Slow breathing may soothe pain

to put this yoga-like, meditation approach under the microscope,” he told Reuters Health in an interview.

The study did not assess any formal yoga or meditation technique, but did look at the effects of becoming more aware of your breathing, which is at the foundation of those practices. The findings, according to Zautra, appear to be the first to show that “how we breathe” does alter perceptions of and responses to pain.

He and his colleagues are currently studying the effects of mindfulness meditation as part of fibromyalgia treatment.

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome marked by widespread aches and pains — on both sides of the body and above and below the waist — along with other symptoms such as fatigue, sleep problems and depression. Its cause is unclear — there are no physical signs, such as inflammation — but researchers believe that fibromyalgia involves problems in how the brain processes pain signals.

“It is not ‘all in your head,'” Zautra noted, “but it may be in your brain.”

Slow breathing, he explained, may help by bringing a better balance to the activities of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

The sympathetic nervous system activates what is often dubbed the “fight-or-flight” response during times of stress — increasing heart rate, blood pressure and perspiration, for example. If the sympathetic nervous system is seen as an accelerator, then the parasympathetic nervous system is akin to a brake.

Learning breathing techniques might be particularly useful for painful conditions like fibromyalgia, but Zautra said there is also potential for helping people deal with other types of chronic pain, like osteoarthritis and lower back pain.

People are “remarkably resilient” in their capacity to recover from pain, Zautra explained. “Sometimes they just need a little help.”