Know Your Nose: A Narrative Review of the Developmental and Functional Impact and Importance of the Nose, Nasal Breathing and Techniques on Health and Emotional Wellbeing.

Nasal breathing influences immune defense, autonomic and emotion regulation, limbic entrainment, and aspects of consciousness. Contemplative traditions such as yogic pranayama, Sufi, and Buddhist practices have long emphasized nasal breathing, and contemporary evidence increasingly supports components of these traditional beliefs. The evidence ranges from well-controlled experimental work to preliminary small-sample studies, so specific therapeutic inferences should be made cautiously. Nasal breathing represents an underappreciated, low-cost, and accessible adjunctive approach with genuine clinical potential, but controlled trials are needed to isolate its effects from other aspects of contemplative practices.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This narrative review synthesizes research demonstrating the multi-domain import of nasal breathing across developmental, physiological, immunological, and neuropsychological domains, with the aim of communicating its potential clinical relevance and motivating future empirical investigation. We broadly address developmental and evolutionary foundations and the pathways through which nasal breathing influences health, functioning, and subjective experience. Across these areas, evidence implicates nasal breathing in immune defense, autonomic and emotion regulation, limbic entrainment, and aspects of consciousness. Notably, many contemplative traditions-including yogic pranayama, Sufi, and Buddhist practices-have long emphasized nasal breathing for its physical and spiritual benefits, and contemporary evidence increasingly buttresses components of these traditional beliefs, with growing convergence between contemporary scientific findings and longstanding traditional observation. More broadly, the epistemic basis of the evidence supporting nasal breathing's effects reviewed here ranges considerably, from well-controlled experimental and mechanistic work to preliminary and small-sample studies whose clinical translation remains tenuous, and specific therapeutic inferences should be made cautiously. Nonetheless, nasal breathing represents an underappreciated, low-cost, and accessible adjunctive approach with genuine clinical potential. Realizing that potential will require controlled trials attending to parameter specificity-e.g., respiratory phase, laterality, and rate-and designs that isolate nasal breathing from other aspects of contemplative practices across well-defined populations and outcomes.