Top neuroscientist reveals intriguing cause why Brits are getting UGLIER – and methods to cease the change occurring to you
Experts have pinpointed a common and subtle habit that’s said to be changing our faces to make people increasingly less attractive.
According to some researchers, breathing through the mouth instead of the nose could change the shape of your jaw, eyes and nose.
In children, so-called mouth breathing — usually triggered by a cold or anxiety — can cause the teeth to grow crooked and lead to an overbite.
The theory has been most recently publicised in a viral clip shared to Instagram, which amassed nearly 20,000 likes in less than 24 hours, as well as hundreds of comments.
The video, shared by user @puremog, features a scientific lecture, said to be given by a surgeon, demonstrating why the humankind is ‘getting uglier’.
The anonymous surgeon points to images comparing the facial structures of people who breathe through their mouths versus their noses.
Mouth-breathing can result in a hump on the nose, a receding jaw line, as well as eye bags, according to the supposed expert in the clip.
This is said to be because breathing this way opens the mouth and drags the tongue down, pulling the chin back and other facial features downward.
According to the expert in the clip, mouth-breathing gradually pulls down the cartilage in the nose, to create a hump.
The farfetched theory has been previously touted by other scientists — including popular health podcaster and American neuroscientist, Dr Andrew Huberman.
‘People, and in particular children, who over-use mouth breathing as opposed to nasal breathing have changes in the structure of the face that makes them far more unattractive than if they were to mouth breathe,’ he told the podcast Modern Wisdom.
Naturally you should be able to place your entire tongue on the roof of your mouth without feeling your teeth, explains Dr Huberman, whose colleagues at Stanford University wrote about the ‘epidemic’ of mouth breathing in the book ‘Jaws’.
‘The characteristic change in the face when one over-does mouth breathing is that the chin starts to move back towards the neck and the eyes become droopy because there is less use of the sinuses,’ Dr Huberman said.
The eyes can also appear to have bigger under eye circles and adapt a downward slant.
This could be because breathing through your mouth also brings in less oxygen, Dr Huberman warned.
Although the volume of air is lower in the nasal cavity in comparison to the mouth, the pressure is higher meaning the air moves quicker into the respiratory system, according to researchers at Anglia Ruskin University.
American neuroscientist Dr Andrew Huberman spoke about how mouth breathing can change the way you look on the podcast Modern Wisdom
Top images show a nose breather, bottom a mouth breather. According to Dr Huberman’s colleagues Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich who published the book Jaws, mouth breathing can cause a set back jaw and tired eyes
They also suggest that breathing through your nose increases production of nitric oxide, which makes it easier for oxygen to reach the lungs and muscles.
Old habits can be changed and you can improve your nasal breathing, Dr Huberman has previously stressed.
He explained sinuses are ‘plastic-like’ and can be modified in terms of their shape.
‘Deliberately nasal breathing through most of your cardiovascular training will help dilate the sinuses which leads to better air flow which makes nasal breathing easier,’ he said.
Mouth breathing doesn’t just change the way you look, it can also make you ill.
The nose filters the air we breathe, helping to prevent material such as dust, pollen, ash and other hazardous particles from getting deep into the lungs.
Inhaling through the mouth doesn’t offer this filter, meaning toxins can plough straight into the lungs.
‘People don’t acknowledge that how they breathe can have a significant impact on their health levels, of sleep quality, anxiety, respiratory disorders, like asthma, athletic performance, and more,’ James Nestor, a San Francisco-based science journalist and author of Breath: the new science of a lost art, previously told MailOnline.
He claimed his previous mouth breathing habit was behind his recurrent respiratory infections, which he was eventually able to shake after a doctor told him to breathe through his nose.
‘I thought she was insane. I fixed it. And I have not had one of those issues since. That was more than 10 years ago.’
The bestselling author argued the vast majority of breaths should be taken through your nose in a slow-paced rhythm, not your mouth, unless you are sick.
‘We should breathe the way we have naturally evolved to breathe,’ Mr Nestor said.
‘There is nothing really fancy about it, just look at a healthy infant breathing into its belly and through the nose in a slow-paced rhythm.’
Dozens of studies have suggested that breathing through the nose will banish bad breath, stop you snoring and slash the risk of gum disease.
About 60 per cent of the population breathes through their mouths while they sleep, according to Mr Nestor.
Doing so can dry out the gums and tissue that line the mouth.
It can also exacerbate snoring, as air hits the back of the throat directly and causes vibrations, rather than passing over the soft palate, which happens when breathing through the nose, according to the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association.
However, experts say taping the mouth during sleep to force nose breathing, can disrupt sleep by causing irritation, anxiety and difficulty breathing through the nose.