health – La Vie en Yoga

The Dangers of Chronic Mouth-Breathing

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 by subincontinentia

It is astonishing to me how many people have gone through their entire adult lives breathing primarily through their mouths. The harm that chronic mouth-breathing causes the body and mind is so extensive and well-documented that correcting this one single issue can lead to a dramatic improvement in overall well-being.

Within the Path of Yoga, we find a vast system of Breath Control, called Pranayama in Sanskrit. Pranayama is a comprehensive and elaborate system of breathing techniques aimed at bringing about various changes in our nervous system state. There are restorative techniques to calm us down and harmonize our stress levels and other techniques to fire us up and prepare for physical challenges. There are techniques to quieten the mind, to improve sleep, as well as those that stimulate digestion, hone the attention and improve memory. And yet the entire system of Pranayama assumes, as a general rule, that the person is breathing through their nose, and not through their mouth. In yoga you will often hear the nose is for breathing; the mouth is for eating. And for very good reasons as you will see.

As a Certified Breath Coach, one of the most satisfying interventions is when I can help my clients to break the habit of chronic mouth-breathing, because the improvements that people see are so startling. Some of the problems associated with chronic mouth breathing include:

Lowered immune defense
Dental cavities and over-crowded teeth
Erectile dyfunction
Bad breath
Dry cough
Asthma
Slack jaw
Baggy eyes
Poor sleep
Sleep apnea (breathing that stops and starts during sleep)
Poor digestion
Reduced cognitive function
Concentration and memory problems
Stress and anxiety
Fatigue

Our nose is an extraordinary and under-appreciated organ. Rhinology is a fast-growing scientific discipline which has exploded in recent years through a deeper understanding of the complex functions of the nose and the paranasal sinuses and their impact on our health. The nose is our first line of defense against infection, colds, flu, allergies and hay fever since our nasal passages filter out coarse particles including bacteria, viruses and fungal spores. It is worth noting that 96% of all chronic rhinosinusitis is believed to be fungal.

The nose also acts as an air sterilizer, neutralizing pathogens though the release of Nitric Oxide (NO) that is stimulated through nasal breathing, particularly the inhalation. We are only just beginning to understand the benefits of Nitric Oxide. We know that it dilates the blood vessels and helps the heart to function properly by lowering blood pressure. But NO has also been discovered to be the main signalling molecule in penile erection and its deficiency can lead to erectile dysfunction.

Our nose also helps our lungs to function properly. Nose breathing stimulates the movement of lung cilia which protect our lungs against intruder cells, and reducing mucous and pathogens. The lungs function best when the air is at body temperature and 100% humidity, so the nasal passages help to moisturize and warm the air that we breathe. There is a lot more that I could add and if you’re interested I encourage you to look into it further.

In time, chronic mouth breathing shuts down the proper function of the nose so that it becomes ‘blocked’. What often surprises people is that when they begin to use their nose again, it starts to open up. It is really a case of ‘use it or lose it’.

The good news is that even if you have been mouth-breathing for decades it is possible to ‘wake up’ the nose and learn to breathe as nature intended. It won’t happen overnight, but with proper guidance and practice most people find significant improvement in as little as one week.

To learn more and for information on private and group yoga sessions/breath coaching contact me at: lavieenyoga@gmail.com

Respect yourself, explore yourself.

Rebecca

How to create your own yoga sequence

April 6, 2024April 6, 2024 by subincontinentia

In our more recent classes, we have been working on creating our own personal mini yoga sequences. It has been a lot of fun and it’s always so interesting to see the different choices that people make and how different we all are. For one person, the downward dog pose feels like an easy-going pal – a posture they happily hang out with – but for someone else, downward dog feels like their ‘bête noire’ – a posture they would rather not hang out with at all!

I thought I would share some of the things that we have learned during these sessions so that you can put together your own yoga sequence at home. If you’re a yoga teacher doing this in a class setting then I highly recommend that you have your clients/ students do this exercise in pairs, with each person developing their own sequence but collaborating on the process itself. For one thing, having an extra person there helps when it comes to weighing the options as to which pose to do next. It also helps in memorizing the sequences. One person might forget their second posture, for example, but their partner might well remember it. It also makes it a more dynamically creative process because people can bounce ideas and thoughts off one another. When it comes to planning and performing your sequence in front of the class, it’s also less pressure and more lighthearted when there are two of you.

No matter whether you are creating a sequence with a partner or on your own, I suggest that you begin with 4 postures. This may not sound like many, but bear in mind that Salute to the Sun (Surya Namaskar) constitutes of only 4 main poses. The rest are simply repetitions, either repeated on the same side, or on the other. You can always expand on your sequence later on by adding transitional postures and movements in between the key postures or by adding extra poses at the beginning and end.

So, what criteria should you use to decide on your postures since there are so many to choose from?

One way to categorize yoga postures is by your orientation to the ground. We have standing postures; mid-level postures, seated postures, front to ground postures, back to ground postures and four points postures (hands and knees/feet).

Standing postures include: Warrior Pose (I,II & III), Triangle Pose, Palm Tree Pose, Tree Pose, Forward Bend, Goddess Pose

Mid-way postures include: Low Lunge, Lizard Pose, Camel Pose, Patient Crane Pose, Bird Dog

Seated postures include: Boat Pose, Seated Spinal Twist, Staff Pose, Butterfly Pose, Churning the Butter

Four-Points Postures include: Plank, Table, Downward Dog, Frog Pose

Front to ground postures include: Sphinx Pose, Cobra, Crocodile Pose, Bow Pose, Hare Pose, Threading the Needle

Back to ground postures include: Shoulder Stand, Universal Spinal Twist, Bridge Pose, Rocking the Baby, Fish Pose, Corpse Pose

Here are 9 tips to building your own bespoke yoga sequence.

.Create a sequence with postures from at least 3 of the levels listed above, moving from a standing pose downwards. For example, you could choose two standing poses, one four-point pose and one front ground pose.
Begin by choosing postures that are the most familiar to your body. You can always add postures that feel more advance to you later on.
Choose one posture in your sequence that is a bit of a bête noire for you. The reason for this is that the postures we find the most demanding are almost always the postures that we learn from the most. You don’t want to overdo this and have all the postures be ones your body struggles with or else practicing your sequence won’t be much fun, but 1 in 4 should be manageable.
Create as much fluidity and conservation of movement as possible between one posture and the next. For example, shifting from Warrior Pose directly into Hare Pose is cumbersome unless you include a transitional pose such as Downward Dog.
The length of time you stay in any posture is up to you but try to stay in each posture for at least 10 and up to 20 seconds.
Once you have chosen your 4 postures, begin to practice them every day.
People often struggle to remember their sequence. A good memory trick is to create a ‘story’ with your postures. For example, Tree Pose to Warrior II to Downward Dog to Hare Pose could become The Tree shaded The Warrior while his trusted companion Downward Dog chased a Hare through the woods.
Once you have become familiar with your sequence, begin to repeat the ‘double-sided’ postures, meaning that allow for the same postures on the other side. Take the above sequence, for example. You can do Tree Pose starting with the left leg up, then shift into Warrior II with left leg behind you, then into Downward Dog and lastly into Hare Pose. You could then return to Downward Dog, move back up into Warrior II except this time with the right leg behind you (perhaps first transitioning from Downward Dog through high lunge) and then back into Tree Pose with the right leg up.
Feel free to get creative and make your practice truly your own!

My dehydration story – don’t let this happen to you

Featured by subincontinentia

If you’re suffering from a significant number of the following: constant fatigue, muscle soreness, weakness and lethargy, unexplained headaches, insomnia, irregular or fast heartbeat, low blood pressure, brain fog, dizziness, memory loss, attention deficit, confusion, clumsiness, unexplained mood changes, skin ‘tenting’ (skin staying erect for more than 2 seconds when you pinch it), pruney or wrinkly fingers, sudden appearance of face wrinkles, bad breath, dry mouth, dry or flaky skin, inability to sweat, dark urine with strong odour and decreased urination, sweet cravings, sluggish bowels, nausea, blurred vision, extreme thirst and reduced physical endurance-(phew!)-then chronic dehydration may be your problem.

Of course, these are also symptoms of many other health conditions, but it is worth to consider chronic dehydration as a possible cause if you have been exposed to long-term fluid-depriving conditions. Why? Because if left untreated chronic dehydration can require hospitalization and can even be fatal. And secondly, it is really easy to treat. You just have to not make the same mistakes I did. It seems counter-intuitive but it turns out that chronic dehydration, although initially the result of not taking in enough fluids, can actually be made worse by consuming large quantities of water, as I was about to discover.

I had returned home to France three weeks earlier, after spending six months in North India, much of it over the monsoon season. In monsoon, the humidity can remain as high as 85% with temperatures hovering in the upper 30s to mid 40s. In between the downpours, it is uncomfortable to stay outside for longer than a few minutes. Even a brief walk is exhausting. The high humidity + high temperatures is a perfect recipe for dehydration. I was not unfamiliar with the Indian monsoon, and at the time I thought I was drinking enough water. Looking back, I now realize that some of the symptoms of mild dehydration had already begun to set in.

Once back in France I drank less water initially, thinking I didn’t need as much now I was out of the extreme weather conditions of the subcontinent. When my symptoms worsened, I gradually increased my fluid intake. The often recommended water intake is 8 x 8oz glasses of water per day (about two litres) plus 12 ounces for every 30 minutes that you work out. But there are widely differing schools of thought. Water intake needs differ from person to person and depend on several factors such as age, sex, weight, activity levels, climate, etc. I was drinking over two litres of water daily, being careful to pace myself since I’d read somewhere that it’s better to drink slowly throughout the day rather than glugging half litres at a time, but I just felt worse and worse. After three weeks, I had almost every single one of the symptoms mentioned above and I woke up each morning feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.

I would begin to feel a bit better as the morning wore on, but I usually had to lie down by lunch time and would be a zombie by around 5 pm. No matter how much I lay down, I never felt properly rested. The nights were especially difficult. I woke up often, my heart thumping out of my chest. Some days were better than others but mostly I wasn’t good for much more than Netflix and fitful dozing. My symptoms were similar to the early onset of dengue fever (which I had contracted in 2014 in Delhi). Had I been so unlucky as to get it twice, and out of the season for it as well? Maybe I had succumbed to Covid-19 (which has similar symptoms to dengue in the early phases) even though my nasal swab test at the airport in Paris had come back negative. I’d read that false negatives from molecular tests such as RT-PCR were unlikely but not unheard of. Was it chronic fatigue syndrome? Or something even worse? My mind was entertaining all kinds of unpleasant scenarios trying to make sense of it all and my mood was teetering on the edge of depression–a condition with which I am quite familiar. Then I had a brainwave–or so I thought.

I would fast for three days and “reset” my system. Now, I’m not an avid faster. I intend to fast more than I actually do. But I had done several three day fasts over the past couple of years with very positive results. I would only drink water, I decided, and lots of it. It turns out that in my condition the fast was a terrible idea. And this is why.

Longterm exposure to the monsoon climate in India combined with improper and inadequate water consumption while eating a diet low in electrolytes had resulted in my body becoming dehydrated. This condition had become exacerbated after my return to Europe where the temperatures were still in the 20-30 celsius range; certainly not helped by the couple of glasses of wine I was enjoying two to three times a week, flushing water out of my system more rapidly than normal. We are more prone to dehydration as we age, and being in my mid-50s was also a factor.

What I didn’t realize was that the two litres of water I was drinking a day was now exacerbating the condition. My body was crying out for electrolytes more than water; sodium, chloride, magnesium, and potassium, which we need to deliver fluids to our cells. It was like taking packages to the Post Office when there were no postmen to deliver them. Even though I was taking in fluids it wasn’t getting to its destination. Then on top of this, I stopped eating for three days, increasing my water intake to three litres per day, thus removing all sources of electrolytes from my diet both liquid and solid.

Fasting while suffering from chronic dehydration turned out to be a magnificently bad idea. And all that extra water was simply leaching the few stores of electrolytes that my body had left.

By the morning of the third day of fasting I had to call in the army corps of engineers just to get to the bathroom. I could even feel a cavity forming in an upper tooth, that made it excruciating to brush my teeth (I was able to completely sort this by using a time-honored Ayurvedic technique of ‘pulling’ which I’ll blog about another time). I started racking what was left of my brains since the mental fog was so thick I was having trouble stringing rational thoughts together. Had I felt like this before, other than when I had dengue? Yes. Yes, I had. When I had been dehydrated. I looked up the symptoms and they all ticked off like a perfect mark. One word hovered over all else with rays of sunlight streaming from it and harp music (well, I was practically hallucinating by then)–electrolytes. I dragged myself to the supermarket and bought a packet of powdered electrolytes and electrolyte-containing foods (avocados, bananas, Greek yoghurt, olives, pumpkin seeds, miso soup, chocolate milk, turkey, etc.). Less than half and hour after dosing up with electrolytes, I felt a small improvement. I ate the foods gradually at 15 minute intervals. I continued to drink water (though much less) with electrolytes added throughout the day and I actually managed to stay up until 9 o’clock. The following morning I felt what it was like to wake up refreshed. And so the healing began…

Now, two days later I’m back to normal. I feel incredibly grateful to have my health back and will never take my new best friend for granted again. Electrolytes. Don’t leave home without them.

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Tag: health

The Dangers of Chronic Mouth-Breathing

How to create your own yoga sequence

My dehydration story – don’t let this happen to you