About 85% of People Only Breathe Out of One Nostril at a Time

http://om.ly/phNo

Today I found out around 85% of humans only breathe out of one nostril at a time. Even more interesting is that the pattern of switching from breathing out of one nostril to the other happens in a cyclical fashion, with about four hours or so between each switch typically; although, this can vary from person to person and vary based on your bodily position or nasal congestion.

This “nasal cycle” was first noticed by a German nose specialist, Richard Kayser in 1895. How your nose accomplishes this switch is via erectile tissue in your nose, which is very similar to the erectile tissue in a penis or clitoris. Erectile tissue will swell up in one nostril, mostly blocking it, and at the same time erectile tissue in the other nostril will shrink, opening it up for breathing.

Even more interesting is that depending on which nostril you are predominately breathing out of at any given moment, it seems to greatly affect your body and brain.

For instance, a study in 1988 showed that breathing through your right nostril significantly increases blood glucose levels, while breathing through your left nostril has the opposite effect. It is speculated from this that abnormal nasal cycles, such as breathing through your right nostril for many years without a switch, may be one cause of diabetes.

Another study in 1993 showed that when you are breathing through your right nostril you will use significantly more oxygen than when breathing through your left.

Most interestingly of all, yet another study published in 1994, showed that when you are breathing through your left nostril, the right hemisphere of your brain will be more active or dominant and vice-verse when you are breathing through your right nostril. This can be a handy thing to know as the right hemisphere of your brain is your “creative/imaginative” side, while the left hemisphere of your brain is your “logical” side. So forcing breathing through one nostril or the other can actually affect the way you think at a given moment.

Even though this switching happens naturally in a cyclical fashion, you can affect it in more ways than just plugging one nostril or the other to force breathing through the one you want. If you lay down on one side or the other, after around 12-15 minutes, the erectile tissue in the nostril on that side will begin to swell up and the other side will decrease its swelling so that if you are laying on your left side, then your right nostril will open up and your left nostril will close up.

It is thought that this nasal cycle could be the reason that, when you sleep on your side, you will often switch sides throughout the night at very regular intervals, even if you weren’t in the slightest bit uncomfortable. It could just be that your body needs to switch which nostril it is breathing out of, so you feel the urge to roll over to your other side while you sleep.

Bonus Factoids:

•Research has shown that the nasal cycle gets weaker as you get older.
•The nasal cycle is thought to be regulated by the autonomic nervous system via the sympathetic nervous system.
Sources:

•Nostrils Smell Differently
•Nasal Cycle
•An Overview of Sinusitis
•We Breathe Through One Nostril at a Time

lol that's wild!

This doesn't make any sense to me. I know when you're laying down one side can get blocked, due to tissues accumulating blood or water, but not when you're awake and upright. Unless I've got something happening to my nasal passages they're both clear and operating during the day.

Just passing on an entertaining link. And I have heard stranger things that turned out to be true. Not a lot of science revealed but really - if we read it on the internet it must be factually accurate, right?

Still and all - I might just start sleeping on my right side to see if it helps!

Funny!

I don't know what to make of it. I was conscious of my breathing when I was reading the article, but since breathing is autonomic, how would you test the theory?

My suspicion is that both nostrils breathe at the same time (like blinking), but maybe not at the same rate.

And I say if our body is constructed properly to begin with, we don't have a problem with small nostrils.

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_li...e/pricetoc.html

Let me give you a different hypothesis for what's really happening. One nostril closes so the other has to breathe. The nostril that's blocked grows bigger as it fills up with mucus. The other nostril has no choice but to give way by growing smaller. Until it blocks as well. Now we can't breathe from the nose at all. Spit and spat and sputter and the biggest nostril gets unblocked due to the path of least resistance and we start to breathe again from the biggest nostril until the cycle repeats itself.

But why is it like that? It's like that because of physical degeneration due to the poor diet. Price noted that once a population had adopted a modern diet, physical degeneration came in the form of pinched nostrils to name but a few. The point is that without this physical degeneration (and thus without this poor diet) we grow to a perfect human form that includes full nostrils that don't behave in such a weird manner.

I sleep on my right side, and have done so for years and years and years. It hasn't helped me any, that I know of.

Then again, maybe it has, since I don't have diabetes.

Well, maybe this isn't such garbage after all. I've been monitoring airflow through my nose today by closing off one nostril and breathing. It does seem like they kind of alternate between one being more open and flowing than the other one.

I was just a little kid when I noticed that I primarily breathe through one nostril at a time, and that it switches up regularly! I thought my nose was just abnormal!

I don't know about the dominant nostril affecting blood sugar and brain function, but this was definitely an interesting (and somewhat vindicating) read. Thanks!

I sleep on my left side. I'm prediabetic with high morning numbers. Mmmmmmm.

I should test this. Maybe I'll stick an earplug in my right nostril when I go to bed this weekend. If you don't hear from me--oh nevermind, it would probably be too late.

incredibly interesting thread! I've noticed since I was 4 years old that I breathe predominantly through my right nostril. I've had CT scans to check for problems with my left sinus and nostril because they are perpetually blocked and if I close my right nostril, I bet I would suffocate. I can't breath out of my left nostril at all and never could. I also sleep on my left side a lot.

I'm not diabetic but I do have most of the syndrome X symptoms and if I'm not careful would no doubt become diabetic.

thanks for the link, I'm going to try switching sleeping sides to see if it makes any difference.

Something further I just looked up:

OMG how funny. Thanks for posting this!

I was reading recently how most people lay on their right side because when you lay on your left side your heart is sort of unsupported and your heart beat is louder.

It was a theory tied up with why do people get cancer in the US more often on their left side, something to do with the wires in mattresses acting as radio antennae or some-such.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/b...d-an-2010-07-02

Only about 2,500 years out.

See http://www.holistic-online.com/yoga...ex-nadisodh.htm

Pranayama yoga has described a large number of exercises to balance or alternate breathing through each nostril to achieve various different purposes.

Try googling PRANAYAMA ALTERNATE and NOSTRIL, and count the results!

Bummer! Having allergies, for the most part I breath out of my mouth, I must have all kinds of syndromes and such as a result!