Forty percent of today’s population suffer from Chronic Nasal obstruction. And around half of us are habitual mouth breathers. When mouths don’t grow wide enough the roof of the mouth tends to raise up instead of out forming what’s called a V shape or high arched plate. The upward growth impedes the development of the nasal cavity, shrinking it and disrupting the delicate structures in the nose.
In 1830 George Catlin left his dry and tedious job as a lawyer and became a portrait painter for Philadelphia’s high society. But tiring of this he took his canvas and paint and brushes and went west. Catlins health was failing due to respiratory problems.
James Nestor in his book “Breath ” continues:
“He went up the Missouri to live with the Lakota Sioux. He met with the Pawnee Omaha, Cheyenne and Blackfeet. ——the tribes varied region by region with different customs, traditions and diets. Tribes looked different too with varying hair colours, facial features and skin tones. And yet Catlin marvelled at the fact that all 50 tribes (he encountered) seemed to share the same superhuman physical characteristics. The men were all tall broad shouldered strong and perfect health straight teeth and the women were just as healthy and just as striking. The native Americans explained to Gatlin that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength and deformed the face and caused stress and illness. On the other hand breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, the face beautiful and prevented disease. Healthy nasal breathing started at birth, mothers in all tribes followed the same practice keep the mouths of infants closed after feeding and this taught the children to breathe through their noses all day every day”
Consciously breathing through your nose for one minute every hour of the day will help you to breathe properly. Catlin had very bad breathing problems and he thinks it saved his life by adopting the nose breathing technique of the Plains Indians.
Twenty years later he set off again this time to South America and discovered all the tribes along the whole length of South America used nose breathing and were healthy and also shared the same vigorous health, straight teeth and forward growing facial structure.
Tips:
- Take a few minutes each day to breathe through your nose and be aware of your breathing. Do this for a month and see the difference it makes to your health.
- When you get stressed or panic, instead of breathing fast, try to slow down your breathing and be aware of the slowing down process for a few minutes.
- Get the Book “Breath” By James Nestor
- Come to the Get Back health Clinic this week and get your nervous system and spine adjusted and aligned, this will help you to breathe better.
Yours in health John Keane, Spinologist