Video summary
In this discussion, Andrew Huberman introduces a book titled *Jaws: A Hidden Epidemic*, co-authored by his Stanford colleagues Sandre Khan and Paul Erickson, with introductions from Jared Diamond and Robert Spolski. The central thesis of the work is that chronic mouth breathing significantly alters craniofacial structure, making individuals less attractive compared to those who breathe through their nose. Huberman emphasizes two core concepts: first, children and adults should be able to rest their entire tongue on the roof of their mouth with teeth closed; second, chewing hard foods is essential for proper tooth, jaw, and face development. He notes that modern eating habits often involve slurping soft foods or consuming purees like babies do before they have mature dentition, which fails to stimulate necessary facial growth. The book argues extensively against the current orthodontic paradigm, suggesting that braces, headgear, and retainers are largely byproducts of poor breathing patterns and an overconsumption of soft foods rather than inherent genetic defects. Huberman highlights a method called Mewing, developed on his side of the pond, which focuses on restoring normal craniofacial development through proper tongue posture and nasal breathing. The transcript features impressive before-and-after photos showing children who transitioned from mouth breathing to nasal breathing recovering their facial aesthetics without surgical intervention or traditional orthodontics. Huberman explicitly clarifies that he has no affiliation with products like the Jawser, noting they even admitted to breaking laws by using his clips for sales purposes while continuing to sell them anyway. The mechanics of how breathing affects face shape are explained through several physiological factors. Mouth breathing reduces oxygen intake compared to nasal breathing, effectively inducing a state similar to apnea that is detrimental during both sleep and waking hours. Furthermore, the sinuses act as plastic tunnels between bones; deliberate nasal breathing can help undeviate septums over time, though structural abnormalities may still require surgery. The nasal microbiome also plays a critical role in scrubbing away viruses and bacteria before they reach the lungs, making mouth breathers more susceptible to infections. Huberman points out that chronic sinus pressure from mouth breathing affects the upper mandible and areas around the eyes, leading to droopy eyelids as muscles are underutilized due to lack of airflow through those channels. Visual evidence in the book includes striking examples of twins raised separately with different dietary habits; one twin who ate tougher foods requiring significant chewing developed a perfect dental arch without orthodontics, while the other who slurped soft food ended up with severe malocclusion resembling "horse teeth." Another poignant example describes an attractive child whose face deteriorated after developing an allergy to a pet hamster and switching from nasal breathing to mouth breathing. This shift caused the chin to recess toward the neck while the rest of the face protruded, illustrating how easily facial structure can change based on behavior rather than genetics alone. Huberman concludes that these changes are modifiable across the lifespan by adopting adult-like eating habits, chewing food thoroughly on both sides of the mouth, and prioritizing nasal breathing whenever possible to optimize craniofacial aesthetics and overall health.
Read the full video transcript
what were you just teaching me about
mouth breathing and how it changes the
shape of the face now so I arrived
carrying a copy of the book Jaws a
hidden epidemic this is not Jaws the
shark uh this book was written by my
colleagues at Stanford sandre Khan and
Paul Erick and it has an introduction by
Jared Diamond who won aiter for gun
storms and steel and a forward by the
great Robert spolski also a colleague of
mine at Stanford so four Heavy Hitters
on this book just to credential it first
um this book centers around a couple of
Core Concepts but the first being that
people and in particular children who
overuse mouth breathing as opposed to
nasal
breathing have changes in the structure
of the face that well to be quite direct
makes them far more unattractive than if
they were to mouth breathe it also
discusses the chewing of food Foods as
essential to mouth and face development
Sandra KH is an expert in cranial
facial function and structure um and the
fact that if your parents and you did
things right you should be able to place
your your entire tongue on the roof of
your mouth with your mouth closed now I
can't do that okay so when you with
teeth closed tongue in the roof of your
mouth I can but I still feel the back of
my teeth a bit um so yeah okay um but
the so that's the second point that we
want to chew heart chewing Foods is
essential to tooth and mouth and face
development um these days many children
slurp their food many adults slurp their
Foods um many adults are eating like
babies and of course babies before they
develop their mature teeth and even when
they before they get all over their
teeth in need to obviously breast milk
and um you know pudding like Foods okay
but so that's the second point so nasal
breathing good mouth breathing bad for
cranial facial development chewing hard
Foods chewing a lot on both sides of the
mouth great for cranial facial
development oral development tooth
development and tooth Health which by
the way are correlated with a number of
other things like cardiovascular health
and metabolic Health very interesting
links there and then the third point is
that uh the the book argues that the
entire field of orthodontia things like
um braces things like headgear things
like retainers are the byproduct of poor
um breathing and let's just say uh overc
consumption of soft foods in place of
hard Foods uh behavior and so there's
this guy who's from your side of the
pond Mew the Mew method um of restoring
normal crano facial development the book
is choca block full of impressive photos
of before and afters impressive because
in some cases you'll see kids that were
um mouth breathing bre or were eating a
lot of soft foods and then they
recovered their behavior so to speak and
became nose breathers of course we have
to mouth breathe when we're exercising
really hard or when we're eating or
speaking we're going to mouth breathe
but at rest we should nasal breathe is
the argument and that greatly improves
cranofacial
um Aesthetics and the good news is this
stuff is modifiable across the lifespan
and um and so the book isn't arguing for
anyone to purchase anything you don't
need jawser Sizer I'm saying that
explicitly because they took clips of me
talking about this and and and
productized it and I had nothing to do
with that so hopefully you'll keep this
in the episode and they even admitted
they were breaking the law and he said
we don't care we're going to continue to
do it so sales to sales man yeah but now
those those you know to to the credit of
of um products for um exercising the jaw
sure there are muscles of the jaw that
can CH the aesthetic but using food to
do that eat tough food is if you don't
have a sufficiently tough diet I guess
you could replace but it's explain to me
the mechanics of how the difference in
whether you breathe through your nose or
breathe through your mouth changes the
shape of your face and head yeah well
and it goes beyond that if you breathe
through your mouth as opposed to your
nose the first of all you bring in less
oxygen then you would so you're you're
limiting you're effectively putting
yourself into a state of apnea right
which is bad during sleep and guess what
it's bad during waking States also
you're getting less oxygen to your brain
bad the sinuses you know we hear are my
sinuses are clogged or my the sinuses
wish I had brought a skull with with me
because one of the most impressive
things about a skull human skull being
no exception is that the sinuses are
literally these little uh tubes or
channels through which fluid and air can
move and the sinuses even though they
are essentially the created by the
fissures between different bones so like
there're this two two or three different
bones that are interdigitated and create
these tunnels they're actually fairly
plastic in the sense that they can be
modified in terms of their shape and and
so people will say well I have a
deviated septum guess what you should
try and emphasize breathing through both
nostrils as a in order to UND deviate
your septum now if someone has a broken
nose or something that's really
structurally abnormal they may need
corrective surgery but purely through n
deliberate nasal breathing so it could
be mouth taping at night but also just
deliberately nasal breathing during most
of your cardiovascular training unless
you need to really you know hit the gas
in which case mouth breathe is going to
help dilate the sinuses and lead to
better air flow which makes nasal
breathing easier the other thing is that
nasal breathing we know um well first of
all there's a nasal microbiome there's
also an oral microbiome but the nasal
microbiome is particularly well suited
to um scrub or capture and destroy
viruses bacteria and even some fungal
infections so in other words when you're
breathing in through your mouth you're
more susceptible to infections this is
important heading into winter as well um
so there are a number of I mean we could
talk about this for hours but the point
is nasal breathe when you can um kids
especially but adults as well chewing
foods that require you know eating foods
that require some chewing and really
working at it and chewing away um they
have some impressive images in this uh
book of kids that were twins that were
raised separately one by a group that
eats a lot of um let's just say tougher
foods that require chewing versus one
that's slurping their food and I mean
one kid is literally incredibly
attractive perfect denature with no
orthodonture or D or you know regular
dentistry in the other kid is teeth is
like SN
they have the like the horsey smile even
though they've got the same genetic
predisposition right it's not a perfect
experiment because there are other
factors as well and you know none of
this is um the For Better or Worse none
of this is really amenable to kind of in
laboratory type stuff um so as these are
naturally occurring experiments as we
say um there are also some very
impressive images in the book or we
could say depressing of kids that were
pretty attractive as kids and then there
there's an example of a kid who got a
pet hamster he was allergic to the
hamster he switch as a consequence he
becomes a mouth breather and then that
the characteristic um change in the face
when one over does mouth breathing is
that the chin start to move back
recesses toward the um toward the neck
and the the rest of the face go out but
also the eyes become droopy um and this
but as you say why would the eyes be
affected it's not just musculature
what's happening is there's um less use
of literally the the sinuses in the
upper towards the upper mandible and up
towards the eyes because if you ever had
a sinus in infection it's painful up
here in your forehead and around the
eyes so again it's pretty
straightforward no products required
chew chew your food well chew on both
sides of your mouth um especially if
you're a young person but even if you're
not um be a nasal breather really chew
at your food try and this probably also
has benefits in terms of limiting um
unessential or low low nutrient density
calories you know slurping your food all
the time I mean I love don't drink your
calories man I love a good Greek yogurt
you know but um but drink drinking an
excess of calories is probably not good
and and eat like an adult I would say
you know one of the things is I I don't
know like to me growing up snack food
was something that kids um indulged in
you know on once you hit 18 or so you
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