Speaker Bio
My research explores effects of breathwork on mental health and wellbeing. It involves collaboration with the Breath-Body-Mind Foundation (who I trained with as a breathwork teacher), Othership (Toronto), Oxford and UCSF. I'm also part of the Brighton Sussex Medical School team exploring phenomenology and physiology of psychedelic-type therapeutic breathwork, and am a co-investigator on The Breathwork Survey launched by the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial. I hope my work can help build a larger evidence-based picture of the psychophysiological effects (and potential efficacy) of breathwork. I wish to set up a breathwork lab (and ultimately a centre) dedicated to breathwork research and practice (funders/donors reach out if interested!) and am open to advisory/consulting roles. I have a growing interest in the innumerable applications of breathwork across all contexts of human recovery and performance, from health to sports. I'm a fellow of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, Tokyo, carrying out the first doctoral research funded by the Sylff Association in the UK. Sylff is a collaborative initiative of the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, and a global fellowship programme aimed at nurturing leaders who will initiate action to transcend differences and address issues confronting contemporary society.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials
Theoretical Background and Rationale: Deliberate control of the breath (breathwork) has recently received an unprecedented surge in public interest and breathing techniques have therapeutic potential to improve mental health.
Research Question and Hypothesis: Our meta-analysis primarily aimed to evaluate the efficacy of breathwork through examining whether, and to what extent, breathwork interventions were associated with lower levels of self-reported/subjective stress compared to non-breathwork controls.
Methods and Analysis: We searched PsycInfo, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov and ISRCTN up to February 2022, initially identifying 1325 results.
Main Findings: The primary outcome self-reported/subjective stress included 12 randomised-controlled trials (k = 12) with a total of 785 adult participants. Most studies were deemed as being at moderate risk of bias. The random-effects analysis yielded a significant small-to-medium mean effect size, g = − 0.35 [95% CI − 0.55, − 0.14], z = 3.32, p = 0.0009, showing breathwork was associated with lower levels of stress than control conditions. Heterogeneity was intermediate and approaching significance, χ211 = 19, p = 0.06, I2 = 42%. Meta-analyses for secondary outcomes of self-reported/subjective anxiety (k = 20) and depressive symptoms (k = 18) showed similar significant effect sizes: g = − 0.32, p < 0.0001, and g = − 0.40, p < 0.0001, respectively. Heterogeneity was moderate and significant for both. Conclusion: Overall, results showed that breathwork may be effective for improving stress and mental health. However, we urge caution and advocate for nuanced research approaches with low risk-of-bias study designs to avoid a miscalibration between hype and evidence.