So progesterone has a role in keeping the muscles tight in the throat and then as we

transition through to post menopause we lose that muscle tone that that progesterone has given us. You know we talk about resistance training, but

we're not talking about are we tightening up the throat muscles, the tongue muscles to

keep that airway open because all these muscles help bring air in and out of their body

and if we're not actively training those then they're not going to be as strong so that is going to impact

how we breathe.

Dr Louise Oliver is a GP who knows that hormones affect how we breathe

and that how we breathe affects our health and well-being.

I'm Liz Earl and this is the Liz Earl Well-being show, the podcast helping us all have a better

second half.

And it's my mission to find ways for all of us to thrive in later life by investing

in our health and our well-being today. Now we breathe automatically it doesn't require

conscious control so we perhaps don't really think about a huge amount but we

should because our breathing affects every cell tissue organ and system in the body and I know

for myself that I often catch myself shallow breathing

and just not paying enough attention to how I can regulate,

how much better I feel, just by focusing on how I breathe, something I actually first discovered on an earlier

podcast episode of this show with the breath expert James Nesta.

Well I'm especially interested today to look even further at how our hormones affect our

breathing as well as better sleep something that really resonates I know with this

audience here so as well as being a GP, Louise is also a functional breathing

practitioner and a therapeutic life coach and she's here to make sure we're all

...