Holding your breath could increase risk of contracting Covid, IIT-Madras study finds
Study by IIT Madras researchers reveals that airborne viruses are more likely to deposit in lungs in those who have low breathing rate.
Soniya Agrawal 12 January, 2021 4:10 pm IST Text Size:
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New Delhi: The transport of virus-laden air droplets to deep lung could increase with decreasing breathing frequency, a new IIT study has found.
The study, by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, revealed that holding breath or having a low breathing rate can increase chances of viruses, like Covid-19, that are airborne of depositing in the lungs.
Send Holding breath may increase the risk of getting COVID-19 infection, said researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in a study that was published in the international journal Physics of Fluid.
Chennai:
When they modelled breathing frequency in a laboratory to understand how the rate of flow of droplet with virus determines its deposition in the lungs, it was found that low breathing frequency rises the time of residence of the virus and thus increase chances of deposition and consequently the infection. Also, the multiscale lung structure has a significant effect on a personâs susceptibility to COVID-19.Â
Updated Jan 12, 2021 | 08:38 IST
The study was conducted to pave the way for developing better therapies and drugs for respiratory infections, including COVID-19. IIT Madras researchers find holding breath may increase risk of getting COVID-19 infection | Photo Credit: iStock Images
Chennai: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) have found that holding your breath may increase the risk of contracting COVID-19 infection. According to the researchers, the process of virus-laden droplets being transported into deep lung increases with decreasing breathing frequency.
The research team modelled the breathing frequency in a laboratory and found that low breathing frequency increases the time of residence of the virus and therefore it increases chances of deposition and consequently the infection. Also, the multiscale lung structure has a significant effect on a person’s susceptibility to COVID-19.
Holding the Breath, Low Breathing Rate May Up Risk of Covid-19, Says IIT Study
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New Delhi: Holding the breath and having low breathing rate can increase the chances of the novel coronavirus-laden droplets being deposited deep in the lungs, according to a study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Physics of Fluids, paves the way for developing better therapies and drugs for respiratory infections, including coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).
The researchers noted that several infectious respiratory diseases like COVID-19, that threaten the human lives globally, transmit primarily through virus laden droplets. Dramatic respiratory events such as coughs and sneezes that yield a large quantity of droplets play a vital role in aiding such transmission, they said.
The research has found that the process of virus-laden droplets being transported deep into the lungs increases with low breathing frequency, according to a statement issued by the institute