Exerpts from "Mind, Body, and Sport" by John Douillard
"Humans come into this world as nose breathers. We are "obligate nose breathers," to be scientific, which means we do not possess the voluntary ability to breath through our mouths. Mouth breathing is a learned response triggered by emergency stress."
He goes on to talk about how babies breathe through their nose until they get a cold and can no longer breathe through their nose, they panic, then what do they do?? They cry, "which forces air through the mouth and into the lungs".
"The survival response triggers certain emergency fight-or-flight receptors in the upper lobes of the lungs, which help the infant deal with extreme stress. Also , the lower lobes of the lungs are an abundance of parasympathetic nervous system receptors. When activated with nasal breathing, they calm the mind and rejuvenate the body."
"Thus it is from an early age we are conditioned so that under the first sign of stress, including exercise stress later in life, we shift into our emergency mode of breathing - through the mouth."
He goes on to state that most people breathe through the mouth and in doing so limit their breathing mainly to the chest. "Chest breathing fills the middle and upper portions of the lungs but doesn't efficiently engage the blood-rich lower lobes...... For chest breathing to supply enough oxygen, both breathing and heart rate must be faster." You may think, so what, I can't breathe well through my nose so I have to breathe through my mouth. This is what he has to say: "This shallow breathing soon becomes a way of life, causing the following:
- Activates upper-chest stress receptors (that can actually stimulate a fight or flight form of arousal)
- Activation of stress receptors triggers the burning of sugar and storing of fat
- Denies access to the lower calming, oxygen rich lower lobes
- Compromises waste removal through lower lung breathing
- The ribs and chest become inflexible
- Compromise lymphatic drainage and circulation to the rib cage, breast, heart and lungs
- The thoracic spine, where the ribs attach, become stiff and rigid, which affects spinal biomechanics
- The diaphragm affects digestive function, contributing to indigestion, heartburn and hiatal hernias.
- Neck and shoulders become tight due to excessive upper-chest shallow breathing
- Sinuses become congested from discontinued use
- The sense of smell and taste is affected
- The cranial bones stay supple from nasal breathing and become stiff and rigid without it."
Wow and Yikes! I can tell you from having sinus issues of my own years ago that I breathed mostly through my mouth for years. I have a lot of the issues listed above. I've worked hard the last year to get flexibility back into my neck, shoulders and ribs through my thoracic. It's not easy. My nasal passages still feel a bit restricted but I can breathe through my nose now without feelings like I am going to suffocate. He recommends using Breathe Right strips in the beginning as they can "decrease nasal resistance by 30 percent". That's a pretty big number.
It's also fascinating that he states that most mammals that have the ability to cool themselves through sweating breathe through their mouths only in times of stress. When's the last time you saw a horse or a cow breathing through it's mouth? They're too busy using it to eat.
Diaphragmatic breathing on the other hand draws air down into the blood rich lower lobes. "There is a remarkable parallel in the calming and relaxing influence of deep, nasal, diaphragmatic breathing on a nursing infant, and on an athlete experiencing the runner's high during exercise."
Even if you are not an athlete, try to be conscious of how you breathe and what it is telling your body. Take some time out every day to take breaths deep into your belly and push it all the way out, especially right before you eat. We spend far too much time walking around holding our stomachs in and all this does is force the contents of your intestinal tract up which contributes to crappy motility and constipation.
Really, there's no reason not to work on this. Who doesn't have time to breathe? It's free.
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