Low- versus high-arousal resilience interventions for stressed midlife women — a randomized trial

Does the method help stressed, depressed women?

Eighty-four healthy midlife women with high stress and depressive symptoms randomized to the method (forty-one) or slow-paced breathing with warm showers (forty-three).

Both groups reduced depressive symptoms by about a quarter; the method uniquely reduced rumination after a stress task.

Active control worked too — expectancy matters.

Practice the method as taught — breathing seated on dry land, cold by degrees — and let the evidence set your expectations: strong for immune and adrenaline effects, promising for mood and stress, mixed for heart and performance.