Don’t just breathe clean air, breathe it well

I have thought about the air I breathe more than almost anything else these past four years.

Before I leave my apartment, head into the grocery store, my place of work, or step foot into any building, I inhale, and put on my mask. When I finally return to fresh, free-moving outdoor air away from others, the first breaths I take without a mask on are often embarrassingly intense, like I’ve come up from underwater, gasping for air.

This rite of passage only intensifies in higher-risk situations: at the doctor’s office, on public transit, or at airports and on planes. I flew recently for the first time in almost 18 months, and thought often of my breath as I strategically held it to show security officers my face, snuck in quick sips of water, and as I sought out the fresh air of open windows and outdoor spaces during my week of travel.

Yet it has somehow taken me all this time to not only think about the quality of the air I’m breathing, but to seriously consider how I am breathing it.

“Everyone breathes,” James Nestor writes in his timely 2020 book Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art. But “today, few of us breathe well.”

As we’ve passed the four-year mark — 30 million breaths — and entered the fifth year of a global pandemic, we know that clean air is a critical pillar of health. Yet, it has not been prioritized at the societal level. To bridge this gap, many of us around the world continue to practice evidence-based layers of protection against airborne viruses in our daily lives: filtering and ventilating indoor air, and wearing well-fitted, high-quality masks (or respirators).

But when you have a good mask seal, it’s tempting to breathe through your mouth — something my Covid-conscious dentist pointed out. Due to this, mask wearers are at risk of a drier mouth and negative impacts over time on one’s gums.

It was my dentist who recommended that I read Breath, a nonfiction book that chronicles Nestor’s scientific and personal journey into the research and impacts of breath on the human body, the benefits of certain breathing techniques, and the detriments of others. He probably meant to publish it with the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act in the United States, not during a global airborne pandemic.

But it was timely, all the same — it’s never been more important to understand how the ways we breathe impacts our health. By the end of the book, he argues that, “breath is a missing pillar of health” that should exist alongside what we eat and how we move our bodies, if we’re able.

Reading Breath has opened up a world to me that I didn’t know existed — and as a science writer and communicator, I’ve been thinking about how clean air and our breathing of it overlap. Here are my top thoughts to keep in mind as we continue to navigate this airborne era.

The below takeaways are not medical advice. See Nestor’s bibliography of sources for more information.

Breathe through your nose as much as possible.

Nestor makes it simple: “[chronic] mouth breathing is terrible.” Breathing through your nose is much healthier for you overall. It can also significantly improve athletic performance — which bodes well for anyone looking for improvements to physical stamina. When breathing through the nose, keep your lips together and rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

To help avoid mouth breathing, find breathable masks that work well for you. My personal favorites are 3M Auras, BNX boat-shaped N95s, and BreatheTeq masks. Your local mask bloc may be able to help you find the right one for you.

And in a revelation that shocked me, it’s not just a fad: mouth taping at night helps many people breathe better, during the night and the next day. But you don’t need a subscription service to do it! Nestor recommends using a small piece of affordable 3M cloth tape, lightly placed on the lips. I’ve been testing this out with 3M sensitive skin tape, which also makes a decent mask tape.

To help avoid mouth breathing, find breathable masks that work well for you. My personal favorites are 3M Auras, BNX boat-shaped N95s, and BreatheTeq masks.

Exhaling is just as important as inhaling. And, holding your breath can be good for you.

We are mostly concerned nowadays about what we are breathing in, but it’s important to also focus on breathing out — all the way out! As a classically trained singer and instrumentalist, I learned this from a very young age, but many people never harness the health benefits of a full, long exhale.

Most of us are also probably either overbreathing, or breathing too shallowly, without realizing it, says Nestor. He suggests consciously holding your breath, breathing slower and longer (about 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out), and focusing on long exhales, rather than taking a lot of deep breaths, especially in moments of stress or anxiety. Which is great news for those of us who have to purposefully breathe less in various moments to navigate spaces safely. This is because carbon dioxide is just as important as oxygen inside our bodies, and balancing inhaling and exhaling is the key to maintaining a healthy amount of both.

I thought about the carbon dioxide within me, and around me, as I boarded the plane for my recent flight. The high CO2 reading on my Aranet air monitor indicated poor ventilation in the space. In, ouuuuut. As the plane lifted up in the air, in, ouuuuut. After we landed, I got back outside, and away from other people, in. Out. In. Ooooooout.

Spend time in spaces where it is easier to breathe.

Since finishing the book, I’ve been taking note of moments when I find myself breathing more easily, more deeply. Where am I? What am I doing? Who am I with, or having a conversation with? Unsurprisingly, I find that it’s much easier to breathe through my nose, slowly, and less often, when I’m in a low-risk environment.

But it’s not just when I’m at home, resting and cuddling with my cat. It’s also when I had the serendipitous chance on my trip to meet with members of Covid-conscious community in my old home state of Minnesota, and when Covid Safe Colorado held a masked, in-person Pride event this summer. It’s when I get to spend time in some form with my closest and Covid-consious friends, both near and far. It’s when I’m listening to music, reading a good book, or out on a bike ride. It’s when I’m hiking my favorite trails here in Colorado, and the view takes my breath away.

​Kelsey Simpkins is a writer, artist, and science communicator, who works in air quality policy, outreach, and education.

It’s in these moments that breathing feels less about meeting the needs of my body, and more about sating the needs of my soul. I’ll be spending more time in these kinds of moments whenever I am able. I hope you can, too.

It’s in these moments that breathing feels less about meeting the needs of my body, and more about sating the needs of my soul.

​Kelsey Simpkins is a writer, artist, and science communicator, who works in air quality policy, outreach, and education.

This story was originally published at The Sick Times, an independent news site chronicling the Long Covid crisis. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here and donate here to support our original reporting.