Fibromyalgia Symptoms Improve with Breathing Practices

Article: Slow Breathing May Soothe Pain:  February 08, 2010 Pain journal

Authors:  Reuters interview with Dr. Alex J. Zautra:  Psychology professor at Arizona State University

Fibromyalgia patients need help dealing with the physical and emotional reactions to chronic pain.

Objective:  The study gauged pain responses among 27 women with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia and 25 healthy women the same age.  The study looked at the effects of becoming more aware of your breathing.

 Results:  Researchers found that when they had the women perform slow breathing; it dampened their reactions to a moderately painful stimulus.

Overall, the women rated the pain intensity as lower and reported less emotional discomfort when they slowed their normal breathing rate down by half.

Conclusions:  How we breathe" does alter perceptions of and responses to pain.  The findings suggest that breathing techniques could offer an additional way to deal with fibromyalgia or other types of chronic pain.

"It is not 'all in your head, but it may be in your brain."

Custom Calm founder, Ellen Sichel has trained with the originators of evidenced based programs for  Mindful Based Stress Reduction and  Yoga of Awareness for Fibromyalgia and incorporates many of the techniques used into Custom Calm programs.  The practices are non-invasive and easy to learn, offering lifelong support for both patients and their loved ones. 

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