Summary of Breath E-Book

Quick Reads

• Herausgeber: Quick Reads
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is a 2020 book by author James Nestor. It's a fascinating and helpful guide to understanding the science of breathing, including how doing it slowly and through your nose is best for your lungs and body and the many proven mental and physical benefits of being more mindful of how you inhale and exhale.

This is the SUMMARY of the book Breath, which in no way intends to displace the original work but offers the following:

• An in-depth analysis of the book
• An efficiently written work that conveys the authors' message in a user-friendly manner.
• A sufficient synopsis of the author's main ideas.

These and many more can be found in this little book of immeasurable value!

This book points out that humans have lost their ability to breathe correctly. Losing this ability has impacted our physical health and things like our jaw shape. 

If you want to discover the deadly impact of breathing wrongly on our anxiety levels, blood pressure, and heart health. And how breathing correctly can benefit your lungs, body, mental and physical well-being, etc. click to Order your copy now!

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DISCLAIMER

This book is an unofficial summary and analysis of James Nestor's book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, that should be read in conjunction with the original work, not as a substitute. This content is solely the responsibility of Quick Reads, who is not affiliated with the original author in any way.

Leseprobe

SUMMARY

of

BREATH

The New Science of a Lost Art

by

James Nestor

Quick Reads

Note

This book is a summary and analysis that should be read in conjunction with the original work, not as a substitute. This content is solely the responsibility of Quick Reads, who is not affiliated with the original author in any way.

Important Legal Information

Except as provided by United States of America copyright law, this book or any part of it may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or distributed in any format by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the publisher's written permission.

Disclaimer

This book's contents are solely for educational and informative purposes. We take no responsibility for any impacts or outcomes that may occur as a result of using this content. Despite making every attempt to offer accurate and sufficient information, the author accepts no responsibility for its correctness, usage, or abuse.

Copyright © 2022 by Quick Reads.

All Rights Reserved.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

I

n this Quick Reads, I will not focus on rewriting the original book's content or copy-pasting the exact table of contents. Instead, my aim is to provide you with a condensed version of the book's major concepts. When you read it, you will grasp everything there is to know about this revolutionary book.

Enjoy your reading...

Table of Contents

SYNOPSIS

What's In It For Me, And Why Is It Important?

Who Is Breath For?

About The Author

INTRODUCTION

SUMMARY

PART ONE: THE EXPERIMENT

The Animal Kingdom's Worst Breathers

Mouthbreathing

PART TWO: THE LOST ART AND SCIENCE OF BREATHING

Nose

Exhale

Slow

Less

Chew

PART THREE: BREATHING+

More, On Occasion

Hold It

Fast, Slow, And Not At All

A Last Gasp

ANALYSIS

BREATHING VIA YOUR NOSE RATHER THAN YOUR MOUTH IS MUCH MORE HEALTHY

THE HUMAN CRANIUM HAS EVOLVED IN WAYS THAT MAKE BREATHING DIFFICULT

IT'S NECESSARY TO BREATHE IN, BUT IT'S ALSO IMPORTANT TO BREATHE OUT

BREATHING SLOWLY AND SHALLOWLY HAS SURPRISING HEALTH BENEFITS

WE HAVE A NUMBER OF OPTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE STRUCTURE OF OUR MOUTHS

EXTREME BREATHING METHODS CAN HAVE AMAZING RESULTS

CHANGING OUR CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS CAN TRIGGER VISIONS AND TRANSFORM OUR CONSCIOUSNESS

BREATHING'S POWER IS STILL RARELY UNDERSTOOD IN THE WEST, BUT IT'S OLD WISDOM ELSEWHERE

CONCLUSION

SYNOPSIS

Breath is an interesting and useful manual to understanding the science of breathing, including how breathing slowly and through your nose is healthiest for your lungs and body, as well as the numerous established mental and physical advantages of being more attentive of how you inhale as well as exhale.

What's In It For Me, And Why Is It Important?

Learn about the incredible benefits of breathing correctly.

Breath is entertaining, educating, helpful, and, yes, refreshing! This is it if you're seeking for a quick solution to boost your health.

Who Is Breath For?

Those who enjoy popular science

People who want to enhance their health in a straightforward method.

Anyone interested in learning more about what we do without realizing it.

About The Author

James Nestor is a San Francisco-based reporter. He has written for Scientific American, Outside Magazine, and the New York Times, and he is the author of Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, as well as What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves.

INTRODUCTION

You probably don't think about breathing all that much. Sure, everyone understands that it is important for survival. But we don't need to practice or think about it, right? It's simply what we... do.

Prepare to be blown away. Because the many methods we may breathe can have a significant influence on our health. Breathing and chewing may really reshape our faces, open our airways, and aid in the treatment of conditions ranging from asthma to stress. Extreme breathing methods can also assist us in experiencing hallucinations or gaining control of our pulse rate and body temperature.

Nonetheless, the power of breathing has been remarkably underutilized in Western research.

These key point summaries take you on a journey into the world of "pulmonauts," as author James Nestor refers to individuals who, like him, have dedicated their lives to discovering the incredible potential we may unlock with the simple act of breathing.

You will discover in these key point summaries

Why you should never, ever breathe via your mouth?

Why carbon dioxide (CO2) is the world's most misunderstood gas; why

How a Dutch mail man learnt to run a half-marathon in the Arctic Circle shirtless.

NOTE: The contents of this book is divided into two sections, “SUMMARY as the first while “ANALYSIS” as the second.

Enjoy your reading...

SUMMARY

PART ONE: THE EXPERIMENT

The Animal Kingdom's Worst Breathers

Humans are currently the only mammals on the globe with misaligned jaws, overbites, underbites, and snaggled teeth on a regular basis, a condition technically known as malocclusion.

Evolution may not always imply advancement. It denotes change. And things might change for the better or for the worst. The human body is altering today in ways that have nothing to do with "survival of the fittest." Instead, we are adopting and handing along unhealthy habits to our children. This is known as dysevolution, and it explains why our backs ache, our feet pain, and our bones are becoming brittle. Dysevolution also explains why we breathe so poorly.

The more we prepared and ate soft, calorie-dense foods, the bigger our brains got and the narrower our airways became.

In colder areas, our nostrils would get narrower and longer in order to more efficiently heat up air before it reached our lungs; our skin would become lighter in order to absorb more sunlight for vitamin D synthesis. We evolved bigger and flatter nostrils in sunny and warm locations, which were more efficient at breathing hot and humid air; our skin would darken to shield us from the heat. The larynx would drop in the throat along the way to enable another adaptation: vocal communication.

The lower larynx became less efficient at its original function. Sapiens would be the only animals, and the only human species, capable of choking on food and dying.

Of course, none of this mattered to the early humans. For tens of thousands of years, our forefathers could breathe quite well with their massively grown skulls.

Mouthbreathing

Simply practicing breathing through your nose can decrease total exertion in half and provide significant benefits in endurance. While nasal breathing, the athletes felt energized rather than weary.

The process by which the body generates energy from air and food. There are two options: one with oxygen, known as aerobic respiration, and one without oxygen, known as anaerobic respiration.

Anaerobic energy is produced only from glucose (a simple sugar), therefore it is more readily available to our systems. When the body doesn't have enough oxygen, it acts as a backup system and turbo boost. However, anaerobic energy is inefficient and potentially harmful, producing an excess of lactic acid.

When we run our cells aerobically with oxygen, we acquire 16 times greater energy efficiency than when we operate them anaerobically. The key to exercise, and to life in general, is to stay in that energy-efficient, clean-burning, oxygen-consuming aerobic zone during the great majority of activity and at all times during rest.

It's simple to calculate your optimal heart rate for exercise: divide your age by 180. The outcome is the utmost your body can take in order to maintain an aerobic condition. Long periods of training and activity can take place below this rate but never above it, as the body risks diving too far into the anaerobic zone for too long.

Mouthbreathing, it turns out, alters the physical body and alters the airways for the worse.

PART TWO: THE LOST ART AND SCIENCE OF BREATHING

Nose

Erectile tissue, the very same flesh which covers the penis, clitoris, as well as nipples, covers the inside of the nose. Erections occur in the nose. The nose will become flaccid when sexual excitement fades and erectile tissue becomes flaccid.

Nasal erectile tissue reflected overall health. During illness or other instances of imbalance, it would become inflamed.

A gas pedal is located in the right nostril. Circulation accelerates, your body heats up, and cortisol levels, blood pressure, as well as heart rate all rise when you inhale predominantly through this channel.

The parasympathetic nervous system, which decreases temperature and blood pressure, cools the body, and relieves anxiety, is more intimately related to the left nostril.

Our bodies work best when they're in a condition of balance, swinging back and forth between action and rest, daydreaming and rational cognition. The nasal cycle has an impact on this equilibrium, and it may even govern it. It's a delicate equilibrium that may be tampered with.

There's a yoga practice focused to controlling the body's processes by forcing air into the nostrils. It's referred to as nadi shodhana, or alternating nostril breathing.

The numerous parts of the turbinates will work together to heat, purify, slow, and pressurize air, allowing the lungs to extract more oxygen with each breath. This is why breathing via the nose is considerably healthier and more effective than breathing through the mouth.

The health benefits of inhaling via your nose are apparent. One of the numerous advantages is that the sinuses produce a large amount of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps increase circulation and oxygen delivery to cells. The quantity of nitric oxide in the body can have a big impact on immune function, weight, circulation, mood, and sexual function.

Nasal breathing alone may increase nitric oxide levels by sixfold, which is among the reasons humans can absorb 18% more oxygen when compared to mouth breathing.

The tissue within the nasal cavity and throat is trained to flex and stay open by regularly using the nose.

Exhale

A few minutes of bending and breathing every day can help to increase lung capacity. We can enlarge our life with that increased capability.

The smaller and less effective the lungs got, the faster patients fell ill and died. It didn't matter what caused the decline. Shorter meant smaller. However, bigger lungs resulted in longer lives.

Any frequent practice that stretches and maintains the lungs flexible might help to maintain or expand lung capacity. Moderate activity, such as walking or cycling, has been proven to increase lung size by up to 15%.

The most critical component of breathing was not simply taking oxygen via the nose. The easiest part was inhaling. On the other end of respiration lay the secret to breathing, lung expansion, and the long life that came with it. A thorough exhale had the transformational potential.

Shallow breathing reduces the range of our diaphragms as well as lung capacity over time, which can contribute to the high-shouldered, chest-out, neck-extended posture seen in people with emphysema, asthma, and some other respiratory issues.

Slow

Focusing on how we breathed, especially on balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body, is the greatest approach to preventing many chronic health issues, increase athletic performance, and lengthen longevity. We'd need to learn how to inhale and exhale gently to do this.

For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds escape via our lungs, the majority of which is carbon dioxide mixed with a trace of water vapor. The remainder is expelled by perspiration or urination.

Overbreathing or inhaling pure oxygen would have no benefit, no effect on oxygen transport to our tissues and organs, and might even induce a condition of oxygen deprivation, leading to relative suffocation in a healthy body.

When we breathe normally, our lungs take just approximately a quarter of the oxygen in the air. The vast majority of the oxygen is expelled. Longer breaths help our lungs to absorb more in fewer breaths.

For those who did not wish to meditate, resonant breathing provided the same advantages as meditation. Or yoga for those who don't want to get out of bed. It provided nonreligious individuals with the therapeutic touch of prayer.

Less

We have become a people of overbreathers, just because we are a world of overeaters. The majority of us breathe excessively, and up to a quarter of the population today suffers from more significant chronic overbreathing.

The secret to good breathing and all of its health, endurance, and longevity advantages is to practice fewer inhales and exhales at a lower volume. To breathe, but also to breathe LESS.

Of course, slower, longer exhales result in higher carbon dioxide levels. We improve aerobic endurance as a result of the extra carbon dioxide. V02 max, or maximum oxygen consumption, is the greatest indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness. Training the body to breathe less improves V02 max, which can not only improve sports endurance but also help us live longer and healthier lives.

Breathing less had several rewards. After a few weeks, athletes' muscles learned to tolerate increased lactate buildup, allowing their bodies to extract more energy during states of intense anaerobic stress and, as a consequence, train harder and longer.

They all said that just lowering the amount of air in their lungs and raising the carbon dioxide in their bodies improved their performance and alleviated the symptoms of respiratory difficulties.

Chew

Our forefathers chewed for hours on end every day. They chewed so much that their jaws, teeth, throats, and faces grew to be broad, robust, and noticeable. Food in industrialized nations had been so processed that little chewing is necessary.

Preventative medicine is the best medicine for the vast majority of people. It entails reversing the entropy in our airways in order to avoid sleep apnea, anxiety, and all of the chronic respiratory disorders that come with aging. It entails widening the too-small mouth.

Removing teeth and pushing remaining teeth backwards merely made a mouth that was already too tiny narrower. A smaller mouth is easier for dentists to treat, but it also provides less breathing space.

The initial step toward reducing airway blockage was not orthodontics, but rather maintaining proper "oral posture." It's as simple as keeping your lips together, teeth softly touching, and your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Keep the head perpendicular to the body and avoid kinking the neck. The spine should create a J-shape when sitting or standing, remaining completely straight until it reaches the small of the back, when it naturally bends outward. We should constantly breathe slowly from the nose into the abdomen while holding this posture.

“Mewing” Mewers said that their mouths widened, jaws grew more defined, sleep apnea symptoms diminished, and breathing got easier after a few months.

As bone declines deeper in the skull, soft tissues at the back of the throat have less to hold on to, causing them to droop and block the airway. This bone loss helps to explain why snoring and sleep apnea commonly worsen with age.

Unlike other bones in the body, the maxilla, or middle of the facial bone, is formed of a highly flexible membrane bone. The maxilla can remodel and develop more densely until we are in our 70s, and probably longer.

Chewing. The more we chew, the more stem cells are released, the more bone density and growth are stimulated, we appear younger, and we breathe better.

Our noses and lips are not fixed at birth, childhood, or age. Nonetheless, with correct posture, hard chewing, and maybe some mewing, we can turn back the clock on most of the harm done in the last several hundred years by force of will.

PART THREE: BREATHING+

More, On Occasion

Breathing is more than a biochemical or physical function; it's more than simply moving the diaphragm and sucking in air to feed hungry cells and expel waste. Every breath brings tens of billions of molecules into our bodies, which play a more subtle but equally crucial role. Almost every internal organ is influenced by them, and they instruct them when to switch on and off. They influence heart rate, digestion, emotions, and attitudes, as well as whether we are aroused and nauseous. Furthermore, breathing is a power switch for the autonomic nervous system, which is a large network.

The longer we exhale and the deeper and much more slowly we breathe in, the slower our heart pumps and the calmer we feel.

Tummo-style breathing is used by professional surfers, mixed martial artists, and Navy SEALs to get into the zone before a competition or a black operations mission. It's also beneficial for those in their forties and fifties who have low-grade stress, aches and pains, and slowed metabolisms. Tummo can be used as a prophylactic treatment to help a frail nervous system get back on track and stay there.

Sometimes a little nudge isn't enough to straighten the body. It sometimes takes a strong shove to get things moving. Tummo accomplishes just that.

The vagal response is flipped on its head when we purposefully breathe quickly and hard, putting us in a stressed condition. It teaches us how to actively access and manage the autonomic nerve system, how to put on severe stress in order to switch it off and spend the remainder of our days and nights resting, regenerating, eating, and breathing.

Tummo warmed up the body and opened up the brain's pharmacy, releasing self-produced opioids, dopamine, as well as serotonin into the circulation. All of this was accomplished with only a few hundred short and heavy breaths.

Tummo's magic is based on this flip-flopping – all-out breathing, then none at all, being terribly chilly, then heated again. It puts the body under great stress one minute and then relaxes it completely the next. The levels of carbon dioxide in the blood drop, then rise again. Tissues become oxygen-depleted, then re-flooded. The body gets more versatile and flexible, and it learns that we can regulate all of these physiological reactions.

Hold It

The constant desire to breathe is stimulated by a group of neurons known as the central chemoreceptors, which are situated at the base of the brain stem. When we breathe too slowly and our carbon dioxide levels rise, the central chemoreceptors detect this and send warning signals to the brain, instructing our lungs to breathe quicker and more deeply. When we breathe too fast, these chemoreceptors tell our bodies to breathe more slowly in order to increase carbon dioxide levels. The amount of carbon dioxide in our body determines how fast and frequently we breathe, not the amount of oxygen.

Eighteen percent of Americans suffer from anxiety or panic attacks, and this percentage is increasing year after year. Perhaps the most effective way to cure them, and hundreds of millions of others throughout the world, was to first prepare the central chemoreceptors and the remainder of the brain to become more sensitive to carbon dioxide levels. By teaching nervous people how to hold their breath.

Up to 80% of office employees suffer from a condition known as continual partial attention. We'll scan our email, jot something down, check Twitter, and repeat, never truly focusing on any one activity. Breathing becomes shallow and irregular in this condition of constant preoccupation. For a half-minute or longer, we may not breathe at all.

The unconscious breathholding that occurs during sleep and persistent partial concentration is something that happens to our body and is beyond our control. The ancients and revivalists practiced deliberate breathholding. These are actions that we must take. And I've heard that when done correctly, they can perform wonders.

Fast, Slow, And Not At All

Ancient yogis spent thousands of years developing pranayama techniques, precisely to manage and disperse this energy throughout the body in order to elicit "pleasant visions," toned down a notch or two. This procedure should take months or years to perfect.

The idea to Sudarshan Kriya, Tummo, and any other traditional yoga-based breathing practice is to be patient, retain flexibility, and gradually assimilate what breathing has to impart.

The names may just have changed over time, and the methods may have been reused and repackaged in other cultures at different periods for various purposes, but they were never lost; they've been inside us all along, simply waiting to be accessed. They allow us to straighten our bodies, extend our lungs, increase blood flow, regulate our brains and moods, and stimulate the electrons in our molecules. To get more sleep, run faster, swim deeper, live longer, and evolve farther. They bring a sense of mystery and enchantment to life, which grows with each new breath we take.

A Last Gasp

Breathing methods, like other Eastern treatments, are ideally adapted to function as preventative maintenance, a strategy to maintain equilibrium in the body so that minor disorders do not escalate into more significant health concerns. If we lose that equilibrium from time to time, breathing may frequently restore it.

The ideal breath is as follows: inhale for 5.5 seconds, then exhale for 5.5 seconds. That equates to 5.5 breaths per minute and 5.5 liters of air. You can practice excellent breathing for some minutes or for several hours. There really is no such thing as excessive peak efficiency in the body.

ANALYSIS

BREATHING VIA YOUR NOSE RATHER THAN YOUR MOUTH IS MUCH MORE HEALTHY

Over the last several days, author James Nestor's blood pressure has climbed by an average of 13 points, substantially increasing his risk of heart attack or stroke. His pulse has accelerated, his body temperature has dropped, and, worst of all, he is in excruciating pain.

What's the source of his misery? A doctor put silicone plugs in his nostrils and taped them shut five days ago. Nestor has been breathing just via his lips since then in order to better understand his body's reaction. In summary? It's been a nightmare.

The main point is that breathing via your nose is considerably more advantageous than breathing through your mouth.

According to some estimates, around half of us breathe primarily via our mouths. Medical issues, pollution, and even stress are all factors that contribute to this. The issue is that the more you do it, the worse it will become.

Nestor's plugs fall out after 10 days, leaving him with a clogged nose. It's completely clogged and requires the use of lengthy cotton swabs to get it out. It's also home to a potentially dangerous bacterial illness. Mouth breathing has disrupted his sleeping habits, according to tests – but he already knew that. The worst part was how bad he felt as a result of the encounter.

Nestor didn't get a complete breath through his nostrils until hours after his plugs were removed. It was a stunning rush of freshness and comfort as I took my first breath.

The nose is capable of lot more than you may know. It not only draws in air, but also cleans it, warms it, and moistens it. It causes the production of molecules that reduce blood pressure, control heart rate, and do a variety of other things. You don't receive any of these benefits by inhaling raw air through your mouth.

Nestor's personal experience was surpassed by a more heinous experiment conducted in the 1970s and 1980s. Orthodontist and researcher Egil P. Harvold collected a bunch of rhesus monkeys and used plugs to shut their noses. For up to two years, he kept a careful eye on them and took photos.

Even looking at the photos is excruciating. The dental arches of the monkeys contracted, and their teeth became crooked. It had an impact on their health as well as the contour of their skulls.

However, once the plugs were removed, their faces returned to normal after six months. It was all due to the way they were breathing.

THE HUMAN CRANIUM HAS EVOLVED IN WAYS THAT MAKE BREATHING DIFFICULT

Our tumultuous connection with breathing dates back to 1.7 million years ago, when our distant ancestors Homo habilis and then Homo erectus began digesting food before consuming it.

Homo habilis had been tenderizing meat long before Homo erectus began to cook it — some 800,000 years ago. Tenderizing and heating allowed for more calories to be absorbed, allowing for more energy to be derived from food. Those animals' brains became larger as a result of the increased energy. When the larynx dropped into the throat some 300,000 years ago, their descendant, Homo sapiens, acquired speech.

Bigger brains and lower larynxes provided significant evolutionary benefits, but at a cost. Our enlarging brains crammed our sinuses and airways into ever-smaller areas, emphasizing our nostrils. Furthermore, those lower larynxes made us more prone to choking.

The worst, though, was yet to come.

The main point here is that the human cranium has evolved in ways that make breathing difficult.

Human skulls, then, are singularly ill-suited to healthy breathing for a variety of reasons. But, over millennia, we've done rather well. Serious issues did not arise until roughly 300 years ago.

The human nutrition in the West changed dramatically in the early eighteenth century. As food processing technology improved, our diets got softer overall. This has ramifications for our bodies, especially our face form. People's mouths didn't grow as big as they used to since they didn't have to chew as much, resulting in a significant increase in orthodontic and respiratory difficulties.

So it isn't only a matter of evolution. The form of our skulls has been influenced by our contemporary diets.

In fact, nations with differing dietary patterns are less likely to have respiratory issues. When visiting members of more than 50 indigenous groups in North and South America in the 1830s, American researcher George Catlin documented this.

Despite the vast differences in cultural practices and diets across these cultures, there were a few characteristics that they all shared: towering stature, absolutely straight teeth, a lack of chronic health issues – and a universal appreciation of the importance of breathing via the nose.

Catlin became convinced of the effectiveness of nose breathing after experiencing relief from significant respiratory conditions. He even created a book called Breath of Life on it, urging people to "SHUT YOUR MOUTH."

Unfortunately, his message was not received well.

IT'S NECESSARY TO BREATHE IN, BUT IT'S ALSO IMPORTANT TO BREATHE OUT

In 1958, a strange appointment was made at the East Orange Veterans Affairs Hospital in New Jersey. They engaged Carl Stough, a choir director, to examine a group of patients suffering from emphysema, a terrible chronic lung illness.

Despite his lack of medical experience, Stough was able to recognize the problem immediately. Stough reasoned that because the patients were taking short, fast breaths, the problem wasn't inhalation; they were taking in plenty of air. In reality, the issue was that they weren't breathing out enough.

Stough urged his patients to exhale fully and thoroughly. His medical colleagues were surprised by the outcomes.

The main point here is that breathing in is vital, but breathing out is equally crucial.

The power of the diaphragm — the muscle that sits behind the lungs – was exploited by Stough. It decreases when we inhale, expanding the lungs, and increases as we exhale. Adults don't utilize their diaphragm to its full capacity under normal conditions, and persons with respiratory issues use it much less.

Stough's method entailed teaching his patients how to correctly exercise their diaphragms. While massaging and tapping different regions of the chest, neck, and throat with his patients lying flat, he urged them to breathe gently. Each time they exhaled, they were urged to move more air.

By gently urging the diaphragm back into activity, this simple procedure dramatically enlarged patients' lung capacity, however weird it may have seemed.

Stough didn't treat emphysema, but it did cause irreversible harm to the patients' lungs. His procedures, on the other hand, allowed them to reach the sections of their lungs that were still functioning normally. Many patients were able to walk and speak for the first time. One even went on to become a ship's captain after leaving the hospital.

Doctors were taken aback since they hadn't expected to be able to adjust the diaphragm that much. The prevalent idea was that as people became older, their lungs became weaker and weaker, eventually losing capacity.

However, as Stough's research shown, increasing lung capacity is remarkably simple. Walking and cycling alone can help to enlarge the lungs by 15%.

So, what's the true story here? Why is it so important to exhale? Isn't it merely letting go of air that we don't require? Not exactly - we'll have a look at the science in the following summaries.

BREATHING SLOWLY AND SHALLOWLY HAS SURPRISING HEALTH BENEFITS

Consider this before we look at the chemical mechanism that drives breathing.

Consider Jainism's "Om" chant, Catholicism's rosary, Kundalini yoga's sa ta na ma chant, and prayers from all around the world, from Japan to Hawaii to China. How long do you suppose it takes someone praying or meditating in any of these traditions to breathe?

Surprisingly, they all rely on breaths that last roughly the same amount of time - between 5.5 and 6 seconds.

Calm, quiet breaths at this speed are extremely useful, boosting blood flow to the brain and enhancing overall efficiency. In this way, prayer might be beneficial to your health!

The main point here is that slow, shallow breathing has unanticipated health benefits.

Why is it preferable to breathe in this manner? Let's take a closer look at the molecular level.

The exchange mechanism that begins and concludes in our lungs is documented by biochemistry. The oxygen molecules in the air we breathe bind to red blood cells and travel throughout the body, where they are utilized by our cells. Carbon dioxide molecules are swapped for them, which then travel back to the lungs and are expelled.

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is far more than a waste product. It is essential for the separation of oxygen from blood cells. It also aids in the dilation of blood arteries, allowing them to transfer more blood.

We release all of our carbon dioxide when we breathe deeply, which lowers blood flow. As a result, headaches and light-headedness might occur as a result of activity or panic. Breathing slowly, on the other hand, produces more carbon dioxide in the system, resulting in more energy and efficiency.

That's why breathing slowly – and less deeply – is advantageous. We take in significantly more air than we require, so there's really little chance of not getting enough oxygen even if you're breathing slowly. It may seem strange, but you don't have to completely fill your lungs each time.

So go ahead and try it. Inhale for 5.5 seconds and exhale for 5.5 seconds, for a total of 5.5 breaths per minute. Even if you simply do this for a few minutes each day, whether or not you're praying at the same time, it may make a huge difference.

WE HAVE A NUMBER OF OPTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE STRUCTURE OF OUR MOUTHS

As previously said, our contemporary lifestyle is detrimental to our ability to breathe properly. Processed food has forced us to chew substantially less during the previous 300 years, resulting in smaller mouths, crooked teeth, and clogged airways. It's one of the main reasons why respiratory problems like snoring and asthma are so frequent nowadays.

But there's good news: because these issues are caused by our behaviors, reversing the trend is remarkably simple. As some remarkable breakthroughs in orthodontics have proven, we can even modify the form of our mouths.

The main point here is that we have a lot of control on the form of our mouths.

Traditional orthodontics, on the other hand, may be ineffective in this situation.

In the 1940s and 1950s, orthodontists frequently extracted patients' teeth and replaced them with braces and headgear that pushed the remaining teeth into position. This was supposed to help with the challenges created by smaller mouths, but it instead promoted greater shrinkage over time. Patients might sometimes acquire additional issues as a result, such as snoring or sleep apnea.

When British dentist John Mew recognized this in the late 1950s, he was confronted with a barrage of criticism from his peers. He eventually lost his license to practice dentistry as well. Given how popular his views have grown, this was extremely terrible.

Mew's answer to the problem of lips that are shrinking? The most basic is to maintain excellent mouth posture. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and press your lips together slightly with your teeth touching. This can assist your airways open up as long as you're sitting or standing appropriately.

There are various technologies that have been invented to help with the procedure. The author tested Theodore Belfor's Homeoblock, which rests within the mouth and fools it into believing it's eating more than it is.

The author's airways enlarged, his jaw realigned, and he gained over two cubic centimeters of bone around his face in just a few weeks.

That's correct, even adults may increase their bone mass by just eating more. Using our back molars causes stem cells to form, which then produce new bone all throughout our mouth and face. This aids in the clearing of our lungs. It also helps you seem younger as a bonus!

EXTREME BREATHING METHODS CAN HAVE AMAZING RESULTS

There are several simple adjustments you may implement to both free up your airways and get the advantages of proper breathing patterns. However, pushing things further farther might result in outcomes that appear really superhuman.

Take, for example, Swami Rama, a guy from northern India who went to a mental center in Topeka, Kansas, one day in 1970. He astounded physicians by exhibiting control over his body while hooked up to numerous measuring gadgets. He decreased his heart rate from 74 to 52 beats per minute in a minute, then boosted it from 60 to 82 in eight seconds. He also caused his heart to beat at 300 beats per minute for 30 seconds - a pace that is normally lethal. Rama also had control over his body temperature, creating an 11° temperature difference between his thumb and little finger.

The problem was that Rama wasn't even genuinely remarkable. Yogis have exhibited these talents for decades because they understand how to harness the power of breathing.

The main point here is that extreme breathing methods may have tremendous results.

Tummo is a well-known controlling method. This breathing practice, which means "inner fire," was invented by Tibetan Buddhists millennia ago and produces such astonishing variations in body temperature. Its practitioners may live in the Himalayas on scant clothing, melting the snow around their bodies with their heat.

This is not just possible for Tibetan Buddhists. Wim Hof, a former Dutch mail man, accomplished comparable accomplishments. In the 2000s, he gained renowned by running a half-marathon in the Arctic Circle without shoes or a shirt. In one experiment, scientists injected him with E. coli and watched him fight the illness.

How did Hof and the Tummo practitioners accomplish so much? Through a deliberate and arduous method of heavy breathing - not the delicate, progressive nudge we've been discussing, but an aggressive push of air that drives the body to react.

All that heavy breathing puts us under stress, and in that situation, you may "hack" the autonomic nervous system, which regulates physiological activities that are normally beyond conscious control. Hof's own streamlined approach, aimed for a Western audience, likewise entails repeated exposure to freezing temperatures.

These approaches are still contentious and should not be attempted carelessly. They do, however, demonstrate the incredible benefits that breathing can accomplish for our bodies.

CHANGING OUR CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS CAN TRIGGER VISIONS AND TRANSFORM OUR CONSCIOUSNESS

Push the heavy breathing tactics any farther, and they can have effects on the mind as well as the body, comparable to psychedelic substances.

Stanislav Grof, a psychology student, volunteered for a pharmacological study in 1956. A hundred micrograms of an unusual new chemical gave him vivid, ecstatic visions. He was among the first to experiment with LSD.

After the drug was outlawed a decade later, Grof created his own legal substitute. He referred to it as Holotropic Breathwork. He noticed that several hours of excessive breathing might result in severe hallucinations.

Why? Once again, carbon dioxide is the answer.

The essential point here is that changing our carbon dioxide levels may trigger visions and shift our awareness.

As previously said, heavy breathing lowers our carbon dioxide levels. The very heavy breathing of Holotropic Breathwork has another effect: it reduces blood flow to the brain, particularly impacting parts of the brain responsible for our feeling of self and the passage of time. As a result, the visions.

It's still a controversial treatment that hasn't been thoroughly researched, yet some have discovered that Holotropic Breathwork has resulted in therapeutic breakthroughs.

Surprisingly, sending carbon dioxide levels in the other way can also have significant impacts. For years, neurologist Justin Feinstein has been researching the effects of what he terms "carbon dioxide treatment," delving into a field that has been oddly overlooked for the previous century.

Initially, exposing patients to a large dosage of carbon dioxide triggers horrible panic episodes — even in persons who do not normally experience anxiety. That's because it sends a shock signal to our chemoreceptors, which are neurons in our brain that monitor our carbon dioxide levels. However, once the fear has faded, this type of treatment can result in profound tranquility.

It's comparable to the condition you may get by using the gentle, steady breathing techniques we discussed previously. However, doing such activities might be challenging for persons who suffer from anxiety, epilepsy, or schizophrenia. Feinstein's therapy, for them, is a type of "shortcut" to achieving a comparable condition.

That is, assuming they survive the panic attacks. The author tested this therapy with a carbon dioxide dose of 35%. With each breath, he felt as if he was suffocating.

BREATHING'S POWER IS STILL RARELY UNDERSTOOD IN THE WEST, BUT IT'S OLD WISDOM ELSEWHERE

Despite the efforts of researchers such as Justin Feinstein, research into the power of breathing and carbon dioxide levels is still in its early stages. The majority of the innovators in this field, such as Carl Stough and John Mew, have operated outside of Western medical norms.

However, as Swami Rama and the Tummo practitioners demonstrate, this insight about breathing is commonplace everywhere in the globe. And these old traditions offer a more holistic perspective on the subject.

The main point here is that while the power of breathing is still rarely understood in the West, it is old wisdom in other parts of the world.

A strong thought arose in Asia some 3,000 years ago. It was named prana by the Indians and ch'i by the Chinese. It's a type of energy or life force hypothesis. Everything in the cosmos is surrounded by prana, ch'i, or whatever you choose to name it. However, it is most concentrated in living organisms. So, in order to be healthy, you must keep your prana in good shape.

Traditional therapies such as acupuncture and yoga were created to maintain the regular flow of prana, but the greatest approach of all was to just breathe it in.

Prana's connection to yoga is more complex than you would think. The Yoga Sutras, dating from circa 500 BCE, are the earliest literature we have that explain yoga. Surprisingly for a modern readership, these poems include virtually little concerning mobility of any type. It's all about remaining motionless – and increasing prana through breathing.

Prana also provides an explanation for the incredible effects of deep breathing. The body can be shocked into severe responses such as hallucinations if an excess of prana is suddenly built up. That's not how a yogi would do it; the best results come from gradually building up prana over a long period of time.

It's astonishing to consider that contemporary science still has a lot to learn about something as basic as breathing. But there is one area where so-called lifestyle advancements haven't kept pace with healthcare advancements.

To harness the power of good breathing, you don't need to practice Tummo or any other severe approach. You don't even have to believe in prana to benefit from it. Simply breathe in for 5.5 seconds, then out for 5.5 seconds, and repeat.

CONCLUSION

Changing your breathing pattern might have profound effects. You may improve your health by breathing through your nose, slowly and deeply, and effectively activating your diaphragm. Through the power of breathing, it's possible to push things even farther and reach superhuman achievements.

Practical advice:

Breathe slowly and deeply to relax.

Don't have time for serious meditation or yoga? It's no issue. The easiest thing you can do to relax is to focus on your breathing. Take some easy 5.5-second breaths in and out for five or ten minutes each day.