If you frequently contract colds despite maintaining a balanced diet, adequate sleep, and overall healthy habits, you are not alone. Many individuals experience recurrent illness despite these efforts.
An often overlooked factor is breathing patterns. Mouth breathing, especially during sleep, can subtly compromise the body’s natural defenses and increase susceptibility to viral infections.
This article examines the influence of breathing habits on immune function, the mechanisms by which mouth breathing elevates the risk of colds and flu, and strategies for restoring healthier breathing patterns to support overall health.
Breathing and the Immune System
Breathing and immunity are closely linked, especially when it comes to how the body defends itself against colds and flu. The way you breathe affects your nervous system, your sleep quality, and the strength of your immune response to respiratory viruses.
Nasal breathing is central to this relationship. Calm, gentle nasal breathing regulates the nervous system and fosters a relaxed physiological state, which in turn promotes deeper and more restorative sleep.
Quality sleep is essential for protection against colds and flu, as it is during deep sleep that the immune system produces and releases the cells and proteins needed to detect and neutralize viruses.
Research consistently demonstrates that inadequate or disrupted sleep impairs immune function and heightens vulnerability to respiratory infections. Breathing patterns that facilitate nasal airflow and physiological calmness help maintain sleep quality and enhance immune resilience during cold and flu season.
Nasal breathing as a first line of defense
Nasal breathing plays a direct and active role in protecting the respiratory system from viral infection. The nose filters, warms, and humidifies incoming air before it reaches the lungs, reducing irritation and helping the airways maintain a strong local immune response.
A key part of this defense is nitric oxide, a gas produced in the nasal passages and sinuses. In 1999, a study reported that nitric oxide inhibits the growth of bacteria and viruses, suggesting that nasal nitric oxide serves as an important protective mechanism against respiratory infections.
Subsequent studies confirmed that nitric oxide inhibits viral replication in conditions such as influenza, pneumonia, and SARS. Further research demonstrated that nasal nitric oxide levels rise in response to respiratory viruses, highlighting its role in the body’s natural antiviral response.
Nasal breathing is necessary for delivering nitric oxide into the airways. In the absence of nasal airflow, this protective mechanism is significantly diminished.
Breathing volume, mouth breathing, and immune stress
Immune health is influenced not only by where you breathe, but also by how much air you breathe. Mouth breathing is commonly associated with overbreathing, meaning breathing too fast, too deeply, or too frequently.
Overbreathing disrupts the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. This reduces oxygen delivery to tissues, increases inflammation, and activates stress responses that suppress immune activity. These effects place additional strain on the immune system during periods of viral exposure.
Light, controlled breathing through the nose helps regulate breathing volume, maintain healthy carbon dioxide levels, and reduce unnecessary stress on the immune system. This creates a more stable internal environment that supports the body’s ability to resist and recover from colds and flu.
Does Mouth Breathing Increase Flu Risk and Lead to Frequent Colds?
While mouth breathing does not cause viral infections, scientific evidence indicates that it increases vulnerability to colds and influenza by weakening several natural defense mechanisms.
Researchers have identified multiple pathways through which mouth breathing facilitates both the acquisition and persistence of respiratory infections.
1. Bypasses the body’s natural filtration system
The nose acts as a physical filter, trapping viruses and bacteria before they reach the lungs. Mouth breathing bypasses this system entirely, allowing higher viral loads to enter the respiratory tract. This increases exposure and raises the risk of infection.
2. Reduces antiviral nitric oxide in the airways
Nitric oxide is produced in the sinuses and released into the airways during nasal breathing. Research shows that nitric oxide inhibits viral replication and limits the spread of respiratory infections.
Laboratory studies on influenza and SARS demonstrate that nitric oxide interferes with viruses at multiple stages of replication.
When breathing occurs through the mouth, this nitric oxide is largely absent, reducing a critical layer of antiviral protection.
3. Allows viruses to replicate more easily in the lungs
Mouth breathing facilitates unobstructed viral replication. In the absence of nasal filtration, humidification, and nitric oxide, viruses penetrate deeper into the lungs and replicate more efficiently, increasing both infection risk and symptom severity.
4. Disrupts sleep, weakening immune defenses
Mouth breathing during sleep frequently leads to snoring and fragmented rest. Poor sleep quality is strongly associated with diminished immune function.
Disrupted sleep reduces immune cell production and impairs the body’s ability to counteract viral infections promptly.
5. Decreases oxygen efficiency needed for immune recovery
Mouth breathing is often associated with overbreathing, which reduces oxygen delivery to tissues. Immune cells depend on efficient oxygen use to function properly.
When oxygen delivery is impaired, immune response slows, and recovery from colds and flu takes longer.
Why Buteyko Breathing Improves Immunity
Given that mouth breathing and overbreathing increase vulnerability to colds and influenza, it is important to consider corrective strategies. The Buteyko Method is particularly relevant in this context.
Developed in the 1950s by Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, the Buteyko Method aims to restore healthy, functional breathing. Instead of encouraging deeper breaths, the method emphasizes reduced breathing volume, nasal breathing, and calm respiratory patterns.
These changes directly address many of the breathing patterns that increase susceptibility to colds and the flu. Here is how:
Restores nasal breathing
The Buteyko Method retrains the body to breathe through the nose during the day and night. Nasal breathing filters air and delivers nitric oxide to the lungs, which inhibits viral replication and strengthens respiratory defenses, making it essential for preventing colds and flu.
Reduces overbreathing and improves CO₂ tolerance
Mouth breathing typically occurs alongside rapid or excessive breathing. The Buteyko Method training teaches lighter, slower breathing patterns that normalize carbon dioxide levels. Proper CO₂ balance improves oxygen delivery to tissues, lowers inflammation, and reduces unnecessary stress on the immune system.
Strengthens sleep quality and immune repair
The method minimizes mouth breathing, snoring, and breathing instability during sleep. This leads to deeper, more uninterrupted rest. Deep sleep is when the immune system produces repair cells and reduces inflammation, making quality sleep essential during cold and flu season.
Reduces inflammatory stress on the nervous system
Controlled nasal breathing improves vagal tone and shifts the body from a chronic stress state into a calmer state. Lower stress hormone levels reduce inflammatory signaling and allow immune cells to work more effectively.
Resist Cold and Flu with Buteyko Breathing Today
You cannot control which viruses you encounter, but you can control how your body responds to them, and breathing patterns help your body defend itself against colds and flu.
The Buteyko Method retrains you to breathe calmly, slowly, and through the nose, restoring the natural immune defenses you need.
Buteyko Clinic International offers expert-led online breathing courses and exercises guided by world-renowned breathing specialist Patrick McKeown.
Become a certified breathing instructor and teach others this life-changing breathing technique. Our Buteyko Breathing Certification Program equips you with the expertise to guide others toward better breathing and respiratory health.
