Breath
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4.6 • 18 Ratings
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin. Narrated by James Nestor.
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
'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? A fascinating book, full of dazzling revelations' Dr Rangan Chatterjee
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 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. 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, 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 longheld 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, 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Every day we take tens of thousands of breaths, but rarely are they conscious acts. But according to journalist and breathing expert James Nestor’s intensive research, the way we breathe has a massive effect on our health. In this fascinating audiobook, Nestor argues that at some point as a species, people started breathing wrong—with real consequences! We were strangely enthralled as the author travels the globe interviewing yogis, examining ancient skulls and scrutinising medical case studies, all of which he narrates with contagious enthusiasm. Nestor argues, convincingly, that bad habits like overbreathing or inhaling through our mouths instead of our noses have led to a host of problems for humankind, like misaligned jaws and anxiety-related illnesses. Luckily, he concludes with a series of guided exercises to help us undo the damage. After this eye-opening listen, we’ll never take breathing for granted again.
