With a huge surge of flu and cold cases, many are searching for ways to treat their symptoms at home.
Many seasonal illnesses, such as a common cold and Covid, can bring annoying symptoms such as a blocked nose, which makes it hard to go about your daily life.
There are many ways you can help unblock your nose, including buying decongestants in the form of nose spray or tablets.
But there are other ways to help unblock your nose – and some of them don't include spending any money at all.
Women's welled expert Bella has shared a trick which can help you unblock your nose using a step-by-step breathing technique.
She posted a video on TikTok showing exactly what you need to be doing to help breathe more easily.
Firstly, Bella recommends that if you can't breathe through your nose at all, you should use a neti pot, or a nasal douching device which can help loosen thick mucus and relieve symptoms of colds and flu.
Bella explained: "You're basically using warm salty water to rinse your sinuses, and then you're going to want to follow with this."
The TikToker also warns that those who are pregnant or have a serious health condition should not be trying breath-holding exercises to unblock your nose.
In the video, you can see an animation which explains how long to breathe and hold your breath for.
The first step is sit up, the second is keep your mouth closed, then inhale, exhale, pinch nose and then release and repeat.
Bella explains: "Keep your mouth closed, then you're going to follow this breathing animation for about 10 seconds".
The animation in the clip shows exactly how long you should be inhaling and exhaling for. You should be doing it a couple of times with a "gentle pause".
Bella continued: "We're going to do this to sort of help regulate our breathing a little bit. Nice, soft, gentle inhales. You don't want to be taking big breaths, you want to be making your breathing as soft and slow and gentle as possible.
"Then you're going to pinch your nose and hold it for 10 seconds while you shake your head back and forth."
Then you're going to follow the breathing animation once again.
Bella recommends using the breathing hack before you go to sleep at night to clear your sinuses.
Speaking about other time it can be used, Bella explains how she uses it if she wakes up in the middle of the night from a stuffy nose.
"You can use it when you are sick or have allergies, and you can use it on repeat as well. You can use it as many times as you like throughout the day."
Explaining why the technique works, Bella explains that pinching your nose "creates a gas in your nasal cavity called nitric oxide", which "increases blood flow to our respiratory system so we can breathe easier" and it also "increases blood flow around the body".
Bella went on to explain that nitric oxide is anti microbial, antibacterial and anti viral.
People in the comments tried and tested the method – and it works.
One person said: "Thanks for this. Felt it in my ears well right away."
Another said "Thank you! I aways have a blocked nose and mouth breathe. So helpful!"
