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Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

nytimes.com

11–20 of 102 posts

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#11
post #7
post #6

The study design seems silly. The subjects did better recalling scents after one hour when they had that whole hour to continue smelling any lingering particles of the scent. That's surprising?

While I'm not a scientist in the given field, my personal experience is that people get used to smells very quickly. That's also why historically manual dry rot searchers were notorious for running around buildings fast — once your body gets used to the scent, it's filtered out. I doubt an hour in a given environment would give you much advantage over say five minutes.

It’s actually one of the clearest showcases for humans’ astonishing talent of adapting to their surroundings. You can throw humans in shit-filled holes and, after a few hours, they just won’t care about the smell. It shows, at micro level, the sort of skill that led our species to planet domination.

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#12
post #2

It's interesting to see these modernization attempts for ancient wellness 'technology' that dates back thousands of years. I am, of course, talking about yoga, and more specifically -- pranayama. Otherwise known as the 'science of breath'. You don't have to believe in anything to practice different breathing techniques, and the results are absolutely there. I have met freedivers who build up their lung capacity stric…

Agree! Pranayama and other yoga practices are very powerful and effective. It's very important to have an experienced teacher rather than trying to do it yourself. These practices can have very strong effects and can be misused. There is a lot of misinformation floating around. I recommend finding an experienced teacher in the Krishnamacharya/Viniyoga tradition.

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#13
post #6

The study design seems silly. The subjects did better recalling scents after one hour when they had that whole hour to continue smelling any lingering particles of the scent. That's surprising?

Yeah, it sounds suspiciously like the real finding might be "putting a peg over the nose for an hour in advance is a suboptimal way of preparing somebody for a smell-based recollection test", which is almost Ig-Nobel worthy

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#14
post #9
post #2

It's interesting to see these modernization attempts for ancient wellness 'technology' that dates back thousands of years. I am, of course, talking about yoga, and more specifically -- pranayama. Otherwise known as the 'science of breath'. You don't have to believe in anything to practice different breathing techniques, and the results are absolutely there. I have met freedivers who build up their lung capacity stric…

Can you suggest an intro to practicing pranayama specifically, as opposed to generic mindfulness or meditation?

Look for "baba ramdev + pranayam". There are a ton of videos online with him teaching pranayam. Like with all things of this nature there's a whole lot of junk surrounding it (marketing etc) that he also indulges in but the exercises themselves are good. Here's what I could find.

You might find some books at patanjali[1]. They have a good list of exercises although the BS part does appear in some books.

[1] https://patanjaliayurved.org/product-category/patanjali-publ...

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#15
I’ve been working on breathing through my nose more over the last few weeks. One area where I’m noticing improvement is better sleep. When I used to breathe through my mouth I would dry out my mouth severely multiple times during the night. This possibly reduced sleep quality because I would roll over to drink a glass of water whenever the dryness got uncomfortable. Maybe it was increasing dehydration, too.

I resisted breathing through my nose because my left nostril seems slightly deviated. Forcing myself to breathe through my nose while I jog or do yoga seems to help. My hunch is that the nostril is just closed up a bit from lack of use.

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#16
post #2

It's interesting to see these modernization attempts for ancient wellness 'technology' that dates back thousands of years. I am, of course, talking about yoga, and more specifically -- pranayama. Otherwise known as the 'science of breath'. You don't have to believe in anything to practice different breathing techniques, and the results are absolutely there. I have met freedivers who build up their lung capacity stric…

Do hou have a link for a beginner ?

Re: Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits

#17
Completely anecdotal experience: a year ago, after getting started with meditating regularly, I realized breathing "deeply" (through the nose and "with the belly") for more than 5 minutes straight, had a big impact on my energy levels and focus for a few hours. So I decided to do it the whole day for a full week.

It was incredible, my mind was completely clear all the time, I felt great, and my wife noticed that I even stopped snoring.

Since then I've done it again a few times, but can never sustain it for more than a few days.

It's super simple, but building the habit is very hard.

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