Breath Training and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)

How can the way you breathe and a special kind of arrhythmia be the keys to better health?

In healthy individuals, that is, people who recover from stress quickly and completely, heart rate generally increases as you breathe in and decreases as you breathe out. This is a natural phenomenon called Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA).

Although the name implies irregularity, RSA is actually a synchronization of the respiratory and cardiac systems and reflects the healthy interaction of the two branches of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).

The two branches mentioned above are the sympathetic branch, which controls the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic branch, which controls the relaxation response.

People who suffer from the effects of stress lose this RSA synchronization as a function of a reduced relaxation response. This results in reduced Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and an imbalance of the fight-or-flight and relaxation responses. It is this condition that, over time, promotes the appearance of many of the stress-related symptoms that most of us are familiar with.

So how can RSA be improved? We have found a simple breath training exercise that is almost magical in its ability to strengthen your response to stress. All you need is a timer to pace your breathing at a specific rate for 10 minutes, twice daily. It sounds simple because it is!

Stress interventions that use paced-breathing, like those found in the Advanced CardioLogix product line, can help re synchronize the respiratory and cardiac systems and balance the autonomic nervous system.

Not only do these interventions reduce the current effects of stress but help build resiliency to future stress. The end result is you feel better, think more clearly, have more energy, and can respond to stress with peak performance!