I did mouth tape for a long time…long enough to develop the habit of breathing through my nose while sleeping. But I stopped mouth taping after talking to Dr. Han (episode #130) who said it is better to not fully obstruct the mouth to allow for mouth breathing when something obstructs air via the nose. Otherwise, she said, you get a stressful wakening…which I did have a few times. My next guest also says in his book to leave enough of the mouth uncovered to allow for air when needed.
But the key to nasal breathing when exercising is CO2 tolerance. By mouth breathing whenever we feel a little short of air (CO2 is a bit high), we lower our tolerance of CO2…and the result is lower CO2 in our bloodstream all the time, and especially when we exercise hard. This leads to constriction in blood vessels and less oxygen getting to heart and brain and elsewhere.
I’ll publish the podcast soon.
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PBJ
#43
Interesting. I knew there were advantages to nasal breathing, but did not know about the benefits of CO2 and developing this tolerance.
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JKPrime
#44
Thank you. Additional useful info. I’m aware of some of the nose breathing benefits already. That said when I run, it is, however, hard for me to avoid mouth breathing.
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