What’s the difference between breathing in through your nose and mouth? And why it’s recommended to do it through the nose?
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A lot of people have given you an answer regarding purification, humidification, etc. Which is all correct and the better “ELI5” answer. But something that no one talks about is that you also REALLY miss out the benefits of your body’s natural nitric oxide production/consumption, if you choose to mouth breathe.
More about your sinuses and their NO production:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9516187/
Nitric oxide is absolutely fantastic for your entire cardiopulmonary system and promotes better ventilation across the blood barrier in the alveoli. Better oxygenation. Decreased pulmonary vascular resistance. It’s amazing stuff and your sinuses do this on their own!
In healthcare, sometimes we have patients who aren’t ventilating well — despite being intubated. So we will actually hook them up to a machine that will actually [administer extra nitric oxide](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32102645/) via the ventilator circuit. This, again, will significantly help patient’s with their pulmonary vascular resistance + significantly improve their oxygenation. While I can really crank up the dosage, it’s often surprising to see how even tiny doses can make a patient stay above a normal oxygenation level.
Breath through your nose!
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