Who would have thought that how you breathe makes a difference in your heart health?
According to a new small study, breathing through just the nose is more beneficial than breathing through the mouth, affecting blood pressure and other factors that can predict heart disease.
To determine the relationship between nose breathing and cardiovascular health, the research team gathered 20 participants—13 women and seven men—from Florida who were between 18 and 30 years old. The participants were required to have a body mass index of less than 30, meaning they were not obese. Patients’ seated blood pressure had to be less than 140/90 mmHg. Smokers were excluded.
During the study, participants rested for five minutes and were told to breathe normally. After five minutes, participants breathed in time to a metronome. During different portions of the study with the metronome, participants breathed just through their noses and then only through their mouths. During the mouth-breathing sessions, the participants were fitted with a soft nose clip preventing nasal airflow so they inhaled only through their mouths. Each time, the researchers measured blood pressure and rate of physical exertion.
In the next part of the study, participants cycled on stationary bikes for seven minutes, following the same breathing cues: They breathed normally, then breathed along to a metronome as they would normally, just through the nose, followed by just through the mouth.
After a five- to 10-minute rest, participants cycled again. They were allowed to breathe as they wanted, but every minute, the research team increased the resistance on the bike until participants had reached their capacity, no longer able to sustain 60 revolutions per minute (rpm) pedaling.
The team found that mean blood pressure was lower for participants when they breathed just through their noses while resting, but systolic blood pressure was unaffected.
Why Does Nose Breathing Help?
The researchers didn’t conclude why nasal breathing is better than mouth breathing. They pointed out that breathing through the nose warms, filters, and humidifies the air, which can help relax the airways. Additionally, because using the nose increases the use of the diaphragm and demands less of the chest muscles, the heart may be able to accept oxygen more efficiently.They noted that the rates of exertion and breathlessness were noticeably lower in participants when they were breathing through their noses versus breathing through their mouths, indicating that nose breathing could be easier on the cardiovascular system.
The study comes at an important time for cardiovascular research, as heart diseases continue to be the leading cause of death in the United States. Health markers such as blood pressure and heart rate can be indicators of heart disease.
“We interpret the collective data to suggest that nasal compared with oral breathing provides modest, but potentially clinically relevant, improvements in prognostic cardiovascular variables at rest, but not during exercise,” the researchers wrote.
“This work advances our knowledge of how nasal breathing affects clinically relevant cardiovascular variables and provides foundational acute data in healthy young adults to justify future longer-term studies in other populations.”
