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How Slow Breathing Works

Slow breathing has been gaining in popularity lately. It’s reported to have numerous psychological and physical benefits, not least in reducing stress and high blood pressure. Other effects have also been documented in the scientific literature, such as alleviating anxiety, depression and pain, improving sleep. It can also improve the quality of life for sufferers of various chronic diseases. Slow breathing can even help reduce menopausal hot flashes (or ‘flushes’, depending on what side of The Pond you’re on).

So how does it work? Why is it that something as simple as breathing slowly can affect our health so broadly? How slow breathing works for the body (and mind) is still being unpicked but scientists are now starting to understand how it’s so beneficial for us.

How slow breathing works to improve your health

It stimulates the ‘calming’ branch of our autonomic nervous system

Understanding slow breathing and how it’s good for us has often focused on the effect it has on our autonomic nervous system (ANS). This is the part of your nervous system which controls the automatic functions of the body, such as breathing, heart rate and digestion. When we become excited or alarmed, the ANS increases our breathing rate and heart rate and releases stress hormones to prepare us for action (due to activation of the ‘sympathetic’ branch of the ANS). And when we’re resting and relaxed, the ANS reduces our breathing and heart rate (via activation of its ‘parasympathetic’ branch).

As suggested by its name, the ANS works automatically in that you have no direct conscious control over most of its functions – except for your breathing. However, all the autonomic nervous system functions are closely interlinked. This means that exerting conscious control over your breathing can also affect the other autonomic nervous functions such as your heart rate and your blood pressure.

In other words, by slowing down your breathing, you can bring the rest of your autonomic nervous system into its calmer mode too. (Specifically, slow breathing has been found to stimulate the vagus nerve, part of the parasympathetic nervous system. This nerve connects various organs including the heart, lungs and brain and stimulating it can effectively dampen down the sympathetic nervous system.)

It improves the efficiency of our heart and circulatory system

Slow breathing also improves the efficiency of the cardiovascular system. It involves a complicated set of interactions between the lungs, heart and blood vessels. The upshot is that breathing slowly seems to cause various aspects of the functioning of the heart and blood vessels to come into harmony with that of the lungs in a way that optimises how they all work.

It improves the efficiency of our breathing

Studies have also found that controlled slow breathing in healthy people optimises their oxygen intake. When you’re breathing more slowly, you’re obviously taking fewer breaths during a given time. But those breaths you do take are more effective in getting air and oxygen through your lungs and into your bloodstream. And they actually require less “respiratory effort” than when you’re breathing at your normal faster rate.

It affects our brain

Studies into slow breathing have noted that the physical changes are usually associated with mental changes. The people doing the slow breathing reported feeling more pleasant, relaxed and less anxious or stressed.

As well as altering the autonomic nervous system, slow breathing affects the central nervous system too, including the brain. There are various ways this happens.

For example, we’ve probably all noticed how our mental state can affect the way we breathe. When we’re stressed, we tend to find ourselves breathing faster and more shallowly. It works the other way round too in that the way we breathe sends signals directly to our brain. Sensors (e.g., in our chest nerves and in the arteries) detect the physical movement of our chest and lungs during breathing and send nerve signals to the brainstem. When we’re breathing slowly, this prompts activity in other areas of the brain to become synchronised with the breathing rhythm, resulting in slower brain waves and greater relaxation and alertness.

There are also a multitude of other subtle interactions going on – too complex for me to unravel here! – but which result in our feeling calmer and generally better. As summarised by some of the scientists themselves (Zaccaro et al, How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life):

In general, slow breathing techniques enhance interactions between autonomic, cerebral and psychological flexibility, linking parasympathetic and CNS [central nervous system] activities related to both emotional control and well-being.

And once this begins to happen, it’s a virtuous circle. Just feeling yourself calm down physically makes you calmer mentally, which in turn enhances your physical relaxation, and so on. Even the simple act of focusing your attention on your breathing for a short while is beneficial. It can draw your attention away from any stresses and strains that are on your mind. And this inward attention itself can produce a calmer, more meditative state of consciousness.

Does slow breathing affect health in the long-term?

Doing a wee session of slow breathing has immediate effects. You can often feel it beginning to calm you down within minutes. But it looks like it also has longer term benefits too. Indeed, if you’re someone who often feels stressed or generally tense, then your sympathetic nervous system may be chronically over-activated. If so, regularly doing sessions of slow breathing can help to alleviate this, bringing down your stress levels more comprehensively.

Slow breathing is a handy thing to do when you find yourself in a stressful situation or before entering into one. You can do it anywhere as it doesn’t have to be obvious you’re doing it. However, the more you practice doing it on a regular basis, the more easily you’ll be able to slip into it at a moment’s notice.

NOTE: Note that here we’re referring simply to the practice of slow breathing. We are not referring to different breathing techniques such as the various kinds of yogic breathing or more modern techniques or even deep breathing. Slow breathing is simple to do and doesn’t involve any special knowledge or training. It consists simply of breathing more slowly than usual for a period of time.

How to do slow breathing effectively

What speed should we aim to breathe at?

One question is how slowly should we be breathing to get these wide-ranging health benefits? A recent review of studies by Australian researchers found that the breathing range of 6 – 10 breaths per minute seemed to have the most potent effects on our breathing and nervous system. One ‘breath’ refers to one inhalation and exhalation. They also noted that no adverse effects of this appeared in the literature.

More specifically, there seems to be an emerging finding that breathing at six breaths per minute is most effective for bringing about the co-ordination of the breathing and cardiovascular systems and brain which seems to be so beneficial.

As David Robson, writing for the BBC, states,

Interestingly, people practicing breathwork seem to find a sweet spot at around six breaths a minute. This appears to bring about markedly greater relaxation through some kind of a positive feedback loop between the lungs, the heart and the brain. “You’re kind of unlocking or promoting the amplification of a basic physiological rhythm,” says Donald Noble [of Emory University in the US]. He points out that this frequency can be found in the repetitive actions of many spiritual practices – such as the Ave Marias spoken in rosary prayers and the chanting of yogic mantras. Perhaps those practices evolved through an unconscious recognition of this restorative breathing rhythm and its capacity to send people into a relaxed but focused state of mind.

How do we keep track of our breaths?

Obviously, you can do slow breathing simply by paying attention to and counting your breaths. However, once you start doing this, you’ll realise that it’s really easy to drift off and lose track, particularly as you become more relaxed.

As such, it can be helpful to have a soundtrack to breathe along with. And – conveniently! – we have guided audio tracks available for just such a purpose. These audio tracks span the recommended range of 6 to 10 breaths per minute.

Using guided slow breathing audio tracks

Naturally, everyone breathes at a different rate, and at different rates at different times. So you can just choose an audio track that’s slower than your current breathing rate and practice with that. You can gradually work your way down to slower and slower breathing rates as you get used to doing it.

If you’re new to slow breathing, you can use the tracks with a higher number of breaths per minute to get started, e.g., 10 or 8 breaths per minute. (10 breaths per minute is close to many people’s natural breathing rate.)

6 breaths per minute is a good pace to strive for. That’s slow enough to really relax you. And the more deeply you relax, the more profound the therapeutic benefits.

Slow breathing with relaxing background music

Listening to relaxing music has also been found to be relaxing in and of itself. Listening to music can also relieve stress and anxiety and lower high blood pressure. So most of our audio tracks have soothing music in the background. For each breaths-per-minute cycle, you can choose from tracks with three different types of background music.

Choose your own background music

For each breaths-per-minute cycle there is also an audio track with only the breathing prompts and no background music at all. You might find this more relaxing, or you might want to play your own background music. Studies of listening to music and blood pressure have found that how you personally respond to a piece of music is crucial to its effect on your mind and body, and your blood pressure. So this option allows you to choose music that you find particularly relaxing and/or joyful, in order to get the maximum health benefits.

To listen to short samples of the Breathe Slow audio tracks, click here: Breathe Slow samples

Download Breathe-Slow audio tracks

The entire Breathe Slow collection of guided slow breathing audio tracks is now available for $17 (about £13 or €15).

You’ll get a total of twenty audio tracks: four tracks for each of the five breathing cycles – 10, 8, 6, 5, and 4 breaths per minute. (For each breathing cycle, three of the four tracks have different types of background music and the fourth track has no background music – just the breathing prompts.) So you can always choose a track to suit your desired breathing rate and your musical mood!

Click on the button below to get an immediate download and start using now:

The Breathe-Slow audio tracks come with a 60 day no-questions-asked 100% money-back guarantee if you’re not completely satisfied with your investment. Note that this is a digital download ONLY – no CDs will be sent to you.

To order physical CDs, click here:

(note that the physical CDs do not include the 4 breaths per minute tracks)

How Slow Breathing Works to Improve Your Health: References

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience – How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life

The Guardian – How one hour of slow breathing changed my life

BBC – Why slowing your breathing helps you relax

Breathe Journal – The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human

Scientific American – Proper Breathing Brings Better Health

Post by Alison, August 2021

The Health Benefits of Slow Breathing

What are the health benefits of slow breathing?

instead of a miracle pill, you can just breathe more slowly Slow breathing can:

lower blood pressure
reduce stress
alleviate anxiety
relieve pain
help improve sleep and reduce insomnia
reduce menopausal hot flashes
improve health and quality of life with COPD
improve health and quality of life with chronic heart failure

Slow breathing reduces stress

One of the most dramatic effects of slow breathing is how quickly it can bring down stress levels.

Experiencing stress, especially chronic stress, can have damaging effects on many aspects of our mental and physical health. Raising blood pressure and heart rate is one. This can actually be dangerous if your blood pressure is already high or you have heart problems.

Another major effect of stress is that it suppresses the immune system. A well-functioning immune system is vital for our basic health. When it’s compromised we’re far more prone to colds and common infections. And we’re also more at risk of developing various chronic health conditions.

And of course, stress can also contribute to anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.

Slow breathing exercises are one of the simplest and most effective ways of reducing stress. As such, they can have profoundly beneficial effects on any aspect of health that’s affected by stress. You can read about this more here: Slow breathing to reduce stress

Slow breathing lowers blood pressure

Slow breathing is actually the quickest natural way to bring down your blood pressure. Slowing down your breathing lowers your heart rate and relaxes your blood vessels, both of which contribute to an immediate decrease in blood pressure and an improvement in circulation. The effect of slow breathing in reducing stress can also play a role since chronic stress is often a driver of high blood pressure.

It’s thought that regularly doing slow breathing exercises can bring down high blood pressure in the long-term too. This is less well understood. However, scientists think it is to do with the moderating effect of slow breathing on the autonomic nervous system. (The autonomic nervous system regulates the things our body does automatically, such as breathe and digest etc. It’s also involved in regulating blood pressure.)

You can read more about how slow breathing lowers blood pressure here: How does slow breathing lower blood pressure?

Slow breathing reduces anxiety

Sufferers of anxiety will also find slow breathing can quickly relieve anxiety. Breathing slowly lowers the heart rate and literally calms the nerves. So it’s a great technique for both relieving and preventing severe anxiety and panic. I can personally attest to this!

Slow breathing eases insomnia and helps you sleep

Doing slow breathing exercises before you go to bed can go a long way to helping you sleep. Slow breathing activates the part of your nervous system responsible for producing a ‘relaxation response’. As such, it directly helps relax your body and unwind your mind. A better night’s sleep will often await

Slow breathing gives you better brain waves

Slow breathing is also just good for calming and clearing your mind and improving your concentration.

Studies at the University of Phoenix have shown that slow breathing can change the basic activity of your brain. Specifically, doing slow breathing exercises produces brain waves which foster a relaxed yet alert state of mind.

Slow breathing reduces pain

Another of the slow breathing health benefits is pain relief. Numerous studies are showing that breathing slowly can reduce pain. And numerous health practitioners now recommend slow breathing and other relaxation practices for sufferers of chronic pain. Slow breathing can help relieve both chronic pain and episodes of acute pain. It works by relaxing the muscles – so is particularly good for muscle-related pain. It also works on all types of pain by relaxing the mind and reducing the perception of pain – also very powerful.

Slow breathing reduces hot flashes during menopause

Regular slow breathing can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes (or hot flushes) during the menopause. The North American Menopause Society recommend doing regular practice of slow paced breathing and using it whenever you feel a hot flash coming on.

Slow breathing improves the health of sufferers of chronic diseases

Slow breathing has also been found to improve various aspects of the physiological functioning of sufferers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Slow breathing has also been found to improve various aspects of the health of those living with chronic heart failure. This includes reducing the shortness of breath that you can get with CHF and improve the capacity for physical exercise.

Slow breathing improves your immune system

As mentioned above in the section on stress, breathing slowly can also improve the functioning of the immune system. This is because breathing slowly helps stimulate the part of the nervous system that promotes rest and relaxation. This in turn has knock-on benefits for the body such as reducing inflammation throughout the body, which helps the immune system to function more effectively. (If you’re interested in this, read this article for details on the vagus nerve, inflammation and the immune system.)

How does slow breathing have so many health benefits?

The effects of slow breathing on health are not fully understood but as interest in slow breathing health benefits grows, research is gathering pace. It’s now becoming evident that slow breathing – especially at around 6 breaths per minute – affects many parts of the body simultaneously. Our lungs, heart, autonomic and central nervous systems and brains are all involved. You can read more here about how slow breathing works to improve our health.

Why does slow breathing have so many health benefits?

A more fundamental question is, perhaps, why is it the case that breathing more slowly is better for our health?

In the words of James Nestor, who’s written a book on the subject:

One thing that every pulmonary researcher I’ve talked to over the past few years has agreed on is that we tend to overbreathe. What’s considered normal today is anywhere between a dozen and 20 breaths a minute, with an average intake of about 0.5 litres or more of air per breath. For those on the high end of respiratory rates, that’s about twice at much as it used to be.

Breathing too much can raise blood pressure, overwork the heart and lull our nervous systems into a state of stress. For the body to function as peak efficiency we need to breathe as closely in-line with our metabolic needs as possible. For the majority of us that means breathing less. But that’s harder than it sounds. We’ve become conditioned to breathe too much, just as we’ve been conditioned to eat too much. With some effort and training, however, breathing less can become an unconscious habit.

Our breathing has sped up!

This wasn’t always the case, it seems. Researchers think that industrialisation is at least partly responsible. As it has changed our lives in so many practical ways, it’s also changed the way we use our own bodies, even the way we breathe.

[Scientists] discovered that our capacity to breathe has changed through the long processes of human evolution and that the way we breathe has become markedly worse since the dawn of the industrial age. They’d also discovered that with some concerted practice we could restore our breathing and when we did we could take control of certain functions of our nervous and immune systems.

You heard it here first – it’s time to take back control 😉

Just do it

Outlined here are just some slow breathing health benefits. If you want to know more, just do a search online for ‘slow breathing health benefits’. You’ll find you’re overwhelmed by myriad articles extolling its virtues!

As well as the direct physiological health benefits of slow breathing, there are also the knock-on effects of simply taking some time to be with yourself quietly and focus on your breathing. This in itself is calming and creates a bit of space and time in your day.

As some meditators say, just enacting your intention of sitting down to meditate has powerful effects, irrespective of how well you manage to concentrate during your meditation. With slow breathing, you do actually need to breathe slowly to get the full therapeutic benefits. And evidence suggests that the more slowly you can learn to breathe, the deeper the slow breathing health benefits. However, the important thing is just to start doing it!

PLEASE NOTE:

If you have a physical problem with your breathing, you may need more specialist help than guided audio tracks. Also, some people can find focusing on their breathing to be stressful or distressing. For example, some people who get panic attacks may find it difficult. The best thing in this case is to talk with your doctor about it. Of course, talk to a doctor first if you have any concerns about trying slow breathing exercises.

How to do slow breathing effectively

Slow breathing is obviously very simple. But sometimes simple things can be the hardest! To get the maximum slow breathing health benefits it’s recommended that you do it for at least fifteen minutes most days.

However, if you’re not used to it, it can be hard to maintain your focus on breathing slowly for that long. Or it can just be a bit tricky to keep breathing at a steady pace.

Luckily the remedy is simple – just breathe along to guided audio tracks. Conveniently, we have some available right here! Click here to listen to samples of our guided slow breathing tracks:

Breathe Slow guided slow breathing audio samples

Guided slow breathing with audio tracks – how it works

Guided slow breathing audio tracks have breathing prompts that you just breathe in time with – that way you don’t have to worry about timing yourself, or counting, or wondering if you’re breathing slowly enough, or regularly enough.

Our Breathe-Slow collection has different audio tracks with breathing prompts set at different rates (10, 8, 6, 5, and 4 breaths-per-minute, a ‘breath’ here being an in-breath and out-breath). So you can just choose an audio track that’s a bit slower than your current breathing rate and practice with that. Then you can gradually work your way down to slower and slower breathing rates as you get used to doing it.

Generally, the more slowly you breathe, the more deeply you relax, and the more profound the therapeutic benefits.

Slow breathing with background music

Listening to relaxing music has also been found to be relaxing in and of itself and can relieve stress and anxiety and lower high blood pressure. So most of our audio tracks have soothing music in the background. For each breaths-per-minute cycle, you can choose from tracks with three different types of background music.

Slow breathing without music or with your own choice of music

Buy Breathe-Slow audio tracks

The entire Breathe Slow collection of guided slow breathing audio tracks is now available for $17 USD (about £13 or €15).

Click on the button below to get an immediate download and start using now.

To order physical CDs, click here:

(note that the physical CDs do not include the 4 breaths per minute tracks)

Slow breathing health benefits: references and more information

American Heart Association – Review of Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure

Stress.org – Take A Deep Breath

Harvard Heart Health – Breath Control to Quell Stress Response

Men’s Journal – You’re Breathing All Wrong!

Wall Street Journal – Breathing for Your Better Health

Baker Chiropractic – Vagus Nerve, Immune System and Inflammation

The Guardian – How one hour of slow breathing changed my life

Penguin Books – Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

BBC – Why slowing your breathing helps you relax

Post by Alison, updated 26th June 2021

Chronic Heart Failure? Slow Breathing Can Help

Slow breathing for chronic heart failure – how does it help?

There are various ways in which slow breathing appears to help with living with heart failure. Indeed, one study looking at quality of life in general found that regularly doing slow breathing improved the overall quality of life for CHF sufferers.

Our data indicate that SBT [slow breathing training] is safe in CHF subjects, and may improve their quality of life, mostly due to an improvement in exercise capacity. – Drozdz et al (2016)

Slow breathing can enable you to exercise for longer

As mentioned above, slow breathing can improve the capacity to do physical exercise. This has been found in other studies too. For example, a 1998 study found that training people with CHF to do slower breathing improved the working of their lungs. This meant that they were getting more oxygen into their body and were able to do more physical exercise than previously. Of course, being able to exercise more is not only a good thing in and of itself but can improve your health in various other ways too.

“Slowing respiratory rate reduces dyspnoea and improves both resting pulmonary gas exchange and exercise performance in patients with CHF.” –

Bernardi et al (1998)

Slow breathing can reduce shortness of breath

The CHF sufferers in the 1998 study were not only able to exercise for longer but also reported less shortness of breath (dyspnoea). Another 2011 study found that participants who succeeded in slowing their breathing rates similarly reported reduced breathlessness.

Device-guided RM [respiratory modulation] might have the potential to relieve symptoms of heart failure in outpatients by changing their breathing pattern. –

Ekman et al (2011)

Slow breathing improves baroreflex sensitivity and blood pressure

A study in 2002 found that slow breathing at 6 breaths per minute increased the arterial baroreflex sensitivity in both CHF sufferers and healthy study participants. Baroreflex sensitivity refers to the way the nervous system (via sensors in the arteries) detects and responds to changes in blood pressure. Having lower baroreflex sensitivity is associated with a poorer CHF prognosis so any improvements are good!

Slow breathing also lowered the blood pressure of the CHF sufferers. This is beneficial in that lower blood pressure puts less strain on the heart.

“These data suggest that in patients with CHF, slow breathing, in addition to improving oxygen saturation and exercise tolerance as has been previously shown, may be beneficial by increasing baroreflex sensitivity.” –

Bernardi et al (2002)

Slow breathing can improve your sleep

Last but not least, a study from 2016 had participants do 12 weeks of daily slow breathing (using a device to guide their breathing) and found that it reduced sleep disturbances caused by breathing difficulties.

How to do slow breathing to improve your health with CHF

PLEASE NOTE: We are not medical professionals. Please consult with your doctor or appropriate medical practitioner before doing slow breathing if you haven’t tried it before.

So, now you’ve heard about the benefits of slow breathing for chronic heart failure. What about how to do it? How slow should you be breathing? And for how long?

The studies mentioned above mostly used breathing rates of 6 breaths per minute. A ‘breath’ in this context refers to the cycle of one in-breath and one out-breath. Some used 10 breaths per minute. The main thing is that you are slowing your breathing down compared to the rate at which you normally breathe, which for most people is about 12 – 15 breaths per minute.

As for how long to do it for, the studies varied in using 4 minute sessions to 20 minute sessions. In other research into slow breathing, studies have generally used 15 minute sessions. We reckon this is a good length of time to aim for. This allows you to really focus and settle into it. And of course, if you find it comfortable, you can do it for longer.

Guided slow breathing

Slow breathing superficially sounds easy to do – you just breathe more slowly, right? And for some people it is easy. However, for many of us, it’s quite hard to breathe regularly at a slower rate than usual. This is mainly as our minds drift off and we start breathing more at our normal rate without noticing. It is important to maintain the slower breathing rate fairly consistently though. Indeed, in one study, it was only the participants who succeeded in slowing their breathing down properly that had the health benefits, compared to those who didn’t manage to do it.

It’s important to note that in the studies quoted above, the participants had either training in doing slow breathing, or had real-time guidance while doing slow breathing. It’s not that you can’t breathe slowly on your own – of course you can. However, especially at first, it can be difficult to maintain a steady, slower, breathing rate without help.

This is where guided slow breathing audio tracks can be helpful. And we just happen to have some for sale…

Our Breathe Slow collection consists of five sets of four tracks with breathing prompts for different breathing paces.

The fastest is 10 breaths per minute (that’s ten breaths in, ten breaths out). The others are 8, 6, 5, and 4 per minute. So you can gradually work your way down to slower breathing rates as you get more used to it. Generally, the more slowly you breathe, the deeper the benefits you can experience, but any slowing down should help.

For each breathing rate, there are four different tracks. Three of them have different types of background music so you can choose what you feel like listening to. The fourth track is only the breathing prompts. So you can listen to them on their own or play your own music in the background.

You can click here to listen to some samples: slow breathing audio samples

The full set of tracks is available to buy for just $17 USD (about £13 or €15) for digital downloads which you can use right away. You can also buy them as physical CDs though it costs a wee bit more.

To order physical CDs, click here:

(note that the physical CDs do not include the 4 breaths per minute tracks)

Slow breathing for chronic heart failure: references

Effect of breathing rate on oxygen saturation and exercise performance in chronic heart failure (Bernardi et al, 1998)

Slow Breathing Increases Arterial Baroreflex Sensitivity in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure (Bernardi et al, 2002)

Impact of device-guided slow breathing on symptoms of chronic heart failure (Ekman et al, 2011)

THE INFLUENCE OF SLOW BREATHING TRAINING ON QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE (Drozdz et al, 2016)

THE INFLUENCE OF SLOW BREATHING TRAINING ON PHYSICAL EXERCISE CAPACITY AND SLEEP DISTURBANCES IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE (Kielbasa et al, 2016)

Post written and all articles retrieved on the 9th March 2021.

Lower Blood Pressure in 15 Minutes

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How to lower your blood pressure in the next 15 minutes

(without getting out of your chair)

Slow Breathing exercises are the fastest, safest, easiest, surest and cheapest way to lower your blood pressure without drugs, special diets, or complicated contraptions.

lower blood pressure fast Most people report a dramatic decrease in blood pressure after even 5 minutes of relaxed and rhythmic slow breathing.

Doing a slow breathing exercise for 15 minutes every day can reduce dangerous high blood pressure to safer levels. The effects usually become permanent after a few weeks.

If you are suffering ‘pre-hypertension you can nip it in the bud now.

But don’t take our word for it. Try it for yourself.

Slow breathing exercises work best by following audio tracks dedicated to helping you find the right rhythm and duration.

If you can, take a blood pressure reading before and after. Most people record a significant drop in blood pressure in even 5 to 10 minutes of relaxed slow breathing.

Get the slow breathing instruction manual complete with a link to download a sample audio track to get you started right away.

Enter your name and email address below and then check your email for the link.

Quickest Way to Lower Blood Pressure Without Medication

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How to lower your blood pressure now

The quickest way to lower blood pressure is simpler than you probably think. All you need to do is breathe… more…. slowly.

image from lionsroar.com

Yes, simply slow breathing is the quickest way to lower blood pressure naturally.

Yogis and alternative health practitioners have long maintained that slow regular breathing is good for the health. Medical researchers are now starting to agree. Many studies are now looking into how slow breathing can improve your health.

The evidence so far shows that slow breathing lowers blood pressure – and quickly. For example, in 2013 the American Heart Association reviewed all the studies so far into non-drug methods of lowering blood pressure. They found slow breathing was one of the most effective, and was the quickest way to lower blood pressure without medication.

In their own words,

Slow deep breathing, as practiced by meditation, yoga, and several relaxation techniques, has long been thought capable of favorably affecting BP. A short period of deep breathing (6 breaths in 30 seconds) has been shown to reduce systolic BP by 3.4 to 3.9 mm Hg within minutes in a clinic setting compared with quiet rest.

(Brooks et al, 2013)

How to do slow breathing to quickly lower blood pressure

As the quote above states, even slowing down your breathing for just a few minutes will start to lower your blood pressure. However, to get the maximum benefits of slow breathing, medical researchers recommend doing it for at least ten to fifteen minutes.

If you’ve ever tried focusing on your breathing, you’ll notice that the mind tends to wander… So to keep your breathing slow and regular you might find it helps to have some guidance.

The studies which have found the strongest effects of slow breathing lowering blood pressure were done using a device to guide participants in slow breathing. (Indeed, the studies done by the manufacturers of this device found strongest evidence for its effectiveness.) The device is called RESPeRATE. It has a band you strap around your chest which measures your breathing rate and a little electronic device which plays you musical tones which you breathe along to.

It is quite nifty and people say that they find it easy to regulate their breathing this way. All well and good. And if you have $300 (about £235 or €280) lying around, then it could be worth getting.

However, if you can’t or don’t want to buy the Resperate device, don’t worry. There are other excellent methods of doing guided slow breathing that don’t involve $300 machines!

Guided slow breathing tracks

For example, many people use guided slow breathing audio tracks. These have breathing prompts which you can breathe along in time with. Which makes it much easier to keep your breathing pace slow and steady. You can listen to some samples of our own guided slow breathing audio tracks here:

Breathe Slow guided slow breathing audio samples

Most of our guided slow breathing tracks have some background music, since listening to relaxing music can also lower blood pressure.

However, slow breathing with music lowers blood pressure more than listening to music alone.

One 2001 study directly compared musically-guided breathing exercises with listening to quiet music on a walkman (remember those?). People with high blood pressure did one or the other of these at home every day for eight weeks. And their blood pressure was measured at home several times throughout the day.

For those listening to the guided breathing exercises, their blood pressure was lowered by an average of f -5.0/-2.7 mm Hg (systolic/diastolic). This compared to an average reduction of -1.2/+0.9 mm Hg in those just listening to music. So the effect of doing guided slow breathing at home is comparable with blood pressure-lowering medications.

The researchers concluded that, “breathing exercise guided by the BIM [Breathe with Interactive Music] device for 10 min daily is an effective non-pharmacological modality to reduce BP.” (Grossman et al, 2001).

In other words, doing guided slow breathing in the comfort of your own home can lower your blood pressure quickly.

Wondering how? Read on.

Why slow breathing is the quickest way to lower blood presssure without medication

Slow breathing is likely to be particularly effective if your high blood pressure is caused by stress or anxiety. This is because deliberately breathing slowly has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. (More on this here: Breathing to reduce stress and blood pressure.)

However, even if these aren’t a factor in your high blood pressure, slow breathing can still lower your blood pressure within minutes. This is because breathing slowly reduces your heart rate. It also causes your blood vessels to relax and dilate. Both of these phenomena mean that your blood pressure is immediately reduced.

You can read more here in our article about how slow breathing lowers blood pressure.

Long-term effects of regularly doing guided slow breathing

In the short term, it’s clear that slow breathing is the quickest way to lower blood pressure without medications. And it can lower blood pressure to a similar extent as blood pressure-reducing medications.

However, it’s also possible that doing guided slow breathing regularly can lower your blood pressure more generally. There is some evidence which suggests that the effects of slow breathing can potentially persist throughout the day. More research needs to be done to clarify and confirm this. However, it is still a good idea to do guided slow breathing most days.

This is for two reasons. Firstly, the more you practice slow breathing, the more slowly you’ll be able to breathe. And the more slowly you can breathe, the more deeply your body can relax and benefit. (Quick plug: this is why our guided slow breathing tracks range from 10 breaths per minute to 4 breaths per minute – so you can gradually train yourself to breathe slowly more slowly!)

The second reason is that the more you practice, the more readily you’ll be able to start breathing slowly when you need to. For example, if you suddenly find yourself in a stressful situation, slowing down your breathing will really help you keep a clear head and keep a lid on your stress levels. It will also counteract the rise in blood pressure that stress tends to cause. And if you’re used to slow breathing, it’ll be much easier for you to do!

Other health benefits of slow breathing

There are many other health benefits of slow breathing, beyond lowering blood pressure. It can help you sleep, reduce anxiety and stress, help with pain relief. The list goes on. You can read more about it here: Slow breathing health benefits

Breathe-Slow guided slow breathing audio tracks

As I’ve already mentioned, we have created audio tracks for you to do guided slow breathing. These are available to buy as a set of digital downloads.

There are five sets of tracks. Each set has breathing prompts for different breathing paces – 10, 8, 6, 5, and 4 breaths per minute. (Breathing in and out is counted as one breath.)

You can thus select a breathing pace that suits you and gradually work your way down to slower paces as you get used to it. Generally, the more slowly you breathe, the more deeply you relax, and the more profound the therapeutic benefits.

For each breathing pace, there are four different tracks. Three have different kinds of background music, since listening to music has also been shown to be beneficial for lowering stress and blood pressure. The fourth track just has the breathing prompts. This is in case you prefer to play your own music in the background, or you might just like to listen to the breathing prompts on their own.

With twenty tracks in total, you can always choose a track to suit your desired breathing rate and your musical mood!

The entire Breathe Slow collection of guided slow breathing audio tracks is now available for $17 (about £13 or €15).

Click on the button below to get an immediate download and start using now.

To order physical CDs, click here:

(note that the physical CDs do not include the 4 breaths per minute tracks)

Quickest way to lower blood pressure: references and more information

American Heart Association: Slow Breathing Decreases Blood Pressure

National Center for Biotechnology Information: Breathing-control lowers blood pressure

The American Journal of Cardiology: Meta-Analysis of Effects of Voluntary Slow Breathing Exercises for Control of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases

How Does Slow Breathing Lower Blood Pressure?

Lower blood pressure fast with slow breathing!

The American Heart Association found that even one short session of slow breathing reduces blood pressure by several points – more than just sitting quietly and resting. Sounds funny, but slow breathing can lower your blood pressure quickly!

The evidence also suggests that continuing to practice slow breathing can reduce blood pressure in the long-term as well. So far studies have ranged from durations of two weeks to six months so more longer-term research is needed. However, as long as you keep a regular practice of slow breathing, you can continue to feel the benefits.

To lower your blood pressure consistently, the studies show that you need to do at least 15 minutes of slow breathing 3 or 4 times a week. And doing it more frequently is likely to lower your blood pressure even more.

So how does slow breathing lower blood pressure?

Slow breathing slows the heart rate and relaxes blood vessels

Slow breathing helps slow your heart rate and relax your blood vessels. This accounts for the immediate effect of slow breathing on reducing high blood pressure. How slow breathing lowers blood pressure in the long-term is still a bit of a mystery to scientists though.

Slow breathing balances the autonomic nervous system

According to the American Heart Association 2013 report, slow breathing may help balance the autonomic nervous system. (This is the part of the nervous system that controls how our internal organs function, affecting our heart rate, digestion, breathing etc.). It’s thought that imbalance in this system can be responsible for high blood pressure. And it’s thought that steady slow breathing can help balance it.

Breathing slowly might also affect how our blood vessels are functioning and responding (via the central nervous system).

Slow breathing reduces stress and blood pressure

Deliberate slow breathing is also shown to lower your stress levels, both immediately and in the long-term if you do it regularly. So if stress is even partially a cause of your high blood pressure (as it is for many people), then slow breathing will help lower your blood pressure through reducing your stress levels too.

Regularly practicing slow breathing can help you keep your stress levels down in general. And it can support you when you find yourself in a stressful situation as you’ll be better able to slow your breathing down in that moment. Which means you’ll be better able to stave off stress-related blood pressure spikes.

More on this here: Slow breathing to reduce stress and blood pressure

Slow breathing may improve sodium processing

How slow breathing lowers blood pressure another way is through the regulation of salt in our bodies. It’s well known that too much salt increases blood pressure. (See this article on our sister website: Salt and high blood pressure.) However, having too much salt in your body is not just a function of how much salt is in your food but also how your body deals with the salt.

According to preliminary research by David Anderson, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health in the US, it’s possible that slow deep breathing can improve the ability of your kidneys to expel sodium from your body. Or rather, slow breathing can correct the unhealthy shallow breathing we tend to do (especially when tense and stressed) which may be inhibiting the kidney’s ability to excrete sodium.

There don’t appear to be conclusive results on this hypothesis yet though so watch this space…

How slow breathing lowers blood pressure? It just does!

However it works, slow breathing is the fastest way to lower your blood pressure right now. And if you do it regularly, there’s a good chance you can bring your blood pressure down more consistently in the long-term too.

In the words of the American Heart Association:

Slow deep breathing, as practiced by meditation, yoga, and several relaxation techniques, has long been thought capable of favorably affecting BP. A short period of deep breathing (6 breaths in 30 seconds) has been shown to reduce systolic BP by 3.4 to 3.9 mm Hg within minutes in a clinic setting compared with quiet rest. Beyond the short term, it has been postulated that using deep-breathing techniques over weeks to months may additionally yield long-term reductions in BP.

It doesn’t so much matter how many breaths per minute you are doing. The key thing is that you are breathing steadily at a pace that is slower than usual. That way you’ll get the benefits of lower blood pressure, and of course general relaxation and stress reduction.

So there you have it. Take it easy and breathe your way to lower blood pressure. And a more relaxed life!

How to do slow breathing for maximum benefit

To get the full benefits of slow breathing, it’s recommended that you do it for at least fifteen minutes a day.

Obviously you don’t need anything special to do slow breathing – just your lungs and your attention.

However, it can be tricky to sustain your breathing at a slow and regular pace if you’re not used to it.

To make it easier, you can listen to guided slow breathing tracks. These are tracks with breathing prompts which you can just breathe along in time to.

You can listen to samples of ours here: Breathe Slow audio samples

Do it the easy way: guided slow breathing to lower blood pressure

Our Breathe Slow collection consists of five sets of four tracks with breathing prompts for different breathing paces. The whole set is available to buy as digital downloads.

For each breathing pace there are four different tracks. Three of them have different types of background music so you can choose what you feel like listening to. Studies show listening to music can also help reduce stress and blood pressure. The fourth track is only the breathing prompts. So you can listen to them on their own or play your own music in the background.

The full set of tracks is available to buy for just $17 USD (about £13 or €15). You’ll get instant access to digital downloads of the tracks, so you can get started right away.

You can buy the slow breathing tracks on their own. You can also buy them packaged with a copy of our book, Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally – The Complete 9 Step Guide.

This is an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to lowering your blood pressure through changes in your diet, your activities and through relaxation techniques. There’s a lot more you can do than just slow breathing!

The book also contains loads of handy tips on how to easily integrate these changes into your daily life for maximum blood pressure reduction. Slow breathing may be the quickest way to lower blood pressure without medications but it’s well worth making other diet and lifestyle changes too.

Click on the button below to get an immediate download and start using now (you’ll be given the option to buy the audio tracks on their own, or with the book on lowering blood pressure):

To order physical CDs, click here:

(note that the physical CDs do not include the 4 breaths per minute tracks, nor do they include the option to ‘add on’ our book on lowering blood pressure)

How does slow breathing lower blood pressure? References and more information

Brooks et al (2013). “Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association”. Hypertension

University Health News – Breathing Exercises to Lower Blood Pressure

Harvard Heart Health Blog – Take a Deep Breath

NBC News – Dr Anderson’s research on salt and breathing

The American Journal of Cardiology – A Meta-Analysis of Effects of Voluntary Slow Breathing Exercises for Control of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases