Evidence is a short film by Godfrey Reggio (Koyaanisqatsi, etc.) that watches children watching television. Its focus is not on mouth breathing, but on how television sucks people in.

Read the director’s brief comments here: http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/films/evidence.php

Excerpt:

“Evidence looks into the eyes of children watching television – in this case Walt Disney’s ‘Dumbo’. Though engaged in a daily routine, they appear drugged, retarded, like the patients of a mental hospital. Evidence is about the behavior of children watching television – an activity whose physiological aspects have been overlooked in the current controversy surrounding television.”

Watch the 07:40 min film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuI_nCADnW0

Check out the mouths.

(Also, notice how little fun they appear to be having. They’re watching Dumbo, but look like they’re watching something scary.)

Thanks for the link! Great info. And I just ordered the Nose Breathe Mouthpiece from that site. We’ll see if it works!

I have worked with several thousands of people and with the exception of ive people- they were all able to make the shift. The dvd is watched by tens of thousands of people and of course- I have to cover all eventualities.

Try the nose unblocking exercises- try many times. Measure your control pause- increase it. If you spend ten minutes doing nose unblocking exercise and it does not work or show improvement, then you need further help. But when you do the nose unblocking exercise, you muct hold your breath on the outbreath for as long as you can.

Patrick

Good luck with your efforts Christopher. It is time well spent.

Patrick

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!!!!!!

I am surprised and delighted that you are on here, and read my post!

You are the one I learned that nasal clearing exercise from. Thanks to you, I can breathe through my nose more and more of the time. Thank you soooooo much for your book, ‘Asthma-Free Naturally’. I only bought it about a month ago, and it has already changed my life. More specifically, the information in your book ranks as one of the Top 3 Breakthroughs in my life, ever. What more can I say.

I had absolutely despised being dependent on inhalers and meds, basically for the last 38 years, since my birth. I went much more radical than you suggest, and I haven’t used any medication in a month, since the day I began implementing your info. I remember when I first started, I was so radical that at some points in the middle of the night when I was having an ‘attack’, I used your method to the point of vowing to die, before I took a puff of my inhaler. I know, I know… not what you advise. Sorry. Lucky for me, the method worked.

Basically, though, I am just starting my Buteyko Method journey, and I would love to talk with you more! You are literally a hero to me.

Thank You So Much,
Christopher Moran

Yes, I use this exercise all the time. I teach it to thousands of children and adults. That along with other means of increasing breath hold time. It is based on the work of russian professor konstanin buteyko.
I have also put free video downloads about correct breathing during physical exercise, how to unblock the nose, how to stop asthma attack, how to increase breath hold time, included in this information will be how to improve sports performance.

oops- the link to see the free videos is http://www.buteykodvd.com/freedownloads/

It is myself giving the talks.

Patrick McKeown

I learned of an exercise to clear nasal blockage that works for me. You breathe out, then close your mouth and pinch your nose closed with your fingers, hold your breath until you feel a strong need for air, while nodding your head up and down. When you release and breathe in, only breathe through your nose, and only gently, while relaxing. The increased CO2 in the bloodstream will trigger a physiological response that opens and clears the nasal passages. Sometimes this exercise needs to be repeated, and the results sometimes take several minutes to appear. Usually it clears right after, though. It doesn’t work for me 100% of the time. If I have a cold, the clearing will be only minimal. But most of the time, this does the trick.

As a side note, I have asthma, and these and other breathing exercises I learned just in the last month, have helped eliminate my need for inhalers this last month. I’m extrememly stoked! And one of the main principles of this breath retraining to eliminate asthma is this… only breathe through your nose.

Warm Regards,
Christopher Moran

I have been brething through my mouth as long as I can remember, when I sleep when I’m working, All the time. It has affected my mentallity. Life is just not the same for me as other people! I always have a sense of urgency that dominates everything else so much that it’s almost like I’m not focusing as much on life in general that includes work friends and music it like I’m just dreaming while I’m awake lime I’m looking At my life through a window I can’t explain how it feels but it’s like life is just there and u can’t enjoy it . Now I have been breathing through my nose for a few hOurs and I already feel like andifferint person! I can not believe how much of a differince it makes! Breathing through your nose is life changing! I wish I knew of more people had this problem of not feeling like your living . Thanks

It’s good to know that it is benefiting my life and the quality of it!

Thanks for sharing!

David

I think the theory is that the nose is lined with hairs to trap and stop foreign bodies coming in. At the same time as you exhale through the nose you blow any trapped rubbish out. Also air is warmed up when it comes through the nose into the lungs rather than straight in through the mouth.

Steve

Thanks for the highlighting and challenging various points, it’s a great help in trying to get clear our own personal understanding of how we can get the best from ourselves. Very good point.

“I’d rather be chatting with my teammates rather than focusing on nose breathing”

I tend to run on my own, but i don’t think i would enjoy running around silently with running partners. I shall read your blog post in due course – ta.

I am very interested in finding the science-based answer to nose vs. mouth breathing efficiency. I plan on being a guinea pig.

What I have found in the last few months, is that if I want to do maximum work (wattage), I need to open my mouth and breath in a pattern similar to what you recommend in your article (my optimal pattern seems to be the equivalent of an ‘uneven 4-3′).

However, when I do sub-maximal training, and stay at a maximum of 85% of my max heart rate (MHR), it is better for me to maintain nose breathing to produce maximum wattage. This may have something to do with the fight-or-flight response, and the vagus nerve. I am going to pay more specific attention to this in the coming months, to get more precise and controlled measurements.

Of course, if you don’t do sub-maximal training, then this will be irrelevant. If that is the case, then I agree that nose-breathing is not best for performance, since I can’t maintain nose-breathing at maximal effort. However, for psychological mood and overall well-being, nose-breathing seems superior. When not working out, I have shifted to nose-breathing almost exclusively, and I feel calmer.

As for working out, I have tried to increase my workload above 85% MHR while maintaining nose-breathing, but I find that I have to open my mouth at some point between 85% – 90% MHR in order to maintain the increased workload.

You certainly made me think about what the purpose of nose-breathing is, if I can’t use it when I am at maximum workload. However, I still like to mix up my training days, some sub-maximal endurance, some maximal endurance, and some interval training (repeated sprints). For sub-maximal days, it seems that nose-breathing is best.

And yes, I do miss talking to my teammates during nose-breathing days. I still do talk on those days, but just very little, and only when necessary.

I am going to do some controlled experiments regarding this. Specifically, one day I will maintain a specific wattage while mouth-breathing, for an hour. Then, after two days rest, I will maintain that same specific wattage while nose-breathing, for an hour. Then, I will compare the graphs of my heart rate between the two sessions.

Based on my experience so far, I think I will have a lower heart rate on the nose-breathing day. On both days, I expect some cardio-drift, where my heart rate increases very slowly over the hour, at the same workload. Frankly, I would not be surprised if the graphs are the same, or very similar, either, since I was not being scientific before. I am interested to find out, though.

One last thing, I have read that nose-breathing, in general, reduces chances of getting a cold or other viruses.

Take Care,
Christopher Moran

I work with the military who have long been told to nose breath- I recently retrained one soldier and taught him to inhale with mouth open and exhale out every other time his left foot strikes the ground. Low and behold he dropped a minute from his 2 mile in a week. Here is a link of my article on proper breathing while running. http://www.daveelger.net/2007/08/proper-breathing-for-runners.html

I looove nasal breathing. Since implementing it about 6 months ago, after reading about it here, I have noticed many performance improvements. While cycling, I can sustain the same power output wattage to my back tire, at 85% of my max heart rate, that it used to take me about 92% of my max heart rate to achieve. The great benefit, is that I can sustain 85% of max heart rate for a loooong time, whereas 92% is unsustainable for me for longer periods (greater than 15-30 minutes).

Thank You Sooo Much,
Christopher Moran