<\/p>
Breathing through your nose has long been considered superior to breathing through your mouth. \u2018Mouth-breather\u2019 has been used as an insult for a stupid person<\/a> since at least 1915, and people who do it are sometimes said to be unattractive. But while training yourself to breathe through the nose might not make you beautiful and smart, it could have very real impacts on your health, from your teeth to your fitness.<\/p>\n We spoke to science journalist James Nestor on the Instant Genius <\/em>podcast<\/a>. He\u2019s the author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art<\/em>, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021. He explained why we\u2019re the \u201cworst breathers in the animal kingdom\u201d, what mouth-breathing does to your health, and how you can train yourself to breathe through your nose.<\/p>\n Our body takes care of our breathing automatically, so you\u2019d think we\u2019d default to breathing in the way that\u2019s best for us. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not necessarily the case. \u201cEvery time we need to breathe, we do it unconsciously. But the problem is, we could be doing it improperly or inefficiently, and that could be our habit,\u201d says Nestor. \u201cAnd then we carry this habit around with us our whole lives, and we can suffer from some very serious health consequences if we aren\u2019t breathing correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n Even worse, this seems to be a uniquely human problem. \u201cWe are the worst breathers in the animal kingdom,\u201d says Nestor. \u201cThat\u2019s quite a claim. But if you don\u2019t believe me, go into the wild and look at how animals are breathing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at primates, they breathe into their stomachs. They breathe very fluidly, very calmly. If you look at a cheetah running at 100 kilometres an hour, it is breathing through its nose very calmly.\u201d<\/p>\n Even our ancestors breathed differently to us. We can look at the skulls of ancient people and compare their facial structures to ours, with surprising results.<\/p>\n \u201cI was invited to go to the University of Pennsylvania to the Morton Collection<\/a>, which is the largest collection of pre-industrial skulls in the world. Thousands and thousands of these things; skulls from Africa, from Asia, from South America, from Polynesia, all over the place,\u201d said Nestor.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd every single one of them had perfectly straight teeth. So, crooked teeth is a modern problem. And the first thing you ask is, well, why do we have crooked teeth? We have crooked teeth because our mouths have grown so small. And when our mouths have grown so small, teeth have nowhere to grow in straight, so they grow in crooked. With that small mouth, you also have a smaller airway and the breathing and respiratory problems that come with that.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more about animals\u2019 breathing:<\/strong><\/p>\n You might think that air is air, and as long as we\u2019re getting enough of it into our bodies, it doesn\u2019t make a difference how we breathe it. But that\u2019s not entirely true \u2013 the mechanics of breathing mean that air that came in through the nose is different from air from the mouth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why this is so important is because when you breathe through the nose, you are forcing air through all of these very intricate structures. And as that air is forced through these structures, it\u2019s heated up, it\u2019s humidified, it\u2019s pressurised, and it\u2019s filtered,\u201d Nestor says. \u201cSo, that air, when it gets to your lungs, can be so much more easily uploaded into your bloodstream.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can extract about 20 per cent more oxygen breathing through our noses than we can equivalent breaths through our mouths.\u201d That\u2019s no small difference, especially when you\u2019re exercising. A 1996 study showed that breathing exclusively through the nose during exercise not only lowers your breathing, but also significantly increases your endurance<\/a>. And on top of that, you might even feel more comfortable doing it: participants felt like they were exerting themselves less.<\/p>\n The nose\u2019s filtration system also plays an important role in your immune system. First, air passes the nasal hairs in your nostrils, which capture pollen and other allergens. A study published in 2011 showed that hay fever sufferers with a greater density of nasal hairs were less likely to develop asthma<\/a>.<\/p>\n The air then passes into the nasal cavity, which is lined with mucus and hair-like filters called cilia. These collect dust, soot, debris and even bacteria. \u201cThe nose is our first line of defence, including against viruses and bacteria,\u201d Nestor says.<\/p>\n Some people who breathe through the mouth do so because of severe damage to the nose, such as a deviated septum or nasal polyps. If that\u2019s the case, talk to your doctor. They may be able to recommend treatments such as surgery or steroids, depending on the cause.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for the vast majority of us, it comes down to a habit,\u201d says Nestor. \u201cOur nose will respond to what is given to it. So, our noses are covered with erectile tissue, so this tissue will flex, it will flex open, and it will flex closed. The more you breathe through the mouth, the more this tissue is going to stay closed. The more you start breathing through the nose, the more this tissue opens.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a \u2018use it or lose it\u2019 organ.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re already losing it, you can get it back, using it won\u2019t be easy at first. \u201cIt\u2019s miserable usually for four weeks or even months. But once you make it over that hump, as we\u2019ve seen time and time again, performance often increases, recovery decreases, and you\u2019re able to function so much more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n During the day, training your breathing is easy enough: when you notice yourself breathing through the mouth, make a conscious effort to close your mouth and breathe through the nose instead. Nose-breathing while you sleep, however, is a different matter.<\/p>\n One thing you can try is to place a small piece of surgical tape over your lips when you go to bed. \u201cI was told by a Stanford researcher that she prescribes this to all of her patients,\u201d says Nestor. \u201cThe technology is pretty simple, but it is absolutely transformative to my sleep. And this is the one thing that I\u2019ve heard from literally thousands of people that this is the biggest hack that they\u2019ve had for their health.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure whether you\u2019re a mouth-breather at night, pay attention to whether you wake up with a dry mouth. If you need to drink a lot of water, or you have bad breath in the morning, it might be because you\u2019re breathing through your mouth. Snoring can also be an effect of mouth-breathing, so ask a partner if they\u2019ve heard you.<\/p>\n The biggest effect of mouth-breathing at night is the impact it can have on the quality of your sleep. You could consider using a tracker to measure your sleep quality to make sure you\u2019re not missing out on vital rest.<\/p>\n James is a science journalist who has written for Scientific American<\/em>, Outside Magazine<\/em>, BBC<\/em>, The New York Times<\/em>, The Atlantic<\/em>,\u00a0National Public Radio<\/em>, The San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>, Surfer\u2019s Journal<\/em>, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n He is the author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art<\/em><\/a>, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize.<\/p>\n Read more about breathing:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n By Sara Rigby Published: Sunday, 23 January 2022 at 12:00 am Breathing through your nose has long been considered superior to breathing through your mouth. \u2018Mouth-breather\u2019 has been used as an insult for a stupid person since at least 1915, and people who do it are sometimes said to be unattractive. But while training yourself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":5731,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/01\/mouth-breathing-why-its-bad-for-you-and-how-to-stop.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Sara Rigby Published: Sunday, 23 January 2022 at 12:00 am Breathing through your nose has long been considered superior to breathing through your mouth. \u2018Mouth-breather\u2019 has been used as an insult for a stupid person since at least 1915, and people who do it are sometimes said to be unattractive. But while training yourself…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/5730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why does it matter how we breathe?<\/h2>\n
Why is it better to breathe through the nose?<\/h2>\n
Can you train yourself to breathe through the nose?<\/h2>\n
About our expert, James Nestor<\/h4>\n
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