Breath better has become a mantra to live a healthy life post covid-19. Navigating and maintaining the post covid health has become vital.

 Breath Better live longer… Must for all in post covid

In this decade of covid, lung health is key to success.

Covid is not a simple infectious disease it’s an inflammatory disease, if you understand your respiratory system and practice daily lung healthy practices, you can stay healthy.

Let’s understand our lungs, the organs which are breathing 2 4 x 7 to give you a smooth breath of life. Breath is an effort as we put effort to breathe in and breathing out is the elastic recoil of the lung. Lungs' elastic power empties the lung.

Instead of thinking of lungs as airbags, it might be more appropriate to think of them as life jackets. Each lung has about 300 million balloon-like structures called alveoli, which replace the carbon dioxide waste in one’s blood with oxygen. When these structures are filled with air, the lungs become the only organs in the human body that can float on water. This life jacket analogy is even more poignant during a pandemic when lung health has been pushed into immediate focus.

Our body works on the twin principles of pressure and reservoir. Covid causes stress not just to the lungs but the mind and heart as well. Therefore, when this stress increases, the way our body reacts to or deals with it depends on the body’s reservoir or load-bearing capacity. If the reservoir is not sturdy, complications arise. Therefore, it is essential to nurture the body’s natural capacitors, i.e., lungs. Anecdotally, we have seen that people who have been following respiratory hygiene and exercises have performed best,” he adds. Covid inhabits the upper respiratory tract for about three days; so, it is advisable to follow routines that involve nasal wash (jal-neti), steaming, and gargling to cleanse the sinuses and reduce viral load. The lower respiratory tract, on the other hand, needs increased capacity--best done via breathing exercises.

“Breathing in and breathing out mimic similar movements to that of a slinky,” says Dr. Bose. When you breathe out, you squeeze the lungs more than when you breathe in, so learning how to breathe out more effectively increases the reservoir capacity of the alveoli in the lungs, thereby enhancing their capacity. “Simple everyday activities like blowing a conch shell--which employs strong breathing out exercise--increases the physiological dead space by enhancing exhalation, which then motivates better inhale.

It’s also possible to increase the efficiency of breathing via abdominal breathing and diaphragmatic breathing--shallow breaths from the chest and deeper breaths from the belly, where your diaphragm sits. Be aware of your belly rising and falling as you practice. Pursed lip breathing is another important technique that helps control shortness of breath and provides a quick and easy way to intentionally slow the pace of breathing. “Slow and deliberate breathing enhances the reservoir and increases the recoil power of the lung. Chanting ‘Om’, brings into play resonance breathing, which fills the lungs, abdomen, chest, skull and relaxes the respiratory system by exhalation breathing.

Buteyko breathing, or Russian breathing, is another non-medical form of therapy that uses “breath-holding techniques to reduce breath rate, which breeds better longevity and reduces anxiety. Learning to control the breath rate is not just a lung phenomenon, but a mental practice as well, which is a component of breath meditation. This not only helps regenerate your lung capacity and nurture good health but also allows you to de-stress. Remember how your exhalation automatically becomes exaggerated when you sigh,” says Dr. Bose. Lungs are the only organ whose function can be controlled by controlling the breath, all others, like the heart, function automatically, he adds.

A well-functioning respiratory system can have many benefits, but with age, lungs can become less flexible and lose their strength. By adopting healthy habits, you can better maintain the health of your lungs, and keep them working optimally.

Apart from healthy breathing practices, staying active with simple aerobic activities, like walking, running, jogging, cycling, jumping rope, or even yoga, give your heart and lungs the kind of workout they need to function optimally. When you exercise, your heart beats faster and your lungs work harder. Your body needs more oxygen to fuel your muscles and the lungs step up their activity to deliver that oxygen.

Finally, as always, good nutrition equals better lung function, so ensure a healthy mix of cereals, fats, and carbohydrates. “Avoid large meals, instead, include several small meals coupled with a restful, rejuvenating sleep pattern,” says Dr. Bose.

So let’s Breathe Better and live longer.

Breath better has become a mantra to live a healthy life post covid. Navigating and maintaining the post covid health has become vital, as many people got affected big time after recovering from covid.