⭐⭐⭐ Breath by Nestor
| Full Title | Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Nestor |
| Year Published | 2020 |
| Date Read | May 01, 2022 |
| Rating | 3/5 stars |
Recent research (Craighead 2021) coming out about potential links between breathing and blood pressure is what originally piqued my interest in this book. For pop-sci, I’d say Breath is pretty decent.
It seems like the science still has a ways to go here. The speed with which your body can change structurally in response to altering breathing patterns was quite surprising to find out. There’s also a few passages that were a good reminder of how interlinked everything in the health area is — individual breathing habits have big impact on athletic performance, sleep quality, dental outcomes, even some early stuff showing it can be used as a sort of psychological tonic.
The book got me to change my behavior (seems the arguments for exclusive nose-breathing are pretty compelling) and wasn’t excessively long, at least when compared with the status quo in this genre. But not really worth more than 3 stars as
the storytelling was mostly flat. Recommended for folks with a particular interest in holistic health, but probably not worth for others.