Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor (English) Hardcover Book

Description: Breath by James Nestor A New York Times BestsellerA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR "A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how weve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray LoveNo matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if youre 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 arent 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. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for Scientific American, Outside, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and more. His latest book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, was an instant New York Times and London Sunday Times bestseller and will be translated into more than 35 languages. Breath was awarded the Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a Finalist for Best Science Book of 2021 by the Royal Society. Nestors first book, Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves, was a Finalist for the 2014 PEN/ESPN Award For Literary Sports Writing and an Amazon Best Science Book of 2014. Nestor has presented his work at Stanford Medical School, the United Nations, and on radio and television shows including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, ABCs Nightline, CBS Morning News, and dozens of NPR programs. He lives and breathes in San Francisco. Review A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020An Amazon Best Science Book of 20202020 ASJA Award-Winner in the General Nonfiction Category A Goodreads Award Finalist for Best Science & Technology Book of the YearNamed a Best Book of 2020 by NPR"A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual, and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how weve 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 Ive read…Our breath is a beautiful, healing, mysterious gift, and so is this book." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love"I highly recommend this book." —Wim Hof "Who would have thought something as simple as changing the way we breathe could be so revolutionary for our health? James Nestor is the perfect guide to the pulmonary world and has written a fascinating book, full of dazzling revelations." —Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, international bestselling author of The Stress Solution"Its a rare popular-science book that keeps a reader up late, eyes glued to the pages. But Breath is just that fascinating. It will alarm you. It will gross you out. And it will inspire you. Who knew respiration could be so scintillating?" —Spirituality & Health"In Breath, author and journalist James Nestor lays out in spellbinding and at once comedic and riveting fashion his ten year personal investigation of breathing. Who could imagine a "self help book" that reads like a page turning novel?! I couldnt put it down."—Steven Gundry, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of The Plant Paradox series, The Longevity Paradox, and The Energy Paradox"With his entertaining, eerily well-timed new book, James Nestor explains the science behind proper breathing and how we can transform our lungs and our lives. The book is brisk and detailed, a well-written read that is always entertaining, as he melds the personal, the historical, and the scientific." —The Boston Globe"A transformative book that changes how you think about your body and mind." —Joshua Foer, New York Times–bestselling author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Memory "Breath provides a new perspective of modern-day technology and how weve unknowingly abandoned the answers weve always had. James Nestor artfully brings back what modern society has walked away from, by combining ancestral techniques and new age technology in one elegant book." —Scientific Inquirer"A wonderful book that reminds and enlightens us about how breath and mind are intertwined."—Dr. Rahul Jandial, bestselling author of Life Lessons from a Brain Surgeon"Breath is an utterly fascinating journey into the ways we are wired. No matter who you are, youll want to read this." —Po Bronson, New York Times–bestselling author of What Should I Do with My Life? and coauthor of NutureShock"An eye-opening, epic journey of human devolution that explains why so many of us are sick and tired. A must-read book that exposes what our health care system doesnt see." —Dr. Steven Y. Park, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, author of Sleep, Interrupted "I dont say this often, but when I do I mean it: This book changed my life. Breath is part scientific quest, part historical insight, part Heros Journey, full of groundbreaking ideas, and a rollicking good read. I had no idea that the simple and intuitive act of inhaling and exhaling has taken such an evolutionary hit. As a result, I figured out why I sleep so badly and why my breathing feels so often out of sync. With a few simple tweaks, I fixed my breathing and fixed myself. A transformational book!" —Caroline Paul, bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl"Breath shows us just how extraordinary the act of breathing is and why so much depends on how we do it. An enthralling, surprising, and often funny adventure into our most overlooked and undervalued function." —Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and American Chinatown"A welcome, invigorating users manual for the respiratory system." —Kirkus Reviews"If you want to read a book about the power of the breath, this is it!"—Patrick McKeown, bestselling author of The Oxygen Advantage"Although we all breathe, there is an art and science to breathing correctly . . . Full of fascinating information an compelling arguments, this eye-opening (or more aptly a mouth-closing and nostril-opening) work is highly recommended." —Library Journal"This is the best book Ive ever read! You wont be able to put it down." —Dr. John Douillard DC CAP, elite trainer and author of Body, Mind, and Sport Review Quote "With his entertaining, eerily well-timed new book, James Nestor explains the science behind proper breathing and how we can transform our lungs and our lives. . . . The book is brisk and detailed, a well-written read that is always entertaining, as he melds the personal, the historical, and the scientific." -- The Boston Globe "A transformative book that changes how you think about your body and mind." --Joshua Foer, New York Times -bestselling author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Memory " Breath is an utterly fascinating journey into the ways we are wired. No matter who you are, youll want to read this." --Po Bronson, New York Times -bestselling author of What Should I Do with My Life? and coauthor of NutureShock "An eye-opening, epic journey of human devolution that explains why so many of us are sick and tired. A must-read book that exposes what our health care system doesnt see." --Dr. Steven Y. Park, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, author of Sleep, Interrupted "I dont say this often, but when I do I mean it: This book changed my life. Breath is part scientific quest, part historical insight, part Heros Journey, full of groundbreaking ideas, and a rollicking good read. I had no idea that the simple and intuitive act of inhaling and exhaling has taken such an evolutionary hit. As a result, I figured out why I sleep so badly and why my breathing feels so often out of sync. With a few simple tweaks, I fixed my breathing and fixed myself. A transformational book!" --Caroline Paul, bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl "If you breathe, you need this book. When we undervalue anything, including something so basic as breathing, bad things always happen--and Nestor makes it clear how awful its gotten. But he also provides a clear airway back to better, deeper, stronger respirations." --Wallace J. Nichols, PhD, New York Times -bestselling author of Blue Mind " Breath shows us just how extraordinary the act of breathing is and why so much depends on how we do it. An enthralling, surprising, and often funny adventure into our most overlooked and undervalued function." --Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and American Chinatown "A welcome, invigorating users manual for the respiratory system." -- Kirkus Reviews "Although we all breathe, there is an art and science to breathing correctly . . . Full of fascinating information an compelling arguments, this eye-opening (or more aptly a mouth-closing and nostril-opening) work is highly recommended." -- Library Journal "Its a rare popular-science book that keeps a reader up late, eyes glued to the pages. But Breath is just that fascinating. It will alarm you. It will gross you out. And it will inspire you. Who knew respiration could be so scintillating?" -- Spirituality & Health " Breath provides a new perspective of modern day technology and how weve unknowingly abandoned the answers weve always had. James Nestor artfully brings back what modern society has walked away from by combining ancestral techniques and new age technology in one elegant book." -- Scientific Inquirer Excerpt from Book One The Worst Breathers in the Animal Kingdom The patient arrived, pale and torpid, at 9:32 a.m. Male, middle-aged, 175 pounds. Talkative and friendly but visibly anxious. Pain: none. Fatigue: a little. Level of anxiety: moderate. Fears about progression and future symptoms: high. Patient reported that he was raised in a modern suburban environment, bottle-fed at six months, and weaned onto jarred commercial foods. The lack of chewing associated with this soft diet stunted bone development in his dental arches and sinus cavity, leading to chronic nasal congestion. By age 15, patient was subsisting on even softer, highly processed foods consisting mostly of white bread, sweetened fruit juices, canned vegetables, Steak-umms, Velveeta sandwiches, microwave taquitos, Hostess Sno Balls, and Reggie! bars. His mouth had become so underdeveloped it could not accommodate 32 permanent teeth; incisors and canines grew in crooked, requiring extractions, braces, retainers, and headgear to straighten. Three years of orthodontics made his small mouth even smaller, so his tongue no longer properly fit between his teeth. When he stuck it out, which he did often, visible imprints laced its sides, a precursor to snoring. At 17, four impacted wisdom teeth were removed, which further decreased the size of his mouth while increasing his chances of developing the chronic nocturnal choking known as sleep apnea. As he aged into his 20s and 30s, his breathing became more labored and dysfunctional and his airways became more obstructed. His face would continue a vertical growth pattern that led to sagging eyes, doughy cheeks, a sloping forehead, and a protruding nose. This atrophied, underdeveloped mouth, throat, and skull, unfortunately, belongs to me. Im lying on the examination chair in the Stanford Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Center looking at myself, looking into myself. For the past several minutes, Dr. Jayakar Nayak, a nasal and sinus surgeon, has been gingerly coaxing an endoscope camera through my right nasal cavity. Hes gone so deep into my head that its come out the other side, into my throat. "Say eeee," he says. Nayak has a halo of black hair, square glasses, cushioned running shoes, and a white coat. But Im not looking at his clothes, or his face. Im wearing a pair of video goggles that are streaming a live feed of the journey through the rolling dunes, swampy marshes, and stalactites inside my severely damaged sinuses. Im trying not to cough or choke or gag as that endoscope squirms a little farther down. "Say eeee," Nayak repeats. I say it and watch as the soft tissue around my larynx, pink and fleshy and coated in slime, opens and closes like a stop-motion Georgia OKeeffe flower. This isnt a pleasure cruise. Twenty-five sextillion molecules (thats 250 with 20 zeros after it) take this same voyage 18 times a minute, 25,000 times a day. Ive come here to see, feel, and learn where all this air is supposed to enter our bodies. And Ive come to say goodbye to my nose for the next ten days. For the past century, the prevailing belief in Western medicine was that the nose was more or less an ancillary organ. We should breathe out of it if we can, the thinking went, but if not, no problem. Thats what the mouth is for. Many doctors, researchers, and scientists still support this position. Breathing tubes, mouthbreathing, and nasal breathing are all just means to the same end. There are 27 departments at the National Institute of Health devoted to lungs, eyes, skin disease, ears, and so on. The nose and sinuses arent represented in any of them. Nayak finds this absurd. He is the chief of rhinology research at Stanford. He heads an internationally renowned laboratory focused entirely on understanding the hidden power of the nose. Hes found that those dunes, stalactites, and marshes inside the human head orchestrate a multitude of functions for the body. Vital functions. "Those structures are in there for a reason!" he told me earlier. Nayak has a special reverence for the nose, which he believes is greatly misunderstood and underappreciated. Which is why hes so interested to see what happens to a body that functions without one. Which is what brought me here. Starting today, Ill spend the next quarter of a million breaths with silicone plugs blocking my nostrils and surgical tape over the plugs to stop even the faintest amount of air from entering or exiting my nose. Ill breathe only through my mouth, a heinous experiment that will be exhausting and miserable, but has a clear point. Forty percent of todays population suffers from chronic nasal obstruction, and around half of us are habitual mouthbreathers, with females and children suffering the most. The causes are many: dry air to stress, inflammation to allergies, pollution to pharmaceuticals. But much of the blame, Ill soon learn, can be placed on the ever-shrinking real estate in the front of the human skull. When mouths dont grow wide enough, the roof of the mouth tends to rise up instead of out, forming whats called a V-shape or high-arched palate. The upward growth impedes the development of the nasal cavity, shrinking it and disrupting the delicate structures in the nose. The reduced nasal space leads to obstruction and inhibits airflow. Overall, humans have the sad distinction of being the most plugged-up species on Earth. I should know. Before probing my nasal cavities, Nayak took an X-ray of my head, which provided a deli-slicer view of every nook and cranny in my mouth, sinuses, and upper airways. "Youve got some . . . stuff," he said. Not only did I have a V-shape palate, I also had "severe" obstruction to the left nostril caused by a "severely" deviated septum. My sinuses were also riddled with a profusion of deformities called concha bullosa. "Super uncommon," said Nayak. It was a phrase nobody wants to hear from a doctor. My airways were such a mess that Nayak was amazed I hadnt suffered from even more of the infections and respiration problems Id known as a kid. But he was reasonably certain I could expect some degree of serious breathing problems in the future. Over the next ten days of forced mouthbreathing, Ill be putting myself inside a kind of mucousy crystal ball, amplifying and hastening the deleterious effects on my breathing and my health, which will keep getting worse as I get older. Ill be lulling my body into a state it already knows, that half the population knows, only multiplying it many times. "OK, hold steady," Nayak says. He grabs a steel needle with a wire brush at the end. Its the size of a mascara brush. Im thinking, Hes not going to put that thing up my nose. A few seconds later, he puts that up my nose. I watch through the video goggles as Nayak maneuvers the brush deeper. He keeps sliding until the brush is no longer up my nose, no longer playing around my nose hair, but wiggling inside of my head a few inches deep. "Steady, steady," he says. When the nasal cavity gets congested, airflow decreases and bacteria flourish. These bacteria replicate and can lead to infections and colds and more congestion. Congestion begets congestion, which gives us no other option but to habitually breathe from the mouth. Nobody knows how soon this damage occurs. Nobody knows how quickly bacteria accumulate in an obstructed nasal cavity. Nayak needs to grab a culture of my deep nasal tissue to find out. I wince as I watch him twist the brush deeper still, then spin it, skimming off a layer of gunk. The nerves this far up the nose are designed to feel the subtle flow of air and slight modulations in air temperature, not steel brushes. Even though hes dabbed an anesthetic in there, I can still feel it. My brain has a hard time knowing exactly what to do, how to react. Its difficult to explain, but it feels like someone is needling a conjoined twin that exists somewhere outside of my own head. "The things you never thought youd be doing with your life," Nayak laughs, putting the bleeding tip of the brush into a test tube. Hell compare the 200,000 cells from my sinuses with another sample ten days from now to see how nasal obstruction affects bacterial growth. He shakes the test tube, hands it to his assistant, and politely asks me to take the video goggles off and make room for his next patient. Patient #2 is leaning against the window and snapping photos with his phone. Hes 49 years old, deeply tanned with white hair and Smurf-blue eyes, and hes wearing spotless beige jeans and leather loafers without socks. His name is Anders Olsson, and hes flown 5,000 miles from Stockholm, Sweden. Along with me, hes ponied up more than $5,000 to join the experiment. Id interviewed Olsson several months ago after coming across his website. It had all the red flags of flakiness: stock images of blond women striking hero poses on mountaintops, neon colors, frantic use of exclamation points, and bubble fonts. But Olsson wasnt some fringe character. Hed spent ten years collecting and conducting serious scientific research. Hed written dozens of posts and self-published a book explaining breathing from the subatomic level on up, all annotated with hundreds of studies. Hed also become one of Scandinavias most respected and popular breathing therapists, helping to heal thousands of patients through the sub Details ISBN0735213615 Author James Nestor Language English Year 2020 ISBN-10 0735213615 ISBN-13 9780735213616 Format Hardcover Pages 304 Short Title Breath Subtitle The New Science of a Lost Art DEWEY 613.192 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2020-05-26 NZ Release Date 2020-05-26 US Release Date 2020-05-26 Publication Date 2020-05-26 UK Release Date 2020-05-26 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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