The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You

by Patrick McKeown

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You were born breathing through your nose, and it has been our primary conduit for breathing for hundreds of thousands of years.

It is for this reason that mouth breathing is synonymous with emergency, activating the same fight-or-flight response that our ancestors experienced but these days usually without the accompanying physical exercise to allow our operating systems to revert to normal.

From the perspective of breathing physiology, mouth breathing activates use of the upper chest, while

nasal breathing results in abdomin...

Upper-chest breathing is more likely to be associated with a stress response, while nasal breathing helps ensure regular, calm, steady breathing using the diaphragm. The common misconception of taking a “deep” breath is to puff out the chest and raise the shoulders, but this is neither deep nor beneficial to oxygenating the body. To help deal with stress, the instruction to take a deep breath is actually correct, but a truly deep breath is abdominal, gentle and quiet; the exact opposite of the big breaths usually taken in an attempt to calm down.

Mouth breathing activates the upper chest, involves larger breaths, and may cause reduced oxygen uptake in the arterial blood.

mouth breathers often suffer from poor energy, a lack of concentr...

Dentists and orthodontists have also documented these profound facial changes as a result of habitual mouth breathing: narrow jaws, crooked teeth, sunken cheekbones, and smaller nasal cavities. While orthodontic treatment and the wearing of braces are epidemic among modern-day teenagers, it was normal for our ancestors to have wide faces with perfectly shaped teeth.

Processed foods are mucus and acid forming. Throughout evolution, our diet consisted of 95 percent alkaline-forming and 5 percent acid-forming foods. Nowadays the reverse is true: Our diet is 95 percent acid- and 5 percent alkaline-forming foods. Acid-forming foods—such as processed products, dairy, meat, bread, sugar, coffee, and tea—stimulate breathing. A natural response to experiencing a greater demand to breathe is to open the mouth to take in more air. Over time, the brain adjusts to this larger intake of air, and overbreathing becomes a habit.

On the other hand, alkaline-forming foods such as fruit and vegetables, along with plain water, are easy for the body to process; they are “breathing-friendly” foods. But while these types of foods are highly beneficial, I’m not saying you need to become a vegetarian.

Protein is an essential part of a healthy diet, and meat provides a natural, nutrient-rich source. The most important change is to get rid of processed foods in your diet. They may take up the most space in our superm...

In his nineteenth-century travels in North America, the artist George Catlin noticed that the Native American mothers paid a lot of attention to their infants’ breathing. If at any time the baby opened its mouth to breathe, the mother would gently press the baby’s lips together to ensure continued nasal breathing. Catlin also noted that the rate of sickness and illness among the native Indian people was very low in comparison with European settlers.

1882 book Shut Your Mouth and Save Your Life, Catlin wrote, “When I have seen a poor Indian woman in the wilderness, lowering her infant from the breast, and pressing its lips together as it falls asleep . . . I have said to myself, ‘Glorious education! Such a mother deserves to be the nurse of Emperors.’” In comparison,

Catlin described how the babies of the European settlers slept with their mouths open, gasping for breath in stuf...

Nature has ensured that the vast majority of land mammals breathe through their noses by positioning the windpipe so that the back of the nose leads directly to the lungs. In other words, it is not easy for most animals to breathe through their mouths.

most animals, the openings for carrying food to the stomach and air to the lungs are placed side by side. This parallel position seems fairly impractical, as it increases the risk of food going down the wrong way, requiring the development of a complicated swallowing mechanism. The cause for this is likely to do with our ability to speak and to enable us to swim, since both actions require voluntary control over breathing.

Birds, for example, are predominantly nose breathers, aside from diving birds such as penguins, pelicans, or gannets. Generally, when an animal breathes through its mouth it is a sign of sickness, injury, or distress. Guinea pigs and rabbits will continue to breathe through their noses even under heavy exertion and will only breathe through their mouths if they have developed a breathing abnormality. The same goes for all farm animals, including the cow, sheep, donkey, goat, and horse.

As air enters through the nose, it is swirled through scrolled, spongy bones called turbinates, which condition and guide inhaled air into a steady, regular pattern.

The internal nose, with its cul de sacs, valves, and turbinates, regulates the direction and velocity of the air to maximize exposure to a network of small arteries and veins and to the mucous blanket in order to warm, humidify, and sterilize the air before it is drawn to the lungs.

Yogi Ramacharaka surmises that “many of the diseases to which civilized man is subject are undoubtedly caused by this common habit of mouth breathing.”

Nose breathing imposes approximately 50 percent more resistance to the airstream in normal individuals than does mouth breathing, resulting in 10 to 20 percent more O2 uptake.

Nasal breathing warms and humidifies incoming air. (Air entering the nose at 42.8˚F/6˚C will be warmed to 86˚F/30˚C by the time it touches the back of the throat, and a cozy 98.6˚F/37˚C—body temperature—upon reaching its final destination, the lungs.) • Nasal breathing removes a significant amount of germs and bacteria from the air you breathe

in. • Nasal breathing during physical exercise allows for a work intensity great enough to produce an aerobic training effect as based on heart rate and percentage of VO2 max.

As discussed in the next section, the nose is a reservoir for nitric oxide, an essential gas for the maintenance of good health.

Now compare the benefits above with the effects of mouth breathing: • Mouth-breathing children are at greater risk of developing forward head posture, and reduced respiratory strength. • Breathing through the mouth contributes to general dehydration (mouth breathing during sleep results in waking up with a dry mouth).

A dry mouth also increases acidification of the mouth and results in more dental cavities and gum disease. • Mouth breathing causes bad breath due to altered bacterial flora. • Breathing through the mouth has been proven to significantly increase the number of occurrences of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

I was astounded as to how one simple gas could influence all major systems and organs, help keep us free from disease including cancer, promote a longer life, and even perform better in bed.

Nitric oxide is produced inside the nasal cavity and the lining of the thousands of miles of blood vessels throughout the body.

this extraordinary molecule is released in the nasal airways and transferred to the lower airways and lungs through nasal breathing.

Dr. Mehmet Oz recommends inhaling from the diaphragm as it “brings nitric oxide from the back of your nose and your sinuses into

your lungs. This short-lived gas dilates the air passages in your lungs and does the same to the blood vessels.”

Think of the nose as a reservoir: Each time we breathe gently and slowly through the nose, we carry this mighty molecule into the lungs and blood, where it can do its work throughout the body. Mouth breathing bypasses this special gas, missing out on the important advantages that nitric oxide provides for general well-being.

Nitric oxide plays an important role in vasoregulation (the opening and closing of blood vessels), homeostasis (the way in which the body maintains a state of stable physiological balance in order to stay alive), neurotransmission (the messaging system within the brain), immune defense, and respiration. It helps to prevent high blood pressure, lower cholesterol, keep the arteries young and flexible, and prevent the clogging of arteries with plaque and clots. All these benefits reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke—two

when the men underwent surgery to remove the polyps and allow restoration of nose breathing, erectile dysfunction was significantly ameliorated.

The production of nitric oxide in the nasal sinuses can be increased by simply humming. In an article published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Doctors Weitzberg and Lundberg described how humming increased nitric oxide up to fifteenfold in comparison with quiet exhalation. They concluded that humming causes a dramatic increase in sinus ventilation and nasal nitric oxide release.

The breathwork technique called Brahmari involves slow, deep breaths through the nose, humming on each exhalation to generate a sound similar to a bee buzzing, and while the exact science may have been a mystery to the creators of this meditation method, the associated feeling of calmness of the mind is a clear indication of its benefit.

Breathing through the mouth causes blood vessels in the nose to become inflamed and enlarged. This, along with an increased secretion of mucus, creates the uncomfortable feeling of nasal stuffiness. When the nose becomes blocked it is much more difficult to breathe through it, thus perpetuating the habit of breathing

through the mouth. Continued mouth breathing results in a more permanent state of nasal congestion, thus completing the vicious circle. Nasal obstruction is one of the

a study was commissioned to further investigate the effects of reduced breathing. The results were an amazing 70 percent reduction of symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, poor sense of smell, snoring, trouble breathing through the nose, trouble sleeping, and having to breathe through the mouth.

Nose Unblocking Exercise should not be practiced right after eating.

Nose Unblocking Exercise • Take a small, silent breath in through your nose and a small, silent breath out through your nose. • Pinch your nose with your fingers to hold your breath. • Walk as many paces as possible with your breath held. Try to build up a medium to strong air shortage, without overdoing it. • When you resume breathing, do so only through your nose. Try to calm your breathing immediately. • After resuming your breathing, your first breath will probably be bigger than normal. Make sure that you calm your breathing as soon

as possible by suppressing your second and third breaths. • You should be able to recover normal breathing within 2 or 3 breaths. If your breathing is erratic or heavier than usual, you have held your breath for too long. • Wait 1 or 2 minutes before repeating the breath hold. • In order to prepare yourself for the longer breath holds, go easy for the first few repetitions, increasing your paces each time. • Repeat for a total of 6 breath holds, creating a fairly strong need for air. Generally, this exercise will unblock the nose, even if you have a head cold.

When you are able to walk a total of 80 paces with the breath held, your nose will remain decongested.

By holding your breath, you sharply increase the concentration of nitric oxide in your nasal cavity, resulting in dilation of the nasal passages and smooth, easy nasal breathing once more.

The key to improving the quality of my sleep was incredibly simple: All I had to do was to learn to keep my mouth closed during sleep. Because we are unaware of how we breathe at night, the only sure way to ensure nasal breathing is to wear light paper tape across the lips to prevent the mouth from falling open. And this is exactly what I instructed Annette to do. If you feel uncomfortable about using the paper tape at night, a stop snoring strap is a good alternative and helps to keep the lower jaw from dropping during sleep. Stop snoring straps are commonly used by people with obstructive sleep apnea and can be purchased from OxygenAdvantage.com.

Taping the mouth at night ensures the benefits of

good breathing during sleep, allowing you to fall asleep more quickly, stay asleep longer, and wake feeling energized. The tape that I have found most suitable, as it is simple to use, hypoallergenic, and light, is 3M Micropore tape, which can be bought from most drugstores. To help make the tape easier to remove in the morning, gently press the tape against the back of your hand a couple of times to remove some of the glue before applying the tape to your face. All you need to do is tear off about 4 inches/10 cm of tape, fold a tab ove...

How long this takes will vary from person to person, but in general wearing the tape for a period of around three months is sufficient to restore nasal breathing during sleep. Breathing through your nose will result in a naturally moist mouth when you wake up. If your mouth is dry upon waking, you know that your mouth was open during sleep.

The traditional Chinese philosophy of Taoism succinctly describes ideal breathing as “so smooth that the fine hairs within the nostrils remain motionless.”