122: The Breath of Health and Fat Loss
The most efficient breathing rhythm is 5.5 second inhales followed by 5.5 second exhales through your nose. Overbreathing or breathing through your mouth causes major metabolic and overall health problems.
Breathing too much and too fast are the breaths of stress and fear. And you know God didn’t give us the spirit of fear! On top of that, chronic mouthbreathing leads to poor focus and mood, weight gain, periodontal disease, sleep apnea and many more health issues. We are meant to breathe through our noses. After all - God DID breathe life into man through the nostrils.
Listen to this week’s podcast to learn how breathing efficiently is one of the foundational pillars of good health and metabolism.
EPISODE 122: The Breath of Health and Fat Loss
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
Hello my friend! Welcome back to the club. How are you today?
It’s breath week in The Genesis Prescription
Even as a health professional who geeks out on anything that helps the body - this is something I’ve just not had the interest or motivation to dig into or practice for that matter. I’ve blown it off - haha, cheesy pun alert - UNTIL - 2 things:
A health podcaster I follow showed a photo of taping his daughter’s mouth shut to stop her mouth breathing
I learned that when we burn fat most of fat leaves your body through your breath.
James Nestor the author of Breath says, “No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are - none of it will matter unless we’re breathing correctly. The missing pillar in health is breath.”
Another book I read and have been using for breath work with my son that I’ll tell you more about is The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown
(6:07) Let’s start with The Good Book, God’s Word:
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
We think of breathing life into someone through the mouth, but that’s not how God did it. It specifically says He breathed life into man’s nostrils. This was the first - aha moment, maybe there’s something to this nosebreathing verses mouthbreathing.
Even though God gave us two ways to breathe, breathing through the mouth is plan B - it’s the back up plan if something is preventing us from breathing from the nose then the mouth is supposed to be the short term back-up.
(8:22) What happens when you breathe through your nose:
You get 10-20% more oxygen - you need proper oxygenation of the tissues and organs for them to work properly.
It warms and humidifies the air coming in for easier absorption
It removes a significant amount of germs and bacteria from the air you breathe, filtering out particles and pollutants
It releases nitric oxide to the lungs and blood and nitric oxide is important for. Immune function, weight, circulation , mood and sexual function.
It helps regulate blood pressure, cholesterol, neurotransmission (the messaging system in the brain), prevents clogging of the arteries, is very important for erectile function. Nitric oxide also plays a central role in sports performance - it helps dilate smooth muscle and allow for better transfer of oxygen to and from the lungs during exercise.
(11:05) Mouthbreathing:
Mouthtaping
Mouthbreathing at night doesn’t allow the body to get into a deep sleep because you’re not getting as much oxygen.
A Mouthbreather do not get a full detoxification experience (remember our body does it’s heavy load of detoxification at night when you go into that deep sleep).
Kids who regularly mouthbreathe tend to have misalignment of the jaw and teeth.
A mouthbreather is going to tend toward a longer, narrower face with poor jaw definition - it will be set back more that it should -This longer, narrower facial structure makes things more crowded and therefore teeth more crowded and crooked. AND, it also narrows the air passageways so that it perpetuates the breathing problem and leads to snoring and can ultimately lead to sleep apnea.
This quote is from the Breath book it says,
“Mouth Breathing changes the physical body and transforms airways, all for the worse. Inhaling air through the mouth decreases pressure, which causes the soft tissues in the back of the mouth to become loose and flex inward, creating less space and making breathing more difficult. Mouthbreathing begets more mouthbreathing.”
One of the doctors mentioned in the Breath book says that mouth breathing contributes to peridontal disease and bad breath and is the number one cause of cavities, even more damaging than sugar, bad diet or poor hygiene.
ADHD is also directly related to breathing difficulties during sleep. Focus and behavior issues are common side effects. In fact, this same doctor said that mouthtaping has helped some kids overcome ADHD.
“Mouthbreathing causes the body to lose 40% more water.” - so you’re going to be dehydrated.
Mouthbreathing causes you pee more during the night because when you can’t get into that deep sleep your body doesn’t properly trigger vasopressin which is a hormone that tells your cells to store more water and so when your body doesn’t get that message, it triggers the kidney to release water. So you’ll have to go to the bathroom more at night. Lack of vasopressin also leads to an irritable bladder.
The book also says that - “Chronic insomnia is often a breathing problem.”
The author of The Oxygen Advantage says that you can overcome chronic nasal congestion and a head cold with these exercises and that it can get you to the point that you don’t need won’t need nasal decongestants, steroids or anti-histamines.
The book The Oxygen Advantage talks about harnessing “explosive athletic potential” - which is appealing to any sports enthusiast, especially boys at this age.
(21:14) Fat loss and breathing:
If you ask most people where fat goes when you lose it they will say think sweat it out and maybe pee and poop it out.
84% of fat lost is exhaled through your breath. “For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds of it comes out through the lungs; The rest is sweated out. The lungs are the weight-regulating system of the body.”
We breath in oxygen - O2 and we breathe out carbon dioxide - CO2.
2 molecules go in - oxygen, 3 go out.
Your exhaled breath is heavier than your inhaled breath. That is what is carrying the metabolic waste - your burned fat - from your body.
Breathing has a direct impact on how we burn energy and get rid of fat. If we’re not breathing efficiently, in the way we were designed, this process will be compromised.
In The Oxygen Advantage, the author tells the story of a woman he worked with who had tried every diet, every fat burning supplement - all the things - couldn’t lose weight or maintain weight loss, felt too heavy and out-of-shape to exercise. He knew that her body wasn’t properly metabolizing oxygen and so he gave her some simple nose breathing exercises that she could do while watching t.v. and in two weeks she lost 6 lbs - not changing one other thing.
The way that we breathe makes a huge difference in the function and metabolism of our bodies.
When I told some ladies from church that when you lose weight it’s comes out of your breath, they started panting really hard and that’s what you think right - the more I exhale the more fat I’ll get out of my body - but sadly it’s not that easy and that’s not the way it works.
In fact, that actually makes things worse. First of all that’s coming out of your mouth and secondly there’s another issue we have in modern society which is overbreathing - breathing too many, short, rapid breaths which cause us to breathe too many times per minute which we are not designed to do.
How we breathe determines the levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. When we breathe correctly, we have a sufficient amount of carbon dioxide and our breathing is quiet controlled and rhythmic.
If we are overbreathing, our breathing is heavy, more intense, erratic and we exhale too much carbon dioxide. Breathing better allows more carbon dioxide inside of us which delivers more oxygen to our muscles and organs.
Shorter, rapid breaths are the breaths associated with stress - fight or flight, sympathetic state.
Longer, steady breaths are associated with a body in the relaxed, rest and digest, parasympathetic state.
It’s in those relaxed, steady breath that you get optimal oxygen and carbon dioxide regulation - hence better metabolic function and an overall healthier body.
In the book Breath, author James Nestor explains it like this:
“When we take short, hasty breaths, the molecules of air switch on the sympathetic nerves. These work like 911 calls. The more messages the system gets, the bigger the emergency. In these states, the body redirects blood flow from less vital organs like the stomach and bladder and sends it to the muscles and brain. Heart rate increases, adrenaline kicks in, blood vessels constrict, pupils dilate, palms sweat, the mind sharpens.”
Mouthbreathing and overbreathing signal the body that something is wrong and puts us and keeps us in that sympathetic, fight or flight state which we are not meant to be chronically living in.
“Those with the worst anxieties consistently suffer from the worst breathing habits.”
Overbreathing, breathing too much, breathing shorter, rapid breaths are the breaths of fear. And God did not give us the spirit of fear.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
(29:11) Ruach:
You know one of the most fascinating and meaningful things that has come from all of this study of breath is that I learned the Hebrew word ruach which is the often the word used for spirit in the original Hebrew text but means spirit, breath, wind, life force all in one word.
The Holy Spirit within us is ruach - His spirit, His breath, the thing that gives us life.
“True health and inner peace occurs when breathing is quiet, effortless, soft, through the nose, abdominal, rhythmic, and gently paused on the exhale.” - The Oxygen Advantage
Ultimately you want to shoot for breaths that are between 5-6 seconds long. So about 5.5 seconds in and 5.5 seconds out. That will put you at about 10-12 breaths per minute and that is the going healthy rate of breath.
And that is our Genesis Prescription goal this week my friends - to spend 2 minutes - just 2 MINUTES working on this slower breath of 5-6 seconds in, and 5-6 seconds out.
Just start counting your breath 1,2,3, 4,5, in and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, out. Take a breath break.
Take your breath back from the stress, from the world, from the enemy - and give it to the Lord. Let that ruach work within you.
My hope is that you will always recognize the Lord, our mighty Creator in everything that we do and that HIs Word is a living, breathing account of how to live and navigate this gift of life and that includes our health - these foundational concepts embedded in the Creation story in the way that our body works in relation to Creation.
So breathe well my friends - I was about to say breathe deep - but I’m going to say breathe, breathe slow, breathe through your nose and praise the mighty one that breathed life into you.
(36:01) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!