The power of the breath

A recent podcast by Goop featuring James Nestor the author of Breath: The new science of a lost art, sparked an ideas for a blog post on how powerful our breath truely is.

The book explores our breathing - how it is overlooked, undervalued & all the ways the breath is at the centre of our health & potential illness, quite literally (our lungs are front & centre of our chest, if you forgot). I personally have been using my breath to help manage my anxiety.

I've been working with meditation & yoga tools that have allowed me to come back into my body when I'm feeling overwhelmed or just simply distracted.

Although, I never really made a connection to how much it could be helping my overall health. Nestor mentions a 70 year on going study that found lung capacity & respiratory function to be the best and most accurate marker for health + longevity, even above cardiovascular health AND GENES! As a Naturopath, we are taught about structure of the respiratory system & how the nose works. Figure 1. shows the inside structure of the nasal cavity.

Our adenoids are glands which sit high up in our throat, behind our nose & roof of the mouth. Their function is immune defense, catching germs in the nose before illness can occur. Nestor explains our nasal cavities have changed with evolution, to become more narrow & our adenoids have become smaller - therefore less effective against potential pathogens.

Our nasal cavity warms air to the bodies temperature, to take to our lungs. This helps to maintain the lungs elasticity & increases oxygen uptake.

As breathing is something that is always happening, mindless breathing has become our true nature with having so many other things to focus on in our busy lives. Nasal breathing is the best way to breath! Even if your breath 2/3 of your day through your nose and only let your mouth take over when you are dead asleep - this could be contributing to ill health. Mouth breathing at night time can lead to zero nitric oxide uptake and poor oxygenation - leavings you feeling groggy & un-rested.

Poor sleep quality has been linked to all types of disease states, particularly mental health issues. Sleep specialists actually recommend taping your mouth at night, as your body would naturally switch to nasal breathing. (DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED TO BY A PROFESSIONAL) So, what can we do to step up our breathing game?? - MEDITATION, deep breathing exercises through the nose.

There are so many amazing free videos on Youtube for breathing techniques to try out. - MINDFUL MOVEMENT, yoga is an ancient practice that started as just breathing techniques. Now, yoga encourages movement with breathe. - MAKE A POINT TO CHECK IN, even if it's 3 deep nasal breathes an hour. It's so easy!