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Are you frequently stressed out, anxious or angry? Do you find yourself choking on the words you’d really like to say to your boss, spouse or workmates - if only you were unleashed? If so (and who among us isn’t feeling such things now and then?), chances are you’re holding your breath.

You’re probably not even aware of it - but you should be! Holding your breath, along with fast, erratic and shallow breathing, are not just uncomfortable but passing reactions to stress; they can do real damage to your health.

Researchers have observed that such “inhibitory breathing” is a common reaction to emotions such as stress, anxiety and anger. The usual advice to “take a deep breath” under such circumstances is a clear indication of this, yet we don’t normally stop to consider the connection between our breathing and our emotional states.

Inhibitory breathing is not always related to emotion. Some people may develop unhealthy breathing habits in childhood, which they carry into adulthood without even realizing it. Whatever the cause, the danger is that when inhibitory breathing becomes chronic it can contribute to numerous health problems including hypertension, a particularly dangerous condition.

Dr. David Anderson, a researcher and hypertension specialist with the National Institutes of Health, believes that inhibitory breathing raises blood pressure by knocking our blood chemistry out of kilter. It does this by destabilizing levels of gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide in our blood, thus making it more acidic. This makes the kidneys less efficient at pumping out sodium, which in turn increases blood pressure.

Nitric oxide can lower blood pressure

Nitric oxide plays an especially important role in this process. A little known gas (not the same as nitrous oxide, or laughing gas), nitric oxide is responsible for regulating blood flow by constricting or dilating blood vessels. Low levels of nitric oxide cause blood vessels to narrow, raising blood pressure, while higher levels expand blood vessels to lower blood pressure.

Nitric oxide is produced by our cells and is especially abundant in the nasal airways. Breathing slowly and deeply, especially through the nose, helps deliver the gas to our lungs and hence into the bloodstream. In contrast, fast, erratic breathing, or no breathing at all, decreases the amount of nitric oxide in the blood, with the resulting increase in blood pressure.

These are just a couple of the major ways in which breathing affects our blood pressure. There are many other connections involving emotional states, stress hormones and other physiological processes. The connection between our respiratory and circulatory systems is both powerful and complex.

The implication is clear: if fast, erratic and shallow breathing can raise your blood pressure it follows that slow, regular and deep breathing can lower it. And the clinical evidence shows exactly that. A method called simply “slow breathing” practiced for as little as 10 to 15 minutes a day has proved to produce significant and lasting drops in blood pressure.

Don’t have breathing difficulties? The benefits obtained through slow breathing have proved to be effective at controlling high blood pressure from a wide variety of origins. In fact, slow breathing is quickly becoming a mainstream method not only to lower blood pressure naturally but also for the treatment of stress and anxiety disorders.

While slow breathing just a few minutes a day can help counteract the ravaging effects of stress in your life, it could be even more effective combined with direct action to prevent or channel such stress in a less negative way. It may be possible, not to mention mutually beneficial, to achieve a healthier level of communications with your boss, spouse or workmates… just don’t hold your breath on it!

Click here to discover an easy way to use your breathing along with music to lower blood pressure naturally.