Long COVID
Read about a study published in June 2023 in the Journal of Voice, about Novel Respiratory Therapy for the Improvement of Post COVID Condition Symptoms: A Case Series.
People with long COVID complain of a variety of symptoms in multiple body systems, including the digestive, cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological systems. People also experience unique individual symptoms such as vision changes, skin changes, body aches, hair loss, dental issues, disrupted sleep, extreme fatigue, exercise intolerance, and more. Often times, the different specialists that people are referred to do not seem to have the answers and traditional treatments are not effective or sufficient. This makes it very difficult for patients and often causes anxiety, depression, panic, and frustration to skyrocket.
Different theories have been suggested to explain long COVID. It has been speculated that the virus or the immune system's reaction to it has caused dramatic dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS acts largely unconsciously to regulate physiologic processes including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal. It is also speculated that the illness caused (or possibly exacerbated) dysfunctional breathing in infected people, which might contribute to and aggravate their symptoms. Weakness in breathing muscles and poor diaphragmatic function have also been observed in many of these patients.
Through breath work and appropriate breathing techniques, you can learn how to restore functional breathing, increase its efficiency, increase stamina, and increase sense of well-being. You can also learn to consciously control your heart rate, calm down the nervous system's fight or flight, regulate the immune system, and improve the health of your lungs. This can potentially restore physiological balance, improve the related symptoms, and support your healing
Hadas has been working with breathing therapy and retraining in her clinical practice over the past ~12 years helping people with various conditions. She uses a range of evidence based breathing therapies. These include the Buteyko breathing method, Resonance frequency breathing, resistance training breathing, mindful breath and movement, and more.
Research and clinical evidence is increasingly showing the many ways that breathing affects physical and psychological health and performance. As a result, breathing retraining and breathing therapy protocols are being increasingly utilized by health professionals.