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02/02/2012 at 4:40 pm #10314drmithilaOfflineRegistered On: 14/05/2011Topics: 242Replies: 579Has thanked: 0 timesBeen thanked: 0 times
The physical, medical, and social problems associated with mouth breathing are not recognized by most healthcare professionals, according to a study published in a recent issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD). Dentists typically request that their patients return every 6 months, which means that some people see their dentist more frequently than they see their physician. Thus, dentists may be the first to identify the symptoms of mouth breathing. And, because dentists un-derstand the problems associated with mouth breathing, they can help prevent the adverse effects. “Allergies can cause upper airway obstruction, or mouth breathing, in patients,” said study author Yosh Jefferson, DMD.
Children whose mouth breathing goes untreated may suffer from abnormal facial and dental development, such as long, narrow faces and mouths, gummy smiles, gingivitis, and crooked teeth. The poor sleeping habits that result from mouth breathing can adversely affect growth and academic performance. As Dr. Jefferson noted, “Many of these children are misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.” In addition, mouth breathing can cause poor oxygen concentration in the bloodstream, which can cause high blood pressure, heart problems, sleep apnea, and other medical issues. “Children who mouth breathe typically do not sleep well, causing them to be tired during the day and possibly unable to concentrate on academics,” Dr. Jefferson said. “…he or she may exhibit behavioral problems.” Treatment for mouth breathing is available and can be beneficial for children if the condition is caught early. A dentist can check for mouth breathing symptoms and swollen tonsils. If tonsils and/or adenoids are swollen, these can be surgically removed by an ear-nose-throat specialist. If the face and mouth are narrow, dentists can use expansion appliances to help widen the sinuses and open nasal airway passages. “After surgery and/or orthodontic intervention, many patients show improvement in behavior, energy level, academic performance, peer acceptance and growth,” says Leslie Grant, DDS, spokesperson for the AGD. “Seeking treatment for mouth breathing can significantly improve quality of life.”
02/02/2012 at 4:44 pm #15135drmithilaOfflineRegistered On: 14/05/2011Topics: 242Replies: 579Has thanked: 0 timesBeen thanked: 0 timesCO2 is not a toxic waste gas (see Myth #4). Research articles on respiration often mention such physiological parameter as dead space. It is about 150-250 ml in an average adult person: inside the nose, throat, and bronchi. This space helps to preserve additional CO2 for the human body. Indeed, during inhalations we take this CO2
enriched air from our dead space back into the alveoli of the lungs. When the mouth is used for respiration, the dead space becomes smaller, shorter and wider. Nasal passages are no longer a part of the breathing route. Air exchange is stronger as if air gets directly to lungs alveoli from outside. This reduces alveolar O2 and arterial blood CO2 concentrations. This does not take place with nose breathing. Furthermore, nasal breathing route provides more resistance for respiratory muscles as compared to oral breathing (the route for mouth breathing is shorter and it has a greater cross sectional area). During nose breathing, in order to maintain the same CO2 content in alveoli and blood, we can breathe more so that to lower CO2 content in the body. Then this will result in more mechanical work for our respiratory muscles. As an alternative, we can breathe little less while producing less mechanical work. What is the practical result? Due to an in-built tendency to minimize losses of energy, the human organism is likely, as for nose breathing, to breathe less and. hence, tolerate higher arterial and alveolar CO2, than to exert more strain on working breathing muscles.
In their study "An assessment of nasal functions in control of breathing" (Tanaka et al, 1988), Japanese researchers discovered that end-tidal CO2 concentrations were higher during nose breathing than during oral breathing. This research study revealed that a group of healthy volunteers had an average CO2 of about 43.7 mm Hg for nose breathing and only around 40.6 mm Hg for oral breathing. In practice, in terms of body oxygenation or the CP, this corresponds to 45 s and 37 s at sea level. Hence, mouth breathing reduces oxygenation of the whole body.
Each mouth breather needs to know this short summary of immediate negative biochemical effects of mouth breathing related to CO2:
– Reduced CO2 content in alveoli of the lungs (hypocapnia)
– Hypocapnic vasoconstriction (constrictions of blood vessels due to CO2 deficiency)
– Suppressed Bohr effect
– Reduced oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs of the human body
– Anxiety, stress, addictions, sleeping problems and negative emotions
– Slouching and muscular tension
– Biochemical stress due to cold, dry air entering into the lungs
– Biochemical stress due to dirty air (viruses, bacteria, toxic and harmful chemicals) entering into the lungs
– Possible infections due to absence of the autoimmunization effect
– Pathological effects due to suppressed nitric oxide utilization, including vasoconstriction, decreased destruction of parasitic organisms, viruses, and malignant cells (by inactivating their respiratory chain enzymes) in alveoli of the lungs, inflammation in blood vessels, disruption of normal neurotransmission, hormonal effects.02/02/2012 at 4:44 pm #15136drmithilaOfflineRegistered On: 14/05/2011Topics: 242Replies: 579Has thanked: 0 timesBeen thanked: 0 timesThis is another advantage of nasal breathing over mouth breathing. The thin layer of mucus moves as a long carpet from sinuses, bronchi and other internal surfaces towards the stomach. Therefore, these objects, trapped by the mucus, are discharged into the stomach where GI enzymes and hydrochloric acid make bacteria, viruses and fungi either dead or weak. Later, along the digestive conveyor, some of these pathogens (dead or weak) can penetrate from the small intestine into the blood (the intestinal permeability effect). Since these pathogens are either dead or weakened, they could not do much harm (no infections). Moreover, they can provide a lesson for the immune system. This is exactly how natural auto-immunization can work with success. Medical doctors and nurses inject vaccines with dead or weakened bacteria or viruses so that to teach and strengthen our immune response to these pathogens. Therefore, nasal breathing creates conditions for natural autoimmunization.
Practically, when a household member is sick (flu or cold), the still healthy people could breathe either through their nose, teaching the own immune system how to deal with the pathogenic bacteria or viruses, or through their mouth, as for mouth breathing, allowing these pathogens to gain access, settle and reproduce themselves in various parts of the body causing the infection.
Which medical therapy provides techniques and methods to get rid of mouth breathing?
It is the key goal of the Buteyko breathing method to stop mouth breathing and ensure nose breathing 24/7 to prevent all these mouth breathing effects.
For many mouth breathers and sick people quick health improvement (the initial stage of breathing normalization) is accomplished by one change only: learning how to breathe through the nose 24/7. Just this step alone can make a big difference in health of many people so that the main symptoms are reduced and less medication is required.
Dr. Buteyko, while studying respiration during physical activity, observed that breathing through the nose made a big difference in the after-effects of physical exercise. Moreover, physical activity with oral breathing often led to lower CPs and CO2 later, whereas nose breathing during walking and other physical activities was beneficial.
Most medical doctors do not know when and how sick people should exercise. It is known that exercise can be useful, but sick people often die or experience heart attacks, exercise-induced asthma attacks, and other exacerbations or acute states of their diseases during or after physical exercise. However, when physical exercise is done with avoidance of any mouth breathing, physical activity is 100% safe even for severely sick people. (They would not be able to have intensive exercise and will rely on lighter activities, like walking. We are going to learn more about rules and types of beneficial exercise later.)
Since many patients and sick people open their mouth and breathe through the mouth during sleep at night, in the 1960s Dr. Buteyko’s patients invented a technique (mouth taping) is described in "Learn here" Section of this website.
Permanent solution for mouth breathing problems
Use your will power to stop mouth breathing. If a mouth breather suffers from stuffy, or blocked, or running nose and sinusitis, they can exist or appear only in conditions of abnormal breathing. In order for these problems to exist, you should breathe at least 2 times more air at rest than the medical norm. As a result, you have 2 times less body oxygen than the medical norm. Check you body oxygen level (special breath holding time test) and see the truth. The norm is 40 seconds. Hence, there is a simple relationship between the blocked nose and this simple DIY health test:
– If your body oxygen level is less than 20 s, your nose can easily get blocked due to hyperventilation;
– If your body oxygen is more than 20 s, you can avoid mouth breathing.Conclusion. If you have problems with mouth breathing, your goal is to slow down your automatic or unconscious breathing pattern so that to have over 20 of body oxygen 24/7. "Learn" Section provides numerous breathing techniques and methods to improve body oxygen levels.
02/02/2012 at 6:33 pm #15137DrAnilOfflineRegistered On: 12/11/2011Topics: 147Replies: 101Has thanked: 0 timesBeen thanked: 0 times -
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