How you breathe - can make or break your health!

• Breathing through your nose can lower blood pressure whereas through your mouth will raise blood pressure.

• Proper breathing increases sexual stamina and satisfaction – it’s directly related to Erectile Dysfunction

• Endurance athletes – solely by learning to breathe slowly in and out of the nose can cut total exertion in HALF! and increase endurance.

• You can manipulate your physiology via ‘Nasal Cycles’ - by breathing solely through your right or left nostril. You can make the body hyped or relaxed in just a few minutes. (If you’re up for trying this, I share how and why at the end of this newsletter)

If you’re curious, below are 4 things about breathing that will make your life better. 🥳

#1 - Breathing properly through your nose and not your mouth leads to longevity and fewer diseases.

A few months back, I read a book called Breath by James Nestor. I was on a plane next to my wife and felt inspired to start trying what I was reading about. She thought I had absolutely lost my mind. But I gotta tell you I felt like I was floating in the clouds and in just 5 minutes realized I had lived my entire life with NO clue how to breathe properly.

Nestor makes the case as to why breathing and how we breathe, how often, how much, how fast, and how slow – all directly result in longevity or shorter lifespan – higher or lower blood pressure, chronic disease, optimal health and so much more. Breathing through your nose instead of your mouth will improve health and longevity.

So many of us have become mouth breathers – especially at night with our sleep apnea epidemic. Nestor in his book goes back as to how this came to be – and makes the argument it all began when we started eating soft and increasingly processed food – which don’t require chewing and thus weaken all the muscles around how we breathe. The argument is made that chewing releases stem cells, increases bone density, and makes us look younger. Some studies even show that babies show a much lower incidence of crooked teeth and snoring if they were breastfed longer than those who were bottle-fed.

Mouth breathing changes the physiological makeup of the body and mouth and teeth and changes our airways and the muscles and makeup of them – all leading to poor health. I never thought anything of it but Genesis 2:7 says God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam - interesting it’s so specific.

When we breathe through our mouth it decreases pressure, which causes the soft tissues in the back of the mouth to become loose and flex inward creating less space and making breathing more difficult.

Inhaling from the nose does the opposite – it forces air against those flabby tissues at the back of your throat, making the airways wider and breathing easier. After a while, those muscles get toned to stay in the open and wide position – which makes it easier and easier to breathe through your nose.  

We all know whether it is us or someone we sleep with – that snoring is tough to be around. 1 in 4 of us over the age of 30 choke on ourselves any given night due to sleep apnea. There’s a 2013 Japanese study that showed that mouth breathing delivered a disturbance of oxygen to the prefrontal cortex – where personality, decision-making, ADHD and so much more are related. One remedy suggested is the new craze of mouth tape – I tried this one – and though I’m not sure I need it all the time – I will say I woke up a few mornings with what seemed like being more refreshed.

One other thing - for those who wake up to pee through the night – there is evidence that it’s because you aren’t sleeping deeply enough – that you aren’t breathing through the nose and the resulting vasopressin release and production by the pituitary isn’t happening – because if it is – the body doesn’t need to dump excess liquid through the bladder and kidneys.

#2 - How to Breathe

Exhalation doesn’t get the credit it deserves. When we inhale – slowly – negative pressure draws blood into the heart and when we exhale – slowly – blood shoots back out into the heart and lungs – full of oxygen. It’s shown clearly that health is not so much how much oxygen we are breathing in but instead – how much carbon dioxide is flowing through our bloodstream! The best way to boost this – is to breathe through the nose – slowly – and exhale as slowly as you can. A challenge – can you breathe out for twice as long as you breathe in? The effects on asthma with this for example – are mind-blowing.

Just as much as we have become a culture of overeaters, we have become a culture of ‘over breathers’ – breathing too much and incorrectly.

Slow breathing aka ‘resonant breathing’ – breathing slower – 5.5 seconds in and the same amount of time out is shown to put the body in peak efficiency – more blood to the brain and heart and optimizes the activity of the circulatory nervous systems. Good upright posture while we breathe is also important.

One ancient Chinese practice was to put a feather under the nose and the goal was for the feather not to move on inhale or exhale – this visual stuck with me.

#3 - Huffing and Puffing

Nestor describes how the interior of the nose is lined with erectile tissue – the same kind that covers the penis, clitoris, and nipples. The science shows how the nose is more intimately connected to the genitals than any other organ.

When we breathe through our nose – air coming through our sinuses causes a release of nitric oxide into the bloodstream - which helps improve blood circulation. The immune system, weight, circulation, mood, and optimal sexual function are all influenced by breathing properly – through the nose.

Viagra’s sole function is to cause a release of nitric oxide into the bloodstream which opens capillaries in the genitals and elsewhere. It may also be good to know why one side effect of Viagra is nasal congestion – all that erectile tissue in the nose.

Nasal breathing alone can boost nitric oxide by 600%! Take that Pfizer. 😂

#4 - Breath and Longevity

In the 1980s, the Framingham Study – a 70-year longitudinal study - showed that lung capacity was THE GREATEST indicator of longevity. I don’t know why I hadn’t heard this before.

Takeaways:

• Try to take a few minutes each day ideally morning and night to slowly breathe in and out through your nose. You may find lower stress and more enjoyable sleep by just taking a few minutes to slowly breathe.

• Oh and if you want to try the Nasal Cycles thing. I’ve played with it a few times and think there is definitely something there. Here’s the science on it: The right nostril is the gas pedal, and the left slows everything down. Breathing through the right activates the sympathetic nervous system – the fight or flight response. The left is more of a brake – it activates the parasympathetic nervous system – the rest and relax that lowers blood pressure, cools the body, and reduces anxiety. Get this – left nostril breathing shifts blood flow to the opposite side of the pre-frontal cortex – to the area that influences creative thought. To try it you just use a finger over each nostril and press it closed.

My Favorite Links this Week:

• Here’s a link to one of the most exciting podcasts Annette and I have ever done - on Friendship

• Here’s link to invite a friend to subscribe to this newsletter or just forward this to them and invite them to subscribe. Thank you in advance.

• Here’s a link to check out other topics I’ve written on in recent weeks.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.