This Rotary report by Bob Brown taken from an essay adapted from James Nestor's new book: "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art" published by Riverhead Books on May 26, 2020.
"How we inhale and exhale has profound effects on our health---not just during a crisis like the pandemic."
"Inside the breath you just took, there are more molecules of air than there are grains of sand on all the world's beaches. We each inhale and exhale some 30 pounds of these molecules every day, far more than we eat or drink. According to Nestor, the way we take in that air and expel it is as important as what we eat, how much we exercise and genes we've inherited."
"Breathing properly can allow us to live longer and healthier lives. Breathing poorly, by contrast, can exacerbate and sometimes cause a laundry list of chronic diseases. Poor breathing habits can even change the physical structure of our skeletons, depleting essential minerals and weakening our bones. The ancients understood this. Starting around 400 BC, Chinese scholars wrote several books on breath, believing that it could be a medicine or a poison, depending on how we used it."
"We can improve the airways in our too small mouths and reverse the entropy in our lungs at any age. We can do this by breathing properly."
"In the 1980's, researchers with the Framingham Study, a 70 year research program focused on heart disease gathered two decades of data from 5,200 subjects, crunched the numbers and discovered that the greatest indicator of life span wasn't genetics, diet or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity. larger lungs equaled longer lives. Because big lungs allow us to get more air in with fewer breaths. They save the body from a lot of unnecessary wear and tear."
"The first step in healthy breathing: extending breaths to make them a little deeper, a little longer...with a goal of about 6 breaths a minute. When we breathe like this we can better protect the lungs from irritation and infection while boosting circulation to the brain and body. Just a few minutes of inhaling and exhaling at this pace can drop blood pressure by 10, even 15 points."
The second step in healthy breathing: Breathe through your nose. Nasal breathing not only helps with snoring and some mild cases of sleep apnea, it also can allow us to absorb around 18% more oxygen than breathing through our mouths. It reduces the risk of dental cavities and respiratory problems and likely boosts sexual performance and Nestor says the list goes on."
These insights our ancestors self-administered for thousands of years with only their lips, noses and lungs!
