Breathing, Mewing and Wim Hof, Oh My!

Apparently we, modern humans, are breathing all wrong!

I’m not even sure where I first heard the name Wim Hof, but one night I found myself watching him on Joe Rogan’s podcast. As someone who works in medical science I really wanted to dismiss this kooky guy. He seemed a little “out there” for me, but it could have been the language barrier. However, this guy has broken multiple world records for the longest time in ice, highest climb on Mount Everest only wearing shorts and shoes, ran a full marathon in the Arctic circle, again only wearing shorts and shoes. To be clear I do not have aspirations to climb Mount Everest or sit in an ice bath for over a hour. Even so I thought I should be open to his advice. So I started doing the recommended breathing method every morning for the past few weeks. Turns out the breathing method does help train you to increase your carbon dioxide tolerance. My record for breath holding so far is 2 minutes and 25 seconds. Some days seems to be better than others. Why would it be beneficial to increase your tolerance to carbon dioxide? According to Dr. Feinstein (out of Tulsa, Oklahoma) it could help people with anxiety. He believes some people that have panic attacks are more sensitive to carbon dioxide and have a low tolerance for it. I read (listened really) this information in an audio book, “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” by James Nestor.

Cold water or ice immersion therapy is also something Wim Hof recommends along with breathing exercises. I have dabbled in the cold showers, but not consistently. The fact that I’m open to cold showers is amazing progress for me. This is coming from someone that loves their hot, hot showers. I usually like the temperature just below point of burning flesh; generally when I get out my skin is red, the walls are crying and the steam is thick. I have not jumped to purchasing the 10 week course because not sure if I’m committed enough for the amount you spend. I will continue to do the basics, and see about doing the 10 week course at a later time. More to come…

From the audio book mentioned above I’ve learned that it is very important to breathe through your nose and not your mouth. When you breathe through the nose the air is warmed, humidified, conditioned and mixed with nitric oxide. Not only do the little hairs in your nose catch bacteria, pollutants, dust, and other particles, but nitric oxide kills the bacteria. Nitric oxide also works as a vasodilator in the body as well. The vasodilation increases oxygen absorption into the body. Basically it’s way more efficient to breathe through your nose. Mouth breathing is meant to be only as an alternate route of breathing during times of illness, laughing, etc. Chronic mouth-breathing can lead to sleep problems, such as snoring and sleep apnea, dental carries, facial deformities, bad breath, fatigue, etc. Well that is a problem for this mouth-breather currently writing this post. So how the heck does one break a decades long habit? During the day you can concentrate on nasal breathing by keeping the mouth shut, but you will need to correct yourself over and over again. What about at night though? You got to tape your mouth shut. When I first told my husband that I will be taping my mouth shut at night, he was incredulous (at least he wasn’t happy about the prospect). I’ve only done this a few nights, and do notice I sleep deeper now. Am I getting a full nights sleep now? I have a 7 month old so short answer “no”. I will continue the practice though.

Since reading about breathing, the practice of “Mewing” has popped up. At first glance you’d think “mewing” would involve making kitty-cat noises, but it’s actually named after the originator of the practice, Dr. Mike Mew. It’s about learning proper tongue posture in the mouth, which is supposed to help open the nasal passages, and redefine the jaw line. You can look on youtube for plenty of videos on how to mew. Some of them are pretty amusing. I’ve had jaw surgery on both bottom and top jaws, so not sure if mewing would help with titanium plates in my jaw. I don’t seem to have much problem placing my tongue at the roof of my mouth; however, just keeping it there and not opening my mouth to breathe will be a hard habit to break.

More to come on breathing and breath-work. I haven’t even scratched the surface, there are plenty of breathing methods out there, such as holotropic breathwork and more.