“We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions
that correspond with them.” - Abigail Adams
When the pandemic began, many people in the “breathing community” immediately started talking about nasal nitric oxide because of its antiviral and antimicrobial effects. Nose breathing seemed like washing your hands: Of course, no scientific studies were showing it worked for this specific virus yet, but it made it common sense to practice it anyways.
Now that we’re getting back to normal (despite the record number of cases in some parts of the world), nose breathing is more important than ever. And it looks like many in the scientific community agree.
Last month, a Commentary was published in Microbes and Infection titled “Could nasal nitric oxide help mitigate the severity of COVID-19?” [1]. (I saw this article through the Oxygen Advantage newsletter…thanks, Patrick!) It’s a short and easy read that I highly recommend.
Click here to read the full commentary
Here’s one of my favorite quotes from it:
“Mouth breathing during sleep may therefore worsen the symptoms of COVID-19, consistent with the observation that symptoms of respiratory infections are usually worse in the morning.”
LA Times Article on Inhaled Nitric Oxide for COVID-19
About two months ago, a good friend, and reader of this newsletter, shared this article from the LA Times with me. I think it pairs nicely with the commentary above:
How a discovery that brought us Viagra could help those battling the coronavirus
Click Here to Read the Article
Here’s my favorite quote from that one:
“In 2004, researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium discovered yet another property of nitric oxide: It killed coronaviruses.
More specifically, it killed the coronavirus that leapt from bats to humans and sparked the 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the disease better known as SARS.”
Here’s to putting science into action by simply breathing through your nose while you’re out and about.
In good breath,
Nick
P.S. How to Enunciate Correctly in 4 Steps.
[1] Martel, J., Ko, Y. F., Young, J. D., & Ojcius, D. M. (2020). Could nasal nitric oxide help to mitigate the severity of COVID-19?. Microbes and infection, 22(4), 168–171. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2020.05.002