Elza / hay fever

How you can reduce hay fever symptoms with breathing

“That breathwork of yours—I don’t believe in it,” says Elza, my 71-year-old neighbour, on a regular basis. She finds breathwork a bit too “woo-woo”.

“It’s not for me, but everyone should do what feels right for them”, she says. She thinks it’s quite strange that clients regularly come to me for breathwork sessions.

I offered her a short one-on-one stress-release session once. But when I told her she might feel emotions, she immediately responded very firmly: “Oh no, that’s not for me”.

Two weeks ago, she looked tired and her eyes were watery. “I’m really not doing well—my head feels so full and my nose is almost blocked”, she said. She was suffering from hay fever.

“Well,” I said, “your breathing can actually help reduce hay fever symptoms”. She looked doubtful, but curious.

So we looked at her breathing pattern. I gave her a few tips on what she could change to feel better, and we did an exercise to unblock her nose (described in the post with Cyndi: https://1renatedijkstra.substack.com/p/cyndi-benefits-nose-breathing).

I’ve written before about the benefits of “nose and slow” breathing, and during hay fever season, that becomes even more important.

Nose: One of the key functions of the nose is to filter everything that comes in. The mouth doesn’t have this filter, so when you breathe through your mouth, pollen has a completely free passage straight into your lungs. The allergic reaction this causes can last for days—sometimes even weeks.

So—breathe through your nose. You’ll take in fewer pollen particles.

Slow: By breathing slowly (6–8 breaths per minute is ideal), you avoid producing excessive amounts of histamine. Histamine helps keep intruders out, which is of course very useful. But too much histamine can trigger allergic reactions—and that’s the last thing you want if you already suffer from hay fever.

In addition, slower breathing also means fewer pollen particles entering your system. And it helps keep your airways open (a bronchodilating effect).

So—breathe slowly.

Back to Elza: it turned out she was breathing not only through her nose but also through her mouth, and too quickly. There was some room for improvement.

Now, two weeks later, she sees breathwork in a completely different light😉.