Читать книгу Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything you need to know about taking control of your asthma - Patrick McKeown - Страница 23

Your nose is your first warning call – it is the first part of the airways to constrict if you are beginning to hyperventilate.

For example, much of my work involves presentations to groups of people: this can involve talking for up to four hours at a time. Frequently it happens that, towards the end of the four hours, I feel my nose becoming a little blocked. This is a direct result of the loss of carbon dioxide from excessive talking. My blocked nose is my indicator that I am breathing more than I should, so I take a break from talking and normalise my breathing.

Talking involves continuous air exhalation through the open mouth and the continuous loss of carbon dioxide. With a short period of reduced talking, or not talking, breathing will begin to normalise and the nose will unblock automatically.

Breathing too deeply through the nose will result in it becoming partially blocked. However it will not become fully blocked unless the switch is made to mouth breathing. This is because of the body’s breathing defence mechanism. As soon as the nose becomes partially blocked, the volume of air is decreased; this causes the level of carbon dioxide to increase and in turn to dilate the nasal passages. Continuous overbreathing means the nose will become partially blocked once more which will again increase carbon dioxide. In turn, this will open the nasal passages and so on. It can feel a little uncomfortable trying to continue breathing through the nose as it starts to block. The best action to take therefore is to do the nose unblocking exercise or walk a number of steps holding your breath. This will quickly unblock the nose and make it feel comfortable again.

If you can hear yourself breathe through your nose (whistling) this is a warning that you are breathing too much. Breathing through the nose should be a silent activity.

When the switch is first made from mouth to nasal breathing, the volume of air being inhaled will reduce. The body may begin to play tricks and convince individuals to breathe more by inducing yawning, sighing, regular sniffing or the odd mouth breath. Try not to increase breathing at this point. When the need to deep breathe arises, for example during a sigh, swallow immediately. If the need to yawn also occurs, avoid taking the deep breath that accompanies a yawn. Instead stifle the yawn by keeping the mouth closed, or swallow.

It takes just a few days for a habitual mouth breather to change breathing to permanent nose breathing. Increasing observation of breathing, reducing volume of breathing and practising nose unblocking exercises are important elements in trying to make this change.

After the change to nasal breathing has been made, it will become uncomfortable to mouth breathe because the effects of cold dry air entering through the mouth will be felt. Often people begin to wonder how on earth they managed to go through life with a permanent, and very uncomfortable, blocked nose – a condition which is frequently, and usually unsuccessfully, addressed by the use of nasal sprays, decongestants or even an operation.