Yoga and Breathing: This is How its Practice Can Improve Your Quality of Life if You Have Respiratory Problems

Although yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India, its popularity has generated several questions, among them, if this practice, which focuses a lot on breathing, can help or improve symptoms in some respiratory pathologies .

Among the benefits found, the ones that stand out the most are stress relief, improvement of the symptoms of cardiovascular diseases, improved respiratory function, and improvement of cognition.

Start practicing Yoga from scratch:

All the keys so that it becomes part of your routine. Today it is very common to have respiratory problems, either due to bad habits such as a sedentary lifestyle or poor diet, or due to the pollution that exists, especially in large cities.

We know that Yoga is a physical activity that can make those people who have respiratory problems or diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or asthma, have a better quality of life thanks to the fact that Yoga improves considerably breathing patterns.

As previously mentioned, Yoga can greatly improve the quality of life of those people who have limited breathing patterns due to certain disorders or diseases, so we are going to tell you below what benefits Yoga can have if you have COPD or asthma , which are the most common respiratory disorders.

Yoga and COPD

COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is a common disease characterized by progressive airflow limitation and tissue destruction. It is associated with structural changes in the lungs due to chronic inflammation from prolonged exposure to harmful particles or gases (commonly from tobacco smoke).

Chronic inflammation causes narrowing of the airways and decreased lung recoil. The disease often presents with symptoms of cough, dyspnea, and sputum production.

COPD occurs mainly in smokers and those over 40 years of age. The prevalence increases with age and it is currently the third most common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The prevalence of COPD is about 180 million and there are approximately 3 million deaths from COPD worldwide each year.

Among the studies carried out to improve respiratory function, we find that of Ranil Jayawardena et al., in which, after compiling a large number of studies, they observed that Yoga improved many parameters related to respiratory health, such as They are respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, forced inspiratory capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, and peak expiratory flow rate. On the other hand, it seems that people who have COPD practice Yoga, it decreases the frequency and severity of coughing attacks.

Yoga and asthma

The beneficial effect of practicing Yoga has also been seen in people with asthma and, furthermore, with very good results. Asthma is a syndrome that primarily affects the respiratory tract, characterized by episodic or persistent symptoms of wheezing, dyspnea, and cough.

Although at a physiological level it has been seen that Yoga greatly improves asthma, what is really important here is how the person feels when doing this physical activity and how it helps them in their day to day life.

One of the great problems of asthma is that the airways close and do not allow you to take in as much air. Well, it has been seen that practicing Yoga helps to dilate the airways (and, therefore, helps to capture more air and prevents people with asthma from suffocating), improves breathing patterns and reduces the muscle tone of the lungs. , helping to improve the frequency and quality of breathing.

It also seems that Yoga improves the strength of the muscles that are responsible for exhalations and inspirations, so you have better control of breathing. This means that it improves lung functions such as deep inspiration, air retention and slow expiration.

Cancer and CVD patients

On the other hand, to encourage the practice of Yoga a little more, an improvement in quality of life has also been observed in cancer patients, with improvements in emotions, fatigue, sleep and reduction in anxiety.

Also a reduction of anxiety in patients with cardiovascular diseases and, in patients with hypertension, both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure have been reduced thanks to Yoga.