Breath - James Nestor

The tag line - 'The New Science of a Lost Art'. Starts with Nestor in bad health with pneumonia, wheezing and in a rut mentally, physically and otherwise, joins a breathing class where he is taught Sudarshana Kriya and something happens. He sweats when its cold and goes home and sleeps well with no tension. He then devotes his time to figure how conscious breathing can change the way we breathe to reduce or reverse conditions like asthma, anxiety, ADHD, psoriasis etc. He says the average human breathes 3.3 seconds inhale and 3.3. seconds exhale. If we can do 5.5 seconds inhale and 5.5 seconds exhale, even for a short period in the day, it will have many benefits according to him.

He undergoes several tests with Dr Jayakar Nayak who is a surgeon as Stanford and along with co-researcher and fellow breath expert Anders Olsson from Stockholm, gets into 10 days of forced mouth breathing. Everything is the same - diet, exercise - and its broken into two phases - one for mouth breathing and the second where they breathe through their noses and do some breathing techniques. Breathing through the mouth had bad effects - snoring increased by 1300% up to 75 minutes at night, the blood pressure shot up, felt awful. On the other hand nose breathing cut exertion and increases endurance. Nestor explains that snoring, sleep apnea (which is caused by inflammation in the throat and polyps) are caused by nasal obstructions. Breathing also is linked to erectile dysfunction.

The body's energy comes from food (anaerobic) and air (aerobic). Mouth breathing changes physical body and transforms airways. Nestor tried nose breathing by taping his mouth. The right nostril feeds blood to the left side of the brain (deals with logic, language, computing), while the left nostril feeds blood to the right side of the brain (creativity, mental abstractions, negative emotions). He finds the yogic method of nadi shodhana a good way to balance the mind and boost production of nitric oxide. Once he taped his mouth he discovered that sleep apnea reduced from 53 to zero, and went from snoring half the night to not snoring.

Check out the Tibetan Five Rites which are stretches. The Tibetans have used stretching, back bending, neck bending and twirling to prolong health and life as explained dn Kelder's book 'The Eye of Revelation'. The end line - the greatest indicator of life span is lung capacity and it can be increased by the transformative power of full exhalations.

The case of breathing slow comes up - the body needs more CO2 because oxygen is steady whether you breathe twenty of five breaths a minute. Having more carbon dioxide is helpful he says. So slow breathing at the rate of 5.5 second exhale and 5.5 second inhale is most beneficial. He also figures that the recitation of prayer mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is set to exactly that pattern which is the same as the rosary. 5-10 minutes a day of this breathing pattern will have much effect.

Like we overeat we over breathe. Breathing less has many benefits and increases endurance. So breathe in 3 secs and exhale 4, then 5, then 6 past the point of discomfort. Like BKS Iyengar once said 'The yogi's life is not measured by days but by breaths'. Soft chewing has affected out breathing so eat foods that make you chew. Also sit straight, inhale through the nose deep into the belly. The more we do this the more we grow stem cells, bone density, growth.

Netsor talks of Tummo breathing or Inner Fire breathing which has many health benefits and makes the body go through extreme heat or cold comfortably. He also gives the example of Swami Rama who stopped his heart rate to zero and told the audience that one can practice by harmonising their breath (remove the pause between the inhale and exhale, then lengthen the breaths). He gives another practice - lie down, take a brief inhale or 3 seconds and exhale in 6 seconds, increase inhale to 4 second and exhale to 8 seconds. If you can reach a count of 30 counts on exhale or half a minute, toxins will leave the body and one becomes disease free.

Nestor meets another Brazilian yoga expert De Rose where he learns that its all about energy, prana. Tey concepts then are to shut your mouth (no mouth breathing), breathe through your nose, exhale more, chew, breathe more and hold your breath.

Nestor explores and advocates many breathing techniques such as Pranayama, Buteyko, Coherent breathing, Hypoventilation, Breathing Coordination, Holotropic Breathwork, Adhama Madhyama Uttama, Tummo breathing, Sudarshana Kriya and so on. 

Very interesting book and its supposed to have many health benefits. Definitely to try out what I can. Thanks Abhinay.. Loved this book. You perhaps added some health to my life thanks to this book.