IBS and Breathing Habits
#218995 - 10/11/05 06:32 PM
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hawkeye
Reged: 06/16/03
Posts: 705
Loc: NYC
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Hi,
I posted this to the living room, but I thought maybe you yoga people might have some insight into this.
Have you noticed, as I have, that your breathing seems connected to IBS attacks?
When I'm having an attack I'm often short of breath, and breathing shallowly. I always wonder, if the cramping in my stomach is causing me to flex fwds which constricts my breath OR what I think is more likely, that my shallow breathing and sometimes held breath is one factor in bringing on an IBS attack.
I've noticed this since I was a kid - but somehow never was curious enough to really investigate it until now. I'm paying a lot of attention to my breathing lately...I could be completely off base on the ibs connection, but it certainly can't hurt to improve my breathing either way.
Let me know what you think,
Dan
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Sounds like you're hyperventilating...and that can send you off into a panic attack!  Try and catch yourself out at it and if you can't control it yourself, breathe into a paper bag - an old trick, but it works! 
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After taking both some yoga classes and the hypno for IBS CD course, I noticed that my usual reaction to an oncoming attack would be to tense all my muscles and breathe shallowly. This is actually pretty counterproductive! I now force myself to relax and breathe deeply and slowly, and I've actually stopped attacks that way.
--AC
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Yes this is what I was referring to. I'm not hyperventilating as far as I know. Its more that I notice how tight my breathing often is when an attack comes on. And I suspect my everyday habits of breathing may have been shaped by this over time, so that I've got habits of tightness that then affect the ibs - a spiral effect. I thought about it after reading an article and interview of Ilse Middendorf who wrote a book called "The perceptible Breath." I may buy it and check it out.
Dan
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Also consider the hypno CDs - there are lots of good relaxation/breathing strategies and visualizations in there! It was for sure the biggest contributor towards my changing my reaction to stomach rumbles and other IBS attack premonitions.
--AC
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