Breathing is a new science for a lost art

Regardless of what you eat, or how much you exercise, or whether you are slim or small or wise, none of that matters if you do not breathe properly. There is nothing more important to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. However, humans, as a species, have lost the ability to breathe correctly, leading to serious consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels around the world to discover what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers are not found in pulmonary disease laboratories, as one might expect, but in muddy excavations of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and foggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices such as Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo, and collaborates with pulmonologists to test long-held beliefs about how to breathe scientifically. Recent research shows that slight modifications to inhaling and exhaling can boost athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; stop snoring, asthma, and autoimmune diseases; and even straighten scoliosis. None of this should be possible, yet it is. Relying on thousands of years of medical texts and modern advanced studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, breathing turns traditional wisdom—what we thought we knew about our most important biological functions—upside down. You will never breathe the same way again.