Improve Your Breathing for Better Health From #1 Breath Expert In The World | Mel Robbins Podcast

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Healthy breathing is quiet, light, slow, through the nose and barely noticeable

  McKeown, founder of Oxygen Advantage and author of ten books on breathing including The Breathing Cure, puts the ideal as 'the perfect person breathes as if they do not breathe', so softly the hairs in your nostrils don't move. Mouth breathing tends to be faster and higher in the chest, which he says feeds the fight-or-flight response. Mel, who calls herself a mouth breather, noticed her breath stuck 'just under my boobs.'

• 02

  Stress, talking, desk jobs and congestion slowly wear down how we breathe

  Breathing is delicate and easily changed by diet, lifestyle, trauma, stress, a lot of talking and sitting all day. Poor patterns become habits. A stuffy nose pushes you to breathe through your mouth, and mouth breathing makes the nose stuffier, a vicious circle. The more you breathe through your nose, the better it works.

• 03

  Nose breathing improves how oxygen reaches your tissues

  He cites a 1988 finding that continuous nasal breathing raises blood oxygen uptake by nearly 10%. During exercise it keeps carbon dioxide higher, which, through an effect described in 1904, helps red blood cells release oxygen to tissues. The nose also carries nitric oxide into the lungs, which he describes as antiviral, antibacterial and a bronchodilator, relevant to asthma, bronchitis and COPD.

• 04

  Faulty everyday breathing feeds anxiety, not just the reverse

  Fast, upper-chest, irregular breathing shows up in at least 10% of the general population but up to 75% of people with anxiety and panic disorders, by his account. Poor oxygen delivery can make brain cells more excitable. He links poorer breathing to fatigue and cold hands and feet. Mel admitted she wears socks to bed because her husband complains about her cold feet.

• 05

  The exhale controls relaxation, and mouth exhales are too fast

  Relaxation is 'all in the exhalation.' A fast breath out signals stress, and the mouth is a bigger exit than the nostrils, so it speeds the exhale. At rest the exhale should last about one and a half to two times the inhale. Mouth breathing also loses about 42% more water, which affects hydration, gums, breath and lips. Mel tied this to a Stanford finding of neurons that monitor breathing and tell the brain when something's wrong.

• 06

  Bigger breaths don't bring more oxygen

  At rest, 12 to 14 breaths a minute is typical, but volume matters as much as rate. Over-breathing blows off carbon dioxide, which narrows blood vessels and makes red cells hold on to oxygen, so less of it reaches the body. 'Deep' should mean low, driven by the diaphragm, not big. The diaphragm is also connected to calm and to the upper-airway muscles.

• 07

  About six breaths a minute brings body and mind into balance

  For deliberate relaxation he gives 4.5 to 6.5 breaths per minute, for example in for five, out for five. Italian researcher Luciano Bernardi found, in a study he dates to around 2000, that both reciting the rosary and repeating mantras brought breathing down to about six breaths a minute. Someone breathing 20 times a minute shouldn't drop straight to six; slow down gradually, for example in for three, out for five.

• 08

  Mouth breathing is tied to snoring, poorer sleep and sleep apnoea

  A stuffy nose makes you two to three times more likely to have a sleep problem, snore or have obstructive sleep apnoea, he says. Nasal breathers sleep more deeply in the studies he cites. Fast breathing at night can wake you and fuel 3 a.m. rumination. He puts insomnia at about 30% of people, 10% chronically. You can't mouth-snore with your lips closed, and soft nasal breathing reduces nasal snoring.

• 09

  Mouth tape helps, but with real caveats for sleep apnoea

  He uses an elastic tape stretched 30 to 40% that draws the lips together, as a daytime reminder for kids and adults and at night once nose breathing is comfortable. In mild obstructive sleep apnoea, keeping the mouth closed cut the AHI severity score by 33%. People with moderate to severe apnoea, and some with obesity, need to 'mouth puff', so tape that seals the lips fully, like the micropore tape he used before, can make apnoea worse.