lots of health issues, like heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and gastrointestinal problems. By reducing stress and promoting relaxation, pranayama can help reduce these risks and help balance the functioning of the immune system.
Pranayama is way more than just breath work it a set of powerful practices which when practiced in the right way at the right time can have big big physical and mental benefits.
References
Respiratory Function
Holland, A. E. et al. (2012) Breathing exercises for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Available online https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008250.pub2/full
Bernadi, L. et al. (1998) Effect of breathing rate on oxygen saturation and exercise performance in chronic heart failure. . The Lancet 2;351(9112):1308-11 [available online https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9643792/].
Cardiovascular Health
Brandani, J. Z. et al (2017) The hypotensive effect of Yoga's breathing exercises: A systematic review. Complementary
Therapies in Clinical Practice 28, 38-46 [available online
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S174438811730172X?via%3Dihub]
Wu, Y. et al (2018) Yoga as Antihypertensive Lifestyle Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Mayo Clin Proc 94(3):432-446 [ available online https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30792067/]
Russo, M. A. et al. (2017) The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human. Breathe; 13(4): 298–309 [available online https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709795/]