You might not think too much about your breathing. As long as your quality of air is (relatively) clean, you probably do not pay much attention to how or how often you breathe. But, you should! After all, the performance of your lungs and the rest of your body rely solely on the air you inhale. Yet, the path by which air enters your body—through your nose or your mouth—tremendously affects your overall health.

Breathing - an introduction

Everyone knows that breathing is as essential to life as water. However, not everyone knows what invaluable services breathing provides. When you inhale, you take in air that is automatically directed to your lungs via the trachea. Your lungs contain channels called bronchi that branch off the trachea and carry that air to smaller branches called bronchioles. These bronchioles are covered in fluid-filled sacs called alveoli that actually extract oxygen from the air and put it in your bloodstream for delivery to the rest of your body. As a matter of fact, the alveoli also pick up waste products such as carbon dioxide from your blood to be eliminated from the body via exhalation. And all this occurs during one inhalation/exhalation cycle!

Your Mouth is for eating — your Nose is for breathing!

Considering how important oxygen is to your survival, do you not want access to the cleanest air possible? Well, that clean air comes through your nose and not your mouth. Amazingly, the nose is a built-in filter and humidifier for your body. Its nasal passages contain tiny hairs that capture dust and other foreign agents that you do not want to take in. Meanwhile, the path from your nose to your lungs is longer than the path from your mouth to your lungs, so the air has more time to warm up from your natural body temperature. This humidifying also serves to destroy potentially harmful pathogens. As an added bonus, the nasal passages produce a special gas called nitric oxide, which dilates both your bronchioles and blood vessels. This means that nitric oxide makes your lungs and bloodstream more receptive to absorbing and transporting oxygen. Additionally, as a backup to nasal humidifying, nitric oxide destroys germs including bacteria and viruses.

Mouth Breathing?… perhaps not

Unfortunately, breathing through your mouth puts you at risks greater than illness or poor oxygen absorption. Some potential health hazards of mouth breathing are:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Dehydration
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• High blood pressure
• Increased heart rate
• Physical development issues in children
• Poor posture
• Sleep apnea and snoring

These conditions can develop with mouth breathing, because your body cannot efficiently balance oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. Oxygen and carbon dioxide have a delicate relationship that drive not only your respiratory system, but also your cardiovascular, digestive, and nervous systems.

Calm down and take a breath

Mouth breathing is often an unconscious act caused by overexertion due to exercise, stress, or even fatigue. The best solution to this is to start nose breathing lightly, yet consciously, every day. And rather quickly, your body will both adapt and thank you. You can also ‘Ask a Naturopath’ for guidance along the way.