i quickly found this link here on why you should be breathing through your nose and not your mouth. i too grew up with asthma and still suffer from allergies. yesterday i woke up and couldn't breathe. i used a netti pot and a few minutes later was breathing fine. i taught myself to breathe through my nose when i learned to go bf. i thought why not? i'm going slow enough and now i can race while breathing through my nose and only occasionaly exhale through my mouth. growing up i didn't do any sports because i couldn't get in enough air. i gotta think you guys must be suffering yet pretty damn strong willed to run so hard and breathe through your mouth.
i have Dr Buteyko's manual and will send it to anyone who wants to read it and learn to breathe better through their nose.
http://www.normalbreathing.com/index-nasal.php
Each
mouth breather needs to know this short summary of immediate negative biochemical effects of mouth breathing related to CO2:
- Reduced CO2 content in alveoli of the lungs (hypocapnia)
- Hypocapnic vasoconstriction (constrictions of blood vessels due to CO2 deficiency)
- Suppressed Bohr effect
- Reduced oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs of the human body
- Anxiety, stress, addictions, sleeping problems and negative emotions
- Slouching and muscular tension
- Biochemical stress due to cold, dry air entering into the lungs
- Biochemical stress due to dirty air (viruses, bacteria, toxic and harmful chemicals) entering into the lungs
- Possible infections due to absence of the autoimmunization effect
- Pathological effects due to suppressed nitric oxide utilization, including vasoconstriction, decreased destruction of parasitic organisms, viruses, and malignant cells (by inactivating their respiratory chain enzymes) in alveoli of the lungs, inflammation in blood vessels, disruption of normal neurotransmission, hormonal effects.
Normal nose breathing helps us to use our own nitric oxide that is generated in the sinuses. The main roles of NO and its effects have been discovered quite recently (in the last 20 years). Three scientists even received a Nobel Prize for their discovery that a common drug, nitroglycerin (used by heart patients for almost a century), is transformed into nitric oxide. NO dilates blood vessels of heart patients, reducing their blood pressure and heart rate. Hence, they can survive a heart attack.
This substance or gas is produced in various body tissues, including nasal passages. As a gas, it is routinely measured in exhaled air coming from nasal passages. Therefore, we can't utilize own nitric oxide, an important hormone, when we start
mouth breathing.
The confirmed functions of nitric oxide are:
1.
Destruction of viruses, parasitic organisms, and malignant cells in the airways and lungs by inactivating their respiratory chain enzymes.
2
. Regulation of binding - release of O2 to hemoglobin. This effect is similar to the CO2 function (the Bohr effect).
3.
Vasodilation of arteries and arterioles (regulation of blood flow or perfusion of tissues).
4
. Inhibitory effects of inflammation in blood vessels.
5.
Hormonal effects. NO influences secretion of hormones from several glands (adrenaline, pancreatic enzymes, and gonadotropin-releasing hormone)
6.
Neurotransmission. Memory, sleeping, learning, feeling pain, and many other processes are possible only with NO present (for transmission of neuronal signals).
Obviously, during mouth breathing it is not possible to utilize one's own nitric oxide which is produced in the sinuses. The mouth, according to Doctor Buteyko, is created by Nature for eating, drinking, and speaking. At all other times, it should be closed.
Read
more research abstracts about nasal nitric oxide.
Cleaning, humidification and warming of air flow due to nose breathing
Our nasal passages are created to humidify, clean and warm the incoming flow of air due to the layers of protective mucus. This thin layer of mucus can trap about 98-99 percent of bacteria, viruses, dust particles, and other airborne objects.
If you are an endurance athlete and an asthmatic, you must train mostly, or even better, only, with nasal breathing. For really important competitions, you can use the mouth for breathing, but only if you have no current problems with your asthma. Sport training is useful due to its aerobic training effect. This is achievable while breathing only through the nose, as one Australian study confirmed (Morton et al, 1995; see the abstract in the references).
A group of US doctors from the Department of Surgery, University of Chicago even wrote an article with the title "Observations on the ability of the nose to warm and humidify inspired air". The abstract of their study is also provided in the references.