Yoga Breath

"Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose."

I have been a yoga enthusiast for over 12 years and have heard this phrase so many times I can't

Nasal breathing can help your body calm down

count. As I started becoming more interested in breathing and overall health, the yoga breath became more important. We breathe spontaneously and don't often think about HOW we are breathing. The HOW is so very important to our overall health. There is a lot of biology that happens when we breathe through our noses that promotes a healthy body.

Nasal breathing helps humidify, filter and warm air before it hits our lungs. This air is better suited to be used by our alveoli air sacs in our lungs. It is estimated that between 30-50% of adults breathe through their mouths. Whether mouth breathing during the day or the night, this maladaptation can lead to serious oral and health concerns.

Rest and Digest

Breathing through your nose will help activate our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS is responsible for our "rest and digest" state of being. The opposite is our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and is our "fright or flight" response. The SNS activates our adrenal glands and puts our bodies on high alert for danger. While this is helpful IF we are in true danger, being in this state long term can cause increases in blood pressure, anxiety and cortisol levels just to name a few. Our bodies work best when the PNS is activated. This happens most effectively when nasal breathing. Some yogis say that selectively breathing through your LEFT nostril will activate the PNS the quickest. Having a low SNS tone and high PNS tone helps our bodies ward off infection, inflammation and aid in digestion.

Oxygen Saturation

Nasal breathing helps make sure our bodies are full of oxygen. This happens through many mechanisms. Firstly, nasal breathing increases the body's natu

ral production of Nitric Oxide (NO). NO helps relax muscles in our blood vessels allowing more blood to pump around our bodies to deliver oxygen ot our tissues easier. Another reason nasal breathing helps increase oxygen in our bodies, is that the tissue and bone of the inside of our noses are shaped to help slow down air flow and make it more laminar (less turbulent) this helps increase the air contact to our blood so our blood has more time to pick up the oxygen. It is said that nasal breathers will have up to 20% more oxygen in their bodies than mouth breathers.

Nocturnal Enuresis

Mouth breathing baby

Known as bedwetting is a topic that most of us don't like to discuss. We see this often with children of school age. How does nasal breathing prevent this embarrassing condition? When we mouth breathe our sleep patterns are disrupted. There is more likely to be decreases in oxygen blood saturation that leads to a release of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and promotes the release of another hormone called antidiurectic hormone (ADH). ANP is meant to increase urine production to lower blood pressure by increasing the excretion sodium and water by the kidneys. Additionally increase in ANP can signal that the heart is under stress. ADH is ANPs opposite, it slows down urine production. You can see that if these two hormones are not working properly, urine production is not decreased at night and so bedwetting enuses. By nasal breathing, we are doing what we need to to assure these two hormones are working in tandem the proper way.

Dental Environment

There are many changes that happen in our oral environment when we nasal breathe. The first is pretty obvious, increasing saliva amount. Open mouth breathing can dry our mouths out and without the buffering capacity of saliva mouth breathers are left with increased cavity risk. Saliva is also important as a lubricant for our lips, tongue and cheeks. Without it, patients may experience more canker sores and tissue sloughing than normal. Talking about tissues, when we nasal breathe the oxygen content of our mouths increase, and this in turn helps support a healthy microbiome. A healthy microbiome protects our gums and bone to help prevent periodontal disease. We often see patients who work really hard brushing and flossing only to still have puffy and bleeding gums. WHY? It is because they mouth breathe and effectively shift their microbiome to be populated by more pathogenic bacteria.

So if you want to be nasal breathing more and you just can't seem to get there, talk to your dentist! We have appliances and methods that can help you be successful. There are many reasons a patient may mouth breathe and your dentist will help you figure it out!

General, Cosmetic and Family Dentistry