Breath
I picked this book up from one of the Podcasts I regularly listen to (People I mostly Admire: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-…). The podcast introduced me to James Nestor and his two published books. Perhaps what made me pay a lot of attention was that James Nestor taught me how to breath from my nose effectively from that one minute segment on the podcast (close your lips, make sure your teeth are about 1 to 2mm apart, then press your tongue to the top part of your mouth, just behind the front teeth). Having been a mouth breather my whole life, I was shocked that I could nose breath effectively after I did that! , an That convinced me to check the book out and I was not disappointed.
There are little tips like the above sprinkled throughout the book, but this is a very well researched book that goes into why we have developed into a mostly mouth breathing society (its mostly to do with how soft our foods are, and also our brain development pushed out space that should have been for breathing into brain space instead). Along the way, he talks with archaeologists, anthropologists, ENTs, physiologists, and pulmanauts (self made up word that talks about those who research about breathing).
You find out that the reason why doctors and the medical field doesn’t really track with this line of study because that is not what doctors do. Doctors primarily treat sick people, and mouth breathing, though universally regarded as sub-optimal, does not make people sick. At least, not initially. Mouth breathing and the chewing of soft food is also what has caused the majority of our teeth issues such as misaligned teeth (a result of too many tooth trying to fit into an underdeveloped mouth. Underdeveloped because we don’t chew enough hard foods to develop the muscles and bone structure required for all of our teeth to properly develop without misalignment!)
He talks about oxygen and carbon dioxide and says enough about the misconceptions people have that they don’t have enough oxygen, when really its that they don’t hold enough carbon dioxide. A special chapter is reserved for Asthma sufferers as well. Such is the significance of this book that I can say two or three of my habits and the habits of my children have been changed with the knowledge I have gained from this book.
For example, I’ve started sleeping with sleep tape on my mouth to make sure I breath only through my nose while i’m asleep (and I sleep with the aid of a CPAP), as mouth breathing is partially the cause of why I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night. Dry mouth causes you to want to pee more! I’m convinced I can switch over to the use of a nostril only cpap mask soon and that’s something that I thought I’d never be able to do without septoplasty.
I’d say that there’s a bit of mysticism sprinkled towards the end of the book, but the author makes it super clear that breathing will not fix all your problems. Clean living and exercise remains the order of the day to a longer life, but if you want to believe in the mystical side of deep breathing, its fine too. It doesn’t really hurt.
All in all, highly recommend book if you’re someone who needed braces, have trouble sleeping through the night, and might be a mouth breather. If I can become mostly a nose breather with the help of this book, I’m convinced anyone can too.