5 Good Reasons Why You Should Only Breathe Through Your Nose

The nose is a brilliantly designed breathing tool, perfectly suited to breathing, whereas the mouth is perfectly suited to eating, drinking and speaking. You wouldn't eat through your nose, so why breathe through your mouth? Here are five good reasons why nasal breathing is best:

1. The nasal passages are lined with cilia or nose hairs, which waft dust and impurities away from the lungs. These cilia are very important, so if you wax them (yes, some people do wax their nose hairs) you may find that you become more susceptible to allergies like hayfever and asthma. If you breathe through your mouth, tonsils are forced to act as the germ trapping tools. This leads to more throat and tonsil infections, which can ultimately poison the entire immune system if left unchecked.

2. The nose is lined with mucus secreting cells. Mucus allows for the airways to remain lubricated - and in the case of possible infection, will speed up secretion in order to quickly remove any infectious particles. Mucus is not an excretion, so it is not a waste product. If your mucus secretion is working overtime - as in the case of post nasal drip (PND), there is likely to be some underlying problem that is going unchecked.

If you breathe through your mouth, the airways quickly dry out, and this leads to coughing, irritations in the chest and throat, bad breath, dental hygiene problems - and even skew teeth over a long period of time.

3. The nasal and sinus cavities keep air at the correct temperature for your body's needs, and allows air to be warmed or cooled as required.

4. Added germ protection is offered by the sinus passages which have a high concentration of nitrogen. Nitrogen is a potent germ killer, and is used to destroy viruses and bacteria. Air circulating first through the sinus passages allows for germs to be neutralized within the sinus cavities, thereby limiting airborne diseases and infections.

5. The size of the nostrils compared to the mouth means that less air is taken in. Studies prove that breathing less air is beneficial for people with asthma and allergies, and that healthy people only breathe around 12 times per minute, taking in only 4.8 - 5 litres of air per minute. Asthmatics, on the other hand, breathe up to 8 litres of air per minute, causing the body some significant stress as it tries to combat the effects of over-breathing. Some of the symptoms of over breathing include: wheezing, a sensation of breathlessness, yawning and sighing often, tiredness, dizziness, panic attacks, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, metabolic acidosis, and tingling fingers and toes.

If you are having problems with a chronically blocked nose, you can be sure that there is also some effect on the body as a whole. Most likely your sleep is affected, and you may even experience other difficulties like throat problems, dry mouth, tickly cough and even other neurological symptoms like dizziness, headaches and panic.