Are you one of those who take breathing for granted? If yes, then ask people with severe asthma the importance of breathing. Asthma is a medical condition that narrows down the airways in your lungs to the extent where it is hard to catch the breath.
Doctors prescribe beta-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids to make breathing easy as they can open up your airways. However, these prescribed medications may not work for some people with severe asthma. Try doing some breathing exercises along with a drug supplement to treat severe asthma.
Doctors don’t use to recommend breathing exercise for treating asthma as enough evidence was not present to show that it actually works. But recent studies show that breathing exercise might help in improving asthma. Evidence suggests that breathing exercises can be treated as an add-on therapy alongside medication in asthma treatment.
Breathing Exercises For Severe Asthma
Go through these six breathing exercises for severe asthma, and you will be amazed to know some of these exercises will most probably help relieve asthma symptoms.
Read related- Is Asthma Genetic?
Diaphragmatic Breathing
The dome-shaped muscle diaphragm is present below the lungs, which help you breathe. In this diaphragmatic breathing, you will learn how to breathe from the region near your diaphragm rather than your chest. This breathing exercise will strengthen your diaphragm and decrease the body’s oxygen needs by slowing your breathing.
For practicing diaphragmatic breathing, you need to lie on your back and your knees with a pillow under them, or you can sit up straight in the chair. Now place one hand on your stomach and the other on your upper chest. While breathing in slowly through your nose, your hand on the stomach will move, whereas the other remains the same. Now you have to breathe out slowly through your pursed lips. You should keep practicing this breathing exercise until you can breathe in and out without moving your chest.
The Papworth Method
It is one of the oldest breathing exercise methods since the 1960s for reducing severe asthma. The Papworth method combines different types of breathing and relaxation training techniques. This method teaches how you can breathe slowly through your nose and diaphragm. You will even learn to control your stress so that your breathing is not affected. Research shows that this breathing technique helps ease the symptoms and make the lives of people with asthma easier.
Nasal Breathing
The advantage of breathing through the nose will be beneficial for people with severe asthma to reduce the symptoms as it will add humidity and warmth to the air. Remember, mouth breathing is related to symptoms of severe asthma.
Pursed Lip Breathing
This breathing technique is the exercise that is used for relieving shortness of breath. First, you need to breathe in slowly through your nose while keeping your mouth closed for practicing pursed-lip breathing. After that, purse your lips in a manner that it looks like you are about to whistle and then, through this pursed-lip, breathe out.
Buteyko Breathing
This breathing technique was named after Konstantin Buteyko during the 1950s. Buteyko breathing technique was developed because some people tend to breathe faster than what is necessary. Rapid breathing will increase the symptoms in asthmatic people, like shortness of breath.
This technique will teach you how to breathe slowly through a series of breathing exercises. Buteyko breathing can help improve asthma symptoms, reducing intake of medication but doesn’t improve the functioning of the lungs.
Yoga Breathing
Yoga is nothing but an exercise technique that uses deep breathing. Deep breathing in yoga might help in improving lung function and asthma symptoms.
Should You Try Breathing Exercises for Severe Asthma?
Learning and practicing these breathing exercises regularly may indeed help you in controlling asthma symptoms. These exercises might even reduce the intake of your asthma medication. However, even the most effective exercise cannot replace asthma entirely.
Talk to Meddo pulmonologist before you begin these effective breathing exercises to ensure that they are safe. Do breathing exercise and stay safe from severe asthma.
