This ancient practice can help alleviate sleep apnea: Doc

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Getting a good night’s sleep can be a struggle for many, especially those who suffer from sleep apnea, but some folks are making a conch-ious effort to improve their situation.

Nearly 54 million American adults are believed to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which happens when muscles in your throat relax and block your airway repeatedly, causing you to stop breathing as you sleep.

This leads to snoring and disruptive sleep patterns, as well as raising the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, stroke and car crashes.

“The standard treatment for OSA is a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, which keeps the patient’s airway open by blowing air through a facemask throughout the night,” said Dr. Krishna K. Sharma, from the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in Jaipur, India, per the New York Post.

“While effective, many patients find it uncomfortable and struggle to use it consistently.”

There’s another way. An ancient Indian practice known as shankh blowing can alleviate OSA symptoms without the hassle of a costly machine.

Sharma led a small study that reported that OSA patients who regularly blew into a conch for six months had fewer breathing interruptions at night and more daytime alertness.

“In my clinical practice, several patients reported feeling more rested and experiencing fewer symptoms after regularly practicing shankh blowing — a traditional yogic breathing exercise involving exhaling through a conch shell,” Sharma said.

“These observations led us to design a scientific study to rigorously test whether this simple, ancient practice could serve as a meaningful therapy for people with OSA.”

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Thirty people between the ages of 19 and 65 were divided into two groups – 16 blew through a conch shell while 14 did deep breathing exercises.

The conch gang underwent training and daily practice sessions at home prior to the start of the study.

Eternal Heart tracked the participants, who had moderate OSA, from May 2022 to January 2024.

They were monitored while sleeping and quizzed about their sleep quality and daytime sleepiness.

After six months, the conch group was 34% less sleepy during the daytime than the deep breathing group.

Medical testing showed that the conch crew of participants had an average of four or five fewer episodes where their breathing stopped during sleep and they also had higher levels of oxygen in their blood at night.

The findings were published in the ERJ Open Research journal.

“For people living with OSA, especially those who find CPAP uncomfortable, unaffordable or inaccessible, our findings offer a promising alternative,” Sharma said.

“Shankh blowing is a simple, low-cost breathing technique that could help improve sleep and reduce symptoms without the need for machines or medication.”

Shankh blowing, in theory, strengthens muscles crucial to maintaining an open airway during sleep.

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