Bird Flu and Breathing

Bird Flu is major topic in the news at present. Will the virus mutate? When , if, where ? The one good thing to come from this flood of anxiety-inducing information is it's given us all a wake up call to shake up our hand washing/hygiene routines.

One patient told us of his time in the polio epidemic in the 1950's and how ingrained hand washing routines and 'cough and sneeze manners' became. (He still to this day carries a clean freshly ironed handkerchief in his pocket even though he uses disposable tissues if he has a cold.)

The old methods of hand washing are still the best --hot soapy water for at least thirty seconds, and dry hands thoroughly. Hands left partially damp harbour germs and microbes and this is why studies dating back to the early 1980's have shown hot air blowers are suspect. The act of rubbing hands together under the hot flow of air actually increases microbe spread. Also most people are too impatient to completely dry their hands, and end up wiping their hands dry on their clothes!

If you have these dryers at your workplace or gym, ask that they be replaced with paper or roller towel devices.

Not surprisingly, the B R E A T H I N G WORKS message is to make sure you nose breath, to reduce chances of infection. The reasons for this are fascinating.

• The protective mucosal linings of the nose produce the gas nitric oxide.
• This gas helps sterilize air inhaled through the nose and cleanse it on it's way to the lungs.
• The nitric oxide is cleverly dumped back in the nose as you exhale - through the nose - ready for action again.

Mouth breathers lose this protection.

We recommend frequent fliers who are more at risk for upper respiratory tract infections in the confined space of aircraft cabins, to keep nasal airways clear and prevent drying by:

• Using a sinus rinse before flights to clear and moisturize the upper airways.
• Take a saline nasal spray with you on long haul flights to prevent nasal drying. Talk to your chemist about both these products.

Breathing rates speed up during fever or infection.

This is normal. Remember when you have recovered, to check your breathing rates have returned to 10-12 a minute, and your nose/abdominal pattern is firmly back in action.

Cabin Fever
Tania and I made an interesting discovery recently on a flight to Christchurch to give a seminar. We had a pulse oximeter with us (a device that measures the percentage of oxygen saturation in the blood; normally this is between 95%-98%. 100% is of course the upper limit and is very common in chronic over-breathers.)

The flight from Auckland to Christchurch is about 90 minutes at an altitude of about 32,000 feet. We both found our oxygen saturations dropped to 93-94% , which surprised us, on such a relatively short flight. Our breathing rates had sped up to about 18-20 breaths a minute to compensate for this. It made us realize how uncomfortable people who are chronic over-breathers must feel, who's current breathing rate might be 18-20 breaths a minute - and can only guess at how much harder and faster they have to breathe to compensate for the lowered cabin oxygen levels during flights. And how anxious and unwell they must feel . . .

If you have any experiences of breathing discomfort or anxiety about breathing while airborne - we'd like to hear from you.

Breathe Stretch & Move, our latest book is selling extremely well, with HR and employers making copies available to their staff. One large office group we worked with recently were amazed, following a simple B R E A T H I N G WORKS breathing/relaxation exercise, that their shoulder tension became non-existent.

Take time out to focus on breathing out - and r e l a x i n g. Loosen those shoulders. Little and often works wonders. With so much time spent ' do- ing' make sure you give time ..... to simply ' be- ing'

Doo be doo be doo be be doo

Tania, Dinah and the B R E A T H I N G WORKS team.

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