View the video SeeYourBreath on YouTube.
A Window into the Functioning of Your Lungs
See Your Breathing is an iPhone app that gives you a window into the functioning of your lungs through the sound of your breathing.
Here is an example.
K.W. is a seven-year-old boy in Indiana with asthma. His mother used See Your Breathing to find out whether higher humidity in K.W.’s bedroom would help his breathing. She set up a humidifier in his bedroom one night. The next morning she recorded his breathing on her iPhone for 15 seconds. (This process is explained in Getting Started.)
The next evening Mom removed the humidifier and K.W. spent the night without the extra humidity. The following morning she again recorded his breathing.
Mom made a screenshot showing the effect of the overnight use of a humidifier on her son’s breathing.
K.W. is a seven-year-old boy in Indiana with asthma. His mother used See Your Breathing to find out whether higher humidity in K.W.’s bedroom would help his breathing. She set up a humidifier in his bedroom one night. The next morning she recorded his breathing on her iPhone for 15 seconds. (This process is explained in Getting Started.)
The next evening Mom removed the humidifier and K.W. spent the night without the extra humidity. The following morning she again recorded his breathing.
Mom made a screenshot showing the effect of the overnight use of a humidifier on her son’s breathing.
All the recordings are overlaid in the composite graph in the top center of the screen.
The black recordings show K.W.’s breathing in the morning after sleeping with the humidifier.
The green recordings show K.W.’s breathing the following morning after sleeping with no humidifier.
The two red recordings show the background noise in the room where K.W. recorded his breathing each morning.
Each of these recordings, with its date and time, is shown individually in the lower portion of the screen.
You can see how the black and the green recordings each fall into their own group.
Using See Your Breathing K.W.’s mother has discovered that the humidifier in K.W.’s room has an immediate and measurable effect on his breathing.
This example illustrates several features of See Your Breathing:
The black recordings show K.W.’s breathing in the morning after sleeping with the humidifier.
The green recordings show K.W.’s breathing the following morning after sleeping with no humidifier.
The two red recordings show the background noise in the room where K.W. recorded his breathing each morning.
Each of these recordings, with its date and time, is shown individually in the lower portion of the screen.
You can see how the black and the green recordings each fall into their own group.
Using See Your Breathing K.W.’s mother has discovered that the humidifier in K.W.’s room has an immediate and measurable effect on his breathing.
This example illustrates several features of See Your Breathing:
- See Your Breathing is based on recording curves that appear in a composite graph where they can be compared by eye.
- Using the recording curves does not involve numbers, mathematical definitions, or thresholds.
- Your observations are visual, recorded, and easily communicated from your iPhone.
- You can form reasonable and actionable conclusions, often after just a few recordings.
For Sale in the Apple App Store
See Your Breathing is free in the Apple App Store. There are no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no pro-version, no time limit, no advertising, and no data collection involved.
Personal Coaching Available
If you would like to work one-on-one with an app coach, See Your Breathing coaching is available at $50 per half hour Zoom session. The first half hour session is free.
A See Your Breathing coach is your personal cheerleader, guide, and partner in exploring new ways to better control your asthma with the help of See Your Breathing.
We can help you follow the instructions presented on this website to make the most effective use of this new tool, See Your Breathing. We will work with you to use the features of See Your Breathing and to learn from the experiences of other people exploring their breathing.
See Your Breathing coaching is done on a session-by-session basis with no obligation. You pay for a session after it is completed and if you are satisfied with the session.
Contact us to set up your first Zoom session.
e-mail: [email protected]
A See Your Breathing coach is your personal cheerleader, guide, and partner in exploring new ways to better control your asthma with the help of See Your Breathing.
We can help you follow the instructions presented on this website to make the most effective use of this new tool, See Your Breathing. We will work with you to use the features of See Your Breathing and to learn from the experiences of other people exploring their breathing.
See Your Breathing coaching is done on a session-by-session basis with no obligation. You pay for a session after it is completed and if you are satisfied with the session.
Contact us to set up your first Zoom session.
e-mail: [email protected]
Do What Asthma Doctors Recommend
See Your Breathing enables and encourages you to do what asthma doctors recommend – know your triggers and follow your asthma action plan – in order to breathe better and avoid asthma attacks.
You use See Your Breathing to make a fifteen-second recording of your breathing.
You use See Your Breathing to make a fifteen-second recording of your breathing.
See Your Breathing shows you a recording curve that is derived from the proportions of the different breathing tones found during the last ten seconds of that recording.
For the technically curious:
For the technically curious:
- The pitch increases as you move from left to right.
- The height of the recording curve (recording) at any point shows the portion of the total volume at that pitch and lower.
See Your Breathing gives you the power to sort out your breathing sounds – which are fleeting – in a clear and permanent visual way. You can use these recorded observations to explore your breathing under different circumstances.
It is essential for new See Your Breathing users to know at the outset that the shape of See Your Breathing recordings vary from person to person, whether or not they have asthma. What you learn from using See Your Breathing will come from your comparing your own recordings, made at different times and under different circumstances, to each other.
It is essential for new See Your Breathing users to know at the outset that the shape of See Your Breathing recordings vary from person to person, whether or not they have asthma. What you learn from using See Your Breathing will come from your comparing your own recordings, made at different times and under different circumstances, to each other.
Explore Your Asthma Triggers and Remedies
Use See Your Breathing recordings to see how you react to various possible triggers. See which self-help remedies – from hot tea to yoga meditation – help you breathe better.
Because you are enabled to explore your triggers and remedies in an immediate, visual, objective, recorded, and reviewable manner, you are encouraged to make the effort to discover what will make your breathing better.
Because you are enabled to explore your triggers and remedies in an immediate, visual, objective, recorded, and reviewable manner, you are encouraged to make the effort to discover what will make your breathing better.
Learning More About Your Triggers
"Philly Snow Storm, Dec. 19, 2009" by Kevin Burkett is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
P. V. is a young woman in her 20’s in the Northeast. She has asthma that is generally under good control, particularly since her work has gone remote and that has lessened her exposure to environmental triggers and a stressful commute.
P.V. has long considered whether the cold air of winter pushes her toward troubled breathing, and in the worst case, a full-on asthma attack. She decided to observe her breathing with See Your Breathing when she had to venture out into the cold for the short amount of time it takes to walk her dog.
Each measurement session consists of P.V. recording her breath for fifteen seconds three times in succession, with a break of about fifteen seconds between the individual measurements.
The black recording is of the background noise – noise in the environment recorded on the iPhone while P.V. was not breathing into the phone.
P.V. has long considered whether the cold air of winter pushes her toward troubled breathing, and in the worst case, a full-on asthma attack. She decided to observe her breathing with See Your Breathing when she had to venture out into the cold for the short amount of time it takes to walk her dog.
Each measurement session consists of P.V. recording her breath for fifteen seconds three times in succession, with a break of about fifteen seconds between the individual measurements.
- The three red recordings were made just before P.V. went out to walk the dog.
- The green recordings were made after P.V. was outside in the cold for fifteen minutes.
- The blue recordings were made after P.V. was back indoors and had warmed up for fifteen minutes.
The black recording is of the background noise – noise in the environment recorded on the iPhone while P.V. was not breathing into the phone.
P.V.’s recordings suggest that the cold does indeed affect her breathing negatively:
- First, the green recordings (recorded after fifteen minutes in the cold) noticeably slump below the red recordings, made just fifteen minutes earlier, before P. V. left the warm house.
- Second, the blue recordings, recorded when P.V. was back in the warm house for fifteen minutes, overlap and surpass the red ones, made in the house before the dog walk.
- Also, the green recordings, made immediately after P.V.’s time in the cold outdoors, are the same general shape as other recordings of hers made during bouts of asthmatic breathing.
"Young woman working on laptop and writing at home"by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
P.V. now has a clearer understanding of the effect of the cold dry air outdoors in the winter and hopefully can mitigate its effects by keeping her time outdoors as brief as possible when the weather is wintry and by wearing a mask or scarf over her nose and mouth.
G.Z. Uses Yoga and Breathing Exercises to Head Off an Asthma Attack
G.Z. is a young woman in her 20’s in Northern California. A few days before Christmas G.Z. came home at about 5 p.m., exhausted after a long and busy day in cold and windy weather. She felt worn and her breathing was stressed and tight when she made a See Your Breathing recording.
To ease her stressed, tight breathing after this exhausting day, G.Z. used a combination of non-pharmacological remedies – dinner, hot tea, meditation, and breathing exercises. She recorded her breathing again about two hours later.
To ease her stressed, tight breathing after this exhausting day, G.Z. used a combination of non-pharmacological remedies – dinner, hot tea, meditation, and breathing exercises. She recorded her breathing again about two hours later.
In the composite graph at the top of the app screen we see that the black recordings made after G.Z. had dinner and tea, and did breathing exercises and meditation, do not overlap with the teal recordings made immediately upon G.Z.’s arrival home.
G.Z.’s See Your Breathing recordings confirm what she feels – the home remedies of dinner, tea, breathing exercises, and meditation have relieved her stressed, tight breathing.
G.Z.’s See Your Breathing recordings confirm what she feels – the home remedies of dinner, tea, breathing exercises, and meditation have relieved her stressed, tight breathing.
Work Your Way to Better Breathing
Normally we apply a remedy when we have a problem – we might do relaxation exercises when we are tense and use a humidifier when the air is too dry for us.
Because See Your Breathing shows you small changes in your breathing that you may not sense yourself, you can gather useful observations by trying out remedies even when you are feeling good.
You try to make what you have tentatively established as ‘good’ breathing even better using See Your Breathing to observe and record the changes, if any. When you see a change you are encouraged to use the remedy proactively.
Because See Your Breathing shows you small changes in your breathing that you may not sense yourself, you can gather useful observations by trying out remedies even when you are feeling good.
You try to make what you have tentatively established as ‘good’ breathing even better using See Your Breathing to observe and record the changes, if any. When you see a change you are encouraged to use the remedy proactively.
Aiming for Optimal Breathing is Empowering
N.C., a young woman from Southern California, says:
. . . testing out the app itself has made me so much more aware of the options that I have for managing my asthma. . . . And asthma, you know, interrupts my life. The app gets rid of that narrative and adds something a little more constructive, but also just a little more, you know, joyful, I think.
The graph below shows how N.C., upon awakening with tightness in her chest and upper airway congestion, proactively moved away from the possibility of a full-blown asthma attack by drinking hot tea and using her humidifier.
N.C. made the green recordings upon awakening, feeling asthma symptoms – tightness in her chest and upper airway congestion. N.C. immediately drank some hot tea, turned on her humidifier for half an hour, and took some Tylenol.
Her self-help remedies were effective. Half an hour later her recordings (colored orange) were higher and smoother, which is N.C.’s typical recording shape when she is at her best.
Her self-help remedies were effective. Half an hour later her recordings (colored orange) were higher and smoother, which is N.C.’s typical recording shape when she is at her best.
Practicing your remedies when you are not in an emergency is like a fire drill – when a real asthma flare-up arises, you are practiced and ready with your remedies.
Disclaimer: The app is for informational purposes only. The app is no substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or emergency intervention or transmission of time-critical data. Users should always seek the advice of their healthcare providers for any questions regarding their medical condition. You agree that the app should not be used to make medical decisions. Users should never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of information provided via the app.