In colder climates, our noses would grow narrower and longer to more efficiently heat up air before it entered our lungs; our skin would grow lighter to take in more sunshine for production of vitamin D. In sunny and warm environments, we adapted wider and flatter noses, which were more efficient at inhaling hot and humid air; our skin would grow d

The right nostril is a gas pedal. When you’re inhaling primarily through this channel, circulation speeds up, your body gets hotter, and cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate all increase. This happens because breathing through the right side of the nose activates the sympathetic nervous system, the “fight or flight” mechanism that puts t

What our bodies really want, what they require to function properly, isn’t faster or deeper breaths. It’s not more air. What we need is more carbon dioxide.

living room laboratory,

“The first night, I lasted five minutes before I ripped it off,” she told me. On the second night, she was able to tolerate the tape for ten minutes. A couple of days later, she slept through the night. Within six weeks, her nose opened up.

It turned out that the most efficient breathing rhythm occurred when both the length of respirations and total breaths per minute were locked in to a spooky symmetry: 5.5-second inhales followed by 5.5-second exhales, which works out almost exactly to 5.5 breaths a minute.22 This was the same pattern of the rosary.

The right nostril is a gas pedal. When you’re inhaling primarily through this channel, circulation

Meanwhile, with just a few weeks of Olsson’s lighter, milder training, several of his clients registered significant gains in red blood cell counts. More blood means more oxygen delivered to more tissues. Lance Armstrong, the disgraced cyclist, didn’t get busted for taking adrenaline or steroids but for injecting himself with his own blood and incr

Conscious heavy breathing teaches us to be the pilots of our autonomic nervous systems and our bodies, not the passengers.