Breathing Through Your Nose Straightens Your Teeth

For 9 months I have been breathing only through my nose.

Yesterday, I was able to talk to my mom on the phone while running.

And that’s not all, in the past 9 months:

1. My teeth have straightened (yeah you read that right)

2. My stamina has increased

3. Recovery speed after workouts is at an all time high

In the book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art James Nestor gives 4 rules for better breathing.

Breath Through Your Nose

The very first rule was “breath through your nose.”

Those of you who know me, know that Demon Slayer is my favorite anime of all time (and if you didn’t, now you do).

Ever since I was a child, I have been mindful of the way that I breath.

I remember walking on top of a play set in my backyard as a boy (scaring my grandma half to death) and mindfully breathing to maintain my balance.

Later on in college when I got into tight rope walking, I did the same thing. Mindful, controlled, slow breaths to maintain my balance and calm my twitching muscles.

During my studies in high school and college, I would listen to my own breathing to calm my anxious mind during a test or a competition.

In spite of all of this mindful breathing, I never really studied it beyond that.

Until my dad sent me James’s book in June of 2023.

The moment I read that the proper way to breath was through my nose, I started doing it. As I read the book walking around my kitchen table, I focused again on my breathing. It was actually rather difficult for my body to not freak out and think it was starving for air.

From that point on I only allowed myself to breath with my nose.

I kept my mouth shut (which also helped with staying quiet I am sure).

I even tried mouth tape to try and force it at night. But it didn’t stick because it was weird trying to kiss my wife with tape on my mouth. Just too dang weird.

By December of 2023 (6 months after I started nose breathing), my jaw and teeth had straightened!

In June (and before), when I put a credit card in my mouth and bit down, the teeth on the right side of my mouth would hit the credit card, but the teeth on the left would “float” and not hit it. My teeth and jaw were crooked. In December of 2023 I tried my credit card trick again and found that some of the teeth on the left were hitting! It was CRAZY!

It’s consistently gotten better as well (I just tested it again hehe).

My children will all be nose breathing. I don’t want to pay for any fetching braces when they can just breath with their nose.

Exhale Completely and Breath Less

The second rule in the book is to exhale completely.

The third rule is to breath less.

Exhaling complete was pretty straightforward, but breathing less was an enigma to me for a couple of months. James says in the book that the United States is a nation of overbreathers (like over eaters). I didn’t get what he meant by that until I started practicing something that is mentioned in the book twice:

Sipping air and extending the exhale.

James talks about how he went on a run with his friend and was challenged to sip the air and breath out as slowly as he could while running.

So I tried it too.

On my runs (and during my workouts) I would sip the air over 6 steps and then breath out over 8-10 steps. After months of testing I found that breathing in over 6 steps was actually too much. I could feel it putting pressure on my body, so I limited it to breathing in over 4 breaths.

Now, I can feel when I’m overbreathing like a pressure in my chest in and throat.

It generally happens as a result of anxious or uncomfortable situations.

By breathing slower (and listening to my breathing like I did in high school) I have been able to increase the effectiveness of my breathing as a tool to calm my mind and body. Exhaling completely has helped me maintain and define my crazy awesome abs. Attractiveness, according to my wife, has gone way up (sex is better too when you’ve got higher stamina and core strength).

Now, 9 months after implementing nose breathing, and striving to run consistently, I can:

• Run 1.5 miles,

• With my mouth completely shut, and

• Snot pouring down my face

I’m a sight to behold.

(My friend told me I had a booger in my beard after one of my runs. I sure did.)

Chew and Mew!

The last rule given in the book is to chew!

Along with this came a word called Mew. But it wasn’t until January of 2024 that I found a video on it and started Mewing. Now I’m a believer.

When I got my braces, my jaw would snap and crackle and pop when I opened it.

Getting braces didn’t help (I even remember telling my dad about my popping jaw, he said the orthodontist would take care of it).

After braces, when I opened my mouth beyond a certain point, the left side of my jaw would pop twice (audibly), and the right side would pop once. This was my life for 15 years. Thinking back I’m amazed I didn’t do anything.

One morning in college I woke up and my jaw was locked.

I couldn’t open it more than a centimeter without excruciating pain. Eating food that day really, really sucked (chewing was a nightmare as well). The next day the locked jaw was gone and I was fine.

“This is just how my face is” was the overriding thought.

If the orthodontist couldn’t fix it when I was 12 or so, nothing could be done now.

WRONG! Only fools accept their lock jawed fate. When I started my nose breathing adventure I didn’t think it would fix my jaw.

And I’m not 100% sure that it did, but I am certain that it helped.

The main tools that have started to fix my jaw were chewing (lots of chewing) and the marvelous Mewing.

I can now open my mouth all the way. The right side no longer pops, and the left side is no longer audible (or painful). And I’ve only been doing Mewing for 3 months!

I’m a convert.

Try It

Don’t believe anything I just shared?

I don’t care.

It’s working for me.

I encourage you to try it.

Especially if it means you don’t have to get your kids braces, or it helps your husband not snore so you can finally sleep, or it increases your workouts and gets you the abs of your dreams.

Try it. =D