The Importance of Nose Breathing and Why It Affects You
Discover the pros and cons of nose breathing vs mouth breathing
This has been mostly overlooked in the decades of old but with science discovering the connections to more recent problems such as smaller jaws, overcrowded mouths, shallower mouth pallets, allergies, deviated septum’s, snoring, sleep apnea, overstimulated nervous systems, and less effective breathing patterns, we are beginning to see the importance of why nose breathing vs mouth breathing is so important.
It’s pretty wild to think that all of these conditions can be related to something as simple as breathing through the mouth instead of the nose, but there’s now scientific evidence that holds up to this line of questioning. There are even historical records that show the timeline of how the human skull has been adapting over the centuries with some fascinating findings.
I’m not going to go into all of the different causes and cases here, that’s another rabbit hole for another time, but what I would like to do is to share a few examples of when it changed and the effects that have been felt since then so we can perhaps move towards an understanding that creates new/old habits.
The nose, after all, if not used, starts to lose its function so keeping it active is key for its functionality. It’s similar to any other muscle in our body: keep it worked and it will work for you.
The nose as a technology is an incredibly strong, delicately poised, and beautifully designed instrument that filters waste and toxins on the way in, and cools the surrounding air to enter for the most nutritious and rich air to fill us up with.
The nose also moderates the amount of air we can breathe in so to not overload us with too much oxygen. The mouth, on the other hand, takes in lots more oxygen without filtering the environment in which it was breathed in and pumps all of that around our body much faster than it’s normally used to.
To read more on why too much oxygen is bad for us, you can read my blog The Oxygen Paradox here.
Modern day problems
Have you ever had teeth problems? Braces? Wisdom teeth removed? Fillings? Cavities? Do you have an overbite or an underbite? Do you snore? Or have trouble breathing through your nose? Do you know someone that does? Well, it turns out that these cases are on the rise and have been for some time.
You might have been taught that these conditions are hereditary; conditions passed on from your parents, or your grandparents who also had these same conditions, so it was considered ‘just the luck of the draw’. But there’s new evidence that suggests otherwise.
There’s pretty strong evidence nowadays to say that it’s grounded in lifestyle choices more so than genetics, so although you may have inherited a plethora of conditions from your ancestral line, these conditions aren’t life sentences. And more interestingly, there’s evidence now that points more towards the lifestyle in which you were raised, or are continuing to live in, that signals to these cells (these dormant or active conditions) to turn on, so they do. The activation of cancer cells is a great example of this.
Over thousands of years human jawlines have been shrinking. One study accredits this to when humans started using tools more so our teeth were needed less. And with the introduction to wildly different diets from those of the past, our jaws have become smaller.
But however small they may become, crooked teeth that are full of cavities might be as much a part of the food we eat and the lifestyle choices we make and less about our evolutionary line. And if these conditions are a by-product of the choices we make, we can choose again.
The next few paragraphs are taken from an interesting article that Adam Hadhazy wrote for Stanford News. He drew inspiration from Paul Ehrlich’s and Sandra Kahn’s book — Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Pandemic which covers this in great detail.
… profound physiological changes can occur in human populations over short intervals, purely as a result of environmental factors, such as dietary choices and cultural norms. For instance, since World War II, a switchover from heavy rice consumption to more dairy and protein in childhood has been linked to Japanese men gaining around 5 inches in average adult height.
“A genetic contribution to a trait, if there is one, does not necessarily sentence you to a life with that trait.” — Feldman
… available evidence points to the jaws epidemic arising as humanity underwent sweeping behavioral changes with the advent of agriculture, sedentism (settling in one place for extended periods) and industrialization. One obvious factor is the softening of diets, especially with the relatively recent invention of processed foods. Also, less chewing is needed nowadays to extract adequate nutrition — our ancestors certainly did not enjoy the sustentative luxury of slurping down protein shakes.”
Another interesting factor could be poor oral posture. I didn’t even know that this could be a thing but the way we breathe changes the position and the positioning of our mouth, our tongue, how we swallow, and then how we sleep. One study points to the evolution of comfort in human lifestyles and none more evident than in the beds we sleep in. Certainly, our ancestors didn’t have memory foam mattresses, or fluffy pillows to sleep on, and because of this their skeletal structure might have stayed more rigid because of it.
This study poses the idea that fluffy pillows may cause our mouths to fall open which during such a time of regeneration and healing that sleep provides, could have changed the way our mouths have developed.
If this is true, this could all play a key part in how the mouth, the jawline, the tissues, and the nerves grow. And as we’re ever-evolving beings, a line of bad oral posture has sent one line of evolution spiraling towards yet more bad oral posture since the measures taken above were put in place and the consequences thereafter have been felt by the generations that have followed.
I’m not suggesting that we all sleep on rocks but more how to live in a world where all of this comfort is beneficial to us, and not blindly damaging because I love comfort as much as the next person, so this stuff is important.
The good news
The cool and exciting part about this data is that we seemingly have a choice, and we get to pass on this information to the generations that follow to have a choice too. Having skewed teeth, braces and cavities may not need to be a rite of passage through childhood anymore (thank God!) but we must learn to adapt our lifestyles first.
2 big changes in lifestyle
- Diet
- Breathing habits
We all know about diet nowadays, or at least know that too much sugar causes cavities, processed foods cause soft jaws and cancerous cells to turn on, GMO foods don’t have as many nutrients as organic foods, etc.. This talk is more familiar than the lesser-known habits of our breathing patterns.
I won’t dive into diet changes here as there are lots of other people that know far more than I do and can advise you in much more detail than I ever could. But I have experienced, learned and discovered many things about the breath and its importance, so I focus on these areas instead.
Relating it to the breath
Anything that we choose to do becomes the life we live or our lifestyle. So, if we’re looking to change our lifestyle for more health, creating a structure whereby we create routine (our bodies love routine!), we can then turn that routine into a lifestyle change that lasts.
AND, as we’re talking about such an important and fundamental lifestyle change that’s affected by breathing, what better way than to work directly with the breath?
To learn more about breathing techniques that support nose breathing and that help create healthy breathing habits, click here to discover more.