Summer is reaching its height and the heat is on! It’s more crucial now than ever to understand why MOUTH BREATHING IS BAD! Using the mouth end of the digestive tract to breathe is the equivalent of living through summer in central Florida without using air conditioning. Yes, you can live like that, but what’s your quality of life when you don’t use the AC as the thermostat registers 90 degrees with 90% humidity and a heat index of 105? Life is HARD like that! It is uncomfortable like that! We cannot “breathe easy” under those circumstances. Using the nose to breathe is equivalent to using the human body’s natural, built-in air conditionIng.
Breathing in and out of the nose, or nasal breathing, “conditions” the air before it comes into contact with the delicate mucous membranes of the bronchia and alveoli. There are several mechanisms at work in nasal breathing that condition the air which do not exist in mouth breathing. Some easy anatomy can help us understand how nasal breathing conditions the air we breathe, creating a better overall life.
Since we already have mentioned summer heat, let’s talk about air temperature. When we breathe in through the nose, hot (or cold) air from the outside environment gets temperature regulated to closer match internal body temperature before the air reaches the delicate respiratory tissues.This does not happen in mouth breathing where cold (or hot) air goes directly into the lungs and we can feel it, sometimes painfully when it’s very cold air.
As the air enters the nose, it must first pass through the cilia, tiny little hairs that line the inside of the nose, not the mouth. These tiny hairs do many things to condition the air we breathe, including helping make the air closer to body temperature before it enters the lungs. We can think of cilia almost like a body-temperature shag rug that the air goes through: the warm air becomes cooler (or hotter) — closer to body temperature as it passes touches huge surface area of the hairs of the rug. It’s like an AC filter only in the case of the human air conditioning system, the cilia/filter also adjusts some of the temperature. When we breathe in hot air through our nose, the cilia help to cool the air before it enters the body, therefore it cools us in comparison to the outside temperature. Breathing in through the mouth because it’s hot out, only makes us hotter on the inside. Dogs are biologically designed to pant to blow off heat. Humans are not the same as dogs.
The Nose is a Natural Filter. The Mouth is Not.
Not only can nasal breathing change air temperature, it also acts as a filter. The cilia in the nose grab onto dirt, dust, pollen, viruses, bacteria and various pathogens before they can enter the lungs. Breathing in through the mouth offers no filter. Sand, airborne mites, pollution, pollens, anything in the air goes directly into the lungs when we breathe in through the mouth. Some people acquire so much ”obstruction” in the bottom of their lungs over time that it can become difficult to breathe at all. X-rays tell the tale of lungs slowly filling up with junk throughout one’s life, diminishing lung capacity available for air and making it harder to breathe overall. The nose is a natural filter. The mouth is not.
A third way nasal breathing conditions the air we breathe is by slowing it down. An open-mouth breath draws in a larger volume of air quickly and directly into the lungs. When we are breathing really hot or really cold air in and out, the sheer velocity of abrasive temperatures can damage delicate structures, like pressure washing a Rain Lilly. When air enters by way of the nose, it is forced through cilia and narrowing passageways that curve and bend, all of which slows the air down and conditions it in a variety of ways. Nasal breathing is a gentle breeze to the lungs, not hurricane force winds.
Nasal breathing also creates better bio-chemistry. We all naturally produce nitric oxide in our nasal passages. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator that opens vascular tissues allowing for greater blood flow, oxygenation, lower heart rates and overall temperature regulation in heat. Basically, breathing in through the nose stimulates the production of nitric oxide which causes easier blood flow to all of the body and in the process can help cool us. Humming also increases nitric oxide and is now being used in some respiratory and mindbody therapies.
There’s anecdotal and sports medicine research that has proven it’s better to breathe through the nose than mouth when exercising. On September 29, 2022, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge did something considered impossible as hundreds looked on by running a marathon in under 2 hours: 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds. He was not granted the world record because it was a non-sanctioned race. He ran the entire 26.2 miles with his mouth closed. He trained that way on purpose to get better times by creating better carbon dioxide tolerance in his body.
If we are exercising so hard that we are panting through our mouths, especially in heat or cold, in the long run we are causing more damage to our delicate internal systems than we are helping ourselves. It’s recommended even for us mere mortals who don’t aspire to break world records, to exercise only to the point that we can breathe through the nose or carry on a conversation without panting or straining. Because mouth breathing over and over and over again, is bad!!! Nasal breathing creates better carbon dioxide tolerance which leads to peak human performance, be it physical or mental performance. Top athletes know and utilize this and so can you. SHUT YOUR MOUTH! It’s that simple.
That said, there is a time and place for everything. There is a time when inhaling through the mouth is more beneficial than through the nose. We take in a greater volume of air through the larger opening of the mouth than is possible to take in through the nose at the same rate of speed. When we hold our breath to go underwater, we almost all take that big inhale through our mouth. If we have to take in a large volume of air rather quickly because life depends on it, doing that will not harm us but save us. Some forms of breath work use open-mouth breathing but this is a consciously controlled form for breathing, not an unconscious habit.
When we yawn, it’s in and out of the mouth. Before we yell, we inhale through the mouth. There is nothing inherently wrong with breathing in and/or out through the mouth when needed, for a specific purpose. It is of course better to breathe through the mouth than to not breathe at all. When it’s difficult for whatever reason to nasal breathe, thank goodness we have another option. But to unconsciously breathe our every-day breaths in and out of the mouth is not healthy at all.
We’ve talked about the inhale a lot, but what about the exhale? Is exhaling through the mouth a bad habit too? Basically, yes, when it’s done unconsciously with every breath we take. Because breathing is an autonomic function, a reflex, we don’t have to think about it. So a lot of us are unaware of how we breathe. We don’t even realize we’re mouth breathing until maybe we drool a little. I can say that because I did it!! I caught myself mouth breathing because I started to drool!
Every time we breathe out of the mouth we release water vapor. When that same exhale is through the mouth, water vapor exits the body into the outside air. When that exhale is through the nose, the cilia catch the water vapor and keep it retained within the body. It would be accurate to say that a mouth exhale dehydrates us a little while a nasal exhale does not. We can even see it with our eyes in very cold weather. The nasal exhale is barely visible but the mouth exhale is like fog coming out of the mouth; it’s water vapor leaving the body.
Does this mean it’s healthier to stifle an open-mouthed yawn? Of course not! Sometimes the mindbody energy needs a reset and a yawn can provide that. Several of my college biology professors told me yawning was an indication that the body needs more oxygen. Yet time and time again I see people who’ve just used qigong breathing techniques to hyper-oxygenate themselves unwind into big, open-mouthed, relaxing yawns. For this reason, I believe the explantaion of my qigong and tai chi instructors instead of the college biology professors. Several of my teachers have said that in Chinese Medicine, it’s known that a yawn is the energetic system doing a “system reboot.” This makes sense to me based on what I’ve personally experienced and witnessed countless times in others. The unseen breath is what directly connects us to our unseen energetic systems. So it is the breath of the yawn that is biologically used to reset them.
If the wisdom of the body tells us to yawn, don’t suppress the wisdom! Let the yawn out! But if possible, it is healthiest for us humans to breathe through the nose. So much can be said about this one subject of mouth breathing. . . We haven’t even touched on snoring and sleep apnea, to name just a few aspects that might be affecting your life. If you are interested in learning more not only about nasal versus mouth breathing but all aspects of breathing from a very human and personal perspective, I highly recommend James Nestor’s best-selling book Breath The New Science of the Lost Art. (No, I don’t get a kickback for that. I just really value the book!)
#1 Take away: SHUT YOUR MOUTH! We have to rehabituate ourselves if we have become chronic mouth breathers. The simple method I used to become more aware of this usually unconscious biological act, was to to tie a red string around my wrist. When I did this years ago I was trying to become more aware of my breathing. I figured if I was lucky (red is lucky in Chinese traditions and others) every time I saw the string I would notice if and how I was breathing. The information I received about myself from that tiny little string changed my world forever in sooooo many ways that I eventually had to write my own book about how breath awareness has upgraded my life.
When we learn how to breathe consciously, mindfully instead of exclusively using an unconscious breath, we become for conscious, more aware. The breath is the key to the magical, mysterious, unseen in us. Thanks for reading. Thanks for shutting your mouth and breathing easier. And if interested, thanks for buying my book, Surfing the Sea of Chi, on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or locally at Another Ride Surf Shop and South Patrick Paperbacks, Satellite Beach.
May you always breathe easy.