The Science of Aging Well: How Your Beliefs Affect Your Health
I’ve always been breathing (obviously), and as a mindfulness meditation practitioner and certified teacher, I’ve spent plenty of time watching my breath. I just never thought much about the physiology of whether I was breathing correctly or not.
So, while I spend quite a bit of time and energy trying to maintain and improve my health, all along I’ve been overlooking this fundamental, most basic bodily function.
That all changed when I happened upon a recent book titled Breath, The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor.
As it turns out, the science isn’t all that new, but paying attention to it is. It turns out the way we breathe has an enormous impact on our health, short term and lifelong.
Let me say that again: the way we breathe has an enormous impact on our health.
For those of you who just want the TL;DR,
- Breathe through your nose, not your mouth
- Take steady, shallow breaths more often
Nose breathing is better than mouth breathing
It’s far more beneficial to breathe through the nose than the mouth. In fact, studies show that mouth breathing doesn’t just adversely affect health; it can change the shape of your head!
This all has a lot to do with how we’ve evolved as a species and how factors that helped humans thrive, like larger brains and cooked food, changed the shape of our heads in ways that were not so beneficial to breathing. A host of things, from crooked teeth to chronic health problems, are tied to our breathing.
Fortunately, making a conscious effort to breathe through the nose can pretty quickly reverse those effects.
Breathing out deserves a lot more attention
Once we start thinking about breathing, it’s only natural to focus on the in breath. It brings oxygen into your body, and it just feels good. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. O2 good, CO2 bad… right?
Here again, we’ve been missing out. In fact, carbon dioxide is more than just a “waste product” of the breathing cycle. It actually plays a crucial role in separating oxygen from blood cells and in dilating blood vessels so they can transport more blood around the body. Heavy breathing, especially through the mouth, expels too much CO2. And, on top of that, the strength out-breathing brings to the diaphragm increases our lung capacity.
Who knew?
Well, while the power of proper breathing is not very well known in the Western Hemisphere, it’s ancient wisdom in the East. Ancient wisdom, and simple technique. Just take slower, shallower breaths through your nose… that’s it.
If you skipped down here to see how the story ends, just take slow, shallow breaths through your nose. Do it a few times a day. If you can train yourself to breathe through your nose while sleeping, that’s even better. But even a couple of minutes a day of intentional nose breathing will have a noticeable effect on your health.
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