The benefits of taking time out of your day to focus on your breath have been a powerful tool that has made yoga, meditation, and ancient breathing practices increasingly popular. But just like one hour in the gym can’t make up for being a couch potato for the rest of the day; one hour on the yoga mat can’t make up for 23 hours of poor breathing mechanics.

That’s where the nose comes in. If you experience breathlessness, heavy breathing, or a dry mouth in the morning, chances are that you are unconsciously breathing through your mouth.

Mouth vs. Nose Breathing

The mouth is designed for speaking, eating, and drinking. It is primarily part of the digestive system (1).

Mouth breathing is fast, shallow breathing, in the upper chest. Breathing this way triggers the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). It is your body’s mechanism to cope with high-stress situations and hard physical activity. However, nowadays, people live their normal lives mouth breathing, living in a constant state of fight or flight, otherwise known as stress.

Nose breathing, on the other hand, is slow and deep breathing in the belly. This triggers the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest), allowing your body and mind to feel relaxed and lower your heart rate.

With little hair and complex sinuses to humidify, filter, and warm the incoming air, your nose is primarily part of the respiratory system (2).

Is CO2 just a waste gas?

It is common knowledge that we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide (CO2).

One of the biggest misconceptions of breathing is that the more breaths we take, the more oxygen we will get. The oxygen may get into our lungs, but as we will see, this doesn’t mean it will get to where it is needed in the muscles and tissues we are using.

At rest, our body oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) will be around 95-100% (3). However, it will never go beyond this no matter how much air we breathe in. It’s like your phone battery - once it’s full, it’s full, and more charge is a waste of energy.

However, 99% Oxygen Saturation in the blood, doesn’t mean the oxygen will be where it is needed the most; in our tissues, vital organs, and the brain. For this, we need the presence of CO2.

CO2 acts as a catalyst to release the oxygen from its carrier in the blood, hemoglobin, into the tissues. It’s like the cable that connects the phone to the power supply. Therefore, when we mouth breathe, we exhale too much CO2 from our body, thus prevent the cable from being plugged in.

A decrease in CO2, causes the blood pH to increase and causes hemoglobin to keep the hold of oxygen. This is known as the Bohr Effect (4).

We're meant to breath through our noses

There’s a reason that we take our first breath as a baby through the nose; it’s how we’re designed to breathe (5). Let’s take a look at some of the benefits this simple change can make to your everyday life:

• Nose hairs filter dust, pollen, spores, viruses, and bacteria from entering your lungs (6).
• Breathin through the nose increases the body’s ability to utilize oxygen. Slower breathing means less CO2 is lost, and more oxygen is delivered to the tissues, as explained above in the Bohr effect.
• Nitric Oxide (NO) is produced in the nose and paranasal sinuses when NO reaches the lungs and is diffused into the capillaries of the surrounding alveoli. It dilates blood vessels and increases oxygen /CO2 exchange (7). This causes improved blood flow and lower blood pressure.
• Decreases dental cavities- A dry mouth caused by mouth breathing increases acidification and prevents saliva from protecting your teeth and gums (8).
• Reduces the risk of forwarding head posture. Mouth breathing causes the head to come forward to open up the airway due to the tongue not resting on the roof of the mouth as in nose breathing (9).
• Improved sleep- This means more energy for physical exercise and daily life (10).

If you need any more reasons to make the change from mouth to nose, just type ‘mouth breather’ into any search engine.

How to get started

So, now that you know the science, here are a few simple ways to add nose breathing into your daily routine:

Consciously be aware of how you breathe. Whenever you are not eating, speaking, drinking, or performing maximal intensity training, breathe through your nose.

Sleep with mouth tape (3M micropore). This is a game-changer if you are a snorer or wake up with a dry mouth. You’ll wake up with more energy and no drool on the pillow.

Add nose breathing into low aerobic exercise or warm-ups. Start slow, breathing through your nose during exercise feels like sucking air through a straw at first, but stick with it to reap the benefits. Start with walking and light jogging, then progress to more intense workouts.

References

1. Cleveland Clinic (2018). The strcture and function of the digestive system
2. Virtual Medical Care (2015). Anatomy and Physiology of the Nasal Cavity (Inner Nose) and Mucosa
3. Healthline (2019). Is My Blood Oxygen Level Normal?
4. Patel A. K., Benner A., Cooper J. S. (2019). Physiology, Bohr Effect. StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing, Treasure Island (FL), 2019.
5. Trabalon, M., & Schaal, B. (2012). It Takes a Mouth to Eat and a Nose to Breathe: Abnormal Oral Respiration Affects on Neonates’ Oral Competence and Systemic Adaptation. International Journal Of Pediatrics, 1-10.
6. Allen, R. (2015). The health benefits of nose breathing. Nursing in general practice, Jan. 15th, 2015.
7. Flanell, M. (2019). The Athlete’s Secret Ingredient: The Power of Nasal Breathing. EC Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine 8, 6, 471-475.
8. Choi, J., Waddell, J., Lyons, K., & Kieser, J. (2015). Intraoral pH and temperature during sleep with and without mouth breathing. Journal Of Oral Rehabilitation, 43, 5, 356-363.
9. Neiva P. D., Kirkwood R. N., Godinho R. (2009). Orientation and position of head posture, scapula and thoracic spine in mouth-breathing children. Int Journal of Pediatrical Otorhinolaryngol, 73, 2, 227‐236.
10. Souza, B. (2017). The quality of sleep modified by the mouth breathing syndrome can impair the athlete’s physical performance. Revista brasileira de odontologia, 74, 3, 225.

Photo credits: Simon Migaj