The author of well-received books on heart disease and stress, board-certified cardiologist John M. Kennedy, MD, works with Los Angeles-based Kindred Health Systems as medical director of its interdisciplinary team. John M. Kennedy, MD, a technology-focused innovator, developed the Encardia Wellness app and a simple but effective technique called BREATHE.
The average person takes 600 breaths every hour. Yet, as Dr. Kennedy demonstrated in a segment of television’s informational series The Doctors, we often breathe in ways that contribute to stress.
In the episode, a busy single mother of two young children shared her hectic daily routine. Dr. Kennedy arranged a real-life simulation stress test for her. The woman’s heart rate soared to 170, a level typically only reached after sustained vigorous exercise. Additionally, her levels of the stress hormone cortisol soared.
Dr. Kennedy then trained her in the BREATHE technique. In this method, “B” stands for “beginning”, in which a person places themselves in a receptive state. “R” means “relaxation,” and reminds the person to consciously let go of tensions while taking seven deep nasal breaths then breathing out through the mouth.
“E” asks a person to “envision” a peaceful environment. “A” means “apply.” In this component, a person pictures, for example, her heart pumping as regularly and calmly as a waterfall in a guided visualization. “T” means to think of the experience as a “treat,” “H” puts the focus on “healing,” and “E” brings the patient back to the real world, more relaxed, at the “end.”
