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No More Nose Hits !
A Good Read — BREATH by Dolores Halbin , contributing writer
James Nestor
Dolores Montgomery Halbin , RN , BSN , and Ordained Nurse Minister resides in SW Missouri . After her husband passed in 2015 , she retired from nursing . She worked with the 2014-2018 Missouri campaigns for legalized medical marijuana . She continues as a cannabis reform activist volunteering with Canna Convict Project and working toward Federal decriminalization through educational speaking and freelance journalism . Dolores Halbin ,
doloreshalbin @ gmail . com .
In
1830 , adventure artist and researcher George Catlin left his tedious job painting portraits of the Philadelphia aristocracy and set out to see America . What resulted was the most accurate and possibly only account of the Original People of these lands .
The first observation Catlin made as he started to draw the plains tribes was how perfect their teeth were . As he spent more time with them , he came to realize not only the perfection of their teeth , which he described “ as perfectly lined up as piano keys ,” but the tribal people were incredibly healthy , rarely suffering from any illnesses .
The tribes attributed their good health to what Catlin called the “ great secret of life ,” breathing . Breathing , however , was not a secret to the native peoples . Author James Nestor recounts Catlin ’ s research in his new book , BREATH .
“ Healthy breathing started at birth . Mothers in all these tribes followed the same practices , carefully closing the baby ’ s lips with their fingers after each feeding . At night , they ’ d stand over sleeping infants and gently pinch mouths shut if they opened .”
What a lovely picture . For basically all my life , my mom , sister , and I traded books . If mom were still alive , she probably would have found James Nestor ’ s latest masterpiece , BREATH , before we did . Mom wanted to live forever , and anything she could do to make her body comply with that lofty goal , she did . She would have been the first one in
the family to tape her mouth shut at night to ensure no “ dead toxic air ” get into her lungs through her mouth , and her mission would be to make sure we did too .
I really had never given my sinuses a close look until now , but through James Nestor , I have traveled all the way back in my head , and it is not a pretty sight . My nares are pinched almost shut from atrophy caused by not using them . Goop was undoubtedly consolidating in my cilia . I learned my night thirst was from having my mouth open , letting the air dehydrate me through the salivary glands , not being dehydrated . During the winter , the dry air will suck all the moisture it can from us !
It turns out our mouths are truly meant for exhaling only . The tribal elders compared air breathed in through the nose to the lungs to pure water . They described air entering through our mouths as pond water . Gross ! They even laughed with their mouths closed .
Sniffing out all this new information about the nose and its inhabitants , and because as my kid says of me , “ Everything has to be about marijuana with mom ,” I started to wonder if smoking cannabis has any impact