Slow breathing may lessen pain, according to a report in the journal Pain, which compared 27 women with fibromyalgia with 25 healthy women.

According to the article, participants “were exposed to low and moderate thermal pain pulses during paced breathing at their normal rate and one-half their normal rate. Thermal pain pulses were presented in four blocks of four trials. Each block included exposure to both mild and moderate pain trials, and periods of both normal and slow paced breathing.”

Slow breathing lessened pain and emotional discomfort in both groups of women, “particularly for moderately versus mildly painful thermal stimuli.” However, the findings were greater and more reliable among healthy women versus those with fibromyalgia.

Pain – January 15, 2010;Epub.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03043959