Asterisk Nose Magnets make you faster. No, really!

Gunnstein – That assume’s evolution is done. We still die, still get cancer, and still have hair on our buttholes. The human body’s not perfect yet.

@Smitty, was just thinking the same thing.

@Bill, there’s no such assumption. As I said, bigger nostrils is a simple change that evolution takes care of quickly if there is a benefit to it, so it should have happened long ago. (Cancer and death, on the other hand, are not fixed by evolution because there’s little evolutionary benefit. Both affect mainly the elderly, who aren’t doing much reproducing, so whether they die at 50, or 80, or never, doesn’t affect the species.)

“So better airflow means, more oxygen to the blood, which means better performance.” That statement implies that these magnets increase the VO2 max, which they probably don’t (I’m not aware of Breathe Right Strips every proving anything like that for their product).
I can see how it could increase comfort, give a sensation of being able to take in more air, and maybe help if you have a cold and a runny nose. But I don’t think it improves performances in any way.

These would work SO much better if you stuffed the magnets INSIDE your nose! /s

You all fail my class.

@Gunnstein – not to dampen your other points, but it has been shown that longer lasting grandparents were very key to the successful raising on grandkids to meet reproductive age. Long lasting grandparents were therefore an evolutionary advantage (at least with regards to women. Men? Sorry. We are kind of useless after age 50 or so.

That said, we haven’t been “evolving” at all as we have not been living in a culture in which only the fittest are selected and only the fittest can rear offspring (not to mention what is deemed “fittest” varies depending on one’s situation). Evolution also doesn’t produce the best total package. A trait needed to reach sexual maturity (let’s say big nostrils) may harbor the gene that increases cancer risk at old age. Not all evolutionary changes are without consequence. Sorry. My pet peeve, but I get OCD when people start talking about “evolution” as this all conquering force that achieves the 100% best solution for all and every scenario.

@ Bill… I’m not falling for that ” let’s stuff something in our nose ” idea again, did WAAAAY too much of that nonsense in the ’80’s! They tell me I had a good time, though. Now I just go fast on my Bikes

The science appears to be less conclusive about this type of ergogenic aide working at all. However there are plenty of anecdotal accounts from athletes both beginner and pros that state that they help. As with all new tech making claims of improved athletic performance look for pubs on the subject where studies were not funded in part or whole by manufacturers or the parent companies of manufacturers. Check the following: http://www.pubfacts.com/search/External+nasal+dilator+strip

I’m going to invent a turbo for humans, a battery operated blower you stick in your nostrils.

Finally, the product that will get me that .00005th of a second, Olympic gold here I come!!!

I don’t need these…I have an ebike! Braaaaaaaap!! (silent)

@Gunnstein Not to get all particular on this tangent, but if I remember the stats correctly, the low average lifespans historically are largely due more to very high childhood mortality than dying young once well into adulthood. As I recall, people could live pretty long if they made it to adulthood at all. This could just be in the last 2,000-3,000 years though, so not so relevant to evolutionary time scales. But the circumstance where kids routinely live into adulthood is a very, very modern development (like the last 100 or so years).

And, more importantly, are the strips Boost(TM) compatible?

@Larry – this seems true, at least that’s how I recollect my nose feeling with goggles when I raced DH, but I alo remember doing a LOT of ‘mouth breathing’!

@Bald Ben – ICP, yeah you know me!

If this works, I wonder how long it will be before athletes start having their nostrils permanantly enlarged by surgery?

@Gunnstein You are assuming that evolution optimizes only for athletic performance, but there are many other factors involved too. For instance in cold climates it is advantageous for inhaled air to be warmed up before it reaches the sensitive tissues inside, which is why Europeans have longer noses with smaller nostrils than Africans.

@JBikes Evolution keeps working as long as some people raise more children than others, and that’s certainly true today. Those people are the fittest.

@Gunn – almost all studies show that long lived grandmothers are extremely beneficial to a societies relative survival rates, and is thought to be one of the reasons that females live longer than males, even though females will cease to be reproductively viable well before males.
We have been living for some time where grandmothers have assisted in rearing children (one needs to remember that the breeding age of human was likely much lower thousands of years ago, so a grandmother of say 34 was very likely). This grandparent would be present to help ensure the grandchild gets the care/attention needed while the younger parent unit may be busy gathering/preparing food, defending area, fighting disease. Essentially, the greater the number of people in a society that can help raise/secure infants/children, the greater the chance those kids will live and pass on their genes. Men seemingly were poor parents or tied to food/protection so didn’t add value to that equation.

The myth of our ancestors lack of agedness is due to a skew of stats from high infantile death and death due to injury/illness. Not some genetic lack of ability to live beyond 40.

And now, back to bicycles…

@Ryan,

Back off, it’s my idea.

And the key is the operation to vent the base of the lungs out the athlete’s lower back, to allow for a constant flow of fan-driven, oxygen-rich air.

Again, MY idea.

I am going to put a big magnet on my helmet and a big magnet at the finish line. The magnet at the finish line will pull me to victory! Me…for the win!

Sigh. Why are you guys so keen on assuming that I assume things?

@Hugh Schnozz “…assuming that evolution optimizes only for athletic performance…” I did not, and I did already mention the point about heating the air. See first post.

@Veganpotter If you ride better with them then you run better too, right? Which would make it easier to hunt bison, right? A clear survival advantage, I’d say. So why didn’t it evolve? Because we run just as well, or better, with the mouth open, right? (Admittedly, one advantage to keeping your mouth shut on the bike would be fewer inhaled flies – less a concern when running.)

To everyone who is championing grandparents, you may well be right. It’s not something I have studied and it’s anyway more about breeding than breathing, our main topic here 😉

My idea is to have many drones flying over me with magnets. I glue magnets to my body and instant levitation or at least less weight to ride up the hill.

I did vo2 max intervals with the Rhinomed and in humidity it helps. One thing though it starts to feel unnatural in a way. Some of the arguments and assumptions make a bit of sense. It’s like, for long term is starts to feel a little odd, like too much inner membrane is exposed to the air and whatever floats in it. I woould not want to wear it in pollen season! For 5-20 minute extreme efforts it was good.

@Veganpotter, you’re missing my point. Bigger nostrils is *easy*. Making a body part slightly bigger or smaller is a simple change, and happens all the time in response to changing conditions. See Darwins finches, etc. But evolving superpowers is *hard*. That’s the difference.

@Pit Fair points, makes sense.

With your mentality, everyone in the US that came from Europe should have the skin tone of indigenous people by now…

Open mouth, inhale.

Thank you, Chris S., that’s exactly what I was going to say. It’s free and works better than strips or magnets.