Nasal Breathing – What’s All the Fuss?

The art of nasal breathing can be retraced back hundreds of years ago.

Researchers have studied various tribes and ancient communities, noting that the dentition and facial skeleton of these individuals were far different from those of the modern world. When searching for why these communities appeared so structurally different from others, two major lifestyle characteristics were found – these individuals were predominantly nasal breathers and they ate foods that challenged their dentition, daily.

Nasal breathing, although seemingly low intensity, offers us thousands of opportunities throughout the day to strengthen our respiratory abilities. With each breath we force air against the tissues within the throat, widening the airways, and eventually training the surrounding muscles to remain wide open and allow airflow more easily.

Not only does nasal breathing strengthen our respiratory abilities, but it also can be protective against harmful bacteria. The alternative option, mouth breathing, creates congestion within the nasal cavity, and with congestion comes decreased blood flow. When we have a decreased blood flow, bacteria can live and replicate more easily, potentially leading to infection.

Nostril hair serves as a very important and eminent reminder of how humans were intended to breathe. The nostril hair warms and purifies the air we breathe, unlike our mouths. It serves as our first barrier to the external environment and bypassing this natural barrier is a missed oppourtunity to protect ourselves from harmful pathogens.

Nasal breathing can:

• Calm the nervous system

• Prevent the growth of harmful oral bacteria

• Decrease heart rate and respiration rate

• Increase focus and decrease anxiety

• Increase blood flow

Some additional ways we can reap similar benefits of nasal breathing includes:

• Tongue scraping, which serves to remove excess particles from food and drinks to prevent harmful bacterial colonization.

• Chewing and exercising our mastication muscles to increase the bone density of the facial skeleton, positively influencing the bones that aid our respiratory system, potentially through the use of a probiotic gum.

• My personal favourite, mouth taping at night to ensure we are nasal breathing for several consecutive hours. This helps prevent dry mouth and bacterial colonization in the oral cavity, as well as increases our nitric oxide levels that are responsible for providing the plethora of positive health benefits we see from nasal breathing.

Remember, some change is better than none. Give nasal breathing or any of these other suggestions a try and see what works best for you!