BREATH: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
Mr. Nestor takes us on a fascinating voyage into the world of breathing, and the myriad ways that the way we breathe impacts our health. He calls himself a pulmonaut, a breath explorer.
The book begins with an experiment into breathing with fellow pulmonaut, Anders Olsson. Together they submit to having their noses plugged with silicone by Stanford sinus and nasal surgeon, Dr. Jayakar Nayak, forcing them to become mouth breathers for 10 days. They do extensive testing of things like oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, blood pressure, heart rate, pH levels, blood gases, sleep, snoring and more. By the end of a miserable 10 days they both watch as the tests show a marked deterioration of their health. After 10 days Dr. Nayak removes the silicone plugs, and they both see dramatic improvement in their health markers as well as how they feel.
How important the way we breathe is to our health has been understood for thousands of years, yet Nestor finds that,
Over 40% of the world’s population are chronic mouth breathers. Mouth breathing leads to all sorts of health issues including asthma, chronic lung and sinus infections, sleep apnea and deprivation, hypertension, dental caries and periodontal disease, and changes in facial bone structure.
Nestor travels around the world in search of other pulmonauts, documenting how proper breathing has surprising health benefits. He details several different breathing techniques, each with unique benefits. Tummo breathing, an ancient yogic technique, he learns while lying in a roadside park in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The Dutch pulmonaut, Wim Hof, a.k.a “The Iceman”, uses a variation of Tummo to withstand extreme cold. Extensively studied by scientists, Hof set a world record of being immersed in an ice bath of 1 hour 52 minutes with no drop in his core body temperature. Researchers have verified that he has remarkable control over his autonomic nervous system due to his breathing technique. His story is just one of many fascinating accounts of how breath affects our health and performance.
“Breath” is one the best books I’ve read recently, and is full of things you can implement immediately to improve your breathing and your health. I’ve included videos from Mr. Nestor’s website demonstrating a few of the breathing techniques covered in this must read book. For more on breathing, see my article on another great breath book, “The Oxygen Advantage” by Patrick McKeown.
