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Slow breathing is measurable — six breaths a minute, ten minutes a day.
Also known as: breathing exercises · diaphragmatic breathing · slow breathing · Buteyko · pranayama
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Very different things stand under this name. Best supported by numbers is slow breathing: around six breaths a minute, in trials mostly 10 to 20 minutes a day over four to eight weeks. Blood pressure, heart rate variability and questionnaire scores for tension were measured; the differences are there but small. A second branch is training the breathing muscles with a resistance device — studied in COPD and heart failure, with amounts such as 30 breaths twice a day. Pursed-lip breathing is a technique for the acute moment, not training. Anyone with sudden breathlessness does not practise but gets it checked.
The figure that appears in most trials — about five seconds in, five seconds out. It is not a target for the whole day but the amount for the practice time.