RELIEVING THE ILL EFFECTS OF COVID-19: DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

By Dolph Hatfield, P.h.D.

Since diaphragmatic breathing has many health benefits and takes much of the pressure off breathing with the upper chest, it would seem that it would lessen the severe breathing problems suffered by many Covid-19 patients.

Diaphragmatic, also called abdominal, belly and deep, breathing is a form of breathing used by all mammals, including human infants. It is known to have many health benefits, such as lowering heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen demand and slowing breath rate, reducing the pressure of upper chest breathing, relieving nausea, headache and stress (Google “health benefits of diaphragmatic breathing”).

Diaphragmatic breathing is easy to learn and can be done standing, sitting or lying on one’s back. I do diaphragmatic breathing lying on my back with arms along side the torso and hands on my thighs. I slowly breathe in fully through my nose by expanding the stomach and keeping my chest relaxed. I then count to three and slowly but fully release my breath thru my mouth, count to six and repeat the process.

One can do diaphragmatic breathing for 4 to 5 minutes and as many times a day as one feels the need. Since all mammals use this form of breathing, it would seem that we should all be taking advantage of diaphragmatic breathing, especially those experiencing problems with respiratory disorders, such as Covid-19.

Also published on Medium here