Humming While You Work...or Play...or Drive...

I just learned something brilliantly interesting!!  Did you know that when we hum that the gas exchange in our sinuses increases?!?  The gas exchange with normal breathing is only about 4% but when we hum...oh boy!! It goes up to about 98%!!  You may be wondering why this is important so I'm going to tell you a little bit about the importance but if you want to read more details about it, read this article published by an anesthesiologist http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/content/166/2/144.full.

So, nitric oxide - that's what our sinuses produce - is a major player in helping to dilate capillaries and increase blood flow.  Sounds important, right? Yep, pretty darn important if you like living and all that :-D  Anyway, researchers have measured nitric oxide levels in people humming and not humming and guess what?  The hummers (ahem, yes that was on purpose) had about 15 times higher levels of nitric oxide than their boring counterparts! FIFTEEN TIMES HIGHER!!  Holy smokes, Batman, that's a big difference!

Do you know what all this also means? Those of us who tend to suffer with chronic sinusitis, this might be really good news as a way to prevent flare-ups!  Increasing the sinus ventilation while humming would help prevent blockages, etc. and it's so much easier to hum a song than to do those cumbersome nasal irrigations, right? Plus, think of all the places you can start humming your favorite song and if anyone says anything, tell them to shove off because you're increasing your gas exchange and they're in your air!!

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