How to Clear Your Lungs of Fluid Using Pranayama
A couple weeks ago, we talked about the self-proning technique and how it can help improve lung function in patients battling or recovering from a pulmonary condition such as COVID-19. Today, we’re exploring another technique with roots in pranayama, or yogic breath work: expectorating breath.
In short, “expectorating” is the act of coughing up or otherwise clearing mucus, phlegm or other fluid from the lungs and/or sinuses. COVID-19 patients – as well as anyone battling a chest cold, flu, bronchitis or pneumonia – typically suffer from a filling of the lungs with fluid. Of course, if the airways become too obstructed and filled with fluid, it can become impossible to get enough oxygen and the situation can quickly become life threatening. For that reason, working to efficiently and fully clear the lungs of fluid – expectorating – is key.
Your doctor may have set this as a goal for your treatment, or even prescribed medication (commonly known as expectorants). But as anyone who’s suffered through a chest cold that lingers for weeks knows all too well, fluid can linger in the lungs for weeks. This is where it’s important to learn techniques for effectively clearing your lungs.
While most of us are used to coughing up mucus after recovering from a cold, the breathing technique described below can offer a more targeted, gentle, and complete expectoration. It can be so difficult to draw in a full breath when suffering from COVID-19 that simply trying to cough alone won’t do the trick, and we need to employ more advanced breathing tactics.
This technique, which has been introduced and endorsed by Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi of Queen's Hospital in London, not only serves to induce the clearing of the lungs of fluid, but it can also help to open up alveoli that may not be being used correctly or fully due to infection, and therefore more fully oxygenating the blood. In addition, it can help downregulate the nervous system and enable an individual breathe more fully, which is important when in any form of respiratory distress.
If you find yourself struggling to clear your lungs, consider this practice of breathing for expectoration and see if it helps you eliminate built-up fluid and breathe more fully. You will need a comfortable space to position yourself, and a tissue or handkerchief.
1. Set up in a comfortable posture – either at the edge of a bed or couch, or on a yoga mat with blankets and bolsters nearby.
2. Inhale deeply through the nose (unless it is too clogged, in which case the mouth is alright). Let the belly expand fully, breathing into the diaphragm.
3. Hold the breath at the top for a count of five. Note: holding the breath is contraindicated for glaucoma and pregnancy, so if either of these conditions apply to you, skip this step. It also may exacerbate high or low blood pressure. If you experience any dizziness when holding the breath, try holding the breath for a count of only two or three.
4. Exhale fully through the mouth, as if you’re fogging up a mirror in front of you. Really work to empty all the air out of the belly.
5. Repeat this for a total of five times. Then inhale and hold the breath again for a sixth time.
6. On the sixth exhale, cough deeply into a handkerchief or tissue. If coughing does not feel appropriate, make a “HA” sound on the exhale.
7. Come to rest on your belly on the yoga mat, bed or couch, with one pillow underneath the abdomen and one underneath the head, if it feels comfortable. Reference the blog on self-proning for more on how this posture helps promotes deep breathing.
Repeat this technique as often as needed throughout the day to help induce expectoration.
Just as with proning, the expectoration technique is showing us how to use traditional yogic practices to promote health. The COVID-19 pandemic has opened a door for health practitioners of all backgrounds to explore ways of working with the lungs to help affected patients.
If you are dealing with a respiratory condition, in need of a good clearing of the lungs, or simply looking for a new down-regulating breathing technique, you can give this a try for a safe and gentle way to clear your lungs on your own.
Additional Useful Links:
Breath techniques videos
Prema Yoga Institute Breath Coaching Course
Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.
