Deep breathing is a technique that allows you to calm your mind and reduce the concentration of stress hormones in your blood, which can contribute to the enhancement of your health. Deep breathing helps you calm down rapidly, think more clearly and focus on what you are doing.
Use this technique when something happens that you find disturbing, causing you to feel an increased amount of anxiety and stress. It's even helpful for children who have difficulty keeping calm.
For more information about UPMC's Healthy Lifestyle Program, call 800-533-8762.
Or, e-mail Dr. Bruce Rabin, Director, Healthy Lifestyle Program, at hlp@upmc.edu.
Deep breathing allows you to rapidly increase the amount of oxygen in your blood to a much greater extent than when you breathe naturally by expanding the wall of your chest.
When you take an abdominal breath and increase the amount of oxygen in your blood, your brain detects the increased oxygen and responds by decreasing the concentration of stress hormones in the blood.