If I'm stuck in the same area as someone who is clearly sick (runny nose, coughing etc) is there some combo of short/long breaths or nose/mouth breathing that's a better defense against catching it?
If I'm stuck in the same area as someone who is clearly sick (runny nose, coughing etc) is there some combo of short/long breaths or nose/mouth breathing that's a better defense against catching it?
I think a mask is your best option. If you’re trying to prevent against other people’s illness, you probably need an N95 mask, something that seals around your mouth and nose. A surgical type mask is more to control the droplets and spread of illness coming from you.
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Everyone is answering about wearing a mask, when the poster clearly makes the point that they don't have one. They can't just poof it from the air. The answers are not helpful.
The question is about whether shallow breathing and nose or mouth breathing is better. It's a very particular question. An interesting question.
Does anyone know, with real scientific knowledge, what the answer to this specific question is? Can anyone answer to the specific question?
The mask replies are super frustrating, haha.
Is there something I’m missing? It wasn’t clear to me that he doesn’t have a mask or can’t get one.
I'm in the same boat as you. Maybe it was in a comment somewhere that used to be upvoted.
I believe that if OP had a mask in this situation, they would most likely wear it. So we should assume that they don't have one
I know that breathing through your nose is generally better than breathing through your mouth for the simple fact that your nose has special follicles that act as a filter. But honestly the eyes and nose are most sensitive to infection and that's part of the reason people are suggesting masks. It's to lower the number of mucus membrane vectors for infection.
Op is more likely to get sick, especially if the other sick person isn't washing their hands and cleaning surfaces they touch, and limiting the amount of time touching their own mucus membranes.
Masks are suggested not for your own safety but for the safety of others... as you mentioned the eyes are quite sensitive to infection so masks on public transit aren't an effort to keep germs in the air from getting to you - they're an effort to prevent germs from getting in the air.
You didn't hear that talked about much during the pandemic because, if we're honest, most people are assholes... they'll bear a minor inconvenience to keep themselves safe but couldn't be assed to keep anyone else safe.
What a mask does do for you is to keep you from touching your mouth or face in general... that can be quite effective at reducing illness and, post-covid, I think we should all be more aware of doorknobs and other shared surfaces.
Nose. More filtration mechanisms and also make you breathe shallower, which is better.
Alternatively, hold your breath until you die. You'll never get sick again.
As everyone else is saying, wear a mask if you have one.
But it seems like the question you’re directly asking is more about the fluid flow of air in the room. With your suggestion of alternating short/long breaths, you might be imagining that you can blow the germs away and then breathe in the clear space left behind, but of course it doesn’t work that way. Blowing or breathing quickly creates more turbulence, which stirs up the air and sucks in more air from further away—both of which increase your risk. (Reducing turbulence from your breath is the second function of a mask, besides filtering out particles.) In the best-case scenario, the germs are in large aerosolized droplets which will settle out of the air quickly, but only if the air is still—so you’d want to breathe softly and move as little as possible. (And the droplets can still be infectious after they fall, so wash your hands after touching anything as well.)
And the droplets can still be infectious after they fall, so wash your hands after touching anything as well.
And wash your hands after leaving the area as well, because some of those droplets will have landed on your hands.
If you use a public bathroom to wash your hands, assume the sick person was in there earlier and touched the faucets, soap dispenser, towel dispenser, and door handle: get towels first (plus one extra), get the soap on one hand, then turn on the water and wash your hands. Dry your hands and turn the water off with the paper towel, then use the spare paper towel to open the door.
Thank you for addressing my question. I’m aware of masks, lol. Any idea about nose vs. mouth breathing? Nose hairs filter some stuff, but then these aerosolized droplets are in my nose, so maybe that’s worse?
Regarding short vs long breaths, I was kind of wondering if short breaths might limit how much virus material was inhaled. Restricting oxygen flow might be better if the exposure was short term.
I probably heard most of this from the Magic Schoolbus, so don't take me as a concrete source of truth.
My intuition says that you're at a lower risk by breathing through your nose. How much lower, I can't say, it might be marginal.
The mucus in your nose is part of the immune system. It's designed to trap foreign particles and prevent them from getting deeper into your respiratory system.
So with that in mind, I'd think that blowing your nose after exposure could be a safe bet. But make sure to wash your hands before you touch your face. Maybe after too.
You can wear a mask. I bring one with me on public transit or other places I expect a lot of people in close proximity.
Wear a mask and wash your hands often?
Breathe in through your eyes and breathe out through your ass.
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I think it's opposite of that for runny noses.
Yeah whenever someone near me coughs or sneezes I hold my breath and exhale until I'm past them, maybe it's not effective I'm not sure but it makes me feel better than breathing in air full of sneeze particles
I do this and always thought i would be exaggerating. Also, it's pretty automatic, someone sneezes, i stop breathing until a few steps away.
Here’s a very technical paper that studied nose vs mouth vs combined nose-and-mouth breathing:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7455204/
I confess it was over my head and I just skimmed it. But the conclusion says, “The high filtration efficiency of the nasal cavity together with its efficient clearance mechanisms lead to the recommendation to prefer the nose breathing over combined or mouth breathing.”
The conclusion also says, “There is general scientific agreement that lower airways are more vulnerable to severe infections” and “From this point of view, the nasal inhalation is preferential because it significantly reduces the number of particles penetrating to lower airways.” I’d guess that means that shallow breaths are probably preferable, but you’d need to read the article to confirm that.
Wear a mask and GTFO when you can. If it's an airplane you can't really do anything but hope and be extra cautious not to touch your face (a mask can help with this)... if it's a bus or something then just GTFO unless it's really low frequency and catch the next.
Knowing the type of area would help.
Negative pressure room (fan air outside) for the person sick. Positive pressure (fan air inside from outdoors) for the person not sick.
Mask, wash hands, keep distance.
if someone coughs or sneezes in the same room as you, hold your breathe for 10-15 seconds if you can. some airbornes are floating around even longer than that but its something.
Medically the nose is far better equipped to deal with pathogens, so breathing through the nose would be better, both in (to "filter") and "out"(to get right of stuff). More important, nevertheless is proper hygiene - wash your hands, fellas. And do not touch your face,but especially not your nose and eyes after you have been exposed to germs.
Besides that there is literally zero evidence for anything else - the very limited research in some breathing techniques has all been debunked sooner or later.
If you want to be sure,wear a proper N95/FFP2 mask. Proper means: Tight fitting, the right size for your face (not the cheap ones from the truck stop).
I typically will just hold my breath (I can do that for several minutes thanks to all the freediving I used to do) and then when I'm clear of them I'll start breathing again. If you absolutely cannot do that for whatever reason, your nose has these little hairs that will trap some of the germs like a filter.
When someones sneezes or coughs it'll produce an aerosol similar to spraying Febreze in one direction, the larger droplets reaching approximately 6 feet/2 meters. It'll be more concentrated in the direction they coughed or sneezed, and most concentrated right next to them. This can be affected by wind, so try to avoid standing directly downwind of someone who is coughing or sneezing.
Taking shorter breaths would mean less contaminated air is entering your body per breath (and less CO2 is leaving) but you also need that air and also to remove CO2, so after a while your body would start to make you breathe faster or deeper to compensate. Of course, shallow breathing or not wouldn't matter as much as wearing a mask will.
Absorb oxygen through your moist skin.
But really, an n95 will reduce the risk of you catching anything by a lot. Also wash your hands frequently.
I think you’ll be better off not standing downwind from them to get the least contaminated air from their direction. I’m not sure if short breathes will work because that will just make you inhale more often. My completely non-scienctific take would be to stand behind them and/or avoid standing downwind, then take a breath and hold it as long as you can, before slowly exhaling; then repeat the process until you can get out of there.
Wow, thank you! This is by far the most helpful answer. I will take a stab at grokking this paper.
There are also nasal sprays that are supposed to aid in the blocking of respiratory viruses. Pair that with a mask. Breath as slowly as possible (no gasps, laughs, or yawns) and only through your nose.