Breath: Improve your health and wellbeing by discovering the lost art of breathing

I have a professional, and also a personal, interest in the subject matter. I became an adult onset asthmatic quite some time ago, a category which has dramatically increased in the past 30-40 years, driven by levels of pollution and our love affair with the car. I had no history at all of childhood eczema, asthma or hayfever, or indeed any parental family history of this. Triggers for me were a combination of enforced passive smoking for some decades, before it got banned in public places, and, finally prolonged exposure to a chemical in the workplace, which had a disastrous respiratory effect on all of us, so exposed Unwilling initially to take medication I tried to explore various ways to improve lung capacity, some of which have been more or less successful, though I had to surrender eventually to medical management, and am generally well maintained Covid has of course made us all intensely aware of lung health, and there has been an explosion in awareness of how we breathe, how this activity we might not even think about until we can’t, might impact, positively or negatively, health and wellbeing. Not to mention, how we might best recover long term if the virus takes hold and diminishes lung capacity long term. Decades ago, before it was more widely known, I had attempted to self-admiinister Buteyko, from a book. And not got on very well with it. James Nestor, a self-styled ‘aeronaut’ as he calls those who have deeply studied breathwork, and sought to educate and help others to breathe well, explores, clearly, so clearly, a whole range of extraordinary breathing techniques. I should probably rephrase that – they are not necessarily THAT extraordinary, they are representative of more natural, healthful ways of breathing – which almost all of us ‘grew out of’ – posture, diet , environment changes our breathing. Nestor goes well into the science of all this, and his book is absolutely fascinating. But what makes it outstanding for me is that he is a WRITER. Most of the other books I’ve read, share the passion, share the authors’ own journey and exploration of the field, but those writers don’t have the skill to convey the dryer stuff of the science so engagingly and absorbingly, or the light touch immediacy of writing which is like someone talking to you. For those who might be looking towards trying the various techniques, Nestor gives clear guidance within the book, - and yes, I found Buteyko so much easier to work, from this. He also promotes and explores several ‘aeronauts’ – Patrick McKeown (very much the approachable Buteyko international voice now) Anders Olsson, Wim Hof and others – and gives details and links to the wealth of video material out there. Indeed Nestor’s own website is full of wonderful, free resources. I also really like his pragmatic and generous approach. One of the biggest changes I’ve made – with excellent results – since reading this book, is to simply control how I breathe when sleeping. Nose breathing, not mouth breathing, is what we need to be doing, and though I have consciously tried to work with this, over many years, I certainly wasn’t doing this at night. Various complex devices are out on the market for this one – Nestor does talk them through, but also says he himself just uses simple micropore tape, to keep his mouth shut. It certainly looks a bit weird and startling but, I must say, since my first night with a small vertical strip from just above top lip to just below bottom lip, I not only had no trouble or discomfort with this, but no longer have a stuffy or runny nose on waking, and am more likely to sleep through the night, not needing to wake for a pee – and he explains the science behind this, a connection between a neurotransmitter, the autonomic nervous system, and depth of sleep. The nose is a wonderful thing, and the biochemistry of nose breathing and mouth breathing are different. Button that lip!

An absolutely fascinating book that completely changed the way I think about something as simple as breathing. James Nestor combines science, history, and personal experience in a way that’s easy to understand and genuinely engaging. It’s filled with practical techniques and insights that make you more aware of how breathing impacts everything from stress to sleep to energy levels. It’s one of those books that stays with you long after finishing — highly recommended for anyone interested in improving their health naturally

I bought this book on the basis of a recommendation from a friend. I was very interested in the subject matter as I am a notorious mouth breather (especially at night), and am guilty too of the "over breathing" which is mentioned in the book. I suffer with constant sinus congestion, despite having had surgery (septoplasty and reduction of turbinates) in 2022 due to a deviated septum. With this background, the content of the book was obviously of great personal relevance. The author himself is not a scientist or doctor. He writes almost like a novelist, describing the characters in his book (i.e., the various doctors and breathing experts he meets along his journey) in quite an engaging way, describing their clothing, their hair, their manner etc. This style gives the book a real flow, with the result that I read through it very quickly indeed (more on this later). He spins awe inspiring tales of ancient masters of breathing performing phenomenal feats using just the power of their breath control. This reminded me quite a lot of Paul Wade's calisthenics book Convict Conditioning, in which Wade spins various tales of the old school strength masters performing feats that today's bloated bodybuilders could only dream of. The message from both books - that some ancient wisdom and methods were far superior to our modern ways, and that we don't always know as much as we think we do - is clear, and quite feasible too. I applied a lot of the methods in the book to my day to day life. I started using sleep tape every night to cover the mouth to force nasal breathing (click my profile to see my separate review of the tape I used), managing two hours on the first night, and increasing rather quickly from there. I also bought some of the tough Turkish chewing gum mentioned in the book, and generally became more conscious of and made more effort to improve my breathing. There is a useful appendix at the back which gives instructions on some of the breathing techniques. Having worked on my breathing as noted above, I have already seen a huge improvement. I am sleeping all through the night with the mouth tape now, and have so much less nasal congestion than before. All in all I am very pleased with the results. So why not five stars? Well, as I said above, the book is a very quick read indeed. I felt there were missed opportunities to expand on things a bit in places. For example, nasal sprays and douching/rinsing are mentioned briefly, but it isn't clear what the author or his contributors think of these. Certainly, steroid nasal sprays like Fluticasone or Xylometazoline can give some short term relief from congestion, but actually inflame the sinuses and cause more congestion with chronic use. This is barely touched on, which is a shame because the use of nasal sprays in the general population is surely highly prevalent. I also felt rather doubtful around his assertion that bad breathing can play a role in causing ADHD. I certainly don't dismiss this, but I also think it could have been backed up with better explanation. I would assert that there are a LOT of other factors of modern life in play here. It seemed like a very big claim, which again could have had more exploration. Other areas of our modern day bad breathing - such as the role of industrialised food production in causing the shapes of our airways to devolve - are explored in more detail, and the book is all the better for it. This section is particularly interesting, and the theories explored here seem highly feasible. Before I conclude, I just want to also briefly mention the physical book itself, as I did read another review which said that the font size was too small. I did not find this to be the case in my paperback copy, which had a normal sized font and was easily readable with my usual prescription glasses. That reviewer likely needs an eye test! Despite some minor reservations which prevent me from giving five stars, I think this book is a really good read, which serves as an inspirational introduction to an oft neglected topic, and I'm sure that it will motivate a huge number of people to give some thought to their breathing and take action to improve it. Although I felt there could have been a bit more information in the book on some topics, what there is was certainly enough for me to make some major improvements to my breathing, which makes it well worth buying in my opinion.

Mr Nestor has produced a superbly readable, meticulous, and well-argued popular science book that deserves a wide audience. I confess that I am kicking myself for not taking the intricacies of breathing seriously until the last few years and I wonder if I would have been as dismissive if I had read a 'grounded' a book as this, rather than texts that relied on 'New Age-y' type language that provoked my prejudices and closed my mind to the undoubted benefits of 'breathwork'. In a concluding chapter, Mr Nestor forcefully states the benefits of Western medicine - and rightly so; the book is NOT opposed to the scientific method. What he does argue for, however, is that the Western model has ignored an elusive obvious: self-regulation of the breath as a means of stress reduction with a host of attendant benefits. In presenting his case, Mr Nestor takes the reader on a journey from the dawn of aerobic metabolism, through biological anthropology, into psychology, psychiatry, and dentistry, tying it all together with his own history of breath exploration as a means to control his own health issues. It is a dazzling read regardless of some passages that describe horrible animal experiments. There are appendices that describe some breathing techniques, along with bibliography and expanded notes. Mr Nestor's website, with its dedicated 'Breath' page, is worth a look for new updates. Anecdotally, I 'cured' long-standing exercise-induced asthma through one of the methods outlined in the book (Buteyko) and I continue to dive into it to control a life-long anxiety disorder. From what I gather, my experience is commonplace, although the benefits have been quite startling on a personal level. Whether or not I experiment with the Wim Hof method discussed in the book is another matter; it may be the next step for me. All in all, this is a persuasive, well-researched, passionate, and inspiring book and I heartily recommend it.

Highly recommend this book to everyone I meet!

Absolutely brilliant - so much fascinating and important info which reads like a 'can't put down' novel. I'm studying for my 200hr yoga teacher training and this book alone has helped me understand meditation, breathwork and so much more applicable to absolutely everybody in every day life. So many 'wow I didn't know that moments'. Loved it so much I've bought several more copies to gift to friends. Will definitely re-read many times.

Excellent book! Very informative and helpful.

While I understand it is hard to convince the world breathing properly has more profound impact than we thought, so the author needs to back it up with facts / claims as much science and research as possible, hence all the references everywhere. However I personally feel it was too much and would prefer the author to just get to the point on what’s the best way to breathe and how it impact our body positively. I guess if the book was written this way it probably can be finished in 10 pages.