Summary of James Nestor´s Book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

This book is a summary and a study guide of the original book Breath by James Nestor

Original Book Plot:

Nothing is more important to our health and well-being than breathing: take in air, expel it, and repeat 25,000 times per day. However, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe properly, which has serious consequences.

James Nestor, a journalist, travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers, contrary to popular belief, can be found in muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of Sao Paulo. Nestor seeks out men and women who are investigating the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices such as Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and collaborates with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research shows that even minor changes in how we inhale and exhale can improve athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, stop snoring, allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease, and even straighten scoliotic spines. All of this should not be possible, but it is.

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