As fall arrives and the pace of the year picks up, it’s a good time to explore ways to support your lungs, sinuses, and healthy immunity. Incorporating simple routines now will help you and yours stay well as the seasons change and the cold weather rolls in, enabling everyone to enjoy the holidays with minimal interruption!
Nose and Lung Support
Your nose and lungs are key players in your body’s first line of defense. Their mucosal membranes trap pathogens and their antibodies signal your immune cells to destroy them.
Keeping these tissues hydrated and clear is key to maintaining strong defenses, as you spend more time indoors with others that may be sick. Everything that helps clear congestion and reduce inflammation helps support this important part of your immune system.
Neti Pot and Nasal Oiling
Ayurveda has two great tools for nasal and sinus health: the neti pot and nasal oil. After rinsing out unwelcome particles, you follow up with nasal oil to soothe and protect. This helps keep your nasal passages clean and lubricated, enabling them to optimally filter out airborne irritants and viruses.
- Net pot use: Fill the neti pot with boiled water that has cooled to body temperature. Add a pinch of non-iodized salt and stir to dissolve. Tilt your head, and insert the tip of the pot into the higher nostril: you have the proper angle when the water flows out of the lower nostril. Repeat on the other side, then blow your nose gently.
- Nasal Oiling (Nasya): With the tip of your clean pinky finger or cotton swab, apply plain or medicated sesame oil (never use undiluted essential oils in your nose: they can cause chemical burns) inside your nostril, sniffing vigorously. Repeat on the other side.
Oral Health = Lung Health
Your oral health has a direct impact upon your lung health (bacteria and infections in the mouth can easily travel to the lungs), so take good care of your teeth, gums, and mouth tissues.
Gargling and swishing with a strong tea of tulsi or thyme can be a great addition to your fall routine, bathing both your mouth and throat tissues with anti-inflammatory and antiseptic plant compounds which improve their tone and overall health.
Herbal Hydration
Hydration is another pillar of lung health, helping to thin mucus and keep it moving out of your body after it’s done its work. Herbal teas made with plants high in soothing, slippery mucilage (aka polysaccharides) are a great addition to your daily hydration during fall’s changeable weather. Through the way that your gut ‘communicates’ with your lungs (via the gut-lung axis), these herbs act as an inner emollient, helping to loosen stuck mucus, soothe irritation, and support good immune response. Some good choices are marshmallow (leaves or roots), mullein, licorice (in smaller amounts) , oatstraw, linden, and plantain.
For additional support for your lungs and immune system, choose an herbal cough or bronchial syrup that features supportive herbs like amla, wild cherry bark, holy basil, tinospora, licorice, or thyme in a base that includes honey. Full of antioxidants and naturally antimicrobial, honey can help soothe irritated tissues and calm coughing.
Herbal Steaming
Inhaling herbal steam can also help thin mucus, provide internal moisture, and bathe your airways in antiseptic volatile oils. Some great herbs for steams are holy basil, eucalyptus, sage, thyme, or mint. (The added bonus of herbal steaming is that bathing your face with those beneficial aromatic oils promotes circulation and helps unclog pores for naturally healthy skin.)
In addition to (or instead of) direct herbal steaming, you can let herbs steam gently in water on the stovetop to help humidify the air and make your house smell clean and fresh.
Breath and Prana
Ayurveda looks at the breath from a broader perspective than just the nuts and bolts of anatomical function. Prana, the life force that animates all living things, is largely derived from breathing, so caring for your lungs is front and center in Ayurvedic practice. Less-than-optimal breathing lessens the flow of prana, leading to feelings of dullness, heaviness, and lack of vitality.
Strengthen Your Lungs With Breathwork
There is an array of breathing exercises (pranayama) that can help strengthen your lungs and keep them clear and healthy. This practice can boost your exercise regimen as well as improve your nervous system regulation. Better stress management (which improves immune response), better oxygenation of your blood, and better posture (breathwork requires you to sit or stand up straight, while engaging your core and chest muscles): talk about wins all around! Here is one to try (start slowly, building your capacity gradually):
Ujjayi/Ocean Breath:
Ujjayi breath builds warmth in the body and stimulates your vagus nerve, which helps regulate your nervous system. Also called “ocean breath” for how it sounds, it’s created by slightly constricting the back of your throat (similar to the feeling when you whisper), while breathing slowly and deeply. It’s a great tool to both increase your lung capacity and bring deep relaxation.
General Immunity
Let’s look at the foods and spicy allies that can help you stay well this fall.
Mushrooms, Your Fall Friends
A very helpful (and tasty) addition to your fall recipes are mushrooms of all edible varieties. For immune support, reishi and shiitake are all-stars, and even button mushrooms have been shown to have a positive influence on the immune system. Sauté culinary mushrooms fresh or pop dried mushrooms like shiitake and reishi into soups and stews, for an easy way to bolster immune defenses and add delicious umami to your food.
Supercharged Veggie Broth
Bone broth tends to get all the limelight, but you can pack even more nutrition into a veggie broth, if you include medicinal mushrooms, seaweed, and immune-supportive herbs. It’s easy to make one big batch all at once, then pour into freezer cubes what you can’t use within the next few days. Your future under-the-weather self will thank you, when all you need to do is pop a cube or two into some hot water for a rich, fortifying mug of broth.
When you do meal prep, toss your veggie scraps (including leaves and stems) into a plastic bag that you keep in the freezer. When you’re ready to make your broth, you’ll have a nice variety of plants for its base, without wasting anything! Get as creative as you like with your spices for the broth: thyme, sage, oregano, turmeric, ginger, bay leaves, cumin, and garlic add immune support as well as flavor.
Trikatu
This classic three-spice blend helps dispel excess mucus throughout the body and heaviness in the digestive system. Warming foods and spices encourage robust agni, or digestive fire, which fuels the complete breakdown and assimilation of everything you ingest and clears ama (unprocessed waste which Ayurveda considers a breeding ground for illness).
Here’s the recipe:
1 pt. ginger pwd.
1 pt. ground black pepper
1 pt. ground pippali/long pepper (Piper longum)
Mix the powders thoroughly, adding enough raw honey to make a thick paste. Take one teaspoon daily, either before meals to boost digestion, or on an empty stomach for respiratory support. Drink water after if you need to temper the spiciness of the herbs.
Probiotics and Gut-Happy Foods
Gut health is fundamental to balanced immune response and closely linked with lung health, so getting extra fiber (especially polysaccharide-rich foods) from starchy vegetables, whole grains, beans, lentils, mushrooms (shiitake has been found to have specific benefits), and seaweed can be extra helpful during the change of seasons. Boost your gut microbiome with probiotic-rich foods like miso, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, and sauerkraut to ensure a thriving array of beneficial bacteria. Focus on freshly prepared, well-spiced, warm foods that are easy to digest. Reduce or eliminate ultra-processed foods, as well as too much dairy, sugar, and conventionally-grown wheat (heirloom grains like farro, spelt, and einkorn are well-tolerated by many) products.
So there you have it: a nice menu of practices to choose from that can encourage robust respiratory defenses for fall, on into the start of winter. Lean on warming spices, good nasal and oral health, breathing practices and immune-supportive herbs to keep you and your loved ones up for all the adventures and gatherings ahead.
