Frequent Asking Questions- FAQ
1- What is Pursed Lip Breathing (PLB)?
To practice pursed lip breathing, breathe in slowly through your nose for two counts, keeping your mouth closed. Take a normal breath. Pucker or “purse” your lips as if you were going to whistle and breathe out. Pursed lip breathing is one of the simplest ways to control shortness of breath. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9443-pursed-lip-breathing
2- What is Nose Nose Breathing (NNB)?
Nose breathing is more beneficial than mouth breathing. Breathing through your nose can help filter out dust and allergens, boost your oxygen. https://www.healthline.com/health/nose-breathing
3- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Patients with COPD?
Pursed-lip breathing is particularly beneficial if you have COPD. COPD causes your airways to collapse. By prolonging the exhaling portion of breathing, pursed-lip breathing creates a little bit of back pressure, called positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP). https://www.webmd.com/lung/what-to-know-about-pursed-lipped-breathing
4- Is Pursed Lip Breathing exercise recommended for COVID?
Inhale slowly through your nostrils. Purse your lips, as if pouting or about to blow on something. Breathe out as slowly as possible through pursed lips.
https://www.healthline.com/health/breathing-exercises-for-covid
5-Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for childbirth during pregnancy and birth process?
Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let your belly push your hand out. Your chest should not move. Breathe out through pursed lips as if you were whistling. Feel the hand on your belly go in, and use it to push all the air out.
https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/health-encyclopedia/he.breathing-techniques-for-childbirth.tn7421
6- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Asthma?
Pursed lip breathing is a technique that helps people living with asthma or COPD when they experience shortness of breath. Pursed lip breathing helps control shortness of breath, and provides a quick and easy way to slow your pace of breathing, making each breath more effective.
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/copd/patient-resources-and-videos/pursed-lip-breathing-video
7- Is Nose Nose Breathing (Nostril) recommended for Snoring and Apnea?
Alternate Nostril Breathing: With your mouth closed, inhale deeply through your nose. With a finger, block one nostril. Breathe out through the open nostril, and then breathe in. Block the other nostril, then breathe out and in through the open nostril. Repeat 10 or more times.
www.soundsleepmedical.com/blog/exercises-to-help-obstructive-sleep-apnea
8- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Panic during Breathing?
Those with COPD who experience anxiety can often find themselves in a breathlessness-anxiety cycle. The more breathless you feel, the more panicked you become, which only results in you feeling more breathless.
https://www.precisionmedical.com/blog/breathing-exercises-for-dealing-with-anxiety
9- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for High Blood Pressure?
A Pursed Lip Breathing exercise combined with number counting is effective for lowering BP and HR. It is an easy and harmless complementary treatment for patients who exhibit HT urgency in the ER.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jch.14168
10- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Meditation?
Pursed Lip Breathing is a breathing technique that can be used throughout the day in short intervals of 1-2 minutes, to calm the nerves and bring relaxation and balance to both body and mind. It can also be introduced at bedtime to relax and unwind after a busy day and to prepare the body for the transition to sleep.
https://insighttimer.com/tararichards/guided-meditations/pursed-lip-breathing-for-relaxation
11- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended For Yoga?
The controlled breathing techniques that we have learned as yoga teachers are very similar to the techniques taught to respiratory therapists. Controlled breathing techniques such as pursed-lip breathing and abdominal breathing are two ways to improve oxygenation and allow for more carbon dioxide to be exhaled.
https://perf2ndwind.org/yoga-breathing-for-copd/
12- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Exercise (fitness and sports)?
Pursed lip breathing helps during normal exercise for healthy people, and it helps to improve the breathing of people with respiratory conditions.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/copd-exercise-how-to-pursed-lip-breathing-5204495
13- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Abdominals (Diaphragmatic Breathing)?
Diaphragmatic breathing, or “belly breathing,” involves fully engaging the stomach, abdominal muscles, and diaphragm when breathing. This means actively pulling the diaphragm down with each inward breath. In this way, diaphragmatic breathing helps the lungs fill more efficiently.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/diaphragmatic-breathing
Pursed Lip Breathing is another method, often associated with relaxation activities, suggested for improving ventilation and oxygenation and relieving respiratory symptoms in individuals with airway clearance dysfunction.99 One method of pursed-lip breathing advocates passive expiration,100 whereas the other recommends abdominal muscle contraction to prolong expiration.101
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/pursed-lip-breathing
14- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Children?
Effectively Pursed lips breathing therapy improves oxygenation status in preschoolers who experience Pneumonia including: temperature, respiratory frequency, pulse frequency, and oxygen saturation.
https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/277785-the-effectiveness-of-giving-pursed-lips-2b417547.pdf
15. Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Swimming?
This first exercise helps to make your breaths more effective, by making them slower and more intentional, which will in turn make it easier to breathe. It’s particularly good for people with lung conditions, for example, asthma and pulmonary fibrosis. One study even found that pursed lip breathing has significantly improved the exercise tolerance, breathing patterns and arterial oxygen of people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
https://weswim.club/3-breathing-exercises-at-home-for-swimming-and-relaxation
16- Is Pursed Lip Breathing recommended for Stress Relief?
Practicing pursed lip breathing before bed can reduce the over-thinking, anxiety, and stress that interferes with a good night’s sleep.
https://pulmonaryfibrosisnews.com/columns/pulmonary-fibrosis-pursed-lip-breathing-anxiety