How do you breathe? It might not be something you’ve ever given much thought to, but my guest on this week’s episode is convinced you should. Patrick McKeown believes breathing correctly – that is, through your nose, lightly, and slowly – is the secret to better health, fitness, and overall wellbeing. Yet many of us are breathing through our mouths, breathing fast and shallow, and our health is suffering as a result.

Patrick talks me through the science of exactly why it is that nasal breathing is so fundamental to health and he shares how learning it himself transformed his sleep, his anxiety levels and drastically reduced his need for asthma medication.

We talk about how our emotions, sleep, and breathing are all interlinked. Patrick also shares some incredible insights on the connection between breastfeeding and diet, mouth breathing as a child, jaw development and malocclusion (crooked teeth).

The good news is it’s never too late to correct your breathing. Whether you suffer from breathlessness, nasal congestion, snoring, stress, or anxiety – or if you simply want to improve your performance in any area of life – this episode is packed with practical tips on doing just that. In fact, you can get started right away with some of his techniques as you listen.

CAUTION: Breath hold exercises are only suitable if you are in good health. If you have any concerns, consult your medical doctor before practicing any breathing exercises. You should never practice breath holds if you are in or near water, if you are pregnant, have high blood pressure or any other medical condition.

Watch the video version of this interview in full below.

Watch the interview on YouTube

Videos:

• Dr Chatterjee YouTube – How to Measure Your Bolt Score with Patrick McKeown
• Dr Chatterjee YouTube – The 3 Pillars of Breathing with Patrick McKeown
• Dr Chatterjee YouTube – What Does a Deep Breath Really Mean?
• Dr Chatterjee YouTube – Why You Should Tape Your Mouth Up For Optimal Sleep

Further Reading:

• Mouth tape recommended by Patrick – Myotape
• Healthcare – A review of analgesic and emotive breathing: a multidisciplinary approach
• The Journal of Physiology – Breath-holding as a means to estimate the loop gain contribution to obstructive sleep apnoea
• Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy – Breathing pattern and thoracoabdominal motion in mouth-breathing children
• Stanford Medicine – Study shows how slow breathing induces tranquility
• Jornal of Pediatria – Establishment of nasal breathing should be the ultimate goal to secure adequate craniofacial and airway development in children
• International Journal of Kinesiology and Sports Science – Effect of Nasal Versus Oral Breathing on Vo2max and Physiological Economy in Recreational Runners Following an Extended Period Spent Using Nasally Restricted Breathing
• American Journal of Orthodontics – Morphologic response to changes in neuromuscular patterns experimentally induced by altered modes of respiration
• International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy – Development of a screening protocol to identify individuals with dysfunctional breathing
• Frontiers in Psychology – The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults
• Journal of Applied Physiology – Nasal nitric oxide and regulation of human pulmonary blood flow in the upright position
• New England Journal of Medicine – Hypocapnia
• American Journal of Orthodontics – Primate experiments on oral respiration
• Semantic Scholar – To Evaluate the Effect of Nasal Packing on Blood Oxygen Saturation
• Journal of Hypertension – Slow breathing reduces chemoreflex response to hypoxia and hypercapnia, and increases baroreflex sensitivity
• Breathe – The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human
• Journal of IMAB – The role of mouth breathing on dentition development and formation
• Semantic Scholar – Understanding nasal breathing the key to evaluating and treating sleep disordered breathing in adults and children
• European Journal of Sport Science – Repeated sprint training in hypoxia induced by voluntary hypoventilation improves running repeated sprint ability in rugby players
• PLOS one journal – Association between Mouth Breathing and Atopic Dermatitis in Japanese Children 2–6 years Old: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study
• Frontiers in Neurology – Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea and the Critical Role of Oral-Facial Growth: Evidences
• Sleep Med Reviews – Pediatric sleep-disordered breathing: New evidence on its development
• Official journal of American Academy Otolaryngology – Novel porous oral patches for patients with mild obstructive sleep apnea and mouth breathing: a pilot study