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Short Stuff: Nose Breathing · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh Clark.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant this short stuff, so let's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: short it up. Yeah, this is about breathing, about the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: benefits of nose breathing. But it could be the shortest
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: short stuff ever ever if we just said the biggest
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  Speaker 1: benefit of nose breathing is that you're not a mouth breather.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah for real, I've never remember I I do mouth
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  Speaker 1: breathe if I'm not paying attention to it. Sometimes it's
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  Speaker 1: all right, I'm just gonna say it. I do try
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  Speaker 1: to nose breathe. But I was recently diagnosed with a
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  Speaker 1: deviated septum and it makes sense to me. Like, I'm like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's hard for me to breathe through my nose. Interesting.
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  Speaker 1: And then after researching nose breathing, which by the way,
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  Speaker 1: I think you got this original article from House to Works, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's right, Um, I'm like, I'm going to get my
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  Speaker 1: deviated septum fixed. I want to be able to breathe
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  Speaker 1: through my nose properly. Now is that code for nose jobs? Still?
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I don't think so. I'm fine with my nose. I mean,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: it's a big old thirties comic strip gangster like hook nose.
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  Speaker 1: But I like it. You know, it is not to
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  Speaker 1: say other noses are irregular. I love wacky shape noses. Well,
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  Speaker 1: then you gotta love my nose because it's a it's
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  Speaker 1: a honker. I never thought it was much of a honker,
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  Speaker 1: but that it sort of used to be. Code is
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  Speaker 1: like someone would come back to to class from spring
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  Speaker 1: break with like a brand new nose. They're like, I
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  Speaker 1: had a deviated septem. I know what you're talking about.
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  Speaker 1: That is super eighties. They would be wearing like chunky
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  Speaker 1: socks and have like their sweater tied together over their
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  Speaker 1: shoulders and eating like a little cup of yogurt. Uh So,
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  Speaker 1: what's the big deal? Why should you breathe through your nose? Well,
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  Speaker 1: there's a guy named James Nestor. He is a nose
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  Speaker 1: breathing researcher who is also an author on nose breathing.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote Breath the New Science of a Lost Art
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  Speaker 1: came out a couple of years ago during the pandemic,
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  Speaker 1: And um, he isn't it nice, Chuck to be able
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  Speaker 1: to say things like that in past tense? I just
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: said that in past tense, as if the pandemic is over. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: not over, but things are certainly much much better. So
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  Speaker 1: with you wow we anyway, James Nestor says, you you
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  Speaker 1: want to nose breathe, mouth breathing bad, nose breathing good.
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  Speaker 1: Like your body is basically equipped for breathing through your nose.
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  Speaker 1: He said, he doesn't even know why God came up
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  Speaker 1: with breathing through the mouth. It's so stupid. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: because your lungs want moist warm or moisture and warmer air,
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  Speaker 1: and breathing through your nose provides that. It it goes
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  Speaker 1: when it goes through the nose, it goes through passes
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  Speaker 1: by these turbinates, these bony structures, and they're covered in
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  Speaker 1: soft tissue called mucosa, and that stuff is gonna warm
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  Speaker 1: up and moist uff that air as it goes into
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  Speaker 1: your lungs, and your lungs gonna be much happier. Plus
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  Speaker 1: that's not even to mention the cilia, the little hairs
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  Speaker 1: that lying um your nasal airway. And in addition to
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  Speaker 1: the big old hairs, but you also have a little
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  Speaker 1: tiny microscopic here silia that can catch smoke. I mean
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  Speaker 1: that's just showing off. If you're silly, you're like, watch
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  Speaker 1: this and you catch a piece of smoke. Um, they
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  Speaker 1: can catch anything. If you can catch smoke, you can
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  Speaker 1: filter out basically anything. And that's a big role that
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  Speaker 1: they play, and they hang onto it and when they're
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  Speaker 1: sure it's not going to go into your lungs, they
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  Speaker 1: kind of throw it down your gullet and you end
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  Speaker 1: up swallowing all that stuff, dander, smoke, paul in, tiny
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  Speaker 1: little mites, all that stuff goes into your stomach where
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  Speaker 1: they go through the acid rent cycle and are pulverized
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  Speaker 1: into nothingness. But that's a that's that just kind of
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  Speaker 1: underlines like how well equipped for nose breathing we actually are. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it also encourages what's known as die a frammic breathing,
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  Speaker 1: A funny looking word that g always throws me off. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: this is that deep breathing. When they talk about, like
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  Speaker 1: if you've ever taken voice lessons or anything like that,
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  Speaker 1: or even yoga they talk about or meta tation, they
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  Speaker 1: talk about diaphragm breathing. That's activating the lower part, the
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  Speaker 1: lower lobes of your lungs, and that's that's where you
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  Speaker 1: want to be breathing from as opposed to chest breathing,
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  Speaker 1: because down there you've got many more um well, there's
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  Speaker 1: just a bigger percentage of blood than in the upper levels,
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  Speaker 1: and that's gonna do a whole host of great things
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  Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, so you're oxygen eating more blood, which
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  Speaker 1: is good because that means that you're going to get
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  Speaker 1: more oxygen all throughout your body, because that's one of
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  Speaker 1: the roles that blood plays. But also, um it releases
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  Speaker 1: nitric oxide. Nasal breathing does. And I don't understand why
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  Speaker 1: just nasal breathing, but I could not figure it out.
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  Speaker 1: But let's just suffice to say that James Nestor knows
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  Speaker 1: what he's talking about. And then nitric oxide is released
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  Speaker 1: in nasal breathing, and nitric oxide actually has a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of different effects, but a big one is that it's
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  Speaker 1: a vasodilator, which means that it opens up your your
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  Speaker 1: blood um vessels so that more blood can flow, your
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  Speaker 1: blood pressure is lower, and you're actually calmer and healthier
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  Speaker 1: than you would be. And apparently this happens through nasal
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  Speaker 1: breathing and not through mouth breathing. That's right, So let's
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  Speaker 1: take a break. If you weren't on board with nose breathing,
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  Speaker 1: I think you will be when we come back and
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  Speaker 1: give you a few more reasons. Ask you should know,
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  Speaker 1: are you an athlete? I exercise, But no, I would
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  Speaker 1: not say I'm an athlete. I I know it would
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  Speaker 1: be shameful for me to say yes. If you were
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  Speaker 1: an athlete, you might want a nose breathe. Uh. There's
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  Speaker 1: a doctor named Dr John Duilliard who did some studies
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  Speaker 1: in the nineties when he kind of put mouth breathers
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  Speaker 1: and nose breathers, uh, neck to neck and said, go
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: exercise and let's talk about it. Let's hook you up
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  Speaker 1: to some machines and stuff like that. And interestingly he
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  Speaker 1: found there there wasn't really a big difference in your
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  Speaker 1: heart rate depending on how you breathe, but a really
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  Speaker 1: pretty substantial difference between your breathing rate. Uh. A lot
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  Speaker 1: more mouth breathing going on. I think forty eight breasts
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  Speaker 1: per minute compared to fourteen nasal breaths per minute when
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  Speaker 1: you're exercising on that stationary bike, and that I guess
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  Speaker 1: that's just because you're deeper breathing, would be my guess. Y, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: supposedly because you'd be using those lower lobes if you're
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  Speaker 1: if you're no nasal breathing over mouth breathing, it's a
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  Speaker 1: big difference fourteen eight. Yeah, and it's a big difference
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  Speaker 1: in your perception of how hard and torturous the exercises too,
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  Speaker 1: because you'd you'd be like, well, who cares if you're
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  Speaker 1: if you're taking more breaths through your mouth, well, that
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  Speaker 1: that creates the perception of more exertion. So apparently athlete
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  Speaker 1: who um, who were put through the study and we're
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  Speaker 1: basically reached like their max capacity on a stationary bike. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Then the nose breathers said that they were hitting about
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  Speaker 1: a four in exertion, while the mouth breathers said that
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  Speaker 1: they were hitting about a ten. And these are people
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  Speaker 1: who are like equally fit equally athletics, so when they
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  Speaker 1: max out, it's basically the same thing. The only difference,
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  Speaker 1: The only variable was whether they were mouth breathing or
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  Speaker 1: nose breathing. That is astounding. Remember when those uh, I
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  Speaker 1: don't remember the brand, and I don't want to buzz
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  Speaker 1: market anyway, but the little strips that you put on
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  Speaker 1: your nose to open your nose up a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: Remember when those made the rounds, especially with athletes, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: like football, Like you didn't see a football player that
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't wearing one of those, And now you never see
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  Speaker 1: those anymore. I think they turned everybody's nose green. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if they were just like I don't know, I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if they realize a it maybe didn't have a benefit,
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  Speaker 1: or just kind of went through that fat cycle. My
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  Speaker 1: experience with them was that it worked too well, Like
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  Speaker 1: it opened up my nostrils so much I got a toothache.
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  Speaker 1: Really yeah, I've never released them again. They really worked?
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  Speaker 1: Is that a joke? Though? It real toothache? But what's
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  Speaker 1: the How does that mechanism work? I don't know, but
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  Speaker 1: the two were definitely related. Yeah you just said that
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  Speaker 1: as in like, don't ask any more questions. So back
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  Speaker 1: to whether or not I'm an athlete, No I'm not.
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  Speaker 1: But I did try this, actually chucked just this very morning,
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  Speaker 1: after after doing some researching, I went and jogged and
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  Speaker 1: I tried breathing through my nose, and my stupid deviated
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  Speaker 1: septum kept me from doing it. But I really want
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  Speaker 1: to be able to do this. I want to be
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  Speaker 1: able to nose breathe while I'm exercising, because I really
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  Speaker 1: like start panting like after a while because I'm mouth breathing,
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  Speaker 1: and you end up taking these short, gulpie shallow breaths,
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  Speaker 1: you know, when you're really exerting yourself towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of the the um run or what ever. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: it's it's not fun, Like everything else can be fun,
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  Speaker 1: but the breathing part can really kind of make it
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  Speaker 1: feel like you're suffering, you know. Yeah, I mean the
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  Speaker 1: the that's yeah, that's where I suffer the most with
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  Speaker 1: my cardio. Yeah, I can, I can commiserate. Uh, let
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  Speaker 1: me see. Oh, the other big thing is a lung capacity.
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  Speaker 1: You can train yourself to increase your lung capacity because
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  Speaker 1: people that do like things like free diving or just
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  Speaker 1: the whole breath for competition. I'm sure that exists. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: like at the swimming pool in the summertime, you can
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  Speaker 1: increase your lung capacity. And there was a study, I
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  Speaker 1: think it was a twenty nine almost thirty year study
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  Speaker 1: in the journal chest that's a great name, great read
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  Speaker 1: in two thousand that showed that you can increase your
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  Speaker 1: lung capacity by nose breathing and that that goes a
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  Speaker 1: long way toward being healthier. Like if you have bigger
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  Speaker 1: lungs capable of breathing more, you're you're literally going to
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  Speaker 1: live longer. Yeah, and UM, it's no coincidence that breathing
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  Speaker 1: and especially like really paying attention to your breath and
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  Speaker 1: like UM creating like a slower, longer breathing pattern is
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  Speaker 1: a huge part of meditation and UM. James Nestor, the
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  Speaker 1: author and breathing researcher, he says the UM there's a
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  Speaker 1: kind that's called coherent breathing, and he said, a good
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  Speaker 1: way to UM to work on breathing is to try
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  Speaker 1: this coherent breathing where you breathe in uh slowly for
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  Speaker 1: about five to six seconds, and then you exhale over
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  Speaker 1: about five to six seconds. And it's surprisingly hard, especially
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  Speaker 1: the exhaling part. And that makes sense because if you've
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  Speaker 1: ever trained your lungs on one of those little like
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: UM breathing trainers, you know what I'm talking about. It's
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  Speaker 1: like a handheld piece of plastic with like a blue
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  Speaker 1: corrugated tube coming out of it that you blow into.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking You usually see him at
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  Speaker 1: the hospital. You me got him for us UM during
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the pandemic because she was worried our
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  Speaker 1: lungs we're gonna collapse if we got COVID. She was like,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: we need to practice on these. It's really hard. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But it's not the it's not the um the breathing
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  Speaker 1: out part that's the easy parts. The breathing in part
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  Speaker 1: that's the hardest part. But for me, with the coherent breathing,
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  Speaker 1: the exhale is the hardest. It's it's weird and interesting, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but it's it's fun to try, actually, and you definitely
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  Speaker 1: can see like huge improvements in a very short time
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  Speaker 1: if you actually do try to expand your lung capacity. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna work on the sum. Uh. They say, if
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: you have anxiety to to exhale for longer, if you'd
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  Speaker 1: like do that five or six second inhale, try and
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  Speaker 1: do like an eight to nine second out exhale outdale.
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  Speaker 1: So you need an outhale. Uh So yeah, this is
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  Speaker 1: all you know, it's funny, like exercises great, and it's
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  Speaker 1: certainly something that people should do. But the more I
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  Speaker 1: learned about stuff, like, the more it seems like stretching
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  Speaker 1: and breathing and like these really fundamental things. If you
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  Speaker 1: really tackle that when you're younger, can really extend your
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: life in healthier years, you know, definitely, But it's also
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: never too late to start to never too late. Um so, Chuck,
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  Speaker 1: you said, never too late. I think that's the end
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of the short stuff. I think so. Stuff You Should
• 12:18
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• 12:20
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