Expelling Bacteria, Viruses and Other Nasty Stuff

Mother Nature built extra protection into your body to defend you from assaults too dramatic for your basic daily respiration to handle. Nature, in effect, sends in the cavalry to be your back-up when you are about to be overrun.

Your GAG REFLEX makes a mighty grab-and-shove at anything your throat finds threatening and at anything that begins to slide down the wrong chute toward your delicate lungs.

Your SNEEZE explodes irritants, germs and viruses out of your nasal passages with extraordinary force and speed.

Your COUGH forces your breath out at several hundred miles per hour in a valiant effort to evict irritants from your throat, bronchial tubes and lungs.

Your YAWN (while not quite so dramatic but helpful none the less) is your body’s effort to break a shallow breathing pattern and to quickly beef up your oxygen supply.

Your SNIFF has probably lost much of its sensitivity over the centuries but remains a valuable system that can still save your life. A sniff (located close to the entrance to your respiration) allows you to test your environment just a little without taking a deep, full breath that could, under certain conditions, be deadly.

These protective systems are designed for occasional use only. If any one of them becomes chronic, it is time to re-examine your environment and to seek expert advice.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.