Staying healthy during this strange time where most of us are running around with masks on has everything to do with breathing.  If you’re like me, you can’t help but notice how you are breathing while wearing a mask, and getting closer than six feet to someone else makes me want to breath less.  How you breath determines your likelihood of contracting any illness, not just covid and there are some simple things you can do to protect yourself that you might not be aware of.  

Breathing Through Your Nose

"That’s it?”, you say. That’s all I have to do? You may have heard the expression, “Your nose is for breathing, your mouth is for eating.” Well, consistently doing this one simple thing can have a dramatic impact on asthma and sleep apnea, and helps protect you from airborne viruses and bacteria.  When you breath through your nose, the air is filtered, then directed much more efficiently down to the lower part of your lungs where  it is able to do more efficient gas exchange. 

Your nose also produces an interesting gas that some researchers are beginning to experiment with to treat covid-19.  Your nasal passages produce a powerful antiviral, Nitric Oxide, that also happens to be a bronchial dilator, blood pressure regulator and helps maintain homeostasis in the nervous system. Which is another way of saying Nitric Oxide makes it easier to breath and also helps to lower stress. All you have to do to get a hit of it is to breath through your nose. 

Humming, the Nitric Oxide Booster

When you hum, not only is it calming, it boosts the production of Nitric Oxide in your nose by as much as 15 times.  In pranayama yoga the breathing exercise is called brahmani, and it is simple to do. With your mouth closed, hummm knowing that you are producing more Nitric Oxide and then slowly, gently inhale through your nose to draw it all in. This is a great exercise to try when you are feeling like you are getting too close to others and it can be extremely calming.

By consistently breathing though your nose you will not only protect yourself from viruses, it will help open your nasal passages, and warms the air to protect your lungs. 

Why Fast, Shallow Mouth Breathing is a Problem 

Mouth breathing inflames the nasal passages and constricts the airways, making it harder to breath and especially harder to breath through your nose. If you suffer from asthma, consistently breathing through your nose is a great way to start knocking down your symptoms. 

If you breath through your nose during the day but aren’t feeling rested at night, or have a tendency to snore, you might be mouth breathing in your sleep.  One way to address this is to tape your mouth. 3m micropore surgical tape is gentle enough to use and weak enough to break free if you are worried you might gasp for air. There are also mouth closure strips available for this process. 

Slowing Down

There is a misconception that taking a big deep breath into your chest is a good thing. Puffing out the chest on the inhale might work for superman, but for us mortals, “deep” breathing means breathing down, not up.  If your shoulders ache at the end of the day, check your breathing and notice if it’s going up or down.  More than likely you are pushing your shoulders up with your breath.  By sending your breath down into your belly and into your sides, you get the ribs moving on their hinges at the sternum and spine, and you give your shoulders a break.  You’ll also be breathing more efficiently. Most of your lungs are down low in your ribcage and you will be able to take a deeper breath by breathing down into your sides and back. 

Slowing down your breathing accentuates this process. By taking long, slow, deep breaths into your belly and into your sides, you actually take in more air.  When you breath shallowly, or quickly your lungs don’t really get a chance to get rid of the stale air in your lungs and your breathing capacity is diminished. See what happens when you slow your breathing down to at least 5-6 seconds on the inhale and 5-6 seconds on the exhale.  This slower rate creates a more efficient gas exchange, and increases the CO2 in your blood stream, which allows for more of the oxygen in your blood stream to be released to the tissue and cells. When we take fast shallow breaths we also wash out the CO2 in our bloodstream.  CO2 is literally the key that opens the lock in our blood, releasing the oxygen into our blood stream so our tissues get more air. Without CO2, the oxygen we breath remains stuck to the hemoglobin in our blood. When you breath fast and get light headed, that is because you are not getting the oxygen to your cells. 

The Power of Not Breathing

Whether they are aware of the science or not, most breathing practices integrate breath holds as part of their exercises. Holds build a tolerance to CO2, which means more Oxygen getting to your tissue.  Breath holds, especially on the exhale help to lower heightened states of autonomic nervous system activation and shift us into a calm aware state. There are many versions of breath holds that involve counting. Inhaled holds have their place, but I would tend to favor exhaled holds because they build CO2 tolerance, help to calm the nervous system and open the airways. Just make sure that when you are doing any breathing exercise you are draining any tension out of your breath.  As breathing exercises become more difficult, they can make us tense if we aren’t prioritizing relaxation.  If you are doing holds, try to stay as relaxed as possible.  If you find yourself becoming more tense, or have to gasp for air, back off and try a shorter hold.  You should be relaxed the whole time, and should be able to shift back to “normal” breathing in 1-2 breaths after a hold. You want to create some air hunger without creating added tension. It is a fine line, so make sure you stay on the easy side of the line.

Below is a link to my “Reset Breath” video. It is a breathing exercise  using exhaled holds that I created for restoring confidence and ease to your nervous system. It can help to work through any anxiety around holding your breath out. Once this exercise is easy, it’s a good sign that you’re ready to move on to more difficult holds that produce some air hunger, maybe even while you are walking or exercising. Just remember to prioritize ease and don’t hold so long that you are gasping for air. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. 

I hope this helps! 

Much warmth, 

David.