046: Why MENOPAUSE Can Affect Your BREATHING and How to Manage It

In this episode of The Strong Bones Coach Podcast, Carly explores the often overlooked but significant issue of breathlessness during menopause. Learn why this happens, how hormonal changes impact your lung function, and what you can do to manage and improve your breathing.

Carly shares practical breathwork exercises and tips to help you stay fit and reduce anxiety.

Tune in to understand the connection between menopause and breathing, and discover actionable steps to support your lung health and overall well-being.

Reference
Menopause Is Associated with Accelerated Lung Function Decline: Link>> https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201605-0968OC

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Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Hello and welcome back to the StrongBones Coach podcast with me, your host Carly Killen. So today we're diving into perhaps a lesser known topic but still very important when it comes to menopause and that is our breathing and more so the symptom of breathlessness. So in our busy lives it can be very easy to overlook symptoms that affect our breath as they slowly creep up on us, or any symptoms really. I remember when my asthma symptoms started acting up a few years ago and I thought my inhalers weren't working, I wondered what was wrong. I just found it so hard to take a breath. Proper breath in, I just could not get enough air. And when that was coupled alongside these minor inconveniences like poor Wi Fi connection, sending me into a total spiral, derailing my whole entire day, I start to put two and two together and think, Do you know what? There's something going on here. Of course, there are some other things going on there too, but that did lead me to inquire into, Could some of this be related to menopause? And of course, yes, it very well can be, so if you recognize this for yourself or experience something similar, I see you and I'm here to help you recognize this lesser explored element of menopause transition, but in this episode, I want to help you understand why these changes happen and how you can manage them effectively. So you might not expect changes in your breathing to be part of menopause transition, and it's not the case for everybody, but it is something that is worth being aware of. We breathe 22, 000 to 23, 000 times per day, so it's pretty important that we understand and address any changes that we notice. So, Does this change or what has menopause got to do with any of this? So if you are noticing you're more breathless recently, or if you know that you are in a menopause transition or perimenopause, you might have already been monitoring for some changes in how you feel, how your relationship with your body is changing, how your body functions on the day to day, and I hope this is the case because for many of these experiences, It's very personalized. It's very individual. So there is no way getting around really learning to understand yourself so that you can tell if there is a change to start with. It's all about what we can notice and where that baseline is for us. So if you have noticed that you're, Experiencing more breathlessness as part of your menopause. This can show up as a shortness of breath, perhaps a reduced exercise tolerance, finding it harder to exercise, or extra fatigue. And when I say these, it can be hard to know if this is actually anything to do with your breath at all. So, I'm Sometimes you might find that you've been out of exercise for a while, so you're putting it down to a lack of fitness. Perhaps you're feeling tired because you're juggling so many things. It's easy to explain these things away. So sometimes it might only be noticeable. when a health care professional checks out your lung function. And that's not exactly something we do on a regular basis, unless we're monitoring that for something like asthma or COPD. And of course, menopause can even worsen or exacerbate any pre existing lung conditions you might have as well. So, a caveat before I move forward. It's vital to seek medical advice if you notice any of these warning signs, things like wheezing, coughing, any coughing up blood, chest pains, dizziness, palpitations. It is absolutely well worth getting these checked out before we start to explain any of these as menopause. And Reminding you that as much as I like to deliver helpful information, I am not a replacement for your medical healthcare provider. So please do consult with them any, on anything you are concerned about. However, I'm here to raise some awareness for some things that might just be slipping under your radar right now. So let's have a look at reasons why you might experience breathlessness during perimenopause. So we have two main reasons. Firstly, this can be down to an increase in inflammation. So if you've been listening along for a while, you'll, you may know that oestrogen, One of our hormones starts to reduce and fluctuate during our menopause transition, and oestrogen has anti inflammatory properties. So when this starts to reduce, we can see a rise in inflammation in our body. So they have very physical reasons that this can show up for us. Secondly, As part of hormonal fluctuations, we can see a change in our brain function as well. How our neurotransmitters function, how much is available, how they're processed. And this can have our psychological impacts, our mind impacts, how we feel. So this can show an increase in an experience of anxiety. which has direct links with how we breathe and also how we breathe can link back to our experience of anxiety as well. So these are the two areas that I'm going to cover in today's episode, not as a replacement for healthcare advice, but here to raise awareness and support you with some practical steps that you can take for yourself. So let's start with the physical side, then the inflammation that can happen due to hormone changes. Oestrogen and Testosterone receptors are both present in our lungs. Did you know that? So as these hormones fluctuate, particularly the oestrogen, because it has a much more active role, it fluctuates a lot more, we can see changes in our lung function. And when we see a change in our ability to handle inflammation, We can also see changes affecting our immunity, as well as our lung function. So you might notice we pick up more coughs and colds, we might feel a bit more under the weather more often, so when we're talking about the inflammation in our lungs, we're talking about irritation. So in my reading around this, I found a really interesting study, talking more deeply into the impacts of, reduced hormones in perimenopause and postmenopause and the effects this has on our lung function. So, as they decline, we can see a decline in our lung function. Now, this was supported by a 2016 study that did notice a significant drop in lung capacity in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, indicating that menopause does in fact accelerate the decline in lung function beyond what is expected with normal aging. They even found that the lung function was impacted on a level similar to that of someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day for the last 10 years. So this is indeed quite significant. Now, the only way to replace hormones is to introduce hormones, which can be in the form of hormone replacement therapy. Of course, I am not an endocrinologist. I'm not a healthcare provider. So this is something that we want to have a discussion with, with your GP, your health care provider. And of course, I do guide my clients to know what is right for them, to know what their baseline is, to know what their options truly are from that informed standpoint. So please don't feel like you are limited to only one option, or that this decline in lung function isn't absolute certainty for you. I share this with you not to cause any fear, but to help you understand that this is not something to be ignored. The sooner you can get help, the sooner you know what options you may have and the sooner you can feel better. I will of course be covering off some additional supports and how you can support your breathing if you are feeling breathless and you have ruled out any, any health conditions or lung conditions that we need to be concerned about. So keep listening. Next, we're going to move on to the psychological impacts that have an impact on our breathing. So, as I mentioned, our lowering levels of oestrogen can lead to anxiety and other health impacts, but mainly focusing on those anxiety feelings. If you do currently experience some of those anxiety feelings, you may notice your breath up in your chest. You may notice breathing faster. You may notice breathing more shallow layers in the upper part of your chest, perhaps never reaching the bottom of your lungs or your belly. Now this not only is a symptom of anxiety, but it can. perpetuate those anxiety feelings as well, because there's a part of our brain called the amygdala that is constantly watching what we are doing. It's constantly helping us stay safe by watching out for anything that we need to worry about. Now, usually if we're in a relaxed state, if we're feeling totally safe, we might be breathing through our nose, taking long, relaxed breaths, especially if we're not worrying about anything. So when we start to change our breathing, when we start to breathe in a more shallow, quicker rate, this sets an alarm bell off to our amygdala and signals that there might be something to worry about. Which means it will then start that process of our fight, our flight, or our freeze process. As I mentioned earlier, falling oestrogen levels can affect neurotransmitter function, leading to those anxious feelings, the restlessness, the irritability. This can have an impact on your sleep, your ability to exercise, and also make healthy choices around balancing your diet, which can all help to manage these symptoms as well. Of course, stress relief, techniques like yoga, meditations, breath work, can all help. to support this and to help you feel calmer. Breath is one of those few things that we do actually have control over, even if we don't give it much thought on the day to day. But if we manage this effectively, we can significantly impact how we handle anxiety. You may have heard me mention before that I am a breathwork facilitator in training. So let's focus on how breathwork can support you if you notice you're struggling with breathlessness, whether this is due to a slight decline in your lung function that you've had checked out, or whether it is down to anxiety or a combination of the two. That first thing I'd recommend, that I mentioned earlier, is all starting with your awareness. That starting baseline, how we know where we want to be, that place where we start at, because when we know what our baseline is, what our starting point is, we can then notice better if something changes. What if anything wants to be changed? So, I'm going to guide you through some simple breath awareness right now. you can do this as long as you're not driving. I don't want you to lose your concentration. But please do return back and give this a go when you're outside of your car. So, those of you that are able or want to join in with us right now, I'm going to invite you just to sit or stand comfortably and just observe your breath. You can answer these questions for yourself. So firstly, just notice, are you breathing through your nose or your mouth? Which area of your body is moving most? Is that your chest or your belly? Which area moves first? It can be helpful to pop your hand on your belly and another hand on your chest. And this can be a nice visual or tactile indicator for you, just to show you. What is truly moving when you are breathing? And lastly, do your ribs move outwards when you're breathing? So we can take deep belly breaths. but still not maximize our breath ability or capability to breathe. If we're not also moving our ribs outwards, making more space for our lungs to expand. So you can place your hands on the sides of your ribs and see if they're moving sideways as you take a breath. And also notice Do you have a longer exhale? Are you breathing quite quickly? Or are you quite keen to take your next breath? This can also be a sign that we might be in more of an anxious state. So how are you feeling right now? You might notice by bringing some awareness to the breath that you already start to feel a little calmer. If so, brilliant. But it's well worth having a little check in on the day to day. To see how you're feeling, how you're breathing, and just allow yourself to be more conscious of what you are doing, of something we do so often that can have such an impact. So I always aim to give you some practical things that you can do with these podcast episodes. So I'm going to offer you one exercise you can do to really help to expand your lung capacity, and make you feel like you can start your day with a proper breath, and an exercise. or a breath that will help you to feel a little calmer when things can feel a little chaotic. So the first one is a lung stretch. This is ideal to start your day. It really allows you to open up the full capacity of your lungs, meaning that we are starting from a better place. Especially after a night in bed where we might have been a little bit curled up in a ball. So the first thing we want to do you can do this standing or sitting just be mindful If you're prone to dizziness, make sure you can be supported in some way. Now you'll want to take a Big breath in as much as you can initially, ideally through the nose if possible, but if not you can breathe through your mouth. You will probably find it easier to breathe more deeply using the nose if breathing through your nose is available to you right now. So taking the biggest breath you can into the bottom of your lungs and into your belly, all the way up to you feel as full as you can and just hold there for a second. Thank you And then next you want to see, can you breathe in just a little bit more? Can you take that extra sip? Give that a go. And finally, can you get that last little sip of air in through your nose and then just release nice and slowly, fully emptying your whole lungs as much as you can, releasing all of that breath. Now, if you've had a go at that, you've probably noticed that was the biggest breath you've taken for a while. How great is it to start the day like that? Starting as you mean to go on. Now, of course, we're not going to breathe like that all day, but you might find breathing just that little bit easier when you start your day with that one long stretch. The next breath I'm going to guide you through is a super simple coherence breath. Now this type of breath is designed to bring coherence to your heart and your brain. your body to calm your nervous system and your mind. And it's super simple. We don't need to involve any counting, but it can help to start with. So focusing on breathing through the nose if possible, we match the timing of our inhale to our exhale. So we might breathe in for a count of four and then breathe out for a count of four. We can actually extend this to longer breaths. on the inhale and the exhale for counts of six or eight, but you might find starting off with the slightly shorter breaths a little easier, especially if you have been feeling quite anxious recently. So let me guide you through a few of those breaths now. So when you're ready, just take a natural exhale through the nose, and we're going to breathe in a count of four. So let's start. Breathing in, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. We'll do two more. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. A final breath. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four. Now how does that feel? Notice that we didn't really need anything for that other than your breath and just the ability to sit in a bit of stillness for a moment, but realistically we don't need to be sat down, we don't even need to be out of the way. You can do this breath in a way that nobody else would notice, no one would know that you were doing it. Which feels like a secret weapon in this day and age with everybody running around. being super busy and building up that anxiety. So give that a go and just know that when you practice these things before we need it, it makes it a lot easier to access this technique or this tool at the time it's most needed. So I would invite you to perhaps practice this at times when things are already a little calmer. So there was two exercises that you can use to help manage some of the breathlessness and some anxiety symptoms to help you improve your overall wellbeing. I do also offer some longer breath works that I do individually with my clients online as part of my breath work facilitator training, which is a little beyond the scope of today's podcast, but, um, I am more than happy to speak to you and to talk to you about that. If you wanna contact me either over on Instagram as the Strong Bones Coach, or on my email hello@carlykillcoaching.com. These really do provide a wonderful opportunity to spend more time moving from that state of anxiety or stress and relearning how to reach a more relaxed state back into that rest and digest state. which might feel like a distant memory to those of you spinning autoplates right now, but it is well worth giving yourself that short time to pour into you, especially when you have a lot of people depending on you. So wrapping that up then, breathlessness during menopause can show up for you as a result of your hormonal changes and also the psychological impacts that come up because of that. So just know that recognising and managing these with your medical provider if needed, but also alongside your lifestyle adjustments, and other supports like breathwork can really improve your quality of life. So if you do have any questions or would like some further support from me, feel free to reach out to me at hello at carlykillandcoaching. com. And thank you for joining me today. Until next week, stay strong and take care.