Eli5: why are we told to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth if all the oxygen gets in your blood stream in the lungs either way? Would it not be better to just breathe in and out of your mouth for the most oxygen?

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Eli5: why are we told to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth if all the oxygen gets in your blood stream in the lungs either way? Would it not be better to just breathe in and out of your mouth for the most oxygen?

In: Biology

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your nose has air filters, it makes the air safe to take in, it’s good at catching pathogens and stuff. Your mouth has enzymes and teeth, it turns food into mush, which your body turns into feul. So when you breath in through your nose, you filter it and make it safer, and when you exhale through your mouth, you push out all the co2.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The nose warms, filters and moistens the air so that it’s ready for the lungs.

The mouth just draws in air without warming, filtering or moistening the air.

Breathing through your nose reduces the amount of dust and crud that gets in your lungs.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s no reason to specifically breathe in through one and out the other other than as a relaxation technique. In truth, the two could be reversed, or one could simply breathe in and out through the nose or mouth exclusively.

The idea is to focus on doing it in a slow and controlled manner. I always just go in and out through the nose if I’m following a guided meditation or whatnot regardless of the instructions.

Edit: Okay, so obviously the nose is how you’re supposed to breathe normally. In through one and out through the other is something I’ve only ever heard of in meditation, so I answered as I understand it.
I wasn’t saying ‘yo dawg just breathe through your chapped ass lips 24/7!’ Calm down.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Breathing in through your nose is very important. “Nitric oxide is produced in the paranasal sinuses and is excreted continuously into the nasal airways of humans” I am no scientist but I read NO helps to modulate your breathing and absorb oxygen.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m so used to breathing through my mouth, is this a habit that I can learn to stop doing? I feel like my nasal cavity is too restricted so I just use my mouth.

Anonymous 0 Comments

https://www.consciousbreathing.com/articles/mouth-breathing-negatively-affect-childrens-smile-teeth-face-airways/

In that article it explains how your facial structure changes for the worse if you breathe exclusively through your mouth because your tongue posture is bad and doesnt press on the roof of your mouth and help shape your facial structure.

Anonymous 0 Comments

My physiology prof said that breathing through your mouth is like eating soup through your nose – just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.
Evolution happened to give us two separate holes with different functionalities. Probably because optimizing managing to eat and breathe at the same time increased successfulness.
In this case the nose performs the function of preparing air: filtering, warming and adding moisture to air that is breathed in, while the mouth (a bigger hole to contain your teeth and tongue alongside salivary glands) performs the function of preparing morsels: ingesting, chopping/grinding and moistening them for swallowing.

edit: The nose, a smaller hole, but a large cavity, contains conchs, small hairs and mucus glands. The first along with the procession from a smaller to a larger space slows the air and creates turbulence, the second filters and the third adds moisture. The slowing is important to enhance the effects of filtering, moistening and warming.