James Nestor (writer)

""There are as many ways to breath as there are foods to eat," said one... instructor... Another diver told me that some methods of breathing will nourish our brains... others hasten our death."

"I read through reams of literature on the subject. ...The problem was, the sources were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old."

"Seven books of the Chinese Tao dating... to around 400BCE focused entirely on breathing... Even earlier, Hindus considered breath and spirit the same thing, and described elaborate practices... to balance breathing and preserve... mental and physical health. ...Buddhists ...use breathing ...to lengthen their lives [and] reach higher planes of consciousness. Breathing... for all... these cultures, was powerful medicine."

"I looked for... verification... recent research in ... but found next to nothing... breathing technique wasn't important. ...Pulmonologists work mainly on ...maladies of the lungs ...collapse, cancer, emphysema."

"[B]reathing research has been taking place... in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites... dental offices, and... mental hospitals."

"They discovered that our capacity to breath has changed through... evolution, and that the way we breath has gotten markedly worse since the dawn of the ."

"[C]oaches in the 50s used to have their runners take a... mouthful of water, run around the track and then spit out that same amount of water... to force them to breath through their nose.... to move their diaphragms... more, because breathing is so essential to their recovery... endurance, and performance."

"25-50% of the population... breath through their mouth. ...[This causes] neurological problems... respiratory problems... snoring, , even s [etc.]"

"I had been talking to the chief of rhinology research at Stanford... He had warned me how bad was, but no one knew how quickly that damage came on. ...[W]e knew that after years, it can change the structure of your face. It's so common in kids that it is has a term called adenoid face... because they've been mouth breathing so long... the musculature and the [skeletal structure] has changed. ...It creates a longer face... and that also makes these people much more apt to snoring and sleep apnea."

"We had to pay for this study... to actually measure what happens."

"The less you use your nose, the less you're going to be able to use [it]... When people start habitually breathing through their mouths, their noses are going to start to close..."

"The doctor of speech, language pathology at Stanford... measured people who had laryngectomies... She found between 2 months and 2 years, their noses were completely blocked."

"We know that the more you breath through your nose, the more that it's going to open... [P]eople who are habitual mouth breathers, who are also joggers... start breathing through the nose. In the beginning it's really... hard... then weeks... months go by and their noses open up... [T]he benefits... they're innumerable... not only oxygen, but it helps defend your body, humidifies... conditions air [etc.]"

"[R]esearchers... were a bit frustrated... seeing so many chronic conditions ties to mouth breathing, and how so many... could either be improved or... cured by switching the pathway in which you breath."

"[B]reathing has to be considered along with diet and exercise as a pillar of health, because even if you eat keto, vegan, paleo, whatever. Even if you exercise all the time, if you're not breathing right, you're never going to be healthy. We know that to be the truth."

"If you were to take [a billiard ball]... and... imagine just pushing it inside your head, that's about the volume of your nose and all your sinus cavities. ...[T]hey even stretch out above your eyes... [T]hey call it the because it looks exactly like a seashell."

"If you were to split a seashell in half and look at it, that's what's happening in your nose. ...[A]ll of this ...evolved for a reason... [A]ir that comes in through the nose is slowed down... filtered... humidified and it's conditioned, so by the time it gets to your lungs, your lungs can absorb that oxygen so much easier."

"The nose is really the first line of defense."

"[T]he nose... produces... nitric oxide... a that plays an essential role in oxygen delivery and also helps battle... viruses, bacteria and other pathogens."

"[T]his is all happening in the nose. In slowing down that air all of these other functions allow us to gain 20% more oxygen breathing through the nose than... through the mouth."

"So you can breath less and get more by breathing through the nose."

"You can overbreath. When people at a gym or... jogging... [through heavy panting] you're offloading... too much CO2. You're causing constriction in your circulation. ...If you were to breath 30 deep breaths, you'll feel some tingling in your head... maybe your fingertips... your toes will get cool. That's not from an increase in oxygen, it's the opposite... a decrease in circulation."

"[Y]our body wants to be in balance... the right amount of CO2 and oxygen for optimum delivery, and that's what the nose helps you to do."

"[Varying the temperature] on... the same hand, one area was grey and the other was red. ...It was at the Menninger Clinic... and a Navy physicist [Elmer Green] did these tests. It was reported in The New York Times. ...They haven't found [anyone else] who had the powers of . I think Wim's about as close as we've gotten..."

"Just look at freedivers... [A]t the World Freediving Championship [Seventh AIDA Individual World Championship] in Greece... [Y]ou see these people [of all sizes] from all walks of life,.. something like 30 countries had representatives... [T]hese people weren't born with these enormous lungs... They did this by... breathing and expanding their lung capacity. ...Once they explained to me ...the benefits ...go beyond just diving deep. It can allow us to heal our bodies (problems). It can allow super-endurance. It can allow us to do all these things that we've been told are medically impossible. ...I didn't believe them. ...I spent several years... talking to people at Stanford, Harvard... the leaders in the field in... this research, and what they'd told be is absolutely true."

"[] was able, on command, to make his heart beat 300 times a minute. ...[I]t was so fast, they were looking at the EKG readout, and they said, "He's stopped his heart." Then they looked... a little closer and said "No, it's beating 300 times a minute." ...[T]hen he would snap out of it."

"[B]reathing... allows us these levers into systems that we can't otherwise control. ...[T]he is supposed to be beyond our control. ...When you breath a certain way, you can influence ...functions and you can start taking control of these other elements of your body, as Wim is showing... [N]ot only the nervous system, but with immune function. All of this was supposed to be impossible until he showed up and said "...test me"..."

"Even if someone has a pulse-ox or... a monitor, you can breath in certain ways and instantly see what it does to your body."

"People who say that this is a placebo effect don't understand that this is a biological function that you're taking control of... [I]f you can elicit such a strong response in a couple of minutes, imagine what you can do in a couple of days."

"Most people take breathing for granted. ...James Nestor's new book about how breathing properly can transform your physical and mental health, feels eerily well-timed. It lays out how we breath incorrectly or at least fail to maximize our potential."

"Mr. Nestor claims 90% of people breathe incorrectly. ...As for why we breathe through our mouths, he traces the trouble to our diets. ...[S]oft, processed foods ...leave our jaws and facial bones underworked and smaller ...Nearly every cliché of the Western Spritual Quest makes an appearance ...He's a bit wide-eyed in repeating claims from self-proclaimed... "pulmonauts"... who can supposedly kill E. coli, or cure hemorrhoids and , or treat and and ... Mr. Nestor slaps down... curing cancer. But... purge[s] a schizophrenic woman's hallucinations... [W]hile there's no reason to doubt... that his breathing exercises improved his life, the real question is why... so much. ...Placebos have real, documented medical benefits ...[H]e never grapples with the effect as a plausible explanation ..."