Asthma

Another common reason why someone might be mouth breathing 'Asthma', Asthma a word borrowed from ancient Greek word meaning 'laborious breath, 'shortness of breath' and resembling hay-fever, being sensitive to atmosphere, climate and allergens.

Inflammation due to asthma can travel from nose to lungs and lungs to nose, which is why people with asthma can experience nasal congestion often leading to mouth breathing.

Mouth breathing in asthmatics often leads to increased breathing volume with cold, dry and unfiltered air entering the lungs and exasperating symptoms.

Dr Buteyko the founder of the Buteyko breathing method believed that 'over-breathing' was hugely contributing to illness, he himself was diagnosed with hypertension and made the discovery that reducing his breathing volume alleviated his symptoms. This breakthrough in 1952 led Dr Buteyko to theorise that 'chronic hyperventilation' was a root cause of ill health, hence he began to develop the Buteyko method involving, nasal breathing, diaphragmatic relaxation and encouraging his patients to experience feelings of 'slight air hunger' in order to normalise CO2 levels.

Today applying the Buteyko method (relearning to nose breath combined with regular breathing exercises) has remarkable results leading to a significant decrease of asthma symptoms and reduction in asthma medications.

The way we breathe is at the core of pretty much every function in our body, if we're doing it dysfunctionally over and over again, as so many people are, we're causing unnecessary harm to our long term health and well-being.

Now is a good time to become more aware of how you're breathing, both during the day and at night! 🌱