Breathing Education
Correct Nasal and Diaphragmatic Breathing: The Benefit and Importance for your Health
There is no such thing as “Normal Breathing”. Breathing has to be appropriate to the demand of the body, and the body has the ability to regulate this supply and demand provided we don’t get in the way. Unfortunately, we tend to unconsciously create dysfunctional breathing patterns as we attempt to cope with ever-increasing daily demands. Impacted breathing is the result of these compensations.
Less than 20% of people breathe well. And if we don’t breathe well, it is not possible to sleep well, healing will be impacted and health will decline.
We have two levels of breathing. The first is when we’re ‘at rest’ and not exerting ourselves. Breathing at rest ideally uses the nose and diaphragm (our breathing muscle located under the rib-cage).
The second level of breathing is when we’re exercising or doing anything else that increases our production of carbon dioxide (C02), and we have to blow off the excess. Carbon dioxide levels need to be carefully balanced in the lungs and blood as they determine the pH levels (acid / alkaline balance) of every body system. Breathing under load uses the upper chest and the mouth.
Let’s look at these 2 types of breathing in more detail…
Naso-Diaphragmatic Breathing is an amazing process as it is actually a 6-stage filtration and air conditioning system designed to ensure that the air entering our lungs is of optimal condition.
When we breathe in, particles floating in the air are trapped by the nasal hairs, enzyme in the mucus (our snot) kills inhaled microorganisms and the air is brought to body temperature as it passes through the turbinates (little conch-like structures in the nose). The sinuses then wash and humidify the air and the final, micro-fine filtration, happens when the air washes over the adenoids and tonsils. Our lymph system, being powered by the diaphragm also has an important role to play as it drains and clears our tonsils, keeping them healthy.
Other benefits of nasal breathing are that a gentle stream of air passing over the paranasal sinuses triggers the release of a very important gas called Nitric Oxide (NO). NO is a powerful antimicrobial (killing harmful microorganisms), which allows the airway and the bronchiole tubes (small airways in the lungs) to relax, reduces the respiratory effort, lowers the blood pressure and facilitates the uptake of oxygen from the blood.
Mouth-Chest breathing bypasses all of this and uses the tonsils as the first filter – one of the prime reasons for them to become blocked, inflamed and infected. In addition to this, the raw unfiltered air gets into the delicate lungs and can cause inflammation and infection.
Mouth breathing coupled with upper chest breathing does not fully engage the diaphragm. As a result of this, the toxins trapped by the tonsils are not cleared, setting us up for double trouble.
All this, and much more, will be explained in detail in our “in house” BreatheALIGN program, which focuses on how to restore balanced posture, normalise breathing and establish good oral posture.
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