Take a deep breath — it could save your life
I’ve written tons of stuff about deep breathing. Here’s a new reason to do it: It may help if you catch the coronavirus.
I learned about this from my sister in law, who lives in New York, and just recovered from a nasty bout of COVID-19. She received some medical care, but thankfully, it was at home from her boyfriend, who is a doctor.
Both my sister and her boyfriend, Dr. Danial Ceasar contracted the virus. And they have interesting and helpful things to share.
We know that COVID-19 targets the lungs. For some, including my sister in law, breathing can become strenuous and uncomfortable. The natural response to that discomfort is taking smaller, shallower breaths. But there are two benefits to breathing deeply instead.
First, breathing deeply helps keep your blood oxygenated, especially when it’s hard to breathe.
Alveoli are little sacs at the base of the lungs where freshly-inhaled oxygen transfers to the bloodstream. As Ceasar explained it to me, shallow breathing means fewer alveoli receive air.
In a regular, healthy breath, a normal person might expose 70-80 percent of their alveoli to oxygen. The rest only get oxygen when we breathe deeply. This is perfectly fine most of the time, but when the lungs are infected with COVID-19, the body’s immune response often blocks some alveoli through inflammation or by flooding the area with liquid. This causes the oxygen level in our blood to drop.
Every system in our bodies depends on properly-oxygenated blood. Deep breathing isn’t a cure, but it can help increase oxygen intake.
The second benefit: deep breathing decreases the risk of bacterial pneumonia.
As breathing gets harder and we intake less oxygen, unused alveoli become susceptible to collapsing, infection and ultimately causing bacterial pneumonia.
This secondary bacterial pneumonia can be a major complication. A Lancet study of early patients at two Chinese hospitals found secondary bacterial infections in 15 percent of those admitted, but in 50 percent of patients who died.
As a bonus, deep breathing is also helpful if this is all stressing you out.
It evokes a physiological relaxation response, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds.
My sister-in-law notes that she wouldn’t have been able to breathe deeply all day long while battling coronavirus. It hurt, and it would have made her cough, but regular intervals of deep breathing—say a few rounds per hour—is still worthwhile.
The thing is a lot of us do it wrong. I’ve been teaching yoga for years, and I still have to focus to genuinely breathe deeply. I’m not alone. Many people assume that deep breath simply means elongated breath. Others have so much tension below the diaphragm that more expansive breath ends up happening all in the upper chest—which is inherently shallow.
My friend, Kelly Siebert, teaches the anatomy and physiology of yoga. She has been helping me with this for some time.
Here’s how she recommends practicing true deep breath:
- Lie down and completely relax your belly and pelvic floor. Legs can be out-stretched or feet can be flat. Siebert recommends placing one or both hands on your stomach. I like to put a 3-pound weighted lap pad or a light book on my belly.
- Slow your breath, to a long steady inhale and an equally long, steady exhale. Totally empty your lungs at the bottom of your exhale. Focus on the sensation of your belly rising on each inhale and falling on the exhale. I find that the weight on my abdomen really helps me feel it. If your shoulders rise when you breath in, the breath is not deep. Try to move your focus down.
- Once you feel like you’ve this down, try to go even deeper. Wrap your arms around yourself, like you’re giving yourself a hug. Continuing with those long and steady inhales and exhales, focus on expanding your side-ribs into your hands, and back ribs into the floor. Again, keep your belly and pelvic floor relaxed.
I’ve made it a routine to do these exercises while lying in bed at night. They’re relaxing now. And who knows, they could be life-saving later.