How to inhale and exhale

Learning to breathe better can work wonders, experts say

? Cathy Harvey gets up at 5 nearly every morning to breathe. She inhales and exhales all night, of course. And during the next 24 hours, she’ll instinctively take in about 20,000 sips of air.

Yet Harvey, a 31-year-old corporate executive assistant from Chicago, believes the secret to good health is literally right under her nose. Conscious breathing clears her foggy head, fends off lethargy and is her favorite elixir to modern-day stresses.

Part healing technique, part performance enhancer, breathwork has been used throughout the world to help victims of trauma, torture and disaster, as well as addicts and athletes. Now, fueled by the popularity of Eastern traditions such as yoga and tai chi, breath awareness is gaining acceptance in the West as a tool for maintaining good health.

“Conscious breathing breaks up the habit patterns coded in the body and emotions,” said Shakta Kaur, a yoga teacher in Chicago who leads “breathwalk” classes, which synchronize breathing and walking. “You end up transforming yourself, actually changing your body chemistry.”

Increasingly, science offers support for her claims. Still, although breathing is so basic and essential that it happens whether we’re knocked unconscious or fall asleep, most people do it wrong. Less than 10 percent of the population breathes efficiently, according to chronic-pain specialist Ingrid Bacci, author of “Effortless Pain Relief” (Free Press, $24), which explores the link between pain and breath patterns.

Belly breathing uses the diaphragm, which allows the body to take in the most oxygen and release the most carbon dioxide. But when the breath is shallow or held, the level of carbon dioxide in the blood rises.

This throws the body into a mild state of alarm, and encourages an adrenalin reaction that increases anxiety, said psychologist Gay Hendricks, who has been teaching breathing techniques for three decades.

Harvey, who felt unusually stressed in college, reconnected with her breath when she attended an Art of Living Foundation workshop in Missouri.

The international humanitarian group, founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has taught breathing techniques, yoga and meditation to more than 4 million people throughout the world, including those traumatized by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and victims of the Asian tsunami in December.

Lila Nagarajan, who teaches creative writing at Columbia College, said she sleeps better after having learned breathing techniques through several Art of Living workshops. She has fewer headaches and neck aches and doesn’t get as angry about trivial matters as she used to.

“It’s almost as though we have to relearn how to breathe and then practice and practice, like with any sport, until we get really good at it,” she said.

Where to start

If Dr. Andrew Weil had to settle on just one tip for healthier living, the integrative-medicine pioneer would say without hesitation: “learn to breathe correctly.” But where to start? Here are a few ways to reconnect with your breath.

¢ Yoga classes. Yoga is about the breathing; the poses are secondary. If there is no emphasis on breathing in the class, find another one.

¢ Breathwalk. If you can breathe and walk, you can do breathwalk, which synchronizes the two simple activities. “Once you know how to choose and do a breathing pattern as you walk, you will have an immediate path to physical and mental fitness,” according to its creators, Yogi Bhajan, a Kundalini yoga master, and Gurucharan S. Khalsa, a psychotherapist and teacher.

¢ “Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing,” by Andrew Weil (Sounds True, $19.95). An audio program in which Weil explains the importance of breathwork and offers eight simple exercises, as well as tips for better breathing.

¢ Other ideas can be found at www.transitionsbookplace.com.

Three decades ago, many medical doctors would have scoffed at the idea. In the 1970s, when integrative-medicine guru Dr. Andrew Weil spoke of using the breath as a bridge to connect the mind and the body, the medical community reacted with skepticism and even hostility.

Now the FDA approves breath training as a recognized treatment for hypertension, and more than 1,000 studies show it relieves anxiety, depression and chronic fatigue without drugs, said Hendricks, who created “The Breathing Box,” a kit that includes a DVD, a CD, a guidebook and flashcards.

“Even for people with bad lung disease, bronchitis, end-stage emphysema and asthma, the mere effect of focusing on a basic body function like breathing can be restorative,” said Michael Silver, a specialist in critical care at Rush University Medical Center.

Still, Hendricks said that even without the studies, breathwork would have caught on.

“When people notice a positive effect of something, they don’t need scientific verification,” he said. “It’s also a reaction against pharmaceuticals. People want to take more responsibility for themselves, and they’re seeking out more natural means.”