Benefits of Diaphragmatic Breathing

Mounting evidence is suggesting that deep belly breathing, otherwise known as diaphragmatic breathing (DB), can induce beneficial and relaxing effects that support physical and mental health.¹ Although DB is slowly gaining attention amongst exercise professionals, medical professionals, and the general public, specific benefits have remained largely elusive.¹⁽¹⁾ Considering the anecdotal benefits of DB, the following will briefly review best evidence regarding the same as well as specific and definable outcomes from implementing DB.

DB can be generally characterized as a protocol intended to integrate and manage the mind and body in a way, which helps manage psychosomatic (illnesses aggravated by mental factors) and stressful conditions.¹⁽¹⁾ Said protocol can be more deeply defined by contraction of the diaphragm via deliberate ventilation strategies by deep inhalation (through expansion of the belly) and exhalation.¹⁽¹⁾ Such an approach helps optimize respiration frequency (i.e., lowering breaths per minute) while increasing the concentration of oxygen.¹⁽²⁾

Such improvements in breathing and efficiency have been implicated in reducing stress, depression, and anxiety. Improvements in cognitive performance, to include attention/memory/executive function have also been reported.¹⁽²⁾ Furthermore, said beneficial effects are free of pharmacological interventions and associated side effects making such an intervention appealing and cost-effective.¹⁽²⁾ Finally, research studies have cited improvements in blood pressure and heart rate variability from a little as one breathing practice.¹⁽²⁾

The research of Ma et al.¹⁽³⁾ sought to further validate the aforementioned improvements by recruiting 40 participants to explore the effects of diaphragmatic breathing; 10 males / 10 females in the experimental group (receiving breath training) and 10 males / 10 females in the control group (no breath training).¹⁽³⁾ The study was conducted over an 8-week period to include 20 guided diaphragmatic breathing sessions lasting 15 minutes each, preceded by 15 minutes of relaxation.¹⁽³⁾

After the 8-week trial period, subjects within the experimental group experienced a statistically significant reduction in negative affect (i.e., a broad concept summarized as feelings of emotional distress).¹⁽⁸⁾ Other findings included improvements in number cancellation scores; a means of assessing measures of executive control, spatial attention, general performance, and search organization.² Finally, salivary cortisol levels were found to be lower in the experimental group; a substance tightly connected to stress levels.¹⁽⁸⁾ Such a marker is relevant because cortisol levels are intimately associated to the hypothalamus pituitary axis (HPA); a system, which involuntarily controls immunity, metabolism, memory, and emotional appraisal.¹⁽⁹⁾

Please see our exercise library on diaphragmatic breathing progressions for more detail:

LINK: Diaphragmatic Breathing

In conclusion, anecdotal evidence is suggesting that DB can induce beneficial and relaxing effects that support physical and mental health. Furthermore, such a technique is continuing to gain attention amongst exercise/medical professionals, and the general public; a trend that has behooved researchers to explore and validate its physiological and psychological benefits in greater detail. Ultimately, DB is a simple, efficacious, and cost-effective means of managing aspects of psychological/physical stress as an adjunct, or stand-alone, intervention.

References

1. Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al. The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect, and stress in healthy adults. Front Psychol. 2017;8(874):1-12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874.
2. Dalmaijer ES, Van der Stigchel S, Nijboer TCW, et al.CancellationTools: All-in-one software for administration and analysis of cancellation tasks. Behav Res.2015;47:1065–1075. doi: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0522-7.

-Michael McIsaac