Panic Attacks and Anxiety

The primary cause is in the way we breathe but breathing exercises alone take too long to handle the cause. 

"Panic attacks often result from problems with the brain pathways that control for the acquisition of conditioned fear. Conditioned fear involves regions of the brain such as the amygdala, the brain stem, the hippocampus and parts of the pre-frontal cortex. This is pretty much all the major brain regions which may account for the confusion and overwhelming emotions during fear and panic". Sinha, S., Laszlo, A. & Gorman, J. (2000). Journal of Affective Disorders. Vol 61(3), 191-200.

"Certain breathing changes, difficult to explain otherwise, could represent conditioned responses to stimuli that either carry the signal of threat themselves or were associated with a threat signal" (Christopher Gilbert)

~~Most people have a hand preference - we are generally either right handed or left handed. But some people show no preference and are referred to as mixed handed. Adolescents with mixed-handedness are more prone to trauma symptoms and panic disorders. Chemtob, C. et al. (2001). Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, Vol 189(1), 58-60.

From Mike:
So what we do to reduce and eliminate anxiety and panic attacks is reestablish or strengthen neural pathways with selected breathing development techniques and exercises. 

The techniques and any other needed holistic aspects magnify the effectiveness of the exercises. They accelerate one's progress and are much better then just the exercises alone and often spell the difference between success or failure in the short or long term.

Recommended program http://www.breathing.com/deepest-calm.htm