For people with COVID-19 symptoms who are caring for themselves at home, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advises rest, hydration, taking precautionary measures (like isolating from others and not sharing personal items), and continuing to monitor your symptoms.
Apart from this, medical professionals are exploring different methods for easing symtoms and help battle the coronavirus. One doctor’s method has gone viral, thanks to an endorsement on social media from Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
In a video that originated on WhatsApp, a doctor identified by UK newspaper The Times as Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi reveals a breathing technique that’s used on intensive care patients to help them fight off infection.
In her post Rowling urged her Twitter followers to try a technique demonstrated by Dr Sarfaraz Munshi at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, in a video that then went viral. It “costs nothing, has no nasty side effects, but could help you/your loved ones a lot, as it did me,” the Harry Potter author wrote, claiming that the exercise helped her to recover from symptoms of Covid-19. It poses the question of whether we should all try breathing better as a method.
Please watch this doc from Queens Hospital explain how to relieve respiratory symptoms. For last 2 weeks I've had all symptoms of C19 (tho haven't been tested) & did this on doc husband's advice. I'm fully recovered & technique helped a lot.https://t.co/xo8AansUvc via @YouTube
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 6, 2020
According to another report, Rob Thomas, 59, contracted Covid-19 after initially falling ill with sepsis at the end of March. He was admitted to intensive care at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
But staff told him that his breathing techniques saved him from going on a ventilator – and then even affectionately nicknamed him “the king of the breathers”.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Rob said that it was thanks to his sister’s advice to “just keep breathing” that he was able to beat Covid-19.
He said: “When I came out of ICU and onto a high dependency ward, a doctor came along and he said to me, ‘Rob, I’ve got to say, you are the king of the breathers’.
Breathing exercises are recommended for people with certain lung conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to help rid the lungs of stale air and strengthen the muscles involved in breathing.
While it’s always helpful to know what individuals fighting the illness say led to their recovery, does the breathing technique really help ease or get rid of COVID-19 symptoms—and what do other doctors think of it?
Ray Casciari, MD, a pulmonologist with St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California, agrees that it works. “It will improve ventilation and secretion removal,” he tells Health, adding that various forms of controlled coughing techniques have been used successfully for years with all respiratory diseases, and that they work with all types of pneumonia.
But not all doctors agree that people with symptoms of COVID-19 (or those who may be infected but asymptomatic) should be using this technique.
On the face of it, simple breathing exercises, such as those recommended by a UK doctor in a viral video shared widely on Twitter, make sense for people with covid-19.
Breathing exercises are an important part of managing some respiratory conditions, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The main aims of such exercises are to clear the lungs of sticky mucus, coordinate your breathing with medication to deliver the optimal dose and to keep the airways open, says Michael Niederman at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
