3 months ago my gut reaction would be to not even click on this, but having been stressed out at work recently I started doing yoga and meditation again, which in themselves do a bit with breathing. Anecdotally I've noticed some positive changes in my amount of energy and stress. That could all be a coincidence and if nothing else I am gaining flexibility again. What I'm taking too many words up to say is, I am inclined to give this a shot.
One hour of slow breathing changed my life
231–240 of 332 posts
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as it does something beneficial who cares after all what the bias is? Placebo may play a role in it but once again, what do we care about here, whether something is beneficial or whether it can be explained why it is beneficial? For some the former and for some the latter, ofc depending on perspective.
I guess I care. Yes it's beneficial if something works, but I want to know why it works too and not just believe in random pseudoscience. Also, determining if something really works is hard. I want to understand the mechanism. If there's something true there then you may be able to use that directly, you can also avoid untrue things that are harmful (history is full of these harmful 'treatments'). [0] Without this pe…
Not knowing how it works does not make it pseudoscience. It is enough if you can show through double blind that it works. For quite a few established medications which work we do not known how they work.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/23/one-b...
Pseudoscience is if you do not test it scientifically if it works.
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#233Isn't this meditation? What is the difference? EDIT: rereading this - yes, it is meditation. Why is it being rebranded and written about as if it is some new discovery?
No,
In India, Breathing exercises are called as Pranayama. Meditation is called as Dhyana.
It's is a eight step process for spirituality called Ashtanga yoga.
In this,
Pranayama is 4th step.
Dhyana is 7th step.
Refer Patanjali Yoga Sutras for clarification.
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Placebo can provide actual benefit to an individual. Easing suffering, thus reducing stress levels, which in turn help body to function better. But you are quite right, individuals with strong confirmation bias and a large social media following are harmfull. Still, that does not mean individuals should not perform harmless experiments. Individuals should experiment. But they should not claim their findings as univer…
> Placebo can provide actual benefit to an individual. It depends what you refer to when you talk about a placebo. What people call the "placebo effect" is in practice "regression to the mean" in most cases, which is the fact that you would get better over time even if you did absolutely nothing. You will notice that placebo 'effect' works best in contexts where the illness has a psychological component (mental illne…
"how can you prevent people from claiming..."
Do I understand correctly that you oppose people searching holistic remedies to their ills because they might accidentally get better, and a percentage of these might accidentally turn into snake oil salespeople?
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself. I started yoga before it became mainstream and with a lot of the practices I tried them for myself. For example I noticed that some pranayama practices work for me and others don't. Back then pretty much every "serious" scientist or doctor would have…
> With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself. I strongly disagree with this line of thinking. If something is potent enough to deliver benefit, it can also be potent enough to deliver harm. You can't have it both ways. Turns out breathing is rather psychoactive, and without proper educational…
Breathing practice is the most simple thing in the world. Sit, breathe, relax - definitely doesnt need a license. Sounds like you’re confused of the purpose of it.
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself. I started yoga before it became mainstream and with a lot of the practices I tried them for myself. For example I noticed that some pranayama practices work for me and others don't. Back then pretty much every "serious" scientist or doctor would have…
> With a lot of these things I would highly recommend to just try it. If it works for you, good. If not, don't do it. It doesn't cost anything and you won't harm yourself. I strongly disagree with this line of thinking. If something is potent enough to deliver benefit, it can also be potent enough to deliver harm. You can't have it both ways. Turns out breathing is rather psychoactive, and without proper educational…
Source for second paragraph claim?
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is interesting and I'd love to hear some kind of real-science debunking (as I'm sure it would be the case)... or conversely, showing someone (via video and some kind of monitoring device) directing air in and out of one or the other nostril at will.
You use your hand to clamp down one nostril. Lookup Nadi Shodhana.
Damn... you just took a pencil to space with that comment. :)
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#238I have found breathing exercises to strengthen my diaphragm hugely helpful for acid reflux. I lie down with weights on my abdomen and breathe from the diaphragm for about 10 minutes a day. I’ve been able to stop PPIs completely by doing this regularly.
Do you have more info on this? I’ve suffered from GERD for a long time now and have found ways to mitigate the effects but this seems like an interesting potential treatment.
I can’t find the video I followed originally but what I do is pretty simple. I lie on the floor with one hand on my chest and one hand on my belly (just below the sternum). Then I breathe paying attention that only the lower hand moves, ie that I’m using my diaphragm. I put the weights (small metal plates) under the lower hand to add resistance. I recall seeing some papers explaining the mechanism being related to how the diaphragm kind of wraps around the oesophageal sphincter, so strengthening it helps it close.
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#239I started reading his book Breath , and he made the starting claim that, in essence, you could choose to be either energetic or restful by picking one nostril to breathe out of for awhile. (Naturally we breath out of one nostril at a time, and the body goes back and forth, but "it's a balance that can also be gamed"). I found this claim a bit... suspicious, and Googled, and didn't find much scientific evidence for th…
The branch of yoga that covers this is swara yoga. There are books on it. Maybe worth investigating if you're interested.
Re: One hour of slow breathing changed my life
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
At first, but once you reach nostril nirvana you unlock the ability to breathe with your third nostril
Can I consider my mouth my third nostril and reach nostril nirvana already?
There's a joke in Russian quite popular among small kids: "The hedgehog learned to breathe through his butthole. One day he sat down to rest and suffocated".
(Hedgehog is the hero if many slightly absurdist jokes).