James Nestor’s book “Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art” was literally a breath of fresh air and as engaging as a page turning novel. Nestor is an investigative journalist who immerses himself in pulmonary tests, anthropology, history, and a variety of different breathing technique classes. He travels the world to write this book, taking us through creepy underground tunnels in France to study the sizes of skulls.

With a history of recurring pneumonia and bronchitis, Nestor sets out to discover the lost art of breathing. He becomes a human lab rat with a Stanford led team conducting the experiment of the effects of nose breathing and mouth breathing. I have already written in detail about the benefits of nose breathing in a previous blog, but Nestor explains the difference without a shadow of a doubt, living out the benefits of nose breathing, while suffering through mouth breathing. He spent 10 days only breathing through the mouth with a taped nose, then 10 days only breathing through the nose with a taped mouth. In those 10 days of mouth breathing, the increase in stress, blood pressure, snoring, sleep apnea, plus a decrease in quality of life was significant.

I also learned about how the size of our skulls determine whether we have the open spaces big enough for breathing. Our ancestors ages ago had perfect skulls and straight teeth. But as food became softer and more processed, we stopped chewing as much, so our skulls shrunk. And as our brains got bigger, there was less space available for air to come in. Crooked teeth are a sign that a skull is small. I had braces when I was young, chronic ear infections as a child, sinus infections, as well as bronchitis throughout my early 20’s. My sister, not so much, perfect teeth and no sinus or respiratory issues! My husband has a small head, small sinuses, and asthma. He has had trouble with breathing his whole life. And yes, had braces as a child. He is a mouth breather sleeper, and as breathe right strips might not be sexy, they are strongly encouraged in this household. Believe it or not, mouth tape is also a thing to retrain mouth breathers.

Chewing your food properly is also important for breathing too. What?? Yes, the bone in your skull can remodel and grow into your seventies, so chewing food can help build that bone and muscles to literally keep the spaces in your skull open and your face full. Maybe increased chewing can be the new botox and filler, without the expensive dermo bill. Dr Mike Mew, who is mentioned in the book, explores this in depth on his youtube channel, but this video plays in my head now while I eat.

Here’s a pop quiz: What part of the breath cycle do you think is the most important? Think about it and don’t look at the next line just yet. Okay ready? It’s the exhale! We need to make sure we fully exhale to engage respiratory muscles, enlarge the lungs, and get the stale air out. The exhale pushes the already oxygenated blood into the body. As we age, we lose lung capacity from not breathing properly. As a result, our breath gets shorter, higher up, and fast, which leads to high blood pressure, immune disorders, stress, and anxiety. Short, quick breaths signal panic mode in the body.

His take away on breathing, is that we should breath less. At the end of the book, Nestor goes over all the techniques he introduced us too, but he thinks the perfect breath is “breathing slow, less, and through the nose with a big exhale.” He suggests this breathing exercise: inhale for 5.5 seconds, and exhale for 5.5 seconds. But there are many suggestions to try and it is important information to know. Pick up this book, and breathe it in with a full out breath.