Name: Vojtech's review of Breath by James Nestor
Item: Breath
Rating: 4
Author: Vojtech

James Nestor

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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 twenty-five thousand 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 São Paulo. 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 making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, 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.

The New Science of a Lost Art

Breath

Vojtech

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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 São Paulo. 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 making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, 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.

read half of this and gave up. overall quite repetitive and more dealing with pseudo-science and anectodal evidence rather than actual facts and research.... not for me

So fascinating it is almost unbelievable. 

 is an interesting book. It tries to approach somewhat scientific topic with story-telling approach and examples. While this makes it much more approachable it tends to trigger my inner "bullshit" alarm. (It is easy to lead you into one specific side of the argument.)

However, I don't have any arguments against the things mentioned in the book. I actually believe it might be true. I believe it so much I try to sleep with my mouth shut by a piece of tape. Maybe everything important is once though as a sham.

Anyways, who would have though that something we do thousand of times a day can affect our wellbeing?

So fascinating it is almost unbelievable. Breath is an interesting book. It tries to approach somewhat scientific topic with story-telling approach and examples. While this makes it much more approachable it tends to trigger my inner "bullshit" alarm. (It is easy to lead you into one specific side of the argument.)

However, I don't have any arguments against the things mentioned in the book. I actually believe it might be true. I believe it so much I try to sleep with my mouth shut by a piece of tape. Maybe everything important is once though as a sham.

Anyways, who would have though that something we do thousand of times a day can affect our wellbeing?

Miguel A Zepeda 

This book had a significant influence on my daily life. Breathing is life. 

Sven Schmidt

Fascinating! As a yoga teacher I really appreciated this one and will refer to it often. It offered so many resources and other books to check out. All the stars :) 

Jenna Safran 

Sarah Ryan

Loved this book! It was fascinating and eye opening. I knew after only a few chapters that it was going to be one of those books that changes how I live my life. James Nestor has a great ability to narrate scientific information in a really engaging way. I know I’ll read this again.

'I highly recommend this book' Wim Hof THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AS HEARD ON THE CHRIS EVANS SHOW There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing 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. In Breath, journalist James Nestor travels the world to discover the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments 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 ancient wisdom and 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. _____________________________ 'If there's one book you read this year, make it this one' Chris Evans 'Who would have thought something as simple as changing the way we breathe could be so revolutionary for our health, from snoring to allergies to immunity? James Nestor is the perfect guide to the pulmonary world and has written a fascinating book, full of dazzling revelations' Dr Rangan Chatterjee, author of Feel Better in Five A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe - and how we've all been doing it wrong for a long, long time. I already feel calmer and healthier just in the last few days, from making a few simple changes in my breathing, based on what I've read. Our breath is a beautiful, healing, mysterious gift, and so is this book' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Giulia

fascinating read about the science of Breath, a really lovely mix of anecdotal information and science with easily applicable methods

Udit Desai

Nadine 

Above all things this is a hopeful book, one that one wants to believe in despite a niggling feeling that like it’s predecessors in the genre of what I’d call “hopeful self-medication” one suspects the “long lost” arts and cures were lost or forgotten for a reason. In any event it was interesting and breathing is an essential thing - and I’m trying to convince my husband that nose breathing will cure his snoring!

Alexander Venturas

A lot of novel ideas that do seem to be grounded in reasonable science, but a bit too much pseudoscience for my liking.

Bryan Maniotakis

Well, I'll be damned. Turned out I didn't realize how far this rabbit hole goes.

Omar

3.5 ⭐. It was good. I wanted it to have more science, like Why We Sleep, and it was a bit light there. But, I enjoyed the reminder of the importance to slow down my breath, breathe through my nose, and chew (develop wide and strong face bones!)

Lukas Gräf

Great book about breathing in general and why many people in todays world do it wrong (and how to improve it). It would have been nice with more scientific studies but it appears as if science has so far neglected this topic unfortunately so there was not much more to include here.
Definitely feels like there should be more content on breathing coming out soon!

Laura Mitchell Hutchinson

4.5 stars.

This book is all anyone in my workplace is currently talking about. I flew through the audiobook and literally cannot. stop. thinking. about. breathing.

For those who are Breath-curious but not actually willing to commit to reading this, here is my TL;DR:

Approximately 40% of western civilisation are now chronic mouth-breathers. This is due to many factors, but most significantly the change of our bone structure (face, jaw and teeth) as well as muscle strength of the throat, which have all deteriorated enormously over the past 300 years – since the introduction of highly processed foods to our diets. We also, as a western culture, have not traditionally held the act of breathing as highly (for health and also being respectful by closing your mouth) as some many eastern, indigenous and tribal cultures continue to do. Before the 1600s, it is proven that wide nostrils, strong and STRAIGHT teeth as well as a forward-leaning jaw were all common traits of the human head. It was rare to have crooked teeth.

Mouth breathing is one of the worst things you can do for your respiratory health and overall wellbeing. People who are in the habit of breathing through their mouths are FAR more likely to suffer from:
- Snoring
- Sleep apnea
- Weight gain / trouble losing weight
- Lower immunity
- Erectile dysfunction
- Bad breath
- Diabetes
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Hayfever
- Depression
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- ADHD
- Mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia
- High blood pressure
- Chronic sinus blockages
- Crooked teeth
- Less endurance in athletics
- Dental problems (ie. cavities) 
- Chronic fatigue, auto immune disorders and learning difficulties from lack of concentration

Breathing through the nose is highly beneficial as it filters and warms the air that comes in, allows us to breathe slower and smoother. We sleep better, release carbon dioxide and intake oxygen at a better rate. Boost our overall immunity and calm down our stress-response system.

HOWEVER, I could not give this 5 complete stars only because of some completely random, tiny studies and one-off practitioners that were included here. I did love this quote from Goodreads User John Tankersley's review, "4 parts good info and 1 part crackpot, this book seems to have a good amount of excellent information that’s well-researched mixed in with some new age nonsense." Occasionally the author, who is a science journalist and writes very well using a lot of LEGIT evidence and studies, mixes in some random stories about 'practitioners' who had some really wacky methods of making people hallucinate through breathing, sit in the snow for hours without getting hypothermia, or even cure their own scoliosis through breathing and stretching alone. These were really interesting but a lot of the wacky people were not supported by professionals and kept their methods 'mysterious', even though they apparently helped hundreds of people it is not well recorded or researched how they did it. This made me think... um ok is this pseudoscience now?

But overall, the main message is not woo-woo at all and I still want to shove this book into the hands (or ears) of every person in my life!

Nicklas Jarnesjö

Gillade verkligen denna boken. Han har lagt ner väldigt mycket tid på utforska områden under längre tid och använt sig själv som försöksperson och inte bara läst och tagit in andras upplevelser.

 Att vi generellt i den moderna världen har glömt bort vikten av att andas och andas på rätt sätt. Men att börja andas genom näsan igen och vara medveten och detta och göra det medvetet och kontrollerat kommer att hjälpa och må bättre och vara mer avslappnad.

Intressant delar om hur man inom elitidrott tränar på att utsätta kroppen för mindre syre och jobbar mer med att ta hand om koldioxid för att förbättra sin prestationer. Andning känns som med mycket annat i livet i vår värld att vi bara har skrapat lite på ytan av vad vi egentligen är kapabla till. 

Även intressant hur man behandlar folk med stress och panikångest att utsätta dom för mindre syre för att kroppen ska komma ner i varv och börja tänka klart igen.

Sedan att vi den moderna människan har en få små och trånga munnar för att vi andas genom munnen och därför ska försöka öka volymen igen med olika metoder så som munställningar och liknande känns lite extremt i mitt tycke. 

Man kommer långt genom att bara börja lära sig att andas genom näsan igen. Aktivera diafragman.

Den optimala andningstekniken gör att uppnå maximala fördelar beskrivs i boken vara: 
5,5 sekunder inandning
5,5 sekunder utandning
vilket leder till 5,5 andetag per minut och då fylla lungorna med 5,5 liter

Christian Beck

I really enjoyed this overview of the importance and art+science of breathing. I normally gravitate towards books written by scientists on subjects like these because when written by journalists, they can veer off-topic too much. But his journalistic style and self-discovery of learning breathing techniques was enjoyable and I learned a lot. I do think some parts veered into pseudo-science territory but Nestor always pointed that out.

He does a fantastic job keeping you engaged while balancing the practical side of breathing with the science behind how it works. Among the most fascinating things to learn was the counter-intuitive role carbon dioxide plays in healthy breathing. And conversely, how too much oxygen is harmful.

And while it’s immensely readable, if you don’t plan to read it, I can at least leave you with the most important piece of advice: shut your mouth when you breath!

Mike Gregory

Such a good book, I really enjoyed hearing the different techniques and what they did for the author and could potentially do for others.

Erlank Pienaar

Excellent book. What we forgot about health and physiology. Is killing us. Timely book. Must read.

Bryan Alexander

A fascinating look at breathing - which sounds like a deranged sentence, or perhaps a mystical guide, yet Nestor's book is something very different.

Partly it's a survey of practical knowledge about how to improve breathing in order to improve health. Partly it's a historical sketch of how different people and groups have tried to get people breathing differently for health reasons, and how that knowledge has arisen and faded.

Nestor is a splendid writer for this stuff. He has a fine ability to offer arresting phrases and to describe processes clearly.

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Breath by James Nestor

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