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  • Breath

  • The New Science of a Lost Art
  • By: James Nestor
  • Narrated by: James Nestor
  • Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,249 ratings)

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Breath

By: James Nestor
Narrated by: James Nestor
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin. Narrated by James Nestor.

There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo, Brazil. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, halt snoring, allergies, asthma and autoimmune disease, and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.

Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head.

You will never breathe the same again.

©2020 James Nestor (P)2020 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

"A transformative book that changes how you think about your body and mind." (Josua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein)

"Who would have thought something as simple as changing the way we breathe could be so revolutionary for our health, from snoring to allergies to immunity? A fascinating book, full of dazzling revelations." (Dr Rangan Chatterjee)

"I highly recommend this book." (Wim Hof)

What listeners say about Breath

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Breath of fresh air...

Fantastic listen, and a great insight to the lost art of breathing. Will be excited to read future publications from James Nestor. Well explained and easy to follow.

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Superb

Listened to it over 3 days. so enjoyable. What a bonus to hear Anders take you through all those breathing techniques at the end. I intend to use them!

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an eye opener to a respiratory illness patient

amazing read. Well researched, practical, grounded in real life experiences and most of all educating.

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great book

Real eye opener book. it made me change the way I breathe. I recommend it to everyone.

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now breath

loved the book and first steps to my new life of breath. Booked in a workshop with Win Hof technique after finishing the book.

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Life changing.

Listening to rather than reading this is the way to get maximum impact immediately I believe. You cannot help but notice your breathing or your mouth being open or closed whilst listening to all the information contained within this book. It is absolutely brilliant and has had an impact on my posture, ease of breathing and mindset already and I haven't actively done the breathing techniques which are given at the end in a very clear way to be able to follow along. This book is definitely life changing.

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Great information

I really liked the Information that this book provides and enjoyed the story telling aspect also, but I would have liked a better summary of all of the techniques discussed in the book. The techniques section in the end is really useful and I will be referring back to it putting some of these items into practise, but there were more techniques in the book than are summarised at the end. I would still definitely recommend tho.

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Refreshing

Liked it, thankfully it's not one of those self-help books that says "if you make this one change, everything in your life will become perfect". It just lays out some of the problems that can arise from poor breathing technique, and how to resolve them, with a nice story of his journey of learning alongside.

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really great book, given me lots to think about

a great book well narrated, I'm a runner who's always tinkering with different approaches to my training and this has given my loads to think about in how my breathing can improve my overall performance

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interesting topic! eye opening book !

interesting topic! eye opening book ! however a lot of padding. It is still worth reading

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