A few years ago, when I visited the barber for a haircut (obviously)– he was playing some kind of religious CD and one word was repeated over and over again.
That word was “OHM”.

Listening to it had a soothing effect on me and I decided to delve deeper. Since I am in India, it was fairly easy to get in touch with Hindu friends who informed me that the word had some theraupetic effect but could not pinpoint the exact reason behind its effectiveness. I dismissed the whole reasoning as hogwash and forgot all about it.

Last week I was reading an article on Forbes about how breathing can help you control your emotions at workplace and some facts in the article enabled me to piece together the missing pieces of the ” OHM puzzle”.

Apparently exhaling lowers your heart rate while inhaling increases it.

Increased heart rate also results in the release of free radicals into your blood. Generally antioxidant intake is recommended to fight the negative effects of  free radicals. So,saying OHM in a very slow and deliberate manner actually helps lower heart rate.Controlling your breathing to avoid sudden increases in heart rate helps control amount of free radicals generated.Also, if you strategically increase your antioxidant intake ,you will experience a noticeable improvement in your overall health. If I were to use a formula to illustrate my point it would be like this :

Lower heart rate + Anti-oxidants = Good Health due to lesser free radicals

Conclusion : OHM is not a magic word that transports you into a cosmic universe and makes you a demi-god but can certainly improve your health if used as a mantra chant.