Nasal breathing vs oral breathing

[Inferno]

Greetings, fellow debunkers.

On another forum I frequent, I happened on this thread. It started off as one of the members telling about his last six or so months, in which he nearly died. Now obviously none of us can check any of that, but what we can check is what he tells about nasal vs oral breathing.

The sites he linked to all reek of quackery and pseudo-science, but as stated on that other forum I don't know nearly enough about chemistry and bio-chemistry to talk about the subject at hand. If anyone could clear me up as to what he's talking about, including this article, I'd be only too happy. I know that some of the things they say in that article are indeed true (that you need NO and CO2 in the blood), but much of what they say seems exaggerated.

Thanks

 

[Anachronous Rex]

I suffer from one fairly severe seasonal allergy that basically renders me unable to breathe nasally for several weeks every summer. Aside from sneezing and feeling like I've got a ripe grapefruit stuffed in my sinus I haven't noticed any ill effects let alone the massive systemic problems described in the link (and yes, I include in that vascular veins on testicles.)

Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence, but then so was his.


That being said, symptoms that make no sense and disappear spontaneously with 'alternative' treatments are classic indicators of a mental, rather than physical, disorder. See Desiree Jennings.

I think this is especially likely as most of his symptoms are clear indicators a mental disorder.

 

[ArthurWilborn]

Interesting. Always something to be learned.

From the thread he has clear signs of depression - substance abuse, suicidal thoughts - heck, he flat out says he has depression. That explains the attitude and most of his subjective experience. The other thing that pops up is things like coldness and tingling in extremities. This is probably due to poor circulation. I would pin this on a lack of physical activity combined with the side effects of smoking. It's certainly not that his body was oxygen deprived, since he never mentioned the one symptom that would clearly point to that; cyanosis.

The website is a mix of fact and fantasy. The body needs a certain amount of CO2, and CO2 can actually act as a signal to the body where O2 is most needed; fascinating.

However, the base of their claim is pretty simple. They claim with a post hoc rationalization that since, according to their studies, sick people breathe more, that their elevated breathing is the cause of their sickness. What they neglect to mention is that they are comparing resting breathing rates with elevated breathing rates due to activity, since those studies are measuring their patients while exercising. They also claim that the breathing rate has risen over the last sixty years, but do not link to those studies.

As for the other claims (the nasal passage filters air); I've heard it before and it sounds legit enough. This website is a classic example of drastically overstating the benefit of something.

As to his claim that NO is only produced by nose breathing; nope, it's produced in the blood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endothelial_nitric_oxide_synthase

 

[sigen8]

The quality and components of the air we breathe don't change from nasal to mouth breahting, nor it is changed. The main difference and advantage of nasal breathing is that particles and some bacterias are filtered by the nose.

All the symptoms listed can be caused by various illnesses : Stress, withdrawal, food allergy, insufficient potassium (muscualar pain, diarrhea, cramps), low blood glucose and many others.

This man seemed to look at wiki or other similar sites, wich talk about NO, but nasal breathing won't affect it, or other molecules.

This is crearly pseudoscience or self-diagnostic and treatment (coming from a nurse clinican).

 

[Inferno]

So continuing on this topic: One of the articles mentions An assessment of nasal functions in control of breathing. I can't access anything but the abstract and that doesn't really tell me anything. So here's my question: Is it true that oral breathing can or does result in less oxygenation of the body? And if so, does that have any effect at all? I mean after all, we can only use so much oxygen, more probably won't help.

 

[Anachronous Rex]

So continuing on this topic: One of the articles mentions An assessment of nasal functions in control of breathing. I can't access anything but the abstract and that doesn't really tell me anything. So here's my question: Is it true that oral breathing can or does result in less oxygenation of the body? And if so, does that have any effect at all? I mean after all, we can only use so much oxygen, more probably won't help.

Well alright, if I'm being completely honest it is true that mouth-breathing tends to result in shallow breaths from the upper lungs (you can test this yourself), and that breathing nasally typically results in deeper 'belly breaths' which are actually better at oxygenating your blood and help to prevent lung disorder. This is just a tendency, it's not like you can't breathe shallowly with your nose and if you've ever run in your life you know that you can take deep breaths with your mouth.

I hesitate to even mention this because I have a feeling that our friend will blow it way out of proportion. It would still be much more useful to you to enroll in some activity that teaches proper breathing technique (like Track & Field, Tai Chi, or Yoga), then to just count on nasal breathing to see you through.

 

[sigen8]

Inferno,

I might be able to get to read the full text tomorrow at my hospital, we've got the rights for pubmed and cinahl so usually I can get those. I'll look at the results for you.

 

[Inferno]

Inferno,

I might be able to get to read the full text tomorrow at my hospital, we've got the rights for pubmed and cinahl so usually I can get those. I'll look at the results for you.

I would absolutely love that, thank you.

 

[Inferno]

As happens so often, this has turned into a full-fledged shit-flinging contest, wherein I am currently writing a reply as long as TruthIsLife7's comments... Would someone be willing to have a "quick" read through some parts of the thread and tell me if I'm actually wrong? At this point I might just have succumbed to some errors or fallacies myself, even though that seems highly unlikely.