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

by Patrick McKeown

essential nitric oxide–producing, heart-protecting food sources to include in your diet include fish, green vegetables, dark chocolate, red wine (a glass per day—not the bottle!), pomegranate juice, green or black tea, and oatmeal.

Along with eating the right foods, supplementing your diet with the amino acid L-arginine has been proven to increase nitric oxide production, although results vary depending on age and genetics.

In a paper entitled “Acapnia and Shock: Carbon Dioxide as a Factor in the Regulation of Heart Rate,” Henderson describes how he was able to regulate the heart rate of dogs to any rate he desired, from 40 beats or fewer per minute up to 200 or more, by altering their pulmonary ventilation. Henderson noted that even a “slight reduction of carbon dioxide of the arterial blood caused a quickening of the heart rate.”

Since low levels of carbon dioxide in the blood lead to a strengthening of the bond between the red blood cells and oxygen, the result is reduced delivery of oxygen to the heart.

If increasing the breathing rate to 30 breaths per minute over 5 minutes can induce ECG abnormalities,

Up to 10 percent of heart attack patients have symptoms attributable to hyperventilation. In one particular study, 3 to 6 percent of patients showed normal findings on coronary angiography soon after they experienced myocardial infarction, suggesting that the infarctions were not in fact due to any underlying heart disease but could have resulted from hyperventilation.

studies have also revealed that excessive ventilation during CPR is actually detrimental to survival.

Despite adequate training, these professionals hyperventilated their patients while attempting resuscitation through higher than necessary breathing rates. It is thought that the high airway pressure resulting from administering more air into the patient than necessary had a detrimental—and ultimately fatal—effect on patients’ blood flow.

Increasingly, the emphasis during CPR is now on chest compressions to maintain circulation, rather than manual ventilation.

Interestingly, one study showed that while 55 percent of football athletes and 50 percent of basketball players displayed airway narrowing conducive to asthma, athletes from the sport of water polo showed significantly fewer asthma symptoms.

The prevalence of asthma increases relative to wealth. Increased wealth leads to a change in living standards: Food becomes more processed, competitive stress increases, houses become more airtight, we perform less physical exercise, and the majority of our jobs are sedentary. Fifty years ago, our living and working situations were quite different, and asthma rates were significantly lower. During that time, we ate more natural foods, had less competitive stress, our houses were

drafty, and most occupations involved physical labor. Back then, our lifestyle was conducive to a more normal breathing volume, and, as a result, asthma was far less common.

A study at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane found that when the breathing volume of adults with asthma decreased from 14 liters to 9.6 liters per minute, their symptoms reduced by 70 percent, the need for rescue medication decreased by 90 percent, and the need for preventer steroid medication decreased by 50 percent.

Carbon dioxide is a natural “opener” of the smooth muscle in the airways. The loss of carbon dioxide therefore causes asthma airways to narrow even more.

The fact that elite athletes with asthma often favor swimming above other forms of exercise is not a coincidence. During swimming, the face is immersed underwater, reducing the amount of air taken into the lungs and increasing the athlete’s tolerance for carbon dioxide. Although the swimmer may draw his or her breath in through the mouth, the protective effects of reduced breathing are still evident.

The answer, as you have probably guessed by now, is simple. Water polo training involves breath holding and swimming underwater, resulting in a higher tolerance to carbon dioxide, increased amounts of nitric oxide, and a reduced breathing volume. With a more normal breathing volume, asthma tendencies don’t appear.

disappear. It’s important to note that you may still be susceptible to certain symptoms even when you have achieved a BOLT score of 20 seconds when exposed to a trigger; a BOLT score of 40 seconds is needed to fully eliminate your asthma symptoms.

Take a small, silent breath in and out through your nose. • Hold your breath and walk for 10 to 15 paces. • Stop walking, release your nose, and resume gentle breathing in and out of your nose. • Wait for 30 to 60 seconds and repeat. • Continue to walk while holding your breath for 10 to 15 paces followed by resting with nasal breathing for 30 to 60 seconds.

If your symptoms are mild, you may hold your breath for more than 10 to 15 paces. • Do this exercise for at least 10 minutes.

In addition to employing nasal breathing and achieving a high BOLT score, it is also very important to warm up properly in order to avoid exercise-induced asthma. The minimum time spent warming up should be 10 minutes. A good warm-up consists of fast walking while practicing a medium to strong breath hold every minute or so. After the 10-minute warm-up, increase the pace so that you’re moving as fast as you can while maintaining nasal breathing.

Brazilian researchers investigating the prevalence of mouth breathing in children aged 3 to 9 found that 55 percent of a random selection of 370 subjects were mouth breathers. Children who regularly breathe through their mouth tend to develop negative alterations to their face, jaws, and the alignment of their teeth. Mouth breathing affects the shape of the

face in two ways. First, there is a tendency for the face to grow long and narrow. Secondly, the jaws do not fully develop and are set back from their ideal position, thus reducing airway size. If the jaws are not positioned forward enough on the face, they will encroach on the airways.

The forces exerted by the lips and the tongue primarily influence the growth of a child’s face. The lips and cheeks exert an inward pressure on the face, with the tongue providing a counteracting force. When the mouth is closed, the tongue rests against the roof of the mouth, exerting light forces that shape the top jaw. Because the tongue is wide and U-shaped, it follows that the shape of the top jaw should be wide and U-shaped also. In other words, the shape of the top jaw reflects the shape of the tongue. A wide U-shaped top jaw is optimal for housing all our teeth.

However, during mouth breathing, it is very unlikely that the tongue will rest in the roof of the mouth.

It follows therefore that the tongue of a mouth breather will tend to rest on the floor of the mouth or suspended midway. Since the top jaw is not then shaped by the normal pressures of the tongue, the end result is the development of a narrow V-shaped top jaw. Aesthetically, this contributes to a narrowing of the facial structure, crooked teeth, and orthodontic problems. It has been well documented that mouth-breathing children grow longer faces.

The second way facial structure is affected by the way we breathe during childhood is the position of the jaws. The way the jaws develop has a direct influence on the width of the upper airways. Our upper airways comprise the nose, nasal cavity, sinuses, and throat.

Between them, Joy, Barbara, and Karen have devoted almost a hundred years to reeducating people on the placement of the tongue and facial muscles in order to address a variety of detrimental issues that affect the development of the jaws and teeth. Spending thousands of dollars on orthodontic treatment can be in vain if poor habits such as mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, and incorrect swallowing are not addressed. And you may be able to avoid orthodontic treatment altogether if these habits are not permitted to develop in the first place.

In the correct resting position, three-quarters of the tongue should press gently against the roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue placed just behind

the top front teeth—the same place we put the tongue to make the N sound “nuh.” Just like nasal breathing, optimal resting tongue posture is not a recent discovery; for thousands of years it formed an important part of Eastern yoga and the religion of Buddhism. Yogi Bhajan, who introduced Kundalini yoga to the United States in 1968, accredited the upper palate and the tip of the tongue as the two most important parts of the body. The ancient Buddhist scriptures of the Pali Canon contain passage...

Note the forward position of the jaws, high cheekbones, airway size, and width of the face. The jaw is strong and positioned well forward so that the chin is nearly as far forward as the tip of the nose.

In a paper written by researchers from the School of Business at the University of California at Riverside, men with wider faces were found to be stronger negotiators, commanding a signing bonus of nearly $2,200 more than their narrow-faced counterparts. In a separate study by the same authors it was found that companies led by men with wider faces also achieved superior financial performance.

Chronic, habitual mouth breathing is also associated with postural changes that result in decreased muscle strength, reduced chest expansion, and impaired breathing. Interestingly, researchers have found that mouth breathers are more likely to be male.

A 2012 study investigating the long-term changes to facial structure caused by mouth breathing noted that this seemingly “benign” habit “has in fact immediate and/or deferred cascading effects on multiple physiological and behavioral functions.” Infants and children who breathe through their mouths due to nasal obstruction are likely to develop crooked teeth and a longer, narrower face, permanently affecting their appearance.

According to American research, 95 percent of head circumference growth for the average North American white child takes place by the age of nine. Development of the lower jaw, however, continues until approximately the age of eighteen.

Only with a high BOLT score of 40 seconds is breathing volume at a normal level.

the best way to determine the benefits of reduced breathing, nasal breathing, and a higher BOLT score is to put the Oxygen Advantage program into practice for 2 to 3 weeks.

Finally, if you have any questions, or would simply like to tell me about your personal experience with the Oxygen Advantage program, please drop me a line. I would love to hear from you. You can contact me directly at patrick@OxygenAdvantage.com. Best wishes and thanks again, Patrick McKeown Galway, Ireland