We’ve come back to this topic a number of times as new information arises, but this one clearly takes the cake. Countless people have shared personal stories of how the breath can be used to manage pain, and many women point to their experiences with childbirth as a prime example, but I’m voting for this gentleman as the new poster-child for breathing and pain management.

Aron Ralston is the hiker whose amazing story of survival is the subject of the film “127 Hours” in which he is forced to amputate his own arm with a pocket knife after it becomes trapped between a boulder and a crevasse wall. After waiting for help for more than 3 days, he realizes that that only way he will see his family again is to cut off his arm.

Ralston told The Sun that he used controlled breathing techniques in order to remain calm while cutting through his arm. “I breathed through it, much like the way in natural childbirth training you practise to breathe through it. Instead of being afraid of it, you go into it. When I severed that nerve I closed my eyes.”

Any questions about the pain management properties of the breath?

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