Millions of people use physical exercise and try to lose weight or get slim, but cannot succeed due to one serious mistake. There are several essential differences if we compare effects of exercise (e.g., walking) on health and body oxygen levels in obese people.
Why could body oxygen levels matter? Several recent medical studies have found that low cell oxygen levels and HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1) are the main factors (or even main causes) of obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes on a cell level. (See references and titles below.) Let us consider then effects of walking with mouth vs. nose breathingon body oxygen levels.
Walking is one of the easiest and best things you can do to get slim and become healthier. It is a type of an aerobic exercise. As a result, you'll burn off calories, which means you'll lose weight. However, if you breathe through the mouth, you will get less nasal nitric oxide and carbon dioxide in your blood in comparison with nose breathing only. As a result,walking with mouth breathing is not so good for your heart. You can easily check that nose breathing reduces your heart rate for the same intensity of exercise by about 10 beats per minute!
Clinical experience of Russian doctors
In fact, over 170 Russian MDs tested thousands of their heart disease patients and found that they can easily get angina pain and heart attacks if they mouth breathe during exercise. However, nose breathing is totally safe, but requires reduced intensity for unfit people. Walking with nose breathing then became the most crucial therapy for these doctors teaching the medical Buteyko breathing technique.
Walking is usually slow placed, so you won't be straining your joints and tendons too much, unlike running. Furthermore, walking with nasal breathing only (in and out) gradually builds up oxygen levels in body cells and this is the key advantage of this type of exercise.
You can simply try to go one day for a long walk with nose breathing only and another day with heavy mouth breathing. Compare your energy levels, focus, concentration and many other factors later. Hundreds of my students can confirm that nose breathing has numerous advantages.
Most of all walking with nose breathing is not exhausting at all, which will make you feel more and more motivated. Before you know it, you'll be looking forward to your usual walks with nasal breathing and considering going on walks even more. Once you get more than 20 seconds for the body oxygen test, you can progress to more brisk exercises, like slow jogging or running. More details and tips for natural weight loss can be found on web pages of NormalBreathing.com
Resources
Bronchospasm - It causes and treatment
Dyspnea - Its cause, mechanism and treatment
Why People with Cystic Fibrosis Should Exercise with Nose Breathing only - Knol by Dr. Artour Rakhimov
References (hypoxia causes obesity and diabetes)
Regazzetti C, Peraldi P, Grémeaux T, Najem-Lendom R, Ben-Sahra I, Cormont M, Bost F, Le Marchand-Brustel Y, Tanti JF, Giorgetti-Peraldi S.
Hypoxia decreases insulin signaling pathways in adipocytes.
Diabetes. 2009 Jan;58(1):95-103.
Halberg N, Khan T, Trujillo ME, Wernstedt-Asterholm I, Attie AD, Sherwani S, Wang ZV, Landskroner-Eiger S, Dineen S, Magalang UJ, Brekken RA, Scherer PE.
Hypoxia-inducible factor 1alpha induces fibrosis and insulin resistance in white adipose tissue.
Mol Cell Biol. 2009 Aug;29(16):4467-83.
Chen B, Lam KS, Wang Y, Wu D, Lam MC, Shen J, Wong L, Hoo RL, Zhang J, Xu A.
Hypoxia dysregulates the production of adiponectin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 independent of reactive oxygen species in adipocytes.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2006 Mar 10;341(2):549-56.
