Dr. Alicja Heyda is a Psychologist and Breathworker working in Poland in a Cancer facility.
Her experiment was looking at whether the conscious connected breathing training would be beneficial for immune and emotional status of breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy
Control Group: Verbal Therapy and Relaxation Sessions
Breathwork Group: Had 10 x 45 minute sessions three times per week followed by debrief with psychotherapist. The other days they would do 15 minutes conscious connected breathing on their own at home. At the end of the 10 sessions the group continued to practise the 15 minutes 6 days a week plus one long breathing session a week at home. This continued for 8 weeks.
Participants filled out various forms before and after the treatment to gauge emotional states such as Anxiety, Depression and Irritation. Blood samples were also taken before and 8 weeks after the experiment.
Control group had 32% of natural killer cells. Breathwork group had higher increase in natural killer cells in 72% of cases. Some of the Breathwork Group had higher killer cells than when they started their radiotherapy treatment.
They found that in the Breathwork Group that the stress hormone cortisol decreased and the prolactin hormone rose significantly which is the hormone that stimulates natural killer cells. There was also a higher blood PH during the breathing. There was a correlation between the higher the blood PH the more killer cells at the end of the treatment.
Both groups had lower anxiety scores however the Breathwork Group had lower aggression scoring. The Breathwork Group also had more of a positive evaluation of their disease as they had gained insight during the Breathwork sessions.
Results were positive in both physical and emotional areas.
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