Improve Your Energy, Reduce Allergies & Asthma—Just by Changing How You Breathe!

Breathing is vital for life. It can refresh and rejuvenate you if done correctly, but it can also create dysfunction and fatigue if done improperly. Many people believe that the more you breathe, the better, and that taking big breaths often is beneficial. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

When you breathe, you bring oxygen into your lungs, where it is transported into your bloodstream. From there, oxygen is carried by your red blood cells to your brain and body. These red blood cells also carry CO₂, which is vital for releasing oxygen to your tissues. Without sufficient CO₂, your red blood cells cannot effectively release oxygen to your brain and body, leading to constant fatigue due to poor oxygenation. This is why maintaining a proper balance of CO₂ and oxygen in your system is crucial.

When you take large breaths through your mouth or are a chronic mouth breather, you expel too much CO₂ and take in excessive oxygen. This disrupts the natural CO₂-to-oxygen balance and decreases oxygen delivery to your brain and body.

In school, as an exercise science major and later in chiropractic school, I was taught that CO₂ was merely a byproduct of breathing and served no real purpose. This was completely wrong. Learning the truth about CO₂ allowed me to eliminate my allergies, alleviate asthma symptoms, and dramatically improve my endurance.

So, how do you regulate your breathing effectively? Through my research and personal experimentation, I discovered the following key principles:

The most important step is training yourself to breathe through your nose at all times. Your nose is the best regulator of CO₂ and oxygen balance. Additionally, nasal breathing releases nitric oxide, which dilates the respiratory system and enhances oxygen uptake.

Here are the steps I took to train myself to breathe through my nose:

1. Mouth Taping at Night

I started by taping my mouth shut while sleeping to ensure nasal breathing. It felt strange at first, but the benefits were immediate—I woke up feeling more rested, slept deeper, and felt more recovered. Now, I can’t sleep without mouth tape and still use it every night.

2. Using a Nasal Dilator

During the day, I wore a nasal dilator, a small device that expands the nostrils to reduce resistance in the nasal passages. This helped me maintain nasal breathing even when active, reducing my urge to breathe through my mouth. It was especially beneficial during workouts, allowing me to take in oxygen more efficiently while moving.

3. Breath-Holding Exercises

I incorporated breath-holding exercises while walking, running, biking, and even while sitting during a movie. This gradually reduced my sensitivity to CO₂ and lowered my respiratory rate from 20 breaths per minute to around 8-10 consistently.

All of these techniques are simple to implement and require minimal time—just a little conscious effort. These small changes can lead to massive improvements in how you feel and function throughout the day when practiced consistently!