Two Go-To Breathing Books
Two books changed everything I thought I knew about breathing. They are Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor and The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter by Patrick McKeown.
These two books gave me new respect for the enormous benefits breathing better can bring to our health and how we mostly “mis-breathe” in modern life. Both are essential reading for anyone serious about their health and physical performance, young and old.
Possibly every culture that ever existed has recognized that breath is the essence of life force. It is our common bond, and one we share with the entire world of living things. For millennia, people have used breathing practices to enhance physical and spiritual health, as in meditation and yoga.
These two books show how modern science has uncovered some of the mystery behind the effectiveness of these age-old practices. I’m sure much mystery remains, but these studies have given us effective practices we can use to enhance our health.
Nestor’s book, Breath, is a historical survey of breathing practices, old and new. He goes back millennia to examine ancient breathing practices and reviews many modern practices that have grown from their ancient origins with the help of scientific measurement. It is a highly entertaining book and a good read, full of anecdotes of his own experiments on himself regarding many of these practices.
McKeown’s book, The Oxygen Advantage, is more of a training manual for physical performance. It uses an easily performed self-test of your oxygen efficiency, the Blood Oxygen Level Test (BOLT), and gives you practices you can work on to improve or maintain your oxygen level. Ironically, those practices center on a counterintuitive finding, a finding common to both books.
That counterintuitive finding is that the percentage of oxygen in your blood is not the only thing that matters. What matters is the amount of oxygen your cells allow into them. Counter to what we have come to believe, the amount of oxygen entering our cells is determined by a higher amount of carbon dioxide in your blood.
“What?” you say. “How could that be possible? Oxygen is good, CO2 is bad.”
No, it’s more complicated than that. The balance between these two essential gasses is actually more important than having more of one and less of the other. Measurements have shown that a balance of a temporarily lower level of oxygen and higher CO2 level allows more oxygen into cells (think about how exercise slightly stresses the system) while also prompting a flood of short-term, natural, immune-boosting hormones into the bloodstream. This results in better immunity and less inflammation.
The two practices I use every morning to stimulate this reaction are the Wim Hof Method and McKeown’s own “Breathe Light to Breathe Right” protocol. The Wim Hof Method, which Nestor describes in his book, involves taking 20-30 breaths, then letting the last one out and holding your breath for as long as you can to completely empty your lungs. Then take a normal breath, hold it for 10 seconds, and let it out. If I have a pulse oximeter on my finger when I do this, my blood oxygen level regularly goes down into the 80s or less. This happens for a few minutes before rebounding to its normal 95-100% level. Nestor cautions readers not to do this standing up, as fainting is a possible side effect for people starting the practice.
Similarly, Patrick McKeown’s method, which he calls breathing “low and slow,” gets my blood oxygen level down to around 90%. I get a different result with his version – my blood oxygen level hovers at this low rate for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes, thereby prolonging the time my body releases the beneficial immune-boosting hormones. McKeown claims this is also an effective method to boost exercise stamina and endurance, as well as overall physical performance.
When I do either one of these breathing practices, I can immediately feel the effects. Any congestion in my nose disappears, my muscles relax, and I have a short-term, pleasant, dreamy sensation in my head.
These books present many other surprising and informative takeaways. Topics include:
· The benefits of nose-only breathing. (Hint: there are many.)
· Why deep breaths and sighs are harmful.
· Why chewing gum (sugarless) is good for you.
· How to replicate high-altitude training at sea level.
These two books are not to be missed. They have changed my life and “moved the needle,” which can’t be said about a lot of health advice out there. If you are serious about your health, I encourage you to read my two go-to breathing books.
Read how to exercise while maintaining your breath in Hanging out in Zone 2 next.
