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When our eight-year-old son was crushed in an elevator, he should have died. Miraculously, he survived. But the trauma of that day haunted my wife Becky for months.
She had been driving back from Kentucky when it happened—eight agonizing hours to imagine the worst. Even after our son recovered, every time he’d disappear to play hide-and-seek or fall asleep in a closet, Becky would spiral into panic. When he’d pop back up with a cheerful “Hey mom!” it would take her hours, sometimes late into the night, to calm down.
Then something remarkable happened. At one of our mastermind meetings, Becky did a breathwork session with Sachin Patel, a functional medicine coach and breathwork facilitator. That single session completely broke her trauma cycle.
Yes, she still got anxious when he disappeared … but she could finally find her way back into normal… That was like the first aha moment for me. This stuff actually works.
From Skeptic to Believer
I’ll be honest—ten years ago, I would have dismissed breathwork as “woo-woo” nonsense. Breathing? We all do it. So what?
But then I started hearing stories that challenged my skepticism. Monks sitting under 32-degree waterfalls for hours, using breath to heat their bodies. Wim Hof, the “Iceman,” melting snow around him through breathing techniques. At first, I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” But the evidence kept mounting.
My perspective shifted dramatically when COVID hit me hard. The virus left me with crushing anxiety—something I’d never experienced before. My children’s voices, patients asking the same question twice, even my dog running through the house felt like nails on a chalkboard.
I knew enough to try breathwork: 20 minutes, twice daily. The first week was torture—my mind scattered everywhere. But after a couple of weeks, I’d slip into the zone so quickly I’d lose track of time. Within six weeks, the anxiety was broken.
What struck me most was seeing patients who didn’t address their post-COVID anxiety. Six months, a year later, they’d created new neural pathways of anxiety—new connections in their default mode network that became increasingly difficult to break.
The Ancient Science We’re Just Rediscovering
During a recent conversation with Sachin Patel, 
he shared insights that bridged ancient wisdom with cutting-edge science.
“Breathwork has been around since the dawn of humanity. It’s dated back to about 5,000 years, I would imagine it goes back even further.”
The ancients understood breath as life force—prana in Sanskrit, chi in Chinese medicine. What they intuited, we can now measure. As Sachin pointed out: “You breathe about 30 pounds of air every single day, you take 23,000 breaths.”
But here’s what fascinated me as a physician: breath isn’t just about oxygen delivery. Every breath creates a mechanical cascade throughout the body:
“Every time we breathe in and out, our diaphragm moves up and down several inches,” Sachin explained. “This piston-like pumping action mobilizes lymph in our trunk organs… The diaphragm sits nicely over top of our liver. If I was an intelligent designer… that’s exactly where I’d put the diaphragm… where it’s gonna get 23,000 mini hugs with each and every single breath.”
“If I was an intelligent designer… that’s exactly where I’d put the diaphragm… where it’s gonna get 23,000 mini hugs with each and every single breath.”
He revealed that about 70% of our detoxification occurs through the lungs—something I’d recently been researching. I’d been reading articles about measuring volatile organic compounds in hospital patients’ breath. The higher the VOCs, the more likely patients were to move from the floor to the ICU, or from the ICU to death.
The Trauma-Diaphragm Connection
One of Sachin’s most profound insights relates to trauma storage: “Our diaphragm 
is where we store a lot of our trauma. The diaphragm is the conduit for the fascial system.”
This resonated deeply with my clinical experience. I routinely see patients whose healing plateaus around 50–60% improvement. The missing piece? Unresolved trauma rewiring their nervous system.
Sachin explained the mechanism: “Anytime there’s a blunt force that we experience… that force gets distributed throughout this entire network, kinda like a spider web. So if you pluck a spider web, the whole web knows.”
He shared how childhood patterns compound this: “Many children are told to stop crying, and you can’t stop crying until you stop breathing first. And the way to stop breathing is to hold your diaphragm.”
Practical Techniques I Now Prescribe to Patients
Through our discussion, Sachin shared several evidence-based breathing techniques I’ve incorporated into my practice:
Coherence Breathing (Your Daily Foundation)
“Place your tongue at the roof of your mouth,” Sachin instructed during our conversation. “Breathe in for a count of 4 to 6, and out through the nose for a count of 6.”
He emphasized this should be our default breathing pattern: “Your breath should be inaudible. The person sitting next to you shouldn’t know… It connects your brain and your heart, which I think we need more of these days.”
Watch Sachin Demo Coherence Breathing
The Physiologic Sigh (Better Than Meditation)
Sachin referenced Andrew Huberman’s research showing this technique more effective than meditation:
– Full exhalation
– Inhale through nose, filling belly and lungs
– Take extra sips of air at the top
– Hold with pelvic squeeze
– Release with audible sigh
“Sighing audibly, just like you would if you had an immense sense of relief,” he described.
Watch Sachin Demo the Physiologic Sigh
Bellows Breath (Natural Energy)
“If you’ve ever been to Tony Robbins seminars,” Sachin noted, “he uses this breathing technique to kind of warm up the crowd.”
– Sharp inhalation with arms up
– Rapid exhalation with arms down
– 30 repetitions, 3 rounds
– Not for those with uncontrolled hypertension
“This is also known as Yogic coffee,” he explained. “It’s a way to feel more energized… especially in the afternoons.”
Watch Sachin Demo Bellows Breath
The 4-7-8 Sleep Technique
Sachin shared his visualization: “Imagine when you were young in kindergarten… that parachute game… takes about four seconds for it to get to the top, and then it just holds still… then slowly imagine as the parachute’s coming down, you’re exhaling.”
Watch Sachin Demo the 4-7-8 Technique
The Hidden Epidemic: Mouth Breathing
During our conversation, Sachin revealed a startling statistic: “About two-thirds of Americans and Canadians… 
sleep with their mouth open. And it’s one of the most detrimental things to your recovery, your oral health.”
He shared his wife’s story of discovering she had a tongue-tie—a condition affecting breathing, anxiety, and even flexibility. After a 30-second laser procedure: “Immediately her neck pain went away. Immediately she was able to touch her toes… she just felt so much calm.”
I’ve actually seen patients with severe sleep apnea completely resolve their condition with simple mouth taping—though I always caution this isn’t FDA approved and requires proper technique.
Breakthrough Breathwork: The Tool That’s Transforming My Practice
The most powerful tool Sachin shared is what he calls “breakthrough breathwork.” 
I witnessed this firsthand at one of our mastermind groups—high-level healthcare executives doing breathwork for an hour, some crying, others having profound realizations.
“I think of breathwork like taking the stairs to the top of the mountain,” Sachin explained. “And I think of psychedelics like taking the helicopter to the top of the mountain.”
I now routinely recommend his recorded session to patients who hit healing plateaus. Several of my patients who are trauma therapists have started using it with their clients, reporting profound changes.
As Sachin described: “It’s an opportunity to write a new story. It’s an opportunity to resolve some old trauma, bring it to the surface and release it… It’ll give you exactly what you need whenever you need it.”
The Clinical Integration
In my practice at Richmond Functional Medicine, I now see breathwork as foundational medicine. Local universities are using breath training with specialized devices like LEAF to treat dysautonomia and POTS. What was once dismissed as “alternative” is becoming evidence-based standard of care.
Fifteen years ago, I would have rolled my eyes at stories about the tongue-diaphragm-fascia connection. But at a recent high-level hypermobility and POTS conference, a urogynecologist showed anatomical slides demonstrating fascial connections from the soles of the feet through the pelvic floor to the brain.
As I’ve learned repeatedly: if something sounds strange but keeps appearing in different contexts, file it away. You might be teaching it in a few years.
Your Breath, Your Medicine
Sachin left us with this powerful message: “If you learn nothing else from this conversation… just bring your attention to: am I breathing through my mouth? Am I breathing through my nose?… We should be breathing through our nose 95 to 99% of the time.”
He promised: “If you did that, your entire life would change. And I promise you that.”
After witnessing my wife’s trauma resolution, experiencing my own COVID recovery, and seeing countless patients transform through breathwork, I can confirm: this isn’t hyperbole. It’s observable, measurable, reproducible medicine.
Your breath is the one medicine you carry everywhere, available 23,000 times per day. The question isn’t whether it works—it’s whether you’re ready to use it.
For Sachin Patel’s free breathwork resources, including the breakthrough breathwork session I prescribe to patients, visit breathworkwithsachin.com. Always consult with your healthcare provider before beginning new therapeutic practices, especially with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions.
Dr. Aaron Hartman is the founder of Richmond Functional Medicine in Virginia, where he integrates conventional and functional medicine approaches to address root causes of chronic illness.