Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

by Nestor, James
ISBN: 9780735213616
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Used - Hardcover - 9780735213616

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Overview

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly.

There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of S o Paulo, Brazil. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Author: Nestor, James
  • ISBN: 9780735213616
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 9.40 x 1.10
  • Number Of Pages: 304
  • Publication Year: 2020

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  • Breath of Fresh Air

    Would Recommend
    Joshua R. - 1 month ago

    A wonderful examination into how breathing affects your health, spirit and mind. Essentially reading for yogis or health-conscious people.

    Tags: Booktok, Addictive, Quick Read, Page Turner

  • SHUT YOUR MOUTH and Don't Overbreath It!

    Jennifer E. - 4 years 10 months ago

    From the Genesis of creation, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” “The nose is the silent warrior: the gatekeeper of our bodies, pharmacist to our minds, and weather vane to our emotions.” And carbon dioxide is “a kind of divorce lawyer” that frees oxygen to find another mate. However, it is a truth universally acknowledged that the human jaw is gradually becoming smaller. Lung size correlates to longevity; larger lungs equals longer lives. Expand your lungs to expand your life. Moderate exercise like walking can boost lung size up to 15 percent. “Prayer heals, especially when it’s practiced at 5.5 breaths a minute.” Nestor encourages breath fasting and admonishes us to chew Turkish gum and hum for five minutes a day. In Breath, James Nestor invites us into his life and lungs. He exports “the benefits of breathing, of harnessing the art of exhalation...To breathe is to absorb ourselves in what surrounds us, take in little bits of life, understand them, and give pieces of ourselves back out. Respiration is, at its core, reciprocation,” which “can also lead to restoration.” “If I were to bequeath to posterity the most important Motto which human language can convey, it should be in three words--SHUT-YOUR-MOUTH.” (George Catlin’s Breath of Life, 1862) Don’t overthink it: stop overbreathing! “The role of the modern doctor was to put out fires, not blow away smoke.” For this fascinating reading recommendation, I thank my physician father! Can’t wait to compare noses...er notes!

  • Breathing is active, not passive, and not entirely autonomic.

    Susan D. - 5 years 2 months ago

    It starts slowly, but keep reading. After a few chapters, it starts being less an effort to convince and more an explanation of why he believes as he does. The reports on forgotten research are fascinating, and they provoke further questions. I’m experimenting with some of his recommended exercises, and I think he may be on to something. Especially interesting if you have asthma or sleep apnea.