New app aims to reduce stress with slow breathing

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A worker on IG Index's trading floor holds his head in his hands as markets tumble globally, in London September 22, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Winning

By Natasha Baker

TOKYO | Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:40pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Want to reduce stress and improve mental focus? A new app that promotes slow breathing may help.

Called MyCalmBeat, the app uses a heart rate monitor that attaches to the ear to detect a person's optimal breathing rate, or resonant frequency, which is unique to each person.

At this breathing rate, the company says the user can increase the variability of their heart rate to lower stress levels.

"People don't realize the profound impact that slow breathing can have until they actually sit down and do it for 10 minutes and then they feel completely different," said Savannah DeVarney, vice president of product marketing for MyBrainSolutions, the creators of the app.

After finding their ideal breathing rate, animated exercises show users how to breathe at that rate, while the heart monitor provides feedback about the variability of their heart rate.

"Normally people think of 65 beats per minute as a good resting heart rate. But we're not necessarily looking at heart rate -- we're looking at the degree to which the space between consecutive heart beats varies," DeVarney explained.

When a person is stressed their heart rate becomes consistent and variability is minimized. But when relaxed, variability is maximized, slowing down as you breathe out and speeding up as you breathe in.

"We know that for most people their resonant frequency is between 7.5 and 4.5 breaths per minute. The software maps your heart rate variability through each of those rates to find the breathing rate where it becomes maximized," said DeVarney.

This frequency remains consistent throughout adult life, and usually only varies during childhood or pregnancy.

DeVarney said the company collaborated with Dr Richard Gevirtz, a professor at the Alliant International University in San Diego, California, who conducts research in heart rate variability.

She said in people who meditate for hours increased heart rate variability is one of the characteristics of being in a highly relaxed state.

"Meditators will find their resonant frequency naturally through trial and error, so we know that there's something in that."

Other biofeedback-based heart rate monitor apps include Instant Heart Rate which uses the iPhone's camera to detect a user's heart rate, rather than an external ear clip.

The company recommends training ten minutes a day, three times a week.

The app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

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Many cancer survivors struggle with trauma stress: study

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n">(Reuters) - A cancer diagnosis can leave lasting psychological scars akin to those inflicted by war, with the impact in some cases lasting for years, U.S. researchers found in a study.

More than a decade after being told they had the disease, nearly four out of 10 cancer survivors said they were still plagued by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, said lead researcher Sophia Smith from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina.

Those symptoms included being extra jumpy, having disturbing thoughts about the cancer and its treatment, or feeling emotionally numb toward friends and family.

One in 10 patients also said they avoided thinking about their cancer and one in 20 said they steered clear of situations or activities that reminded them of the disease, a situation that could potentially become a medical problem.

"You worry if the patient is avoiding medical care, you worry they might not be getting follow-ups," Smith told Reuters Health.

"We don't have data to support that, but we worry about it."

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is based on a survey of 566 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a relatively common kind of cancer.

Smith's team had surveyed these patients for PTSD symptoms once before, estimating that about one in 12 had full-blown PTSD. The diagnosis involved a trio of symptoms, including avoidance, arousal and flashbacks.

Many more had one or more PTSD symptoms, however. The newest survey also showed they often persist.

Overall, half of the patients had no PTSD symptoms 13 years after their diagnosis. The problems had disappeared in 12 percent, but had remained or worsened in 37 percent.

"This study found that people seemed to have worse PTSD later on," said Bonnie Green, a trauma expert at Georgetown University who pioneered the study of PTSD in breast cancer survivors, but was not linked to the latest study.

"It's just very stressful for people to be told that they have cancer. You can't just assume that they feel bad now, but it will go away."

She stressed that it's only a minority of patients who develop full-blown PTSD, but added that depression is common after a cancer diagnosis.

The new survey shows that low-income people are extra vulnerable to the psychological impact of living with cancer.

"I am particularly concerned about the patients who are poor or have less resources, said Smith, adding that doctors have to be better at recognizing distress in patients.

"Each time they come in you are asking not only if they're having pain, but also if they are having stress." SOURCE: bit.ly/n1pJMg

(Reporting from New York by Frederik Joelving at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Robert Birsel)

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