Just breathe! Sounds simple and an easy way to improve your health in general, but does it work? When it comes to fighting cancer, experts say all the symptoms, like coughing and shortness of breath, can be managed with the help of a few exercises that you can do anytime, anywhere.

According to experts, apart from helping you prevent and manage lung cancer – one of the fastest-growing cancers, which accounts for more than 12.4 per cent of all new cancer cases globally, deep breathing exercises also help you keep your strength and mental health, get more oxygen to your lungs, and improve your quality of life.

If you have metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, breathing exercises are often the first step toward recovery. They build up your lungs and make them more efficient, apart from allowing you to be more active. “Even though deep breathing may facilitate oxygenation in the body, it is not primarily for the prevention of direct diseases such as cancers; lung cancer included,” Dr. Rahul Kendre, Lung Transplant Physician and Interventional Pulmonologist, DPU Super Specialty Hospital, told Times Now.

According to Dr. Kendre, the exercises, when done regularly, help:

Significant improvement in lung functions can be achieved through deep breathing, fostering better lung expansion. This tends to recruit more lobes of the lungs, thereby being mostly helpful for obese people or any that have experienced lung conditions beforehand. “The deep breathing exercise improves lung capacity and helps with bronchitis or any other lung illness,” said Dr. Kendre.

Stress can be harmful to overall health and well-being. And so, deep breat which has a direct correlation with decreasing the risk of getting cancer, can help you keep your airways open and stronger, thereby mitigating any further risks. “Actually, the development of cancer is quite complex and multi-factorial in nature. In fact, stress is not one of them,” Dr. Kendre added.

According to Dr. Kendre, deep breathing also enables an increase in oxygen circulation and helps your body flush out carbon dioxide. It does not detoxify the lungs in the scientific sense of the word but shoots up oxygenation, which contributes to general health.

You can do these breathing exercises while sitting or standing upright – by just breathing in through your nose. Just exhale slowly through pursed lips as if you are whistling. You can also try to exhale for at least twice as long as you inhaled.

Pursed-lip breathing allows you to take fewer breaths. It keeps your airways open longer, too. That helps your oxygen levels.

To do this, just rest your hand on your stomach. While sitting, standing upright, or lying down, breathe in through your nose and focus on letting your belly stretch out. Thereafter, gently breathe out through pursed lips for two to three times longer than you inhaled. And as you breathe out, push inward and upward on your stomach. Repeat the process for 5-10 minutes.

According to experts, belly breathing strengthens your diaphragm, the large muscle between your lungs and abdomen that helps you breathe. It also takes the strain off your neck and shoulders.

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