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This is nothing but praNayaama packaged in a fancy journal paper. It's been practised in India for > 4000 years as part of Yoga. One of the earliest recorded m

This is nothing but praNayaama packaged in a fancy journal paper. It's been practised in India for > 4000 years as part of Yoga. One of the earliest recorded mentions is in the Bhagavad Gita (set in 2500 BC). In it, Krishna tells Arjuna to calm his mind, focus his gaze on the tip of his nose, and concentrate on his breath. One of the greatest practioners was Sri Aurobindo who practised this for 8 hours a day for several weeks. He then reported a radiating energy through his body and wrote "Savitri" - 24,000 line poem in English while hiding from the British in French-occupied Pondicherry.

yur5012 6y ago
Thanks for making a very "scientific" comment. Every scientist will be proud to read this. #sarcasm
- ponderingfish 6y ago
  Lol. I guess everything has to be viewed through the lens of a western journal paper to be "scientic" #sarcasm
msla 6y ago
It's even older in other parts of the world, of course.
flobosg 6y ago
From the introduction: > The act of controlling one’s breath for the purpose of restoring or enhancing one’s health has been practiced for thousands of years amongst Eastern cultures. For example, yogic breathing (pranayama) is a well-known ancient practice of controlled breathing, often performed in conjunction with meditation or yoga, for its spiritual and perceived health-enhancing effects.
freehunter 6y ago
To be fair, "this is nothing but [ancient spiritual practice] but with science backing up the claims" is more valuable than this comment might imply. There's an awful lot of ancient spiritual practices that have no benefit and lots of harm and are still practiced today in the name of ancient spiritual practices (stuff like rhino horns). So having some science behind it is worth a lot more than "packaged in a fancy journal paper".
- ponderingfish 6y ago
  Nope - that just supposes that 5000 years of practise was done for fun and had no health benefits. And, now it is upto a few scientists to discover what 5000 years of sustained practise could not. They could have just referred to Sushruta Samhita or patanjali's yoga-sutras where praNayama and its benefits are dicussed in detail.
  - ashtonian 6y ago
    You are still assuming 5000 years of sustained practices have health benefits..
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      You're assuming studies conducted today with minimal or no replication of results are evidence of health benefits. If 5000 of scientifically less-than-perfect evidence is not worth anything, then this study is also worth nothing.
      - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
        As karatinversion already pointed out, some traditional health practices have been shown to be ineffective, or even actively harmful. There is no substitute for the scientific method.
        AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
        I'm not citing it as a substitute, rather I'm saying that it isn't something you can entirely discount either. And we know for a fact that a lot of published "scientific" studies turn out to be not reproducible too, but people will continue to believe them for a long time regardless.
    - solarengineer 6y ago
      Nothing to assume. Yoga and Ayurveda have proven benefits.
nabla9 6y ago
There are two very different ways to use breath in yogic traditions. One is what is discussed in the article (prāṇāyāma) controlling breath for health benefits and calm. Slowing the breath, holding after exhale. Often as preparation for meditation. Another is focusing on breath as meditation practise. In that practise breath is not subject to control, it's subject of attention and focus. The breath usually calms down during meditation but it rarely slows down as much as during controlled breath exercises.
solarengineer 6y ago
There is indeed quite a lot of written evidence in palm scripts as well as books and works that are a few thousand years old. Of the many Vedas, the Ayurveda and the Yajurveda cover many medical bodies of knowledge. The various Wikipedia articles cover these. I used to get disappointed at how various Indian bodies of knowledge are treated here at HN by some ( not all, no point in generalising). But I then remember that regardless of what a few unaware works like to claim as “spirit medicine”, millions of us Indians and others around the world enjoy the benefits of Ayurveda.
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  Without science, all you have is superstition. Also, science lets you extract what wisdom there is in a tradition/ritual instead of throwing the whole baby out with the bathwater. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda#Classification_and_efficacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda#Classification_and_ef.... Without science, you don't know if it's the slow breathing, the lead-infused tonic, or the oil pulling that's working. The "Indian bodies of knowledge" get passed through the scrutiny of experimentation and end up living on in practices like slow breathing and mindfulness while we leave harmful superstitions behind like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(ayurvedic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(ayurvedic). What's the problem?
  - solarengineer 6y ago
    “ What’s the problem?” One example, disrespectfully calling it “spirit medicine”. ==== That Wikipedia article doesn’t account for the practices at well regarded Ayurveda schools and clinics, btw. The doctors are such places aren’t “reluctant to admit” that certain herbs may cause issues, and in fact consultation to identify a person’s composition and the suitability of families of herbs is the first step. What the article reports about the issue of lead and other items in various mass manufactured medicines is true and this is not an Ayurvedic issue but one of unscrupulous medicine manufacturers.

yur5012 6y ago

Thanks for making a very "scientific" comment. Every scientist will be proud to read this. #sarcasm

ponderingfish 6y ago
Lol. I guess everything has to be viewed through the lens of a western journal paper to be "scientic" #sarcasm

msla 6y ago

It's even older in other parts of the world, of course.

flobosg 6y ago

From the introduction: > The act of controlling one’s breath for the purpose of restoring or enhancing one’s health has been practiced for thousands of years amongst Eastern cultures. For example, yogic breathing (pranayama) is a well-known ancient practice of controlled breathing, often performed in conjunction with meditation or yoga, for its spiritual and perceived health-enhancing effects.

freehunter 6y ago

To be fair, "this is nothing but [ancient spiritual practice] but with science backing up the claims" is more valuable than this comment might imply. There's an awful lot of ancient spiritual practices that have no benefit and lots of harm and are still practiced today in the name of ancient spiritual practices (stuff like rhino horns). So having some science behind it is worth a lot more than "packaged in a fancy journal paper".

ponderingfish 6y ago
Nope - that just supposes that 5000 years of practise was done for fun and had no health benefits. And, now it is upto a few scientists to discover what 5000 years of sustained practise could not. They could have just referred to Sushruta Samhita or patanjali's yoga-sutras where praNayama and its benefits are dicussed in detail.
- ashtonian 6y ago
  You are still assuming 5000 years of sustained practices have health benefits..
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    You're assuming studies conducted today with minimal or no replication of results are evidence of health benefits. If 5000 of scientifically less-than-perfect evidence is not worth anything, then this study is also worth nothing.
    - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
      As karatinversion already pointed out, some traditional health practices have been shown to be ineffective, or even actively harmful. There is no substitute for the scientific method.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
        I'm not citing it as a substitute, rather I'm saying that it isn't something you can entirely discount either. And we know for a fact that a lot of published "scientific" studies turn out to be not reproducible too, but people will continue to believe them for a long time regardless.
  - solarengineer 6y ago
    Nothing to assume. Yoga and Ayurveda have proven benefits.

nabla9 6y ago

There are two very different ways to use breath in yogic traditions. One is what is discussed in the article (prāṇāyāma) controlling breath for health benefits and calm. Slowing the breath, holding after exhale. Often as preparation for meditation. Another is focusing on breath as meditation practise. In that practise breath is not subject to control, it's subject of attention and focus. The breath usually calms down during meditation but it rarely slows down as much as during controlled breath exercises.

solarengineer 6y ago

There is indeed quite a lot of written evidence in palm scripts as well as books and works that are a few thousand years old. Of the many Vedas, the Ayurveda and the Yajurveda cover many medical bodies of knowledge. The various Wikipedia articles cover these. I used to get disappointed at how various Indian bodies of knowledge are treated here at HN by some ( not all, no point in generalising). But I then remember that regardless of what a few unaware works like to claim as “spirit medicine”, millions of us Indians and others around the world enjoy the benefits of Ayurveda.

hombre_fatal 6y ago
Without science, all you have is superstition. Also, science lets you extract what wisdom there is in a tradition/ritual instead of throwing the whole baby out with the bathwater. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda#Classification_and_efficacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda#Classification_and_ef.... Without science, you don't know if it's the slow breathing, the lead-infused tonic, or the oil pulling that's working. The "Indian bodies of knowledge" get passed through the scrutiny of experimentation and end up living on in practices like slow breathing and mindfulness while we leave harmful superstitions behind like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(ayurvedic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(ayurvedic). What's the problem?
- solarengineer 6y ago
  “ What’s the problem?” One example, disrespectfully calling it “spirit medicine”. ==== That Wikipedia article doesn’t account for the practices at well regarded Ayurveda schools and clinics, btw. The doctors are such places aren’t “reluctant to admit” that certain herbs may cause issues, and in fact consultation to identify a person’s composition and the suitability of families of herbs is the first step. What the article reports about the issue of lead and other items in various mass manufactured medicines is true and this is not an Ayurvedic issue but one of unscrupulous medicine manufacturers.