7 Benefits of Breathing Through Your Nose

Breathing in provides oxygen, our main source of life.  Breathing out is one of the main ways to expel waste from our body.  Poor breathing can contribute to many health problems like high blood pressure, bad circulation, insomnia and more.

Poor breathing may even contribute to some forms of cancer: In 1931, Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for determining that only oxygen-starved cells will mutate and become cancerous.

Clearly, it is important to breathe properly! According to experts, many people only breathe at 10-20 percent of their full capacity.

Even though breathing is a 24-7 unconscious act we can put our attention on our breathing to make some positive changes.

Breathing properly increases the oxygen pumped into your bloodstream and expels more carbon dioxide, waste material, from the cells.  The result of better breathing is increased energy and better functioning of all your organs.

One of the best ways to improve your breathing is to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth.

7 Health Benefits of Nasal Breathing

Prepares The Air Before It Enters Your Body – When you breathe through your nose the air is moistened and cleaned before getting into your lungs. Your nose is the only organ able to properly prepare the air you breathe.  The nose is a miraculous filter lined with tiny hairs called cilia. The cilia have many functions: they filter, humidify and warm or cool the air. The sinuses produce nitric oxide (NO) which is harmful to bacteria viruses and other germs. When you breathe through your mouth you bypass this and more toxins get into your system.  The nitric oxide increases your lungs capacity to absorb oxygen.

Keeps You Calm –  When you are breathing through your nose you have to breathe more deeply.  Nasal breathing drives the oxygen into the lower lobes of the lungs where the calming nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system can be activated even while under stress. Though mouth breathing fills the upper chest quickly, only a little oxygen penetrates into the lower lobes of the lungs. If you are only taking shallow breaths the oxygen only goes into your upper lobes all day, you miss the 26,000 (how many breaths we take each day )opportunities to massage your heart and lungs, process CO2, and calm your nervous system.

More Efficient Utilization of Oxygen – The lungs are a primary source of our energy level. They extract oxygen from the air we breathe primarily on the exhale. Because the nostrils are smaller than the mouth, air exhaled through the nose creates back pressure when one exhales. It slows the air escape so the lungs have more time to extract oxygen from them. When there is proper oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange, the blood will maintain a balanced pH. If carbon dioxide is lost too quickly, as in mouth breathing, oxygen absorption is decreased.

Detoxification –  By breathing through your nose you get the oxygen into the lower lobes of the lungs which is where 60-80% of the blood-filled alveoli are. You are therefore clearing the waste from your blood more completely. The reason you huff and puff during exercise is that the upper lobes are less efficient at removing the CO2 waste.

Moves the Lymph Fluids  – This is what I consider to be the biggest reason to breathe through your nose. With deep, efficient nasal breathing especially during exercise, the rib cage acts as a lymphatic pump designed to move toxic waste out of the heart and lungs and pull toxic lymph from various parts of your body.

Reduces Your Chance of Getting a Cold – Lessening of the common cold is another good reason for nose breathing. The mucous (white blood cells that kill germs) membrane lining the nose extends all the way from the inner linings of the nostrils down the trachea to the bronchi then directly enters the lungs. Germs get caught and die in the mucus.

Improves Your Sleep – What you do during waking hours carries over into sleep. By consciously training yourself to do nose breathing when awake you will increase the chances of nose breathing during sleep, allowing you to have better sleep.

Put you Into Parasympathetic State – Nasal breathing is more than just a bodily function; it’s a pathway to presence, alignment, and inner harmony. When you breathe through your nose, you signal safety to your nervous system, enhance the life force (prana or chi) flowing through your body, and invite your body into the parasympathetic state—where true healing and manifestation occur.