This Habit Makes You Less Attractive
Changing how you breathe, chew, and position your mouth will have a massive impact on your health, appearance, and effectiveness in life.
Last year, I read Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic, and it changed how I breathe. Before that, I had been a lifelong mouth breather. The book explains how mouth breathing, modern soft-food diets, and poor oral posture contribute to widespread health issues. What shocked me the most was mouth breathing made me less attractive! More importantly, the book shows how simple changes can reverse years of damage. Over the past year, I’ve shut my mouth, prioritized nose breathing, made a few key changes from the book, and saw a transformation.
Your breathing changes how you look
This part blew my mind. Mouth breathing can make you less attractive, but the good news is that you can fix it.
You take around 20,000 breaths daily, and how you breathe shapes your face over time.
Mouth breathing keeps your mouth open, leading to a recessed jaw, a narrower face, and crowded teeth. Over time, this weakens the jawline, reduces cheekbone definition, and even affects the symmetry of your nose and chin. These changes are often associated with a less attractive appearance.
How Mouth Breathing Affects Your Face:
Narrow, elongated face
Recessed jawline
Poorly defined cheekbones
Forward head posture
Crooked nose and teeth
Bags under the eyes
On the flip side, nose breathing keeps the mouth closed, allowing the jaw and face to develop properly. These features are what most people generally consider “more attractive”.
How nose breathing affects your face:
Strong, well-defined jawline
Wider, more balanced face
Straighter Teeth
More defined cheekbones
Full lips
Straight Nose
I’ll use myself as an example!
Freshman year of college, 2018. Recessed chin, nonexistent jawline, and an open mouth… yikes.
Me recently, after a year of habitual nose breathing. More defined jawline and cheekbones, less recessed chin… what a difference.
Other Nose Breathing Benefits
The easiest and most effective way to instantly improve your body and mind is to breathe through your nose.
Mouth breathing sends oxygen to the upper lobes of the lungs, creating a pattern known as chest breathing. This shallow breathing pattern only utilizes the upper portions of the lungs. This limits oxygen absorption, reducing the amount your body can use.
But when you shut your mouth and breathe through your nose, air reaches the lower lungs, promoting belly (diaphragmatic) breathing. This method engages a larger surface area in the lungs, allowing for greater oxygen absorption. The result? Immediate benefits across multiple areas of life:
Energy: Better oxygenation of the blood fuels your 30 trillion cells, leading to increased energy levels
Athletic Performance: Higher oxygen levels improve endurance, speed up recovery, and reduce breathlessness.
Focus and Mental Clarity: More oxygen to the brain improves cognitive function, memory, and concentration
Sleep: Nasal breathing promotes deeper, more restorative sleep while reducing issues like snoring and sleep apnea.
How Mouth Breathing Hurts Your Health
1. Anxiety and Stress
The way you breathe directly affects your nervous system. When you breathe through your mouth, air only reaches the upper lobes of your lungs, which are packed with sympathetic nerve receptors. This triggers a fight-or-flight response, increasing stress and anxiety.
In contrast, nose breathing directs air deeper into the lower lobes of the lungs, where parasympathetic nerve receptors activate the body’s rest-and-recovery response. This promotes a sense of calm and balance, helping you feel more relaxed.
2. Poor Oral Health
Mouth breathing dries out the mouth, reducing saliva production - something I experienced firsthand. I often woke up in the middle of the night with a dry mouth, desperately reaching for water. What I didn’t realize was that saliva plays a crucial role while we sleep. It neutralizes acids, washes away food particles, and prevents bacterial growth.
Without enough saliva, the risk of cavities, gum disease, and bad breath increases. One study found that mouth breathers are three times more likely to have bad breath than nasal breathers.
3. Restricted Airways
Mouth breathing alters your jaw structure, narrowing your airways over time, since your mouth is always open. A narrow airway increases the risk of snoring, sleep apnea, and oxygen deprivation. This can lead to chronic fatigue, brain fog, and even heart disease.
How Nasal Breathing Impacted My Health:
Since reading this book a year ago and switching to nose breathing, I’ve only had one runny nose all year. I get sick far less often and rarely feel congested anymore. If you constantly struggle with congestion, sinus issues, and runny noses - nose breathing could make those issues disappear.
The Importance of Chewing
Our jaws were built for a Stone Age diet, but we’re living in a Big Mac environment. Our ancestors ate tough, whole foods that required plenty of chewing, which helped them develop strong jawlines. Today, the opposite is happening. modern diets filled with soft, processed foods weaken our jaw muscles, leading to smaller, less developed jaws, poor facial structure, and various health issues.
This shift began around 10,000 years ago with the rise of agriculture. Foods like meat, fish, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables took a backseat to a carbohydrate-rich diet dominated by grains and starches like wheat, barley, rice, and corn. As a result, dental problems began to soar. According to fossil records, traditional societies that stuck to whole foods rarely suffered from cavities, gum disease, or crowded teeth. These issues are now widespread in modern America. The increase in carbohydrates and sugars, especially with food processing, has fueled decay-causing bacteria, leading to cavities, plaque buildup, and poor jaw development.
It’s simple: the tougher the food, the more you chew; the more you chew, the stronger and more developed your jaw becomes. But when you rely on soft foods, your jaw muscles weaken, often leading to an open-mouth posture from lack of use. You can prevent these issues by prioritizing whole, unprocessed foods in your diet.
What I did to reverse damage caused by a lifetime of mouth breathing
Breathe through your nose. At first, you might have to remind yourself, but it becomes automatic over time.
Maintain proper oral posture. Lips closed, teeth lightly touching, tongue resting on the roof of your mouth. (The book recommends this posture for optimal facial health. I find it hard to have my teeth touching most of the time though.)
Chew with your mouth closed & chew thoroughly. Strengthens jaw muscles and improves digestion.
Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Harder foods naturally strengthen jaw muscles.
Chew gum with your mouth closed. Helps develop jaw strength.
Sleep with mouth tape? Since I used to mouth breathe while sleeping, I started taping my lips shut (unless I’m congested). There’s some controversy online about its safety, but I’ve been doing it for a year with no issues. Waking up in the morning without a dry mouth is worth it for me. Do your research before trying and decide what’s best for you.
Whether you’re on a quest for more energy, mental clarity, or a stronger jawline, nose breathing could be the answer your’e looking for. Close your mouth and give it a try.
