Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

What if overbreathing wasn’t the result of hypertension and headaches but the cause? Buteyko wondered. Heart disease, ulcers, and chronic inflammation were all linked to disturbances in circulation, blood pH, and metabolism. How we breathe affects all those functions. Breathing just 20 percent, or even 10 percent more than the body’s needs could ov

By your 10,000th breath, and the close of this book, you and I will know how the air that enters your lungs affects every moment of your life and how to harness it to its full potential until your final breath.

The Art of Living Foundation.

These cells took oxygen from our blood and returned carbon dioxide, which traveled back through the veins, through the lungs, and into the atmosphere: the process of breathing.

For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds of it comes out through the lungs; most of it is carbon dioxide mixed with a bit of water vapor. The rest is sweated or urinated out. This is a fact that most doctors, nutritionists, and other medical professionals have historically gotten wrong. The lungs are the weight-regula

Mammals grew noses to warm and purify the air, throats to guide air into lungs, and a network of sacs that would remove oxygen from the atmosphere and transfer it into the blood.

By your 6,000th breath, you will have moved into the land of serious, conscious breathing.

By your thousandth breath, you’ll understand why modern humans are the only species with chronically crooked teeth, and why that’s relevant to breathing.

The innovation of mashing and cooking food, however, had consequences. The quickly growing brain needed space to stretch out, and it took it from the front of our faces, home to sinuses, mouths, and airways. Over time, muscles at the center of the face loosened, and bones in the jaw weakened and grew thinner. The face shortened and the mouth shrank