Mouth breather v nose breather

Mouth breather v Nose breather

A simple tale

I come at this battle from having been on both sides

For many years I was a mouth breather and exalted in that being the way to breathe, even though I did not know any different.

I distinctly remember taking a big breath in through my mouth when I was much younger and marvelling as to the power I felt.

For many years, anytime I felt I needed a little boost of energy, I opened that gaping cavern in my head and drank as much air as I could, licking my lips at the seductive nature of the energy as it tickled my insides and allowed me to do….whatever it was I was doing then, climb trees, play football, that sort of thing.

As I got older, quite a bit older actually, I had two children. 35 years old for my first, 38 years old for my second.

Now then, anyone who has had children and changed the interminable number of nappies they get through will know. The stench that comes from the inside of your child is one of previous unknown horror.

I do not wish to go into too many details as, the parents amongst us can bore others rigid of the magnitude of such anal deliveries, however, I am about to do precisely that.

There is something unholy about the texture of near diarrhoea. Just firm enough to smear its own fetid moisture from the initial aperture, up the back, embracing underneath both armpits and gathering onto the chest, up the neck and into the hair, where the delicate greeny/brown mix, gave my beloved devil child, little dirty rat tails.

This is precisely what is needed at 3am when your child is crying through their utter bewilderment as to what has just completely rocked their small body, bathing them, feeding them, belching them and trying to get them back to sleep. All the while the mouth breathing is keeping you awake, just to stop you upchucking all over your child’s head.

That would be a detrimental petty revenge. Come on, none us would ever think, through the mind numbing tiredness, that would remotely be a good idea….would we? Would we!

 This is where our appreciation of mouth breathing reaches its apotheosis.

I smelt that putrescence once and wanted to cry and needed my mummy.

 This all meant of course, that my mouth breathing helped to form a habit.

A habit which saw me live the next five years, with the birth of my daughter in a state of extreme fatigue and balanced with a permanently accelerated fight or flight response.

The perfect paradox of normal and not normal all at the same time.

We now come onto the element where my breathing began to change.

I started to do tai chi.

I was told to breathe through my nose. I asked why and was told it keeps the power in your body.

I was too new and callow to question this and ask them to explain why, and just began to slowly change my breathing.

It took a while as I had to get rid of the congestion that my brain had factored into my nostrils. I also discovered that my voice began to change when I started to nose breathe as opposed to mouth breathe. More sonorous and less reedy.

 When I began to investigate the reasons why I should ‘keep the power in’, I began to realise how the different breathing techniques changed how we felt.

 For those reading this, who may think, well I am alright, and I breathe through my mouth, please let me be a little more precise on my assertions.

We ALL breathe through our mouths. Definitely when we are communicating, when we eat, when we drink and that is normal, that is what we are supposed to be doing.

It is outside of those moments when we are not doing those things, or indeed breathing techniques, like conscious connected breathing, when mouth breathing can be a definitive boost to finding things out within the mind.

Indeed, it is the every day and night breathing through our mouth which begins to land us with a few issues.

 Mouth breathing keeps our sympathetic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze), in a heightened state. Which is ok when that is what we need, not quite so good when we need to sleep properly and have a sense of calm.

 Breathing through the mouth creates an imbalance in the lungs. The oxygen only goes halfway down the lungs. The blood flow, being heavier moves to the bottom of the lungs. Signals are then sent to the brain that something is awry. The brains defence to this is to release a little cortisol and adrenaline to deal with that stress. ‘Hey fellas, get a load of this, this will sort you out’. Like a low rent neighbourhood drug dealer your brain is oblivious to the long-term effect low-key shots of stress relief can have on the internal organs.

In a short-term way this is absolutely the right solution, after all, it is all we have. However, when that low-key stress relief becomes the norm, then like every habit, we tend to need more just to feel ok.

This, over time spins us into a negative spiral of mind and body self-loathing.

 It does not take much to realise I am now about to counteract the mouth breathing ne’er do well escapades, with the righteous and healthier nose breathing.

 It took me a little while to understand this.

Keeping the power in, means breathing efficiently. Knowing each nasal breath, no matter how small will reach the 500M alveoli at the bottom of our lungs, which I vaguely remember from my school biology class.

When this happens, the gas diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the alveoli is at its efficient best. The carbon dioxide acts as a vasodilator for the blood vessels, dilating them to allow more oxygen rich blood to flow into the heart and is then pumped round the vascular system giving us energy.

 Don’t forget, your brain needs 20% of oxygen at any given time, so if you are not breathing with efficiency and you are starting to feel a little brain fog, breathe nasally with purpose.

 This is of course a very simplistic view on what happens, and if a heart and lung doctor read this, they would roll their eyes at the simplicity.

But we need simple explanations, we need to understand on a base and fundamental level what we can do to make us feel better.

As a simple comparison, take a big breath through the mouth and then release through the mouth. Then take a deep breath through the nose and then release through the nose.

Which one felt better?

The words big and deep were deliberately used.

 When you breathe through your nose, you warm the air as you breathe in, the cilia hairs are anti-viral and bacterial and protect you from germs. This does not happen when you breathe through the mouth.

Each nasal breath goes into the lungs and moves the diaphragm, which is part of our core. It does not move the diaphragm when you mouth breathe.

Our nostrils are the right size for the inhalations and exhalations we need, big exercise notwithstanding, (and that is a whole other blog).

The more we exhale through our mouth, the more CO2 we get rid of. We need this, this is our power. This helps to control our nervous systems and the way we nasally breathe can make us feel how we wish to feel. Which means calm as well as on high alert.

We control this when we nasally breathe, we do not when we mouth breathe.

 When you nose breathe, and you wish to calm, you just gently exhale with a longer out breath. This slows down the heart, sends signals to the brain that all is ok and within 90 seconds you can begin to feel more at peace.

Can you with your mouth? No sir, you cannot.

 I feel, the person who knows nothing about breath work, would be starting to get the picture as to what is better or worse.

Rule of thumb should be on an everyday basis, breathe through your nose. If for whatever reason, you begin to feel too much air hunger, (build-up of CO2), breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, it gets rid of the CO2 more quickly as it is a bigger aperture.

If things are really bad in the air hunger stakes, ie you are walking up a really steep hill, breathe in and out through the mouth. When you reach the top, take as many breaths as you need in and out through the nose to regulate your breathing once again.

You will recover and feel better more quickly.

 Same principle when you are changing a baby’s nappy or enter a public urinal. Breathe in and out through the mouth if the putrid stench is too much, once that baby is happy once more and smelling fresher, or you are back onto the shockingly polluted streets, breathe back through the nose, it is the original filter.

Happy breathing one and all.

The Breathe Better course with the MacMillan Cancer Support

Three days after the 6-week course completed, I was still overwhelmed with the comments and the feedback.

I have facilitated this course, or ones similar a number of times in the past and each time I am left slightly agog at the effect this course has on people. I am still staggered as to how being more cognisant of our breathing, being more mindful of our breathing and being more understanding of our breathing can change how people perceive themselves, how their mindset changes and how much more in control of themselves they become.

Each session, you saw a small difference in how a person sat or behaved. Their movements became calmer, they began to change how they breathed and the fidgeting became less. You began to see a posture which may have started out reduced, unfold and develop as their movement and disposition evolve. It is a beautiful panorama to behold. Watching that confidence grow, watching how they begin to realise how constricted their breath had become and watching them realise they can change how they breathe, not just for then, but for the rest of their time on this planet, was utterly joyous.

I facilitate using the Buteyko breathing method along with tools and techniques from Patrick McKeown’s Oxygen Advantage. These techniques help to create the foundations their new breathing confidence is built upon. What starts out as seemingly counterintuitive, in terms of breathing with less intensity and more slowly, helps to build a bank of tolerance to the build up of CO2 in our lungs.

A common misconception with CO2 is that it is bad and we should try and remove it from our bodies. This we most certainly should not. This will upset our PH balance. The carbon-dioxide should be viewed as a rather over giddy compassionate friend. It is there playing around inside our lungs ready to act as an alarm system to tell our brains to send signals to breathe. It opens up our blood vessels to allow more oxygen rich blood to flow through them. It diffuses with the oxygen within our 500,000,000 alveoli at the bottom of our lungs to help create greater breathing efficiency. If that wasn’t enough, it also helps to release oxygen from the haemaglobin in our red blood cells. This is called the Bohr effect, after Dr Christian Bohr discovered this in 1904. The benefits of this happening are greater endurance, because we have increased oxygen within our bodies. It means our bodies are running with greater efficiency and when this happens our autonomic nervous system is balanced and our anxieties, agitations and stress are reduced. So CO2 is a good thing, However, if we allow the CO2 to be more giddy than it should be, it becomes the master of us, rather than the other way round.

Creating tolerance builds resilience and our nervous systems align themselves, so using exercises to help build that resilience is key.

Slow breathing will help to create the CO2, or that feeling we call air hunger. When we can master this process, our thoughts and deeds become more controlled and paradoxically we can calm ourselves more easily in stressful situations.

This is what we did with all the participants and every single one has improved their breathing and is feeling more comfortable and in greater control. This does not mean they need to stop doing their daily practice of course, oh no. If they can build this into their everyday lives, then the differences of walking with greater ease, going up the stairs without labour, becoming more active will begin to manifest themselves more readily.

The Horizon Centre is halfway up a hill and many participants had to walk up this hill to come to the course. How they spoke about the hill at the beginning and how they spoke about the hill at the end of the course, was totally different. They were able to face this hill with a different thought process. It was brilliant barometer of the work they were doing in their daily practice and they could see it and feel it for themselves.

I run these course with several aims: to make the group feel comfortable enough to talk about how they are getting on, with sufficient laughter to keep a worry or two at bay, to build their confidence in how they breathe, but most of all, when the agitation and anxiety strikes deep within the night, then they will have a toolbox of exercises in which they can reduce those feelings and enable to balance themselves as they need to.

Breathing is the most fundamental element in our lives, we must never take it for granted, but frequently we do. Changing bad habits to good is not as difficult as it may sound, especially when you can feel the difference those changes make.

Thank you for reading this and if there was anything within this blog which resonated, please let me know, it would be wonderful to hear your thoughts.

Happy breathing

The cold is a noble force – Wim Hof

The above statement is a good one, and one which I had completely disregarded, precisely for the reason the cold, and being cold, was uncomfortable and took massive effort to experience. Not only was being cold miserable, but the journey to being cold was just as bad, because you knew what was going to be happening.

Of course, the whole point is not really about the cold, but about the mindset in facing the cold. The cold strips you bare of any pretension and is as fundamental an experience as you will ever have. 

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, warmth falls within the base of his pyramid of basic needs, along with food, water and rest. To survive we need warmth, arguably to live, you need the cold.

Because the cold is so fundamental, it encourages us to think in a more simplified form and makes us look at ourselves and what we can withstand.

We can withstand considerably more than we think.

I am of the opinion early humans and their tribes all came from Africa and then spread themselves through millennia around the globe. I find it interesting some tribes stayed in sunnier climes, whilst others took their exploration to the considerably colder climates of the Arctic circle, and not only survived, but thrived as they adapted readily to the conditions. 

The Inuits and the Swaami from Greenland, Alaska and Finland all set up their roots in hostile environmental conditions. What was the mindset which made them do such a thing? I suppose for them, it was a very simple choice, to live or die. Here is our old friend the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), fight or flight…or freeze.

I am beginning to think more of these things, because my cold exposure adventures are becoming bolder.

I have spoken in a previous blog about a black cloud of melancholia which wrapped me in its warm and suffocating embrace a little over a year ago. It was a depression I just could not shake and arguably was the worst I had ever suffered in the previously short episodes I had experienced previously in my life. I have been very lucky in that respect.

There were two fundamental elements which pulled me out of that ever so slightly seductive hug. Breath work and cold exposure.

One man in particular to help, was of course, Wim Hof.  Not personally, I have never met him.

This is not an exclamation about the crazy Dutch dude, as much as I do think he has extraordinary charisma and energy, no, this is about how breathing and specifically on this occasion the cold exposure has meant I have been able to keep depression at bay.

I have just realised as I am searching my head for euphemisms for depression that I have a physical living, although currently snoozing, black dog lying near my feet as I type. 

Chewie is the antithesis of depression, and wind permitting, always comes for a morning swim when I go to the sea. We both don’t like big waves; I am neither a surfer or a strong swimmer and Chewie’s heyday of competing in the dog surfing championships in Cornwall are behind her. She still polishes her board every now and again though.

A third of the Wim Hof method (WHM), is the cold, and his way of introduction to this is quite simple, as all good things should be, and involves introducing yourself to a cold shower bit by bit.

Have your normal shower, then turn the tap to cold and gradually introduce your body to the cold water limb by limb. Then ensure you have 5 seconds full immersion on day 1. Day 2 it is 10 seconds, day 3, 15 seconds and so on. After a month you will be averaging 2.5 minutes of cold exposure with every shower.

Naturally enough, I ignored most of that and had my normal shower and started at the 2-minute mark under the cold shower. And sweet baby cheeses, it was cold. 

I do breathing exercises to help regulate my heart rate and try to let the relaxing parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), take over from the fight or flight sympathetic nervous system. 

I do not do the Wim Hof breathing, for me, this is a double stressor, as I am also fighting the urge to get out. I use a 3-5-7 count. Breathe in for the count of 3, hold for 5 and exhale for 7. The hold and the exhalation are key, as they regulate your heart rate and stimulates your PNS.

After the initial urge to flee, especially when I turn round and the cold surge hits the base of my neck, I am able to relax and enjoy the experience. This of course may not happen immediately, however, your body will build up a tolerance and your mindset will change within a few short days.

I know, I know, it’s all well and good doing this sort of thing but the benefits have to outweigh the negatives. Of course they do, I am not a masochist, this is about good health and taking control of it.

I can only really speak for myself, but you will find countless accounts online of like-minded people. At the end of every cold shower, and I have one every time I have a shower, unless I have been sea swimming, in which case I do not. Double cold exposure, not for me. That is a tinge of masochism just below the surface.

For those who have not read any of my previous blogs, I am slightly prone to digression. Rather than just sigh with exasperation, view it as a patience builder and just think what sort of digression actually goes on in my brain which I have to deal with on a daily basis.

After the cold exposure, you feel cold, naturally, you also feel alive and invigorated.

Why is this, I hear you ask? 

It is because your vascular system has expanded. Your brain has sent signals throughout your central nervous system for your body to be on high alert as what is happening is not normal.

The vascular system goes into overdrive and starts expanding your arteries and veins to allow more blood to flow through filling your body with extra oxygen from the haemoglobin within your blood.

This tasty bit of adventure increases your metabolism, which helps to boost your body and particularly your immune system. And man-oh-man, it makes your skin feel magnificent, which if you do this on a regular basis, actually stays that way.

This increased internal activity carries on after you have gotten out of the shower and are towelling yourself down and continues for a while afterwards.

All this for just 2/2.5 minutes in a cold shower.

This upsurge in metabolism helps to stimulate the chemicals in your brain, releasing all the good ‘ins, endorphins, seratonins and oxytocins. 

Over time these hale and hearty chemical fellows dampen the spirit of the cortisol of toxic stress and relieve the tensions in your mind and body, thus helping the black dog, sorry Chewie, of depression reduce.

Of course, I would hate for you to feel as though simple cold showers or cold exposure was the panacea to the world’s issues with mental health and depression. It is not. Depression comes in all shapes and sizes and there is not a one size fits all approach. Each case must be taken on their own merits.

I would absolutely say though, cold exposure, helps with the body’s homeostasis, it’s balance and it has helped me and hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Goodness, I realised I have just written over 1200 words and have not really got to the crux of what prompted me to write this in the first place.

If you have got this far, A, well done and B, it won’t be long, just go and stick your hand or face in a bucket of ice, that will pep you up.

Open water swimming. If you can do it, absolutely bloody do it. 

I have lived most of my life near the sea, again as mentioned in a previous blog, I have to be near a large body of water, no matter what standard of swimmer I am. I guess it might be a tidal thing, who knows. I just know I love it. So, it really begs the question what was stopping me going into the water on a regular basis? Well, I live close to the English Channel, next stop is France and no matter what time of year it is, it is crunchingly cold.

As with the first paragraph, just the journey in can be tortuous. If you can imagine a man with every step shivering and cursing and waiting for the wave to hit his scrotum, for his nuts to shrink and feel numb and then move to his warmer upper chest and be just bloody miserable…that was me.

Again though, precisely the same as the cold showers your body adapts. Does it stop you from shuddering, take several uncontrollable breaths and wondering what the fuckity fuck you are doing? No, it does not, especially with a chill winters north easterly wind blowing in.

But here is why the cold is a noble force because it shows you what your mind and body can do. And if I can change from being that shrivelled, goose bumped, shilly-shallying, wide eyed with terror, just wanting a warm towel, some mittens, a big furry hat, a big cup of hot chocolate and probably his Mummy of a man, then anyone can.

I am here folks, at the reason for writing. My new and my bolder experience.

I received a present from my wife over the 2021 festive season of a voucher for a relatively new business not far from where we live. 

It was a voucher for a session of Cryotherapy. I had to look it up also.

Cryotherapy is a process used by people to increase their metabolism and get their body to heal quicker. For example, athletes will always use an ice bath to speed up the recovery process. The principle is the same, except quicker. 

Of course, this does not have to be strictly for athletes. This is for everyone. When I attended, there was a gentleman attending daily sessions to help with his psoriasis. The owner of the business showed me the before and during pictures. The cold exposure has helped boost the client’s immune system and is helping renew his skin. The psoriasis has nearly disappeared and above all, the client states there is no itching, which obviously exacerbates the inflammation on the skin. 

Whether this treatment is to be used to aid inflammation, reset the chemicals in your mind to help stave off anxiety or stress, improve pain relief and healing of the muscles, helping with the symptoms of eczema or treating migraines, cryotherapy deals with the same cold exposure as cold showers and open water swimming. The only difference being this is colder…..much colder.

I went to a place a short bike ride away in Brighton & Hove called CryoBright. It is a family-owned business and have only been officially open for 8 months. The pandemic annoyingly having a good laugh at their expense for much of the past 2 years. 

The owners Rob & Shelly were brilliant with me from start to finish. I was made to feel most welcome, you think, surely that’s normal, alas, not always, so it is always a great surprise when it happens.

As an opening offer, they said I could have two complementary treatments, a leg compression and also CryoFace, a mask which you hold to your face and the cold air begins to work its magic.

Before all of this, I had filled out a questionnaire asking various questions of any ill health I may have which might hinder the process. I was then asked to take my blood pressure and here was the sticky point for me. 

I suffer from white coat syndrome. Some people feel this is a made-up syndrome because, well, it sounds like one, but it is very real.

What this means is, whenever I go to the doctors, or it seems anywhere that resembles anything to do with my health, my blood pressure goes through the roof.

This is not a good thing.

I had had a crappy morning before I went and I cycled to the location, so my blood was pumping quite reasonably. Also, I found out afterwards your BP spikes around mid-day. My appointment was at 12.30. Reasons for a high reading.

Your blood pressure is taken as a precaution. There are parameters in which you must fall into naturally enough. As the cryo chamber acts as a vasodilator, which means the cold tells your brain to open up your arteries and veins, so more blood can get through to circulate around your body to keep you warm, explained in more detail above. 

If your BP is already high, this could have a negative effect on your body and you may faint, or even worse have a stroke. This is why it is so important to check your BP and know your body.

Whatever we tried, my BP would not come down sufficiently. We did the leg compression, which I liked a lot for 20 mins, with me doing some relaxation breathing exercises, we did the CryoFace, which made my skin feel incredible, although supremely cold around my eye sockets and the BP still  wouldn’t go down.

Not only was I massively disappointed, but I was really concerned about my BP. I mean, for goodness sake, I meditate, eat very well, hardly drink, exercise, do cold exposure, and regulate my breathing. All the things I teach people.

And there was my BP as high as a kite.

This story is not about my BP, suffice to say, when I got home, I blood pressured myself with my little machine for the rest of the day and the evening. I must have taken my BP ten times, every single one was in the green zone and averaging in the 120s for my systolic and 70s, early 80s for my diastolic. 

Another digression. Years ago, I developed high BP because I was not eating great food and not exercising enough. I was advised by the doctor to go on a pill, after all, thousands do. However, if I was in a cowboy film, I would be called a ‘cussed son of a bitch’, and I said I would change it myself. 

I gave myself a month and went on a diet, changed the way I ate and exercised more. At the end of the month, I had to have a BP monitor attached to me for 24 hours, which took my BP every 20 minutes or so. My BP was only over the limit twice, when I picked the machine up from the doctors and when I took it back.

Since then I have always been cognisant of my BP and done everything I can to keep it in acceptable limits, exercising etc notwithstanding.

I do not want to take pills unless I have to.

This public health warning has been brought to you today, by cussed son of a bitch productions for all your cussed needs.

Back to CryoBright. 

I made another appointment with CryoBright for the next day at half ten. Rob & Shelly were really accommodating

My BP was taken again, it was still high, but closer to the cut off points. We took it a second time and, on this occasion, I remembered your arm had to be supported. I mentioned this to Shelly, who brought some towels for me to rest my arm on.

Bingo, huzzah, this seemed to do the trick, I came into the taking part zone.

This meant, I was now to get into a chamber which was going to achieve a coldness of -85 degrees Celsius for 4 minutes, wearing a pair of shorts, gloves, socks and small booties and a head band which protected my ears.

It had been explained to me beforehand that as the chamber was a dry cold, our bodies could withstand considerably more. Unlike if we were in the open and exposed to water, ice or wind. 

Rob took various different temperatures around my body for a before and after comparison and then asked what sort of music I required to listen to in there. The question flummoxed me, so I said anything generically relaxing. It was only 4 minutes after all. Rob said he will tell me when 2 minutes had elapsed, one minute, then 20 seconds.

And then I was in, excited and intrigued.

Instead of standing there waiting as though for a bus, I did a horse stance and started to move my arms around, knowing this would get my heart pumping the blood around the body.

It was interesting to see icicles forming on my arm, chest and leg hairs. I was also wearing a mask to reduce the breath freezing.

The two minutes went by really quickly and I could really sense my skin and extremities getting colder. I also noticed the top of my baldy head was beginning to brain freeze me. It was like cycling down a hill in the middle of winter without a seasonal bike hat underneath your helmet and your helmet channelling the cold air onto various points on your head. Too cold for words.

The four minutes were soon up and I was standing outside the chamber with a massive smile on my face and an enormous amount of energy and the icicles melting on my hairy bits. Rob took temperatures of my body and naturally enough, my head, arms and legs had reduced in temperature. My core temperature on the other hand, only reduced marginally. What was also odd, was I began to feel the blood warming my hands and feet as I stood chatting. Weird, but curiously lovely. 

I felt fucking fantastic.

If you have access to CryoTherapy near you check it out. There is an expense, naturally enough, but it does do wonders for your mind and your body and is quicker and less hassle than going to the beach of a morning. If you are out and about doing some shopping, you can pop in beforehand, the rest of the day will pass by in a delight. I had a damned decent night’s sleep that night as an added bonus.

You have to give cold exposure a little time to take effect. View the longer game, whether you use cold showers, ice baths, open water swimming/dipping or a -85 degree chamber, view the initial discomfort as just a means to an end.

I have spoken to many people online or in person, have viewed the many people who have followed Wim Hof, shared a live online ice bath with him, and I have yet to come across anyone who has not benefitted from cold exposure in one form or another.

As I said above, if I can do it, and get used to it, there is no reason why you cannot also. I also walk into the sea with a greater degree of bravery these days.

I would be really happy to hear anyone’s thoughts, experiences about the subject. Please leave a comment under the blog.

Thank you for reading and I wish you some great cold experiences.

Catch the BBC 1 series Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof starting tonight (Tuesday 12 April)