The nose knows best! Those tiny nostrils are your personal air filters, cleaning, humidifying, and tempering the air you breathe. This keeps your lungs healthy, sharpens your brain, and balances your body. On the flip side, if you breathe through your mouth regularly, it can lead to dry mouth, bad breath, snoring, sleep apnea, and dental problems.
Gengezi Babu-Yuze, an artist from Mandalay in Cape Town, balances her roles as a mother, grandmother, wife, artist, and full-time worker, which can sometimes drain her energy.
However, meditation has helped her learn effective breathing techniques. She explains that to avoid mouth breathing, which can occur due to heavy workloads and frustrations, she takes a few minutes to practice deep breathing, holding, and releasing, counting to eight with her nostrils.
“Finding a quiet space and focusing on my breathing pattern helps a lot.”
Gengezi Babu-Yuze
She adds, “Breathing can be done anytime, anywhere, whether sitting or working.”
Babu-Yuze also notes that when she feels stressed, she sits down, breathes deeply, and exhales with a big sigh, which helps her release tension.
Fighting back against anxiety
Nolubabalo Rani, a teacher and artist from Khayelitsha, Cape Town, finds that balancing work, motherhood, and being a student can be overwhelming. However, learning breathing techniques has been beneficial for her.
“I have to be constantly aware that to function well, I need to breathe properly.”
Nolubabalo Rani
She shares that she met a Vietnamese friend who taught her some breathing exercises using her fingers to enhance awareness and connection with her brain.
“I hold my thumb if I’m worried, my index finger for fear, my middle finger for anger, my ring finger for sadness, and my little finger for self-esteem when I’m feeling unsure,” Rani explains.
She emphasises that beginners need to understand why they need breathing exercises, what affects their normal breathing, and when to use these exercises.
Nose breathing
Nose breathing allows for more oxygen intake and ensures the air is humidified and purified before it reaches the lungs, explains Dr Eileen Kaba, who works with #Keready mobile clinics in Tshwane, Gauteng.
She says this also helps with relaxation by promoting the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn slows breathing and heart rate, and promotes digestion.
Kaba notes that when nose breathing, the hairs and mucus in the nose prevent pollutants from entering the body by filtering out and killing allergens, bacteria, and viruses.
“This, in turn, prevents colds, flu, allergic reactions, hay fever, and irritable coughing.”
Mouth breathing
Mouth breathing, on the other hand, results in unfiltered air entering directly into one’s lungs, which over time increases the likelihood of contracting colds, flu, and other viruses, explains Kaba.
However, she says breathing through the nose improves the development of facial muscles, bones, and straight teeth due to the tongue sitting in the correct position.
“Thus, mouth breathing can result in structural facial changes over time, especially in children.”
Dr Eileen Kaba
Kaba says conditions such as enlarged tonsils, nasal septum deviations, large nasal turbinate’s, allergies, and being tongue-tied can cause people to start mouth breathing.
She explains that although mouth breathing mostly occurs when the nose is congested, mouth breathers’ brains over time think carbon dioxide is being lost too quickly, which then causes the nose to produce mucus to slow the breathing.
“A vicious cycle is then started where mouth breathing triggers mucus formation, which in turn causes nasal passage blockages, resulting in mouth breathing.”
Health challenges
Mouth breathing tends to cause dryness in the mouth, tongue, and gums. This leads to an accumulation of acids that accelerate the decay of gums and teeth, explains Kaba.
“This also increases the chances of suffering from bad breath and other dental problems.”
She points out that this also increases one’s risk of suffering from other medical conditions such as asthma, allergies, and jaw problems.
Kaba emphasises that nitric oxide, a gas produced from our nasal passages and paranasal sinuses, helps to prevent inflammation, and widens the blood vessels and bronchi in our lungs, resulting in better respiratory function and increased blood flow. This entire process also assists in maintaining lower blood pressure.
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