Is it true that a healthy person breathes through only one nostril?

It is a common belief that a person never breathes through both nostrils at once; instead, the nostrils provide alternate breathing. We decided to check if this is actually true.

Information about this feature of the human body can be found both on entertaining resources and information. Headings usually enough categorical, for example, “Scientists have proven that a person always breathes through only one nostril.” This is also written about in blogs, the paradox in the work of our body is of interest to websites questions and answers.

Most of the processes that ensure the vital functions of the body, such as heartbeat, thermoregulation, secretion of glands and the functioning of organs, occur involuntarily and are not subject to our will. A person cannot, at his own will, stop his heart from beating for a short time or lower his body temperature by a couple of degrees, but detain We can breathe for a short time. That is, breathing Maybe be both an automatic process and a voluntary one. 

From a scientific point of view, breathing is totality processes that ensure the body consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. Breathing occurs both at the level of the whole organism and at cellular. Air from the external environment usually enters through the nose, but can also enter through the mouth - both in the case when nasal breathing is impossible, and arbitrarily (for example, when auscultation The doctor may ask you to breathe only through your mouth). When breathing involuntarily through the nose, a person usually does not think about whether his nostrils are working evenly. You can do a simple test: alternately pinch one nostril and the other (pressing it with your finger against the nasal septum) and determine which one breathes better than the other. If you conduct such an experiment several times during the day, the observations will vary significantly. This is due to this process, How nasal cycle - regular switching of air flow from one nostril to the other, which occurs on average every two to three hours. However recorded cases of extremely short (15 minutes) and long (more than ten hours) nasal cycles.

The nasal cycle is regulated by the autonomic nervous system - it gives a signal for the dense network of vessels in the nasal turbinates to expand and fill with blood from time to time. In this case, the tissues of the nasal concha occupy a larger volume, and air passes through with difficulty. Normally, the autonomic nervous system signals the dilation of blood vessels to the nostrils in turn, significantly reducing the throughput of one of them, but without completely turning it off from breathing.

After analyzing data on the daily breathing of 33 volunteers, Israeli experts calculatedthat at any given time three quarters of the air consumed passes through the more active nostril and a quarter through the less active one, and after some time the nostrils change roles. Michael Benninger, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, assumesthat such alternation could have been provided by nature to protect the nasal mucosa from drying out. Eat hypothesesthat nasal cycle protects us from respiratory infections and allergic reactions. Perhaps he also allows people learn more smells, since each nostril perceives they are a little different.

However, it is not only the nasal cycle that regulates which nostril breathes better. For example, when sleeping on your side, gravity will be act unevenly on the nostrils: the one that is lower will experience a greater influence of gravity, the vessels will dilate and the throughput will decrease. If this happens during the period of activity of the other nostril, then the person most likely will not notice it, but if at this moment it is supposed to provide most of the breathing, then the brain will give the body a command to roll over to the other side or wake up. By the way, in a dream the nasal cycle becomes longer than when awake, and on average the nostrils “change” every 4.5 hours.

At the same time, judging by data Israeli scientists already mentioned, one nostril usually still works more. In right-handed people, the left nostril is active for approximately 2.63 hours, while the right nostril is active for only 2.17 hours. Similar studies have not been conducted on left-handers, and so far scientists cannot answer how the dominance of the nostrils and the cerebral hemispheres, which are responsible for whether a person is left-handed or right-handed, is connected. 

The distribution of breathing in the proportion of 1 to 3, which the authors of the experiment in Israel write about, is not universal, but averaged. Scientists from Yaroslavl State Medical University invited study daily distribution of nasal breathing in 28 healthy volunteers. For 24 hours, including while sleeping, volunteers wore a portable rhinoflow meter - a device for measuring the volume of air passing through the nasal cavity. 

It turned out that individual rhythms have a great variety - in particular, the nasal cycle can have periods of coincidence, when both nostrils breathe approximately equally, and episodes of almost complete shutdown of one nostril from work and replacement of its function by the other can occur. Also, in some cases, it is observed that only one participates in the nasal cycle, either joining or falling out of work, while the second works relatively stably. 

TO conclusion Doctors from the University Hospital Ulm (Germany) also spoke about the uniqueness of nasal cycles. After conducting daily rhinoflowmetry on 55 volunteers, they found that fluctuations in air flow through the left and right nostrils were much wider than the principle of 25% and 75% derived by Israeli doctors. Thus, they noted that there are people with an irregular nasal cycle, a one-sided cycle and no cycle at all. By different It is estimated that between 20% and 80% of people have a pronounced nasal cycle, characterized by temporary difficulty breathing on one side. 

Thus, a person can indeed involuntarily breathe through only one nostril at a certain period of time, but scientists have not described cases in which this type of breathing was constant. The rule of 25% and 75% is often followed - at any given moment, oxygen needs are provided by approximately a quarter of one nostril and three-quarters of the other. Moreover, the nature of the nasal cycle can be extremely varied and change throughout the day.

Cover image: Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Half-truth

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