Why Is It Important to Breathe Through Your Nose?

Could the Nose Be an Overlooked Immune Organ?

If I asked you to name your immune system’s first line of defense, you might say white blood cells. Or your gut. Perhaps your skin.

But rarely do people say what I believe is one of the most vital (and most overlooked!) immune organs in the human body:
your nose.

That modest structure in the middle of your face (the one you may only notice when it’s stuffy, sunburnt, or sniffing flowers) is in fact a highly intelligent, self-cleaning system of protection. After many years of teaching and practicing the Buteyko Method, I’ve come to understand that nasal breathing isn’t just a habit. It’s a built-in healing mechanism.

The nose filters, humidifies, warms, and chemically enhances the air we breathe. But when you habitually bypass it—breathing through your mouth—you’re not just disrupting airflow. You’re weakening one of your body’s most sophisticated lines of immune defense.

Let’s explore what nasal breathing does for your health, and how something as simple as using your nose can help you breathe—and live—more wisely.

Your Nose Is a Filtration System. Mouth Breathing Is a Shortcut Around It.

Every day, you breathe in around 11,000 liters of air—filled with dust, bacteria, viruses, pollen, and pollutants.

When air enters through the nose, your body is ready. Mucus membranes and tiny hairs called cilia trap and escort these invaders away from the lungs. It’s a natural, gentle filter that keeps your respiratory system clean.

Mouth breathing bypasses all of this. Unfiltered, dry air rushes into the throat and lungs. It’s like throwing open the windows during a sandstorm and hoping your home stays clean.

Many of my students come to me suffering from chronic sinus infections, sore throats, coughs that never quite go away, or seemingly endless colds. The pattern is clear: most of them are mouth breathers, often without even realizing it.

Warming and Humidifying: A Breath That Soothes, Not Shocks

Your nose is also a climate control system. It prepares the air for your lungs.

Cold, dry air inhaled through the mouth can irritate the airways and trigger inflammation or bronchospasm, especially for those with asthma or respiratory sensitivity.

But nasal breathing warms the air to nearly body temperature and adds just the right amount of moisture. This protects delicate tissues and creates the ideal environment for oxygen exchange.

If you’ve ever gone for a winter walk and felt your chest burn, the culprit was likely your mouth.
The remedy? Simply returning to breathing through your nose.

Nitric Oxide: The Nose’s Invisible Shield

When you breathe through your nose, something remarkable happens: your sinuses release nitric oxide (NO)—a powerful molecule with antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties.

NO helps disinfect the air as it enters; it also enhances oxygen uptake, acts as a vasodilator, relaxing the blood vessels to support better circulation, and as a neurotransmitter that enhances memory and cognition. But here’s the catch: this molecule is only carried into the lungs through nasal inhalation.

Dr. Konstantin Buteyko recognized long ago that mouth breathing disrupts this essential delivery system. And modern research agrees: nitric oxide is not just a chemical bonus, it’s a critical layer of immune support.

Studies have shown that nitric oxide inhibits the replication of certain viruses, including coronaviruses. When you breathe through your mouth, you bypass this natural defense system. You are not just letting in unfiltered air; you are denying your body this powerful antimicrobial shield.

When you breathe through your nose, you don’t just inhale air. You activate the immune protection system.

Why Is It Important to Breathe Through Your Nose?

This is a question more people are starting to ask—and I’m glad.

Because the answer is beautifully clear: nasal breathing helps your body do what it was designed to do.

It enhances immunity, calms the nervous system, supports better sleep, improves oxygenation, balances circulation, aids digestion, and even helps you think more clearly.
Mouth breathing, on the other hand, activates stress responses and undermines your body’s ability to heal and restore.

When you return to nasal breathing, your body returns to balance. It doesn’t take much effort but gradual training and constant awareness.

“But My Nose Is Always Blocked!”

One of the most common things I hear is:
“Sasha, I want to breathe through my nose, but it’s always stuffy!”

Exactly. That’s the point.

Chronic nasal congestion is not just the result of allergies or a cold. In many cases, it’s a direct result of mouth breathing. The more you breathe through your mouth, the less your nose gets used, and the more congested it becomes. When the nose isn’t used, it becomes dry, inflamed, and narrowed. The more we avoid using it, the harder it becomes to use.It’s a vicious cycle.

There’s also a physiological feedback loop at play. Mouth breathing lowers carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the body. And while many people think CO₂ is a waste product, it’s actually vital for oxygen delivery and blood vessel regulation.

When CO₂ levels drop too low, the body responds by narrowing its nasal passages and producing more mucus—a protective mechanism that slows down breathing and preserves internal balance.

Your stuffy nose isn’t a flaw in your body’s design—it’s a protective response, a clever attempt to restore balance and maintain homeostasis.

That said, no one enjoys trying to breathe through a stuffy nose. It’s uncomfortable, frustrating, and can easily lead to mouth breathing, often making things worse.

But there is a gentle way out of this cycle.

One of the first techniques I teach students—both adults and children struggling with congestion—is a nasal clearing exercise. It involves a soft breath hold after a calm exhale, combined with a light head movement. This practice encourages vasodilation in the nasal passages and often restores airflow naturally.
No sprays. No medication. Just your body’s own intelligence, gently activated.

Another simple yet powerful technique is humming. The vibrations produced while humming help stimulate nitric oxide production in the nasal passages, supporting natural decongestion.

Within just a few minutes, many people go from “I can’t breathe through my nose” to “I didn’t realize it could open like this.”

And that small shift—regaining nasal breathing —can change everything because it is the beginning of the process of restoring your natural, balanced breath.

Breathing Too Much: The Hidden Issue

At the heart of many chronic health problems, including immune system dysfunction, lies one seemingly innocent but insidious behavior: chronic over-breathing, also known as hyperventilation.

Most people associate hyperventilation with panic attacks: fast, erratic, gasping breaths. But in reality, chronic hyperventilation can be subtle and silent. It may take the form of slightly open-mouth breathing,frequent sighing, or unnecessarily deep breaths during conversations or daily tasks. You may not even realize you’re doing it. But your body knows.

This constant, low-grade over-breathing has a cumulative effect: it leads to a depletion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the lungs. Although CO₂ is often misunderstood as merely a “waste gas,” Dr. K.P. Buteyko, MD-PhD, recognized its vital role in supporting health. He referred to CO₂ as “the main regulator of all bodily functions.”

When CO₂ levels drop due to over-breathing, oxygen may not be effectively delivered to your tissues—even if you’re breathing in plenty of it. This is explained by the Bohr effect, a fundamental physiological principle describing how carbon dioxide levels influence the release of oxygen from hemoglobin into the cells where it’s needed most.

Nasal breathing helps correct this. It slows and softens the breath, helping CO₂ levels rise to a healthy range and restoring normal function to your respiratory and immune systems.

Minimal Breathing: The Signature of Health

One of the central ideas in the Buteyko Method is minimal or invisible breathing—a gentle, silent breath through the nose, with no movement in the chest or shoulders. It’s subtle. It’s restful. It’s healing.

This kind of breath tells the body that all is well. It supports nitric oxide production, protects CO₂ levels, and allows the breath to nourish rather than strain. Buteyko Breathing practitioners aim for invisible breathing not just during rest, but during sleep, conversations, and even exercise. It takes practice and commitment, but the rewards are undeniable: better immunity, clearer thinking, more energy, and a profound sense of internal calm.

At Night, Your Breath Should Heal You

Sleep is when your body repairs itself. But if you’re breathing through your mouth at night, that healing is interrupted.

Mouth breathing during sleep leads to dryness, snoring, low oxygenation, fragmented rest, and inflammation.
Nasal breathing during sleep supports:

• Hormonal balance
• Melatonin and growth hormone release
• Deep, restorative rest
• A calm, steady nervous system

If you wake up groggy, irritable, or congested, mouth breathing may be to blame. I always teach my students how to gently retrain their breathing at night using Buteyko Breathing techniques, including sleeping on the stomach or side (the optimal posture, contrary to popular belief), practicing reduced breathing before bed, and using tools like the Buteyko tape and  Buteyko Belt to encourage nasal breathing during sleep.

Children Thrive When They Breathe Through the Nose

Parents, if your child breathes through their mouth at night, snores, or frequently wakes up congested, it’s not “just a phase.” Mouth breathing in children has serious long-term consequences. It compromises not just immune health, but also craniofacial development, dental alignment, attention span, and sleep quality.

A child who breathes through the mouth often sleeps poorly, struggles with concentration in school, and catches colds more frequently than peers. This isn’t bad luck or a “weak immune system”; it’s a physiological consequence of impaired breathing patterns.

And here’s what’s even more concerning: once this habit is established early in life, it becomes deeply ingrained. That’s why I emphasize the importance of teaching nasal breathing to children as early as possible. Correcting it later takes much more effort; however, it’s still possible. Many families I’ve worked with have witnessed transformative changes in their children’s health simply by helping them switch to nasal breathing.

I frequently suggest that parents start by modeling nasal breathing themselves. Children naturally mirror what they see. From there, introduce simple breathing games, gentle breath-hold exercises, and help your child develop awareness of keeping their mouth closed during quiet activities, like watching TV, reading, or falling asleep. Those are the first steps.

This early investment yields lasting rewards: a stronger immune system, improved concentration, and a more emotionally balanced child.

For children with enlarged adenoids, I offer the Adenoids Without Surgery program—a holistic, research-based path that empowers families to restore healthy breathing and avoid invasive interventions.

Buteyko Breathing Normalization Training: A Gentle Return to What is Natural

For adults, our 2–4 month Buteyko Breathing Normalization Training provides a personalized, guided journey back to healthy breathing.

This is not a quick fix or a magic breathing exercise. It’s a shift in how you relate to your breath. I guide my students in applying CO₂-supporting techniques and gentle breath reduction to every part of daily life, including sleep, speech, work, and movement.

Nature Doesn’t Hyperventilate

Observe healthy animals. They breathe quietly, gently, through the nose. Only under threat do they open their mouths. When safety returns, so does calm.. and nasal breathing.

You are made the same way.

When you return to nasal breathing, you return to your natural settings. You activate your built-in healing system. And your body responds—not with force or effort—but with relief.

So often, we seek healing from outside. But sometimes, the most powerful medicine is already within us.

Your body doesn’t need more air. To improve immunity, one needs the right breath. Are you ready to breathe through your nose 24/7?