Transform your life (seriously) through better breathing
/Do you snore? Do you wake up parched, desperate for a glass of water? Are you always feeling congested? Have you been told you may have sleep apnea? High blood pressure? Chronic insomnia? Or, do you know someone who suffers from these things? If so, you might want to keep reading…
We all take breathing for granted. Of course we do… just like our heart pumping, breathing is part of our autonomic nervous system. We don’t have to think about it.
But many of us need to start thinking about it. How we breathe can be transformative for our health on many levels… much more than just keeping us alive.
There are many different areas to focus on with respect to breathing, but for this newsletter I have focused on one area in particular that can have extremely negative consequences on ones health - mouth breathing (although at the end I will touch on the healing effects of deep breathing, along with a quick stress release trick :)
But back to mouth breathing - so many people are suffering from chronic sleep issues (as well as many of the symptoms I've listed below), and often the reason is due to habitual breathing through ones mouth instead of their nose.
As an aside, I want to highlight that for those of you with young children, the harmful effects of mouth breathing in children are much greater. It's during these formative years that their breathing mode helps shape their facial structure and airways, and left untreated can lead to years of lifelong respiratory problems.
As Patrick McKeown, author of The Oxygen Advantage states, “Noses are for breathing, mouths are for eating.” (1)
The first question to ask is... are you a mouth breather? Or do you sleep with one?!
It’s important to note that you may not even know you breathe through your mouth (vs always breathing through your nose), especially during sleep. I've included a list of tell tale signs below, some being obvious and others not so much. Brace yourself:
Chronic insomnia
Snoring
Sleep apnea
High blood pressure
Significant loss of body fluids (up to 40%), hence the parched mouth upon waking
Increased stress
Weight gain
Inflammation
Lack of energy
Lack of concentration and focus
Moodiness
Gum disease and cavities (a dry mouth causes acidification of the mouth)
Bad breath
Erectile dysfunction / lack of sexual stimulation
Poor blood circulation, including dizziness and numbness in the fingers
Crooked teeth, in need of orthodontics
Sunken cheekbones
Narrow jaws
Smaller nasal cavities
Just to name a few ;-)
This is not a new “discovery”
Thinking about the way we breathe isn’t new. James Nestor, author of the book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (highly recommended), states that the written word as far back as 1500 BCE offered a description of how nostrils were supposed to feed air to the heart and lungs, not the mouth.
Jump forward to the 1800’s where Nestor describes a gentleman named George Caitlin who studied Native American tribes. Members of the tribes explained to Caitlin that “breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease. On the other hand, breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful and prevented disease.” (2)
What I found most fascinating is that the mothers in these tribes literally trained their children to breath through their mouths – they would close their baby’s lips with their fingers after each feeding. And at night, they would stand over their sleeping infants and gently pinch mouths shut if they opened.” (3) Caitlin went on to write a book, aptly titled, "Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Life."
Benefits of nasal breathing
Better sleeps
As mentioned, one of the biggest challenges for habitual mouth breathers is getting a good nights sleep. Simply breathing through your nose could be the answer. We all know by now the importance of sleep, but as a reminder, this IG/Twitter post below, by Andrew Huberman, Professor of Neurobiology and Opthamology at Stanford University, expresses it quite succinctly:
(A nootropic, btw, supports brain health. Specifically, it’s a “substance” (in this case, sleep) that enhances memory, cognition and learning).
Nitric Oxide boost
Nitric oxide is an essential gas for the maintenance of good health. Our sinuses release a huge boost of nitric oxide (aka when we breathe through our nose).
Nitric oxide plays a critical role in supporting our cardiovascular system, increasing circulation in our bodies and getting oxygen to our cells (think increased energy, among other things). The amount of nitric oxide in our body also influences our weight, our immune function, our sexual function and even our moods.
Breathing through our nose can boost nitric oxide sixfold, which is one of the reasons we can absorb about 18 percent more oxygen when we breathe through our nose instead of our mouth (4).
Additional benefits (of many) include the fact that our noses remove a significant amount of germs and bacteria from the air we breath in, and breathing through our nose enhances physical performance during exercise.
So what to do?
This is where things get a little complicated, but there is hope.
Mouth taping
If you are fortunate, this might be all you need. It sounds scary, but is really quite simple. Many people have cured their snoring and breathing problems (including some apnea events) with mouth taping, and doctors have helped rehabilitate their patients who had swallowing and breathing disorders.
Note that when the nose is denied regular use, it atrophies, and nasal obstruction can ensue. Basically, use it or lose it. Fortunately, it can come back to life, often with mouth taping, although for some it may take a bit of time and patience.
For James Nestor, it took three nights to get back on track from his supervised mouth breathing experiment (although he had to do more than just mouth taping for his chronic mouth breathing); for Ann Kearney, a doctor of speech-language pathology at the Stanford Voice and Swallowing Centre, it took six weeks. But she swears by mouth taping and helps many of her patients using that method.
So… do I just tape up my mouth with masking tape?
Nestor spoke to many "mouth tapers", and learned that there is no one perfect way to apply mouth tape (or “sleep tape”, as it’s often referred to). Rather, it’s a personal preference. He conducted his own “self study” (there is a very funny account of his experience in the book) and felt that all anyone really needs is a postage-stamp size piece of tape at the centre of the lips. And after much “trial and error,” he settled for 3M Nexcare Durapor durable cloth tape. I will leave in your hands.
You can check out this link for more information on mouth taping.
And what if that doesn’t work?
Sleep apnea and snoring, asthma and ADHD - they are all linked to some type of obstruction in the mouth (5). Obviously, mouth taping will not solve all of these problems. That’s because one of the core issues of mouth breathers is that their mouth is too small for their face.
Yup. A bit more complicated.
But before you raise your arms in dismay, thinking there is no hope, know that there very much is hope. Just ask James. It's just a "bit" more involved than mouth taping. Having said that, I’m not going to be the one guiding you on this. Rather, this is where I take a step back and suggest you read The Oxygen Advantage or Breath for further information. They are both excellent books, although I will say that Breath is a much easier (and dare I say fun) read. But it’s not nearly as technical or science based as the other.
Healing your body - deep breathing vs shallow breathing
I wanted to end on a more positive note, and very briefly touch on an area of breathing which can help reduce stress in the body and brain.
Healing only happens when the body is in a parasympathetic state (rest and digest). The best way to achieve that is through deep, diaphragmatic breathing (think belly breathing).
Unfortunately, most of us are shallow breathers (especially true for mouth breathers), which means we only breath into our upper chest, engaging our sympathetic nervous system (stress / fight or flight).
On average, we tend to breathe 12-18x/minute, whereas in a perfect world, we would be breathing five to six times per minute. Think about that! It's not easy. If you try, be sure to breathe as much as you can into your abdomen, vs your chest - it's not about puffing up your chest. Even slowing your breathing down a few times a day to the five to six minute pace (ie - when you are driving, walking, etc), is helpful to get your body into a more relaxed state.
Again, this is not new science. Some of the world’s oldest practices, such as yoga, tai chi and qui gong, are all focused around breathing.
A quick relaxing technique called The “Physiological Sigh”
One way you can quickly get to a relaxed state is following Andrew Huberman’s suggestion of the physiological sigh. This is a pattern of breathing that was founded by physiologists in the 30s, and recently rediscovered.
It consists of a double inhale, followed by an extended exhale. Interestingly enough, it’s something we do automatically when we (children especially) are sobbing inconsolably. The reason it works so well to relax us is that it gets rid of a whole lot of CO2 all at once (stress involves a buildup of CO2 in our bloodstream).
Here’s what to do:
Breath in deeply through your nose (into your belly as much as possible) – almost as much as you can take in
Then take another breath on top of that, again through your nose – basically sneaking a little more air in on top of the first big breath
Then release in an extended exhale, either through your nose or mouth
Andrew’s laboratory research has shown that just one, two or three of these physiological sighs can bring your levels of stress down very fast.
Summary
I have just scratched the surface here – there is so much incredible research available regarding all the different types of breathing techniques (Wim Hof is probably the most well known one at the moment) and the many positive health benefits they can provide (and breathing is free!) . But I will save that for another day. In the meantime, the above two mentioned books are great resources should you want to delve into this subject further.
I hope this has been helpful!
Stay healthy and breathe well :)
Gillian xx
PS - if you need help navigating anything to do with nutrition, sleep, cognitive health, stress management or ways to incorporate more movement into your life, reach out for a free 30 minute Discovery call. I'd love to connect.
(1) McKeown, P. (2015). The Oxygen Advantage. HarperCollins Publishers.
(2) Nestor, J. (2020). Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Riverhead Books.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
Disclaimer: the information provided on the site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a medical professional if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.